Good article about the Buckeyes back court.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/tournament/2010/news/story?id=4999196

The guys seem confident going into the tournament which is different from last year imo. Hopefully the confidence continues to boost their shooting as they have been pretty good lately.

Lol the backcourt IS all about Turner. He sets everything up, without him the OSU backcourt isnt that great

I don't think he sets everything up. While Turner is great, the other guys have some good skills. The only guy that benefits a lot from Turner is Diebler because he is mainly a set 3 point shooter. Diebler needs that #1 guy to draw attention and then kick the ball to him for his shots.

Lighty and Buford both have the ability to create on their own. Both can attack the rim and Buford has the ability to hit the pull up jumper.

Also, Turner doesn't set up Lighty's amazing defensive skills.

Lighty is a damn good defender true. but on the offensive side of the ball Buford and Lighty benefit from having the opposing teams best on ball defender on turner and not on them.

I dont know how you can say they arent all Turner. Sure the guys around him have skill otherwise Turner wouldnt have the stats he does. But OSU looked pretty dreadful when Turner was out.

Take any great player off a team and their going to struggle. Just look at MSU and Purdue.

Does that mean the other guys around them are not good? Both Buford and Lighty can take over a game for the Buckeyes on the offensive end, something that you'll see come tournament time. Lighty showed glimpses during the Illinois regular season game and the stretch during the Minnesota game.

During the 6 games that Turner was out. I know they played some weaker teams but you can tell just from the statistics that Buford and Lighty at least have the ability to create their own shots and offensive touches without having the #1 guy.

Diebler: 16/41 for 39% and 10.1 ppg

Buford: 33/68 for 49% and 15.3 ppg

Lighty: 31/55 for 60% and 14.1 ppg

Lighty and Buford have both stepped up and have been driving to the hoop lately, something they didn't do much of early on, especially Buford who took mostly jumpers. Point is they're capable and have been showing as much recently.

Buford is a future NBA'r. And as great an athlete at Lighty is, he will be playing professional bball somewhere, probably overseas. Yes, the offense starts and stops with Turner....but you don't have a top 10 team, go 27-7 without having some talent around him.

If I am not mistaken, correct me if I am wrong or can find the stats,

Diebler, Lighty, and Buford are all shooting better and averaging more ppg. since Turner returned from the injury.

I swear I heard or read that somewhere.

As far as the article,

Lighty, Diebler, and Buford are all good players, could probably start on any other big 10 team, but lets get serious. You have the nations BEST player. Teams gameplan to stop him first. He gets everyone else easy and open shots to knock down. When he drives to the basket, it gets EVERY defenders attention, and when he passes it to one of the other guys, their defender is usually off balance or out of position, letting them create an easier shot for themselves.

But as mentioned before, every teams best player does this. Turner just does it the best because he plays for OSU

Turner has as much, if not more, pressure on him to carry his team than anyone else in the country.

Of all the elite players, most have someone else to step up. The only other two that come to mind who are in a similar situation are Vasquez and James Anderson.


So, yes, I do think OSU being a #2 seed is mostly about Turner.