Bucknutin' But Net

For the most part I agree. We have the most talented roster in the B1G but we lack both mental and physical toughness. Based on talent alone what team puts a trio on the floor like Sully, Thomas and Buford. None. For OSU it's all between the ears. They need to come out and play with passion, heart and toughness for 40 minutes. If they do that then winning and losing will take care of itself. They play for the most part in spurts....3 or 4 minutes here or there. Matta needs to do something to get this teams attention. Not sure what but right now they have not played as hard as their opponents in their losses. Now those were road games and the home team will get an emotional boost from the crowd. This is where the toughness comes in to play and we just seem to have guys that shrink into the background at crunch time or make big mistakes. I really thought with Sully coming back that he would have a chip on his shoulder and lead this team to the final four. I also thought Buford's terrible performance against UK would motivate him to work on the mental part of his game and just be stronger with the ball and a Senior leader. So far that has not happened. We saw a glimpse of it in the Duke game but sadly we don't have the leadership or the coaching right now to sustain the type of 40 minutes of play needed to win on the road against a quality opponent.

Not sure anyone has given up on this team. I just don't think that we are currently playing at a level that would suggest a deep run in the tourney. I really don't care about the B1G. I would like a run to the final four and yes, cutting down the nets in April. There's a long way to go and plenty of time to correct whatever mistakes are being made. I do question the toughness of this team. Sully gets to the line his fair share of times but the rest of the team is soft taking the ball to the rim. Buford does his best to avoid contact. Get to the free throw line damn it. I know Will is not a high riser and is not a super athlete but he can get himself to the free throw line at least 5 or 6 times a game. No attempts in the game tonight and only 1 against Iowa and that was a technical foul shoot. No excuse for that from a wing player. He needs to step up and be a Senior leader for this team to go where we want them to. 3 losses is no big deal. My guess is we go 13-5 in the B1G with road losses at Sparty, scUM and Wisky. A 3 seed in the tourney and from there we will see. If they play in tourney like they played tonight and at IU I see a round of 16 exit. All is not lost and there is time to right the ship and it needs to start Sunday against IU.

This team has no menatal toughness at all but Sully. they think they can walk on the court and people will fold. Lesser teams do but a team with somewhat close talent hang with them and OSU doesnt have a true leader to lean on. Buford isnt for sure. He is lazy and takes way too many sets off as does Thomas (defensively). OSU is a good team but definitely not a top 5 team probably more a top 20 team. We have till March to get better.

If the opposing team shoots 60% from the field and 61% from three point range, you're going to get beat. It doesn't matter who you're playing.

Not to mention, Paul's last three over Craft was rediculous. He threw it up with a hand in his face and still made it. It just wasn't our night.

As far as the IU game, if it weren't for the officiating in that game, we would have beaten the Hoosiers by at least 10.

These tough games and a few losses are only going to be good for this team (see UCONN last year). This will help them get better in the long run.

+1 On this post. I agree with this but I would like to add something. The problem I see is the obvious lack of outside shooting from the guards. Indiana and Illinois both saw that in the second half that they could collapse on Sullinger and not be punished by our guards because they can't shoot. All I heard was how Craft has improved his outside shooting but I haven't seen it yet. I love Craft and Smith but the fact is they can't shoot.

i can't see us as the most talented team in the conference at all. we have three good ball players, two of whom are playing very poorly right now and the other is not the dominating presence he was because the other two aren't contributing from the outside. the rest of the team are role player types who are not good enough or not confident enough to step in and assert themselves. add in matta's inability to work these other guys in to get them some game experience and some confidence and you will wind up with a tired, worn down team by tournament time.
althugh buford is supposedly the main outside threat, i would like to see craft shoot more from the outside because he has the ball most of the time. if he could make the defenses play him more honestly he would be able to distribute the ball inside more to sully or even back over to buford. if they overplayed him outside it would also make it easier for him to use his quickness to get by them on a drive for a layup or a dish to someone else down low.

We have the most talented team in the BIG, but Matta has much of the talent wasting away on the bench. If this doesn't change by tournament time, I'm seeing Sweet 16 as a cap for this team. This is unfortunate because I think we are legit Final Four relative to the competition.

I think we beat Indiana & Illinois in the Schott, but Michigan State looks like the best overall team in the BIG. Maybe we will win the BIG tournament.

At this point in the season, we are 15-3... 3 losses... 1 loss was to a decent Top 25 Kansas team without Sullinger and we still had a chance to WIN! The Indiana game was a loss because the men in black and white called the most lopsided game against us that I've ever seen. The Illinois game was just a player having his night where even if he chucked it up from the toilet in the locker room, it would go in.

We blew out a Top 10 team in Duke and beat Florida quite handily. I think the fact that Sullinger was dealing with injuries in December affected the rhythm and timing of our team. They are slowly getting back into form. We are still undefeated at home and that's important. Defend our home turf.

Everyone in the nation has stated that the BIG 10 is the best conference this season. If we beat IU Sunday, we could potentially have 4 teams ranked in the Top 10 next week when rankings come out - Michigan State, Ohio State, Indiana and M*chigan. What other conference can boast that?

At the end of the day, I think that this team will come together and the tough losses in such a short period of time can be a blessing in disguise for the stretch run... Sullinger needs to step up as the leader of this team and assert himself. Let the offense flow through him and Deshaun. If those 2 can combine to score 40 to 50 a night... it takes pressure off Buford, Craft and others to be scorers... especially Buford.. if he plays with no pressure or burden, maybe he will be just fine. Gotta stick with what works - Sullinger down low on the post and Thomas doing his thing "microwave"

Just have faith that the Buckeyes will right the ship... It's just going to take some creative lineup adjustments for Matta at key points in the game to ensure that if we have a lead, we keep our foot on the pedal and not let up.

Let's go out and throttle IU... just like we did to Purdont and Deal With It Wiscy last year... Urban will be in the house and the fans will be jacked up!

O-H!

MSU may have the desire, but not the talent.

GO BUCKS!!!!!

MSU and scum just lost tonight so now the race in the Big 10 got a little more interesting

Have you even watched them play? They look pretty talented to me. I would take their inside game over ours in a heartbeat. We have Sully, Ravanell, and Williams inside and that is it. None of them can guard anyone and Sully is the only one with any offense. I dont care what we have on the perimeter, basketball is won by controlling the paint on both ends. We dont control the paint unless we are playing North Carolina A&T.

Buford is this supposed great senior leader and hasn't done anything since Northwestern. Buford is not a player who puts the game on his shoulders during clutch time. Matt Sylvester made two clutch shots against LSU and Illinois when they were #1 several years ago! Buford had never done this in his career. I am right for the most part. OSU should beat IU at home. There is no leadership on this current team! How am I wrong about the road victories and what it takes to win on the road? 2-3 on the road is not something to brag about here people. OSU beat Iowa and South Carolina. Matta didn't make any adjustments on Paul. His adjustment is to switch defenders on him big whoop! Change up the defensive schemes. He still scored 43 points. Sullinger admitted he quit playing defense in a recent Cleveland Plain Dealer article versus Illinois. The only two players who come to play most games are Sullinger and Craft. Maybe if everyone would stop standing, staring and watching Craft dribble during the last minutes of the game and want the ball to create some offense.