There’s a smoking crater somewhere off the corner of Lane and Olentangy. In it lies the Buckeyes’ realistic hopes at the Big Ten regular season title, Jared Sullinger’s health, and William Buford’s Senior Day. The Wisconsin Badgers, those pesky rivals who always seem to knock the Buckeyes out when they’re the biggest contenders, did it again. It was junior Jared Berggren who hit the deciding three-pointer with 31 seconds remaining. Berggren shutdown Jared Sullinger, who may have played his last game in Columbus, as Sully posted just 8 points on 4-of-10 shooting, and he appeared to aggravate a foot injury late in the game. Berggren had 18 points and 3 three pointers. Jordan Taylor led the Badgers with 19 points. For Ohio State, Deshaun Thomas posted 23 points, but 13 of those points came in the first ten minutes of the game and he threw up the wild three pointer that misfired near the end of the game. The Buckeyes missed 8 second half free throws that killed them down the stretch. Ohio State faces Northwestern in Evanston on Wednesday night. Tomorrow, I’ll have a full recap of the meltdown.
Wisconsin
Name |
Min |
FG |
3Pt |
FT |
Off |
Reb |
Ast |
TO |
Stl |
Blk |
PF |
Pts |
R. Evans |
37 |
5-17 |
0-1 |
0-1 |
4 |
10 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
10 |
J. Taylor |
38 |
6-8 |
1-2 |
6-7 |
0 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
19 |
J. Berggren |
34 |
6-13 |
3-7 |
3-3 |
1 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
18 |
J. Gasser |
38 |
3-6 |
1-4 |
0-0 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
M. Bruesewitz |
17 |
0-4 |
0-1 |
0-0 |
2 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
B. Brust |
10 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
F. Kaminsky |
5 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
R. Wilson |
21 |
3-7 |
3-6 |
0-0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
9 |
Totals |
|
23-55 |
8-21 |
9-11 |
8 |
30 |
13 |
7 |
1 |
2 |
18 |
63 |
Percentages |
|
.418 |
.381 |
.818 |
|
Team Rebounds: 1 |
Ohio St.
Name |
Min |
FG |
3Pt |
FT |
Off |
Reb |
Ast |
TO |
Stl |
Blk |
PF |
Pts |
J. Sullinger |
33 |
4-10 |
0-1 |
0-3 |
3 |
6 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
8 |
D. Thomas |
35 |
9-15 |
2-6 |
3-5 |
1 |
7 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
23 |
L. Smith, Jr. |
30 |
0-1 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
A. Craft |
35 |
6-10 |
0-0 |
1-4 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
13 |
W. Buford |
35 |
4-11 |
2-3 |
5-5 |
2 |
9 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
15 |
J.D. Weatherspoon |
2 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
S. Scott |
9 |
0-1 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
S. Thompson |
11 |
0-1 |
0-1 |
0-0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
E. Ravenel |
10 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
1-2 |
1 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
Totals |
|
23-49 |
4-11 |
10-19 |
8 |
34 |
10 |
12 |
2 |
2 |
17 |
60 |
Percentages |
|
.469 |
.364 |
.526 |
|
Team Rebounds: 1 |
Game Info
- Technical Fouls:
- None
- Arena:
- Value City Arena, Columbus, OH
- Attendance:
- 18,809
- Officials:
- Mike Kitts, Gene Steratore, Terry Oglesby
6 Comments
Sparty thanks you.
Guys once you accept the fact this team, along with CSU were horribly overrated, it gets easier. I honestly see them losing in the 2nd round.
I love Thad Matta don’t get me wrong but I just wish we had a more fluid offense with people cutting on weak side who are the explosive athletes like Thompson and Weatherspoon.I have never liked Buford as much as I guess everyone else does. I think Buford forces his shot to much in the offense because I think he thinks he is better than what he is.When you force the ball the way he does there is no fluidity in the offense. I realize when Buford is shooting well he is a good option in the offense but he forces bad shots too much now and if his shot is off he is way too much of a liability in every other aspect of the game. If Buford is off sub in Thompson or Weatherspoon and start slashing to the basket backside when you dump the ball into Sullinger. Our offense is too much of a stand around and force an outside jumper type offense instead of people moving and creating some easy shots. If you have a force like Sullinger inside even if he has a bad game like he did he is still creating chances for teammates but they all stand around way too much. If we don’t catch fire from the outside in the tourneys we are in big trouble. We have nothing to lose so start playing some different combinations together and sit some people that are playing poorly.
Matta can recruit but can’t coach remind you of a former Buckeyes football head coach named John Cooper? Watching Ohio State is painful it reminds me of all those years watching the Cavaliers offense. Oh well maybe they’ll get lucky come tourney time.
I agree with you about the cavs offense comparison. No movement and stand around and watch a guy shoot. Byron Scott has changed things but look at the struggles with Mike Brown in LA now. Thad Matta is a little better than Cooper from the standpoint of his energy on the sidelines but his offensive game plan lacks and I am surprised we don’t punish teams more weak side. When this dakich guy who does everyone of our games for espn praises Buford as a great nba player potential I don’t see it. He can definitely shoot but he is terrible at attacking the rim and scoring inside. These guys are over hyped and we need to get some people in there cutting and slashing to the rim because we are way to easy to defend and teams in the tourneys coming up will not have to spend any energy defending us so they will be fresher at the end of games. It is weird how Matta can’t fix this and I think his inability to sit Buford at times gets him into trouble.
Funny you mentioned the Lakers because I’ve watched a few of their games and it’s like watching the old Cavaliers. Point of fact it wasn’t LeBron James (I know this might upset all the haters) who wasn’t running the offense it was Mike Brown who did indeed not know what an actual offense was supposed to look like. I’m seeing Kobe Bryant frustrated and having to work entirely to hard just to get a shot up.