IU fan here. IU beat Michigan, and OSU lost to Michigan.

Give me your thoughts on that and what it may mean for the upcoming game. Thanks.

Will not have a bearing that we can logically conclude, imo.

OSU can go 2 ways:
1. Be very down on themselves and think they cant win without Turner
2. Come out very hyped up because back against the wall and its the B10 home opener

IU can be 2 ways:
1. Full of confidence after winning by 48 and then winning the B10 home opener without Creek
2. Flat and lethargic due to travel and being a young team in their first B10 road game

Personally I think when IU is playing solid D, they are one of the best in the B10 and with OSU struggling mightily on offense without Turner it provides them a chance. But I dont think IU will be able to score much and they will have defensive lapses in their first road game.

OSU - 61
IU - 53

Tom Crean outcoaches Matta and gets the win. Not a knock on Matta, I just think Crean is a GREAT coach, and the OSU players are feeling sorry for themselves.

thedynasty1998 wrote: Tom Crean outcoaches Matta and gets the win. Not a knock on Matta, I just think Crean is a GREAT coach, and the OSU players are feeling sorry for themselves.

I think Crean will out coach Matta as well, but I dont know if it will be enough. However, mine is a bit of a knock on Matta. Ive just been extremely unimpressed with his coaching ever since he has had talent (not that Butler/Xavier were untalented, but you get my point) on his squads. I thought he was a better coach when he first arrived at OSU. Ever since Oden and Conley came in, Ive thought his coaching skills have been very lacking.

Laley23 wrote:

thedynasty1998 wrote: Tom Crean outcoaches Matta and gets the win. Not a knock on Matta, I just think Crean is a GREAT coach, and the OSU players are feeling sorry for themselves.

I think Crean will out coach Matta as well, but I dont know if it will be enough. However, mine is a bit of a knock on Matta. Ive just been extremely unimpressed with his coaching ever since he has had talent (not that Butler/Xavier were untalented, but you get my point) on his squads. I thought he was a better coach when he first arrived at OSU. Ever since Oden and Conley came in, Ive thought his coaching skills have been very lacking.

I think that the Buckeyes need to get back to the business of playing the game with a little reckless abandon and forgetting about feeling sorry for themselves and dominating this Indiana team. There is no question that Coach Crean is doing an excellent job with the Hoosiers but the Buckeyes are the better team, even without Turner and they need to play like it.

No doubt in my mind that Matta is a much better recruiter than coach. But that's half the battle. If you can get talent, it overcomes a lot of coaching deficiencies.

I've always thought his coaching lacked some desire when he abandonded man defense for zone. Although I don't necessarily think that zone was all that bad at times.

I don't think Crean is anything special. He's solid, but I wouldn't put him in the upper echelon of coaches. Outside of the Final 4 run (which ended with a 94-61 thrashing to Kansas) he did just about nothing worth noting at Marquette. His last 5 seasons there after the FF were very underwhelming.

I think OSU wins at home, but expect it to be an ugly game.

Matta is every bit the coach that Crean is. His record and resume' speaks for itself, and is overall better I believe. Matta is one of a FEW coaches to win 20 games each year of his coaching career. He is one of FEW coaches to win conference titles in 3 different conferences. People forget, he has been a head coach for only 9yrs, this his 10th. 7 NCAA's in 9yrs, one of which was not his issue (OSU ineligible). One FINAL appearance, one elite eight, NIT champion, 5 conference titles. Career record of 239-79
Crean, who I happen to think VERY highly of, has been a head coach for 11 yrs, this his 12th season. He is 206-126 overall, 5 NCAA's, in NCAA final four. The other 4yrs in NCAA, one 2nd round, three 1st round losses. One conference title.
Anyone thinking Crean is better, should look at the complete picture as Matta has had a better career overall.

As for the game..I truely have no idea what to expect.
As I STATED when Turner went down, OSU is just not very good without him. I predicted a 1-4 start. The one win, against IU at home. I'll go with OSU since its at home. I feel OSU knows they NEED this win badly and will come out with great effort.
Lets hope that Turner MRI today comes back with positive news!!

I understand that more than half of coaching is recruiting, and Matta excels at that as much as anyone else out there. I won't doubt that. And I don't think he's a bad coach.

But I do think with equal talent, Crean gets more out of it and is the better game coach. I just think his teams play harder and are not nearly as predictable as OSU.

thedynasty1998 wrote: I understand that more than half of coaching is recruiting, and Matta excels at that as much as anyone else out there. I won't doubt that. And I don't think he's a bad coach.

But I do think with equal talent, Crean gets more out of it and is the better game coach. I just think his teams play harder and are not nearly as predictable as OSU.

Recruiting is certainly huge. But Matta didn't have the talent that some think while at Butler, Xavier, and certainly not the first couple of years while at OSU..and still won.
And I think thats easy to say(play hard), when u look at IU right now. They have no choice but to play hard(lack of talent), or will get completely embarressed as they did at times last year.
Lets not forget Matta teams his first couple years at OSU. His second season, they were not THAT talented, picked in lower part of Big Ten...went on to win the Big Ten.
Often times, when you have more talent, it "looks" as though your teams don't play hard or as hard then when you have less talent.
If you want to compare apples to apples...then compare Crean good teams at Marquette to Matta good teams and lets not forget the years Matta didn't have some talent. Crean was at one school, a basketball school at that, for 10yrs. Matta at Butler, Xavier and OSU.
I think its splitting hairs....but again, Matta record speaks for itself.

I'm not sure who wins this game honestly. Indiana is fighting to get back to being a nationally relevant team, while OSU should be fighting for each other in the midst of losing their best player.

This game could go either way, but I'm not liking what I'm seeing from OSU since ET went down.

I'll take OSU simply because they're the home team and seemingly play better in Columbus.

David Lighty needs to step it up for this game and Buford needs to follow up on his game against Michigan in which he had 16 points and 13 boards. Deibler... uhh...

You could make a case for either. I'm not saying Matta is a bad coach. Because I do think he's a good coach, I just think really highly of Crean.

And Matta's team with Dials had a lot of experience. That's rare in college basketball these days, so although he didn't have NBA talent, he did have talent and plenty of experience.

I thought more highly of Matta as a game time coach in his early years at OSU. It seems to me like the last few years he has become very predictable and boring. Maybe that's what he feels gives his team the best chance to win.

Hearing Turner will play against Indiana, as long as practice goes well today.

se-alum wrote: Hearing Turner will play against Indiana, as long as practice goes well today.

http://blog.dispatch.com/hoopsscoops/

milehiiu wrote:

se-alum wrote: Hearing Turner will play against Indiana, as long as practice goes well today.

Turner will obviously help the Buck's chances. Let's hope he plays against Indiana and every other opponent for the rest of the season.

http://blog.dispatch.com/hoopsscoops/

Im not really high on Crean as a coach. I think his teams constantly underachieved at Marquette. Im not sure he knows how to get his teams to close out games and his end of game coaching to me is lacking. But what he does great is get his team ready for games and gives them a gameplan to be successful (as Dynasty said, hes not predictable). Now they dont always execute long enough to be in the game, but he typically has a game-plan that gives his team a shot. It will be interesting to see what he does in the B10 with better talent than he ever had in the Big East....I have my doubts though.


My knock on Matta isnt his overall resume, from what I see, I think he has changed his coaching style the last (4??) years. Ever since he got Odens class in to OSU he ha had superior talent to any other time in his life and usually has more talent than the opponent. I think this has hurt because he doesnt seem to coach as much and sort of has this offense which isnt predicated on ball movement as much as it is individual talent. I think when he had less talent he was a BETTER coach.

Now, talent usually wins out, so it isnt really a knock on Matta because the job gets done. But I think he underachieved the last few years (and this year is hard to tell cause of Turner). Even with Oden I thought they were a team that didnt dominate like they could/should have. Im not even pointing to the Xavier game in the tourney, just overall that season I thought they were capable of more than they ever showed.


As for who I think is better. Right now I think its Matta, but it doesnt say much because I havent been high on Crean ever really as a game coach. That said, Crean was PERFECT for the IU job at the time because of his enthusiasm. Id list it like this (out of 10):

Motivation:
-Crean 9
-Matta 7

In Game Adjustments:
-Crean 6
-Matta 7

Pre Game Game-Plan:
-Crean 8.5
-Matta 7

Recruiting:
-Crean 7.5
-Matta 9.5

For those interested, here is a good interview with Verdell Jones III of Indiana.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news;_ylt=As9LcgpQzSHdfDqGZ781f9_evbYF?slug=jn-verdellqa010410&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Good post! And I mostly agree!

So I guess Turner is going to play. Now I feel really good about winning this game.

If Turner does play, I wouldn't count on him seeing huge minutes. But "anything" is better then nothing. Its certainly a BOOST no matter how much he plays. He obviously is not in game condition, but as Jay Burson stated, Evan Turner at 70% is as good as most players and will certainly help OSU. This is GREAT news for OSU!

Speaking of Jay Burson, does anyone else cringe when he has his analysis on the Fan? First off he sounds bad, and secondly I don't think he's all that insightful.

Doesn't look like Thad will be holding back Turner's minutes.

Diebler has to be the happiest guy on the court tonight.

Mulva wrote: Doesn't look like Thad will be holding back Turner's minutes.

Diebler has to be the happiest guy on the court tonight.

No doubt. Loved the quote the commentator said about Diebler bringing Turner chicken noodle soup.

Chicken noodle soup, lol.

Yeah, was surprised to see turner in so quickly.

Buckeyes looking very good right now 23-8 lead