Around the 'Shoe

Buford needs to stay out of the lane. He has neither the quickness nor the hops to play there...that's not his roll and turns it over or puts up a bad shot over 50% of the time. If he is the best 3pt shooter on the team then he needs run and find some perimeter screens. Not trying to bash but buford is not the only player that is struggling to find his roll. No 3 pt shooters and a lack of chemistry. whatever happened to drive and dish, pass it in with the expectation of passing it out to the open shooter.

Fair question, first did you watch the game because if you did you would have seen Sully was mugged under the basket and if they would have made the calls I seen he would have scored 40, that was my point. And yeah I may bring up the refs, the away games we've had this year the refs were pathedic!

You all have down syndrome except for IB... Idiots... wow... Like.. I honestly WILL NOT justify anything I have said. I don't have to. It's so blatantly obvious. I mean.. Like ppl saying we should hit the bench more.. like.. there is simply NO.. WAY... any of you have ever even touched a basketball let alone ever played... Unreal. LIke... wanting Bufford OFF THE TEAM!!! I will not respond to this because.. ok.. here..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqs9DYisSsg

If I get banned for this.. Whatever.. Every single game everyone completely picks apart the one guy who had a bad game... Nobody recognizes the effort Bufford put into the Kansas game JUST TO KEEP US IN IT!! No... never.. only negative and simply pathetic.

no big man in any basketball setting gets calls. big men NEVER get calls. if dwight howard got every call he's be attempting 25-35 free throws a game. crying about how the refs are screwing us over is so whiny and pathetic it's unreal. god forbid we ever just admit that ohio state gets beat or they simply arent as good as another team. this ohio state team right now(key words right now) is a sweet 16 team and that's about it. they cant make a 3 if their lives depended on it, run an offense that 5th graders run and have only 2 reliable offensive guys neither of them being guards which is beyond essential in the tournament. buford will melt come march and i think in his 4th year i can state that as nearly a fact since his other 3 march appearances he's been god awful. in the end refs play a minimal part of any game. i can think about 5 times in my 22 years of watching sports where refs/umpires truly cost a team a game. that's a pretty good track record.

bufords stats in other big games through out his career:

2011

kentucky- 2-16 shooting, 1-3 from 3 and 9 points
george mason- 7-14 18 points
texas blah blah blah- 7-12 18 points

2010
Tenn- 5-13 for 15 points
GT- 4-9 9 points

2009

siena- 4-12 11 points

forgive us for not expecting mr. buford to be very good when the "big games" really come. dude is a choke artist and it's only going to continue. i PRAY that come april 2 you can call me out and say how wrong i was because william carried us to the title, but if we're going to follow history of thad matta teams we will lose to a team that we shouldnt. and it's a shame since we have more talent then every team but kentucky this season

Nice Post Kelleyredd.....OSU fans can sometimes be the most brutal, unforgiving fans in all of sports. Guys like Koufos, Mullens, Cook and Conley are ripped for being one and dones and a guy like Buford is ripped for staying all 4 years. He is going to finish his OSU career in the top 5 in scoring over 600 rebounds and over 300 assits. Is he having the type of senior year he would like to be having....most likely not. I'm sure he would be the first to admit that. I believe he still has nightmares regarding the UK game last year and he just does not play with the type of confidence you would normally find from a senior with his skill set. His decision making is questionable to be sure and his shot has alluded him this year. But he is our number 2 option and all coaches we go against realize this. I agree with a lot of people that if he does not pick his play up we will not advance to the final four. But I as a fan have enjoyed watching him for 4 years and hope that the 3 he made late in the game today against Wisky will get him going and he finishes his career off in style.

This is the thing he's not going to carrry us to the title anyway, William Buford has and is nothing but a very good Complimentary player. He's the only person on the team that has to create his own shot off the dribble consistently, making for far more difficult shots. He faces our opponents BEST wing defender every game.

I agree and disagree. The Wisky game refs seemed to allow a lot of contact under the basket without calling fouls.That made for a physical game inside. But you can't have it both ways. Couple of times there was a lot of contact with players hitting the floor and no call was made(The crowd booed loudly) so you can't have it both ways. There were times I thought Sully was mugged but no call. Then a couple of foul calls on Craft seemed like touch fouls. Overall I thought the refs did a good job on Saturday.

I disagree that the refs never cost us a game. I thought the game at Indy had an atrocious crew that had a bad day. I hope we never see that crew again. I would rather have Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder than that crew.

And finally, since the Bucks are running such a pathetic offense, why don't you just scribble down a few suggestions that would immediately make them better and send them to Thad. Maybe that's unfair, but Thad does know what he is doing and he does see these guys play everyday. And last time I checked they are ranked in the top five in the nation which is really pretty good when you factor in that they are running"one of the most pathetic offense you have ever seen". I think the key to the offense is to get Buford turned around. If he can become "Big Game Bu" then the Buckeyes will really start to roll. I don't know what that will take because he has been MIA in big games for about a year now. His shot percentage just must go up. I know we are all rooting for that to happen. Until then, I believe in Thad.

listen, im not taking away credit from how well these guys are playing defense, so thad deserves praise there. people are saying we were lucky wisconsin missed their wide open 3's yesterday but wisconsin has been horrific at shooting the 3 point in their previous two games going into this game. our defense is great. im not claiming myself to be a basketball coach who can draw plays up but anyone who watches and knows anything about basketball knows our offense sucks. there is ZERO movement on offense. 4 guys surround the perimeter and sully post up. no back door cuts, no screens and no threat of outside shooting. im not saying i have some offensive playbook to make things better but i feel that someone who is considered one of the top 10 coaches in the country could maybe be creative with a few offensive play sets

I love getting a downvote for starting a thread stating what most people are thinking anyway. I didn't say Buford was a bad kid, just he seems to disappear in big games when it's close. Don't give me duke as an example because every buckeye scored on duke like it was a Michigan sorority house. Downvote me on this as well - I love they way Craft plays but a ball handler that shoots 66% free throws will bite this team in the ass at some point.

It doesn't matter who did what against Duke, you said that in Big Games he disappeared and I gave you stats where he didn't!

Buford is a really good basketball player and has put in work for this team. People want to knock him because of the IU and Kentucky game that's two freaking games, he's been a consistent basketball player for his entire career. I'm sure he would have love to average 17+ points a game but we are either 1 or 2 in margin of victory which means younger players are getting PT and taking away from stat padding, couple that with the emergence of another big time scorer named Deshaun Thomas.

Buford has averaged Double Figures his entire career but he's a disappointmet according to these people. He didn't live up to their expectations so I guess he's a scrub.