Around the 'Shoe

Buford is a streak shooter, he's the same as Diebler was for us last season.

The difference last year was that when Diebler was cold, there were 3 other guys who could potentially pick up the offensive slack - Buford, Lightly, or Thomas off the bench.

This year, when Buford is cold, Thomas is the only option (with the exception of one or two games when Smith Jr. got hot, which we won). Matta tried to develop offense off the bench earlier this season with Sibert, who simply wasn't able to produce. Matta decided not to try LaQuinton Ross for whatever reason.

When Buford went cold last night, Thomas did pick up the slack, but nobody else did much of anything.

If you think about the previous Evan Turner led teams prior to last season, we almost always went the way of Diebler. When Diebler was hot, we could beat anyone. But when he wasn't, we were vulnerable to lose to any respectable opponent. Turner was pretty consistent, win or lose. This is kind of the same way we are now with Sullinger taking the place of Turner.

The bottom line is that we are now going to go the way of Buford. Matta knows it and thats why he was screaming and in his face last night. I don't think it was a good coaching strategy to put all the eggs in this basket, but only time will tell. I'm hoping Buford catches fire in the NCAA tournament. If he can, he could carry us to the championship. If or when we bow out, it's very likely to be when Buford has an off night.

If I was coaching against Matta, I'd try to take Buford out of rythym. I think even an overmatched opponent could take us out with good enough defense on him.

who's being a front runner? this team has never won shit for any of us to be front runners

sad truth is buford and sullinger should have both left after last year. their stocks have PLUMMETED.

sorry for so many post on this. blacked out when i created this thread so im catching up with what everyone was saying about it

Whoooaaaaa it's not about defending Buford, but those are fictional statements when you say he doesn't show up for Big Games, the fact is he plays like shit on Big games on the road.

You can't give Craft and Smith a pass, they played like SHIT and didn't do ANYTHING. Craft didn't do shit offensively and didn't neutralize Burke defensively. Smith might as well not played because the only things I remember him doing is getting two turnovers in critical momensts (the charge, and the travel). I don't give a shit that they are sophmores, the entire guard unit STUNK. That's fair to me, not just blast Buford EVERY time he doesn't perform.

I think you are arguing with someone in Lucky who doesn't know anything about basketball as evidenced by his posts on the subject. I'd recommend sticking to the "Bucknutin but net" area for basketball and hope the football only crowd stays on this side where stupid stuff like "so and so sucks" posts get up voted.

I give Sullinger more slack as the defenses are collapsing on him; big men traditionally don't light it up in college. They get their rebounds and blocks.

Sully added that little jumper that's really going to help him at the next level. I see a lot of Boozer in him; and if that's the case, he'll have a long career and make a lot of money.

Buford on the other hand will struggle. When he came out of highschool he ws a scorer and slasher. Now he looks absolutely lost on the court.

This isn't football, set offensive plays in basketball are mostly limited to in-bounds plays. Teams run offensive and defensive schemes or systems, but very few set plays per say. The game is more fluid than football.

Obviously, there are commonalities at coaching any sport. I have criticized Matta, above, and explained why we are less effective than last season.

I like what was posted in the Cleveland paper:

http://www.cleveland.com/buckeyeblog/index.ssf/2012/02/william_buford_consistently_in.html

We need the 12 pt Bufford. Not the 24+ Bufford. He doesn't need to be great and carry the team, just consitent with 12-16 pts/game. He gets that, we beat MSU and tsun.

This is college ball and he's no Austin Rivers, his offense is predicated off of a good offensive rhythm and solid screens and also the defense not playing well off of those screens. Michigan did an awesome job doubling off of screens, we weren't prepaired for that.

Ok Chuck please tell me in any basketball team where your starting PG is a role player. He may not be the primary option but a PG is never a role player, he has the ball in his hands 95% of all possessions.

Buford isn't a SG that creates off of the dribble, his game is predicated within the offense via screens and curls. When he's left to create on his own with the shot clock running down we often don't have success. Your best playmaker (ala Burke) should have the ball with the clock running down to create for others or go to the basket. Buford isn't our best playmaker, Craft is.

He dropped 25 on Minnesota on the road FYI.

Are you kidding me? So because Craft (a 4 star top 100 player ) wasn't a McDonalds All American he gets a pass on playing like shit? Evan Turner (4 star ranked the 59th best player in his class) was a stud as a sophmore and he caught hella shit because he used to turn the ball over a lot. I'm not picking on any player but don't say Buford stunk and act like nobody else stunk it up either. When Sully had the 10 turnover game at Michigan St he deserved the criticism.

Diebler wasn't a spot up shooter in highschool, he became a spot up shooter in college because he didn't develop into anything more than that. Buford probably will be a spot up shooter at the next level just like Diebler if/when he comes back from overseas.

If that's all we needed from our PG, why isn't Shannon Scott getting more PT? Crafts role on this team is to get the team intothe offense and also score the ball and be efficient in doing that, along with play defense. Burke (Top 100 player like Craft but a freshman) busted his ass last night for 17 and 5 while Craft had 4 and 3 and Lenzelle Smith had nothing. If Buford is expected to have double figures and be efficient (we all agree on that), then you also hold other players accountable.

The bottom line is the entire backcourt failed last night. The stat line as a unit was 5-21, 0-7 on threes, 2-4 at the FT line, 9 rebs, 7 assists, 7 TO's, and 12 Pts total. Trey Burke outscored our entire starting backcourt, so how is this just on Buford. If you take out Bufords stats then Smith and Craft shot 2-9, 0-4 on 3's, 2-2 on FT's, 3 Rebs, 5 assists, 5 TO's, 4 steals, and 6 pts. If that's all thats expected from a starting backcourt then we really don't have much of a team.

I guarantee that Craft, Buford, and Lenzelle expect more from themselves than that, so you can't just hold Buford's feet to the fire because he's a Senior.