.
Both guards are defensive assets , but offensive liabilities. Is it time to get a scorer on the floor and sacrifice some defense?

I think you can hide players on defense not every player on the opposing team is an offensive player. I think it is time to give a shooter a chance if there is one and bring Smith off of the bench. I know he is the most versatile defender that OSU has, but he is averaging about 4.0 ppg over the last 5 games. He would also bring some energy off of the bench.

Is Ross the Answer? What about Siebert? Can Thompson become more aggressive on the offensive end? Lots of questions

A lot of questions to be sure, don't really have any definite answers that I would feel comfortable putting forth. I do know one thing, Sully seeing his first foul shot attempts with under 5 min. left in the game needs to change.

I haven't seen anything from Thompson, Sibert, or certainly Scott to make me think they're capable of scoring any more than Smith. We could go big and start Amir, moving DT to the 3. But he doesn't score either. And neither does Ravenel, not that anybody would want to start him.

The bench has something like 18 points the last 5 games combined if I heard correctly last night. There just aren't any options there to get offense on the court, outside of maybe Ross. And if he can't even earn a look with as much as the other bench guys have struggled then there's no chance of him being thrown into the starting lineup.

22-5, top 10 ranking...ya, lets make a major shakeup and change everything. Not sure about expectations of some. The early season shot those through the roof. Reality is, OSU is somewhere between how they played early, and how they are playing now. They have one bad loss to Ill. One loss Sully was out.
If there was someone on the bench I would feel confident in, then I would like to see more PT. Sibert sucks. Scott can't shoot. Williams shows glimpses...but seen enough to know he isn't going to make that much of a difference. Ross hasn't seen any significant time..so he isn't going to play at this point in season.

Bottom line is, you don't make major changes this late. You keep working to get better in practice. This team is capable with what they have. We have seen it. The weakness is consistant outside shooting. That isn't going to change. It is what it is. Right now, I feel the major issue is above the shoulders with this team. They lack mental toughness and aren't dealing with adversity well at all. Can that get better? We'll see.

IMO, as Buford goes, the Buckeyes go. Period.

vball10set;1090382 wrote:IMO, as Buford goes, the Buckeyes go. Period.

No question. But last nite, Thomas made up for Buford being off. Sully didn't go off, but had 14. They didn't look to him in first half enough. But they still need some balance. Even Matta said that in post game. YOu can't just rely on 3 guys. Others guys have to give you something, anything. Last nite, no one else did.
Issue with Buford, is he is either on, or completely off. There is no inbetween with him. Last nite he frustrated the hell out of me. Even missing the 2 FT. That when he is shooting nearly 90%. That tells me his head wasn't there.

centralbucksfan;1090386 wrote:No question. But last nite, Thomas made up for Buford being off. Sully didn't go off, but had 14. They didn't look to him in first half enough. But they still need some balance. Even Matta said that in post game. YOu can't just rely on 3 guys. Others guys have to give you something, anything. Last nite, no one else did.
Issue with Buford, is he is either on, or completely off. There is no inbetween with him. Last nite he frustrated the hell out of me. Even missing the 2 FT. That when he is shooting nearly 90%. That tells me his head wasn't there.

Agreed, cbf, and I also wonder why Coach Matta went away from putting WB and Sully on the same side as he did earlier this month--it worked great!

As Buford goes so goes the Buckeyes is part of overcoming adversity, hell it's pretty evident he's not the leader we hoped and that needs to be addressed by Thad one way or another. Also agree about the missed FT's, after he clanged those two there was no hope that he was going to emerge with a spark after that, it was pitiful.

I never looked at WB being a leader, because he never was one, even when he was the best player on his high school team. What I was referring to is that if Buford scores, the Bucks win. If he doesn't, chances are that's where you'll see a 'L' in the box score. Yes, Thomas had a great game last night, but we need others to score in addition to Buford, not making up for him.

This team is capable with what they have.

Capable?

Capable of what?

I hope you don't mean winning the whole thing...this team is a Final Four at best, 2nd round loss at worse team.

SportsAndLady;1090461 wrote:Capable?

Capable of what?

I hope you don't mean winning the whole thing...this team is a Final Four at best, 2nd round loss at worse team.

I am sure same was said of UConn last year. More stupidness from you.

If Buford is on his game Ohio st is a top 2 team. If he regains his form I could see osu winning it all. It pains me to say that cause I really hate Ohio st

Crimson streak;1090539 wrote:If Buford is on his game Ohio st is a top 2 team. If he regains his form I could see osu winning it all. It pains me to say that cause I really hate Ohio st

Who do you follow, Crimson?

Crimson streak;1090539 wrote:If Buford is on his game Ohio st is a top 2 team. If he regains his form I could see osu winning it all. It pains me to say that cause I really hate Ohio st

Thats a BIG IF right now. I have said it many times, when Buford is on, he takes OSU to another level. But he hasn't shown that consistancy this year for anymore than a few games. Hard to believe that will happen all of a sudden. All OSU needs for him, is his 10-15 CONSISTANTLY. Not 29 one game, 6 the next. NCAA..how knows. I wouldn't pick them to final four right now. But so much depends on the bracket and matchups.

SportsAndLady;1090461 wrote:Capable?

Capable of what?

I hope you don't mean winning the whole thing...this team is a Final Four at best, 2nd round loss at worse team.

Capable is a very broad term. They are capable...but last years team was capabler. Yes I made up that word.

22-5, top 10 ranking...ya, lets make a major shakeup and change everything.

Why be so dramatic??? Changing one player in the starting line up is not a major shake up, especially if the benched player still gets minutes. Do you think the Buckeyes have played like a top 10 lately?? You seem to "Expect" whatever the Buckeyes give. I, on the other hand, don't expect this team to give up 84 points to Purdue(at home) and score a meager 51 points at UM. The 22-5 record is great, but what happened prior to league play is irrelevant.Most teams have changed over the course of the year. They are not the same teams they were in the 2010 portion of their schedule. If you aren't getting better, you are getting worse.

So is a Froward something like a dregree?

Although team chemistry, Buford's shot selection, Craft's offense, Sullinger's attitude and effort (particularly the last two games), etc. are all valid topics when discussing the Buckeyes' recent struggles, the lack of offensive production from the guards not named William Buford and Aaron Craft has been the biggest factor in their slide, in my humble opinion. In OSU's last 3 losses, the trio of Lenzelle Smith, Sam Thompson, and Shannon Scott have combined to play 138 minutes, made 3 of 12 shots, and scored 6 total pts. It's absolutely pathetic. You have a guy with zero confidence in his shot right now (Scott), a guy that rarely even looks at the hoop unless he is throwing down an alley-oop (Thompson), and a guy who has made 3 of 20 3 pt fgs and averaged 4pts a game since his huge break out game against Indiana 5 weeks ago (Smith Jr.).

At this point, I disagree that it is too late in the season to shake things up a little bit. The 23-6 record and #11 ranking means nothing to me. They are 3-3 in their last six with their most impressive win being a 3pt home victory over a borderline tourney team in Purdue. And outside of the Purdue game, have they really had a bad defensive game? Even in these last 3 losses, they only gave up an average of 59 pts. I think they could stand to sacrifice some of their defensive prowess. This team is offensively challenged right now, and a big reason is they always have a guard on the court who is not an offensive threat at all. I would just like to see Ross or Sibert play 10-15 mins, just to see if it helps. It can't get any worse offensively than 2 pts a game out of one position on the court. I know Sibert had his struggles early in the season and Ross didn't join the team until December, but I don't care. These guys wouldn't be cutting into the minutes of players the caliber of Lighty and Diebler. It's 3 young players who right now have no confidence in their offense. This team could use an offensive spark and it might just open up things a little inside for Sully and DT.

mward31;1098770 wrote:Although team chemistry, Buford's shot selection, Craft's offense, Sullinger's attitude and effort (particularly the last two games), etc. are all valid topics when discussing the Buckeyes' recent struggles, the lack of offensive production from the guards not named William Buford and Aaron Craft has been the biggest factor in their slide, in my humble opinion. In OSU's last 3 losses, the trio of Lenzelle Smith, Sam Thompson, and Shannon Scott have combined to play 138 minutes, made 3 of 12 shots, and scored 6 total pts. It's absolutely pathetic. You have a guy with zero confidence in his shot right now (Scott), a guy that rarely even looks at the hoop unless he is throwing down an alley-oop (Thompson), and a guy who has made 3 of 20 3 pt fgs and averaged 4pts a game since his huge break out game against Indiana 5 weeks ago (Smith Jr.).

At this point, I disagree that it is too late in the season to shake things up a little bit. The 23-6 record and #11 ranking means nothing to me. They are 3-3 in their last six with their most impressive win being a 3pt home victory over a borderline tourney team in Purdue. And outside of the Purdue game, have they really had a bad defensive game? Even in these last 3 losses, they only gave up an average of 59 pts. I think they could stand to sacrifice some of their defensive prowess. This team is offensively challenged right now, and a big reason is they always have a guard on the court who is not an offensive threat at all. I would just like to see Ross or Sibert play 10-15 mins, just to see if it helps. It can't get any worse offensively than 2 pts a game out of one position on the court. I know Sibert had his struggles early in the season and Ross didn't join the team until December, but I don't care. These guys wouldn't be cutting into the minutes of players the caliber of Lighty and Diebler. It's 3 young players who right now have no confidence in their offense. This team could use an offensive spark and it might just open up things a little inside for Sully and DT.

Matta said they have discussed a shakeup in the starting lineup. I can't imagine it would be anything other than Thompson for Smith though.

Don't play any tedious teams!!

reclegend22;1098815 wrote:Don't play any tedious teams!!

like Duke?

btw, mward31--excellent post, with reps on the way

mward31;1098770 wrote:At this point, I disagree that it is too late in the season to shake things up a little bit. The 23-6 record and #11 ranking means nothing to me. They are 3-3 in their last six with their most impressive win being a 3pt home victory over a borderline tourney team in Purdue. .

Doesn't mean anything to me as well. Last year, UK made final four with 8 losses. The second year Florida won a title, they lost 3 of their last 5 regular season games. Its a LONG season. Shit happens. Things can be turned around very quickly in the game of basketball. Confidence can be a tricky thing. But it can happen in the instance of a game or two.

Sour grapes in CBUS! You can remove me from all the threads you want but you cant run from the fact that OHIO STATE FUCKING SUCKS!

Red Rider Nation;1098865 wrote:Sour grapes in CBUS! You can remove me from all the threads you want but you cant run from the fact that OHIO STATE ****ING SUCKS!

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Now go away.

Red Rider Nation;1098865 wrote:Sour grapes in CBUS! You can remove me from all the threads you want but you cant run from the fact that OHIO STATE ****ING SUCKS!

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