2018 Ohio State Basketball

Good win at Indiana. Kyle Young's return to the lineup has been huge. He might not score a lot but he gives them energy and toughness around the basket at both ends of the floor.

Yeah, good road win against a team that I have no clue how to judge, as far as quality of win. Indiana has wins over three high-level teams (and those three wins place them among the best teams in the country as far as "best three wins of season" goes), but have been a .500 team outside of those three games. It's rare that you have a team with results that are so widely scattered over the spectrum to where you can't predict what'll happen on any night.

One thing I wish is that they could maintain prosperity in games. Against PSU, it looked like they'd blow them out of the gym early on and the game wound up being a nail-biter. Yesterday, it looked like they'd be on the verge of taking complete control multiple times, but let Indiana back into it each time and wound up in another nail-biter. When they gave up three 3s in 90 seconds to lose a 9-point lead, I was about 98% convinced they were going to blow it. Fortunately, they got a couple huge plays down the stretch (that Jackson 3 after Indiana took the lead was ice cold!) and were able to get the win.

I’d say it’s more of a “good not-loss” more than a good win. Those are the tough gMes you don’t want to lose, but it’s tough to call a win over a 13-11 team a “good win”

i watched the whole game though. Pretty entertaining game. That 3 CJ Jackson hit was about as clutch as it gets. 

IMO, in order to make the Dance this season, the Buckeyes have to finish no worse than 10-10 in conference play, and then make it to at least the semi's of the B1G Tournament...and no matter what kind of season Indiana's having, a win in Bloomington is still a pretty big deal--that place is as crazy a place to play as any gym in the country.

posted by FatHobbit

@MSU - loss 

Northwestern - can win

@Maryland - loss 

Iowa - maybe

@Purdue - loss 

@Northwestern - maybe

Wisconsin - maybe

After tonight I suspect they might win one of the northwestern games and that's about it 

posted by FatHobbit

After tonight I suspect they might win one of the northwestern games and that's about it 

Yeah. Before this 4-game stretch, I was expecting 3-1 and hoping for 4-0 and they got 3-1...but they did it in a very uninspiring way. Easy win over Rutgers, two ugly up-and-down performance wins over PSU and Indiana and this debacle last night. I know Illinois is playing well right now and they now have 4 straight wins, but that is a game they HAVE to win. Issues of being a young team with no true point guard. Can't count on guys on a night-by-night basis (Luther had been great recently and was a complete non-factor last night) and are plagued by too many turnovers every single game (Jackson, who is a shooting guard playing the point, had FUCKING SEVEN TOs last night! How in the... ?!?!)

C.J. Jackson led Ohio State with 17 points, but he also had seven turnovers.

...in addition to the EIGHT he had against PSU

  ....as Ohio State shot just 36 percent from the field, including 15 percent (2 of 13) from beyond the arc, while missing 10 layups.

 abysmal

Ohio State kept it close but cold shooting and sloppy play doomed the Buckeye chances.

'nuff said

OSU has scored only 12 points in the 2nd half with two minutes left.  What a joke.

posted by slingshot4ever

OSU has scored only 12 points in the 2nd half with two minutes left.  What a joke.

And they had 11 turnovers in the second half. 

I'm looking at the roster right now. OSU has 3 seniors, 3 juniors, 3 sophomores and 5 freshman. Assuming nobody goes to the nba and nobody transfers,  we're losing CJ Jackson and Keyshawn Woods so we'll need to find someone to handle the ball. Other than that hopefully everyone can improve and they will at least be more experienced. 

posted by FatHobbit

And they had 11 turnovers in the second half. 

13 points and 11 turnovers in the 2nd half....that's fricking crazy!

posted by FatHobbit

   we're losing CJ Jackson and Keyshawn Woods so we'll need to find someone to handle the ball. 

are you implying that these two can? IMO the guys we have coming in next year can handle the ball better RIGHT NOW, and they're still in high school!

posted by vball10set

are you implying that these two can? IMO the guys we have coming in next year can handle the ball better RIGHT NOW, and they're still in high school!

Not at all. I haven't followed who we have coming in at all, but they will be freshman so we'll see how they do at the next level. 

posted by FatHobbit

Not at all. I haven't followed who we have coming in at all, but they will be freshman so we'll see how they do at the next level. 

DJ Carton is regarded as one of the top PG recruits in the nation, so I'd guess he'd be an upgrade over Jackson/Woods at that position by default. Because when you commit a minimum of 15 turnovers a game with so many of them being the same forced passes and dribbling into traffic without a plan errors that you see game after game, something is definitely wrong as far as ball handling and basketball IQ go. Being a freshman doesn't matter to me, as if you look around the nation, there are a lot of freshmen who are the top player(s) on very good teams. For me, it's more a matter of his game translating to the college level enough to make him worth that hype.

I did not see that coming. I'm still expecting them to lose at Purdue. Then maybe win at Northwestern and then we'll see what they can do at home against Wisconsin

29 points from a guy who barely played most of the year until getting a bit more time due to CJ getting hurt? Yeah, I wouldn't have expected that. At the least, Ahrens looks to be a guy who can hit threes and this team needs a bit more competence from long range, given how much they shoot from there.

The win was a great one for the team's postseason chances, as their resume beforehand was essentially "Cincinnati and a few other Quad 1 teams". Home against a ranked opponent is a huge boost to their chances.

I know Vball has said they probably need to be 10-10 in the conference with making it to the B1G tournament semis and I'm not saying that isn't the case, as there's a chance that because the bubble is filled with so much mediocrity -- just look at the "barely in/barely out" group in Lunardi's (used due to being the more prominent of the guessers) projection and see the outright mediocrity on display -- that the committee could lean towards good small conference teams (ie: hope that the favorites win the more prominent of those tournaments to keep them at 1 bid). But it does seem that coming into last night, most bracket guesses had OSU in around a 10 (according to Lunardi, still not even in the "last 4 in" or "last 4 not in the play-in round") and ESPN's Bubble Watch basically is insinuating that something in the vicinity of "one more good win" to "just don't collapse, lose out in the regular season and then get dumped immediately in the conference tournament" should at minimum have them in the mix.

My 100% off the top of my head guesses:

Lose out -- need to make B1G finals if not win it.

Beat NW, lose the other two -- definitely win one B1G tourney game, probably 2 to be reasonably secure.

Beat either Purdue/Wisc, lose to NW -- win one B1G tourney game, as the blah loss would somewhat offset the good win. Might get in regardless, but the tournament win would make it more secure.

Beat either Purdue/Wisc, beat NW -- likely in

Beat both Purdue/Wisc, regardless of what happens vs. NW -- in.

It's nice to see that Ahrens finally got tired of his brother over in East Lansing getting all the pub and said "screw that, I can score too!"-lol....seriously, though, great game for him, nice W for the team, and excellent breakdown, Heretic--reps!

Kaleb Wesson suspended......no timeline on return.

https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-basketball/2019/03/102754/kaleb-wesson-suspended-for-violation-of-ohio-state-athletics-department-policy

posted by wkfan

Kaleb Wesson suspended......no timeline on return.

https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-basketball/2019/03/102754/kaleb-wesson-suspended-for-violation-of-ohio-state-athletics-department-policy

 

 

NIT, baby

posted by vball10set

NIT, baby

It might depend on how long Wesson is out for. I'm not sure they were going to beat Purdue with him. If they get him back for Northwestern then we'll see what happens.