BigAppleBuckeye;976518 wrote:Speaking of Diebler, his 3-pointer against Kentucky to tie it last year would have been sung throughout history by OSU faithful if not for that last bucket by the Wildcats. No one really talks about what a huge, huge shot that was.

It's just sad that William Buford, despite having a 2-14 performance, felt that HE needed to be the one to take the final shot instead of passing to a wide open diebler who was:

-A senior
-Statistically the greatest 3 point shooter in OSU and Big 10 history
-The guy who just buried an NBA three to tie the game seconds before that.

wkfan;976393 wrote:...and some of Dieb's deficiencies like defense and his strength never really improved much over 4 years. his 3 point shooting improved greatly from his freshman year to his senion year as did his ability to drive to the basket, although not as dramatically.

Thats interesting seeing as Jay Burson and others were saying the other nite that Diebler was very underrated defensively and not appreciated enough in terms of him getting the ball inside to Sullinger last year. I'd venture to say a guy like Burson has forgotten more basketball than you and others would ever know.

Dieb's is white, so a fair amount of criticism is expected.

wkfan;976393 wrote:...and some of Dieb's deficiencies like defense and his strength never really improved much over 4 years. his 3 point shooting improved greatly from his freshman year to his senion year as did his ability to drive to the basket, although not as dramatically.

Did you even watch last year? There is no doubt that Diebler improved on defense and as stated...definitely noticeable on the perimeter.

Young Diebler used to be a defensive liability.
Older Diebler wasn't a defensive liability.

There's your improvement

centralbucksfan;976704 wrote:Thats interesting seeing as Jay Burson and others were saying the other nite that Diebler was very underrated defensively and not appreciated enough in terms of him getting the ball inside to Sullinger last year. I'd venture to say a guy like Burson has forgotten more basketball than you and others would ever know.

This. Plus the fact that Matta continued to start him over guys more gifted as pure athletes for a reason. His defense and on-the-court saavy were why. All of those things got better each year he was at OSU. Why people still refuse to give him the credit he deserves speaks more about their own biases than it does Diebler's skills.