While We’re Waiting… Coach LeBron, Bring Back Brownie, and Bill James’ Projections
February 4, 2010WFNY Takes on the Greater Cleveland Sports Awards
February 4, 2010Jon Diebler hadn’t scored a basket so far in the game. Diebler didn’t let that keep him from shooting a three with 1:30 left and the Buckeyes barely holding on to a 65-62 lead. Diebler drained the three to put the Buckeyes up by six and they were able to ice the game with defense the rest of the way in beating Penn State 75-62. The game definitely seemed a lot closer than the final score as the Buckeyes added 7 free throws after Diebler’s nail in the coffin three pointer.
After watching the first half, it seemed like this one was going to be a laugher for Ohio State. They were playing swarming defense around the perimeter and Penn State was forced to take a lot of uncomfortable looking jumpers with the shot clock winding down. Penn State is known for using their fair share of the shot clock in their offensive sets, but they weren’t finding high percentage shots. The Buckeyes closed out the first half with a 36-24 lead.
Credit to Penn State which fell to 8-14 with the loss to the Buckeyes. They kept working in the second half, got the game within reach before ultimately falling. They were riding the performance of Talor Battle who was very impressive scoring 24 points with 9 rebounds and 7 assists. 14 of his 24 points came in the second half surge by Penn State.
Ultimately though the Buckeyes came out on top. Evan Turner had a double double with 27 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists. Buford and Lighty chipped in 19 and 12 respectively. Diebler didn’t have a great night in shooting 1-7, but that one basket sure came at a key moment and was shot with confidence. You have to give him tons of credit for that. In what is becoming a bit of a broken record bullet point for me, the Buckeyes continued to get very few minutes from the bench. The Buckeyes logged a mere 21 minutes of bench play between Kyle Madsen and Jeremie Simmons.
Next up, the Buckeyes have Iowa in Columbus on February 7th. Iowa was 2-7 and playing Illinois at home as I wrote this.
1 Comment
Diebler is probably the biggest disappointment of a recruit OSU has had in a long time. Everyone pointed to the guys high school days of him shooting the lights out but in college he’s been terrible.