It's going to be a long year. This is the worst time ever for Ohio State to play Kentucky.

There wasn't one moment tonight where I was like "they're young, but look at that potential". Just an unimpressive group, in my opinion.

Oh I think there is a lot of potential there. They did some nice things tonight. They just don't have the guy they can give the ball to every time down and get something. It's gonna be a long year but they'll be really good next season.

Also UK will win that game by 30. Uconn and Virginia games might be that way too. Even Memphis. Because they can't stop people from driving to the basket.

Midstate01;1765642 wrote:Oh I think there is a lot of potential there. They did some nice things tonight. They just don't have the guy they can give the ball to every time down and get something. It's gonna be a long year but they'll be really good next season.

Also UK will win that game by 30. Uconn and Virginia games might be that way too. Even Memphis. Because they can't stop people from driving to the basket.

Yeah, their defense is really bad. The Hamilton guy on LT just was going to the rim at will in the second half whenever they needed points. What annoyed me the most was that they'd bust their asses to catch up to them and then just suffer a 2-minute letdown and give up a quick run to completely negate all their work.

LOL, over the last few years, they've always seemed to have those 53-51 games with PSU or NW in the league where you're wondering just how those teams can stay with OSU. This year, if we have those games, we'll just be happy they're in it and have a chance to get a league win. Like you said, they have talent, but no consistent go-to guy and it seems everyone has flaws they need to improve on. Giddens is a great athlete, but can't hit a free throw to save his life. Grandstaff has a nice three, but hasn't shown anything else. Lyle needs to take care of the ball better. The veterans need to get more consistent game-in and game-out (Loving was great last night, but Kam was worthless). So far, I'm not sure what Thompson and Harris bring to the table other than size for one and quickness for the other -- they haven't really used those attributes in a helpful way yet, though.

Losing streak now at 3 with loss to Memphis...

Not a good team.

First time Thad has ever been below .500

The fire Thad shit on my twitter time line drives me insane. Thad is under .500 for the first time in his career. People forget the Jim Obrien and Randy ayers days apparently. Where success was here and there. Ayers last 5 seasons he won no more than 17 games. Obrien screwed the program with sanctions. The worst thing Thad has done was get that recruiting class with Oden and Conley apparently because now people think that's the norm.

The ONLY thing I think that could be questioned is if he's really being able to put in the full effort in recruiting because of his leg. Not sure how that affects his traveling.

Midstate01;1766115 wrote:The fire Thad shit on my twitter time line drives me insane. Thad is under .500 for the first time in his career. People forget the Jim Obrien and Randy ayers days apparently. Where success was here and there. Ayers last 5 seasons he won no more than 17 games. Obrien screwed the program with sanctions. The worst thing Thad has done was get that recruiting class with Oden and Conley apparently because now people think that's the norm.

The ONLY thing I think that could be questioned is if he's really being able to put in the full effort in recruiting because of his leg. Not sure how that affects his traveling.

Meh, his freshman class this year has 4 top-100 guys (and would have been 5 if Mitchell hadn't fallen due to injury) and he's one of the front-runners to get that Kobi kid who's a 5-star guard solely due to him getting Conley and Russell into the NBA after one year. I have no qualms with the recruiting. He isn't Cal or K, but no one is consistently on their level recruiting-wise.

The only thing I'd look at as an issue is the continued development of players, as guys like Scott, Thompson and Amir were decently-regarded players who never progressed to be more than adequate (or less, in Williams' case) under him. And even there, that's a short-term memory thing, as in his career, Lighty turned into a very good four-year man and Turner went from decently-regarded to the #2 pick in the draft.

But in this business, people have short memories. I wouldn't dream of getting rid of Thad unless mediocrity became the norm and all his 4-star guys consistently wound up like MAC players. IMO, he had one underachieving class and that's set things back a bit.

I'd be concerned most with the lack of player development and recruiting in recent years. Neither has been "bad", but you can see it slipping. I'd venture to guess 99% of that is Thads health issues, which I couldn't anticipate getting better. Which, would lead me to believe, the success may continue on the same trend as well

Team's at least looking good against their less-than-good competition now and doing what you'd expect them to do against lower-level foes. Be interesting to see how they do against UConn to see if they've legit improved over the last couple weeks.

Connecticut is a good match for them. A team OSU should be able to hang with.

Azubuike24;1768459 wrote:Connecticut is a good match for them. A team OSU should be able to hang with.

OSU is bad. Blown out by 20.

Grandstaff is transferring.

wildcats20;1769974 wrote:Grandstaff is transferring.

Looking for a place with wider rims, so his shots actually go in?

Probably looking for a school that doesn't try to play defense. Since that's what he does.. kids are so entitled and never wanna work for anything. Drives me insane.

Midstate01;1769995 wrote:Probably looking for a school that doesn't try to play defense. Since that's what he does.. kids are so entitled and never wanna work for anything. Drives me insane.

He basically said something along the lines of "I love the place, but it just wasn't a good fit." After a total of 12 games. News flash: When you're a shooter and you're only hitting 33% of your threes and you don't play defense or contribute ANYTHING beyond your really spotty long-range shooting, most large programs aren't going to be a good fit. And when you're on a team that's having its worst year in a long time and you're only playing 4 minutes against the likes of Northern Illinois, the problem might be rooted in your performance.

Just makes me respect Diebler more. He wasn't particularly good when he came to Ohio State, but he stuck it out and worked to improve and became a stud shooting the ball who could at least play passable defense.

Why isn't Kam Williams better? I figured in year 3 in the program he would be one of the leading scorers offensively. There's plenty of opportunity...

wildcats20;1769974 wrote:Grandstaff is transferring.

I heard he had a kid and wants to be closer. Good luck to him.

Azubuike24;1770034 wrote:Why isn't Kam Williams better? I figured in year 3 in the program he would be one of the leading scorers offensively. There's plenty of opportunity...

He's just very streaky. He doesn't shoot well off the dribble and kills his game imo.

FatHobbit;1770036 wrote:I heard he had a kid and wants to be closer. Good luck to him.

Seems like minutes were a major issue...

"He loved Ohio State, he loved his teammates, but it's been kind of a roller coaster with him and minutes," Wes Grandstaff said. "Some games it's 17, 18 minutes. Against UConn, he gets beat on the baseline and gets taken out."

"He's a scorer. He's a shooter. It's hard to play like that when you never know if you miss what's going to happen. It's a tough thing," Wes Grandstaff said. "We just didn't see next year getting any better. When you have guys playing 30-something minutes, there's not a lot of minutes to go around."

"We'll be smarter in our decision," Wes Grandstaff said. "I didn't watch Ohio State play enough before we committed. If I knew that Loving and Bates-Diop were gonna be the two and three, we probably wouldn't have went there. Do I think Austin can score the ball like they can? Absolutely. But they do a lot of things like blocking shots and rebounding that Austin doesn't do."

Then there is this...

Wes Grandstaff, who spoke on the phone from Dallas, said Austin was still in Columbus, and they'd be looking to get him home this weekend. The Grandstaffs had purchased 15 tickets for Ohio State's game against Kentucky in New York on Saturday.

I hate that his dad says we a lot. Also, with that many tickets bought, it sounds like he wanted out in a hurry.

http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2015/12/freshman_guard_austin_grandsta.html

We, we , we. Dude, stop. To many parents living through their kids. Also, wtf else were they looking at while being recruited.

Ugh, that's awful. You read shot like that and wonder why Matta even offered. Can't stand parents like that. Troy Williams' mom and aunt are both like that, but not as bad.

Haha, yeah Troy Williams' are worse bro. I got a chuckle out of the mom and sister comments earlier this year. They flat out called out Crean.

sportswizuhrd;1770135 wrote:Seems like minutes were a major issue...

"He loved Ohio State, he loved his teammates, but it's been kind of a roller coaster with him and minutes," Wes Grandstaff said. "Some games it's 17, 18 minutes. Against UConn, he gets beat on the baseline and gets taken out."

"He's a scorer. He's a shooter. It's hard to play like that when you never know if you miss what's going to happen. It's a tough thing," Wes Grandstaff said. "We just didn't see next year getting any better. When you have guys playing 30-something minutes, there's not a lot of minutes to go around."

"We'll be smarter in our decision," Wes Grandstaff said. "I didn't watch Ohio State play enough before we committed. If I knew that Loving and Bates-Diop were gonna be the two and three, we probably wouldn't have went there. Do I think Austin can score the ball like they can? Absolutely. But they do a lot of things like blocking shots and rebounding that Austin doesn't do."

Then there is this...

Wes Grandstaff, who spoke on the phone from Dallas, said Austin was still in Columbus, and they'd be looking to get him home this weekend. The Grandstaffs had purchased 15 tickets for Ohio State's game against Kentucky in New York on Saturday.

I hate that his dad says we a lot. Also, with that many tickets bought, it sounds like he wanted out in a hurry.

http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2015/12/freshman_guard_austin_grandsta.html

Well, you couldn't have really expected him to say, "If he leaves now, when you add in sitting out next year due to transfer rules, when he's eligible to start playing again, the extra time doing nothing but working out and developing his game might make it so he's actually ready to play at this level."

Because, when a team is as subpar compared to any other year under Matta as they are this year and you're a highly-regarded freshman who isn't getting much PT, that's on you. He's a pure shooter who isn't shooting effectively. Who also doesn't rebound, pass the ball well (0 assists, 6 TOs), drive to the hoop much (0 FTs) or play lock-down defense. Just stands behind the arc and wait for the ball. That was all I saw him do over those of the 12 games which I watched. No big loss. I mean, he might develop into a good player and people will be wishing he stayed, but if he's quitting like a bitch because he wasn't getting PT that he wasn't good enough to earn over the first 12 games of his career, fuck him.

Azubuike24;1770161 wrote:Haha, yeah Troy Williams' are worse bro. I got a chuckle out of the mom and sister comments earlier this year. They flat out called out Crean.

They did, but they aren't the ones driving him. Which is why it isn't worse. If it was uncle, there would be a much bigger issue. But, uncle likes Crean and doesn't get involved. And that's who is the guy leading his career.