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Caryer: Could Past Be Prologue?

Sam Thompson

Sam Thompson dunks against Michigan

Basketball columnist Lee Caryer draws comparisons between this year's team and one that snuck to a Big Ten title in the 1960s. Plus, thoughts on the Purdue, Michigan wins.

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      dominus

    • Great points Lee. I was watching that game with two of my good friends who just happen to be scUM fans. I am glad we held on!!! I told both of them that unless we continued to force TO's and score off of them we woudl struggle to score facing the zone and scUM slowly closed the gap during the second half.

      Huge strides have been made since the Illinois game and I expect to see this effort going forward.

      We have to continue to force TO's and score off of them. First half was huge against scUM (9 TO's, OSU scored 16 pts off of those TO's). Obviously that did not happen in the second half but we were still playing solid D. scUM also shot themselves in the foot the last 5min of the game by jacking up 7 or so Three's that they really did not need and many were quick shots vs. working the ball.

      I am still very concerned about Ross and his lack of playing time ESPECIALLY if we see more and more zone. I think Amir getting 11 minutes should be about all he gets a game....Ravenal is also stepping up and scoring. He is more physical and has a much higher bball IQ. Amir has a Loooooooooong way to go.......

      The Sparty game saturday will be a slug fest. Will Matta consider playing some sort of zone? Payne and Nix will demolish us inside. I think we can handle them on the perimeter. I was surprised to see Sparty struggle against Nebraska the other night. maybe they were looking ahead a bit?

      Matta has these guys in the right frame of mind but we need to have it consistently night in and night out along with the Tenacious D.

      bcroft

    • bcroft, I saw a friend before the game. He asked if I thought Williams would start. My comment was, "Either way, Rav plays 30 minutes." I was wrong - 29. We need Ross, but he has to get up to average on defense. I agree, the Spartans board like crazy and OSU has to match that.

      LeeCaryer

    • LeeCaryer said...

      bcroft, I saw a friend before the game. He asked if I thought Williams would start. My comment was, "Either way, Rav plays 30 minutes." I was wrong - 29. We need Ross, but he has to get up to average on defense. I agree, the Spartans board like crazy and OSU has to match that.

      Agree with Rav's.......how will Matta match up if Izzo has Payne AND Nix in there at the same time? I highly doubt he woudl put Amir and Ravenal out there? or would he have to? Could pose some serious match-up problems for us......

      I envision a game in the 50's Saturday.....I just hope whatever happens with Ross things click to the point Matta is trusting him to be in the game. Otherwise I think he transfers.....

      bcroft

    • Michigan planned to use two bigs, but only stayed with it a brief time. Thomas is pretty big for a small forward to guard, and pretty quick for a post, so the match-up goes both ways. Smith's rebounding is important.

      LeeCaryer

    • LeeCaryer said...

      Michigan planned to use two bigs, but only stayed with it a brief time. Thomas is pretty big for a small forward to guard, and pretty quick for a post, so the match-up goes both ways. Smith's rebounding is important.

      Rav's would have to guard Nix.......DT or LSJ on Payne? If Izzo puts both in I would think they would only do that if they are going zone beause to your point they would have a tough time matching up with us.

      LSJ has been huge in all areas except scoring but we will need him to put some points on the board and be a threat offensively.

      bcroft

    • Great job again Lee. Very in-depth analysis. If they get past MSU on Sat, schedule looks good next two weeks with Iowa, at PSU, Wisconsin and at Nebraska. They can get to the stretch at Michigan and home with Indiana at 17-4 or maybe 18-3 with a win on Sat.

      SteveHelwagen

    • Beginning Feb. 5, they will have 9 games left and 6 of those will be vs. ranked teams (3 home and 3 away).

      SteveHelwagen

    • Steve, your unstated assumption is that they play every game as they did against Purdue and Michigan. Hope that turns out to be true.

      LeeCaryer

    • LeeCaryer said...

      Steve, your unstated assumption is that they play every game as they did against Purdue and Michigan. Hope that turns out to be true.

      Great point because we know that has not been the case each time out up until now.

      SteveHelwagen

    • Joe Lunardi's latest Bracketology:

      http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

      Has OSU back up as a 3 seed, playing in Dayton then in East regional in Wash DC

      Top seeds: Louisville, Duke, Indiana, Kansas

      Big Ten: Indiana (1), Michigan (2), Ohio State (3), Minnesota (3), MSU (4), Illinois (6) and Wisconsin (9).

      SteveHelwagen

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      Crickybear

    • Good read Lee.

      deerhurst

    • Cricky, I was thinking about ET, and Hopson has to be way up there. Both came a long way, but were pretty solid to start with. Thomas had to get to reliable and solid as well as go to spectacular, which both of the other two were - spectacular, that is. If I were Matta I would be showing recruits before and after tapes of DT and saying, "This can happen for you at OSU."

      LeeCaryer

    • Let's not act like DT came from nowhere. He is one of the greatest scorers in the history of Indiana high school basketball, and was one of the top players in the nation in his class. He could play when he got here. He's improved no doubt, but nowhere near in the category of an Evan Turner, who wasn't even the best player on his high school team (Dimitri was) and became national collegiate player of the year. Hopson had the potential, but he fit like a glove into Gary Williams system. He would've been nowhere near that kind of player under any other OSU coach. Jay Burson flourished in the same system. I doubt Thad would've recruited either one, let alone featured them. Not a knock at Thad, his system is very different than Fred Taylor or Gary Williams.

      Fullback26

    • Fullback, We can talk if you want, but the way to begin a conversation is not by distorting what I said.

      LeeCaryer

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