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January 28, 2010NBA Trade Rumors: Jamison Staying Put?
January 28, 2010The Buckeyes were down five at halftime 25-20. Twenty points in a half? This is the same Buckeyes team that scored 100 points in the opener. I know it is Alcorn State and it was the opening game of the season, but still. They scored 100 points, including 56 before halftime. Last night in Iowa, the Buckeyes scored less than half of that before halftime. Evan Turner was 1-3 shooting in the first half. Turner never really got it going in this one as he finished the game going 6-15 as the Buckeyes defeated Iowa 65-57.
Of course not every game is going to be a cakewalk. These are college athletes and they will be inconsistent at times. Even stellar players like Evan Turner. Thankfully for the Buckeyes they have enough players that they are seemingly bound to have at least one of them step up on any given night. In the loss to West Virginia, it was William Buford. Against Iowa, Buford was 4-14 for 11 points. Jon Diebler, who is capable of catching fire from three every now and again was woeful on 1-6 shooting with no three pointers.
Last night was David Lighty’s turn to step up with a good game. He played the whole 40 minutes going 7-11 from the field including 3-4 from three point land to score a game high 20 for the Buckeyes. Lighty also grabbed 8 rebounds and hit all three of his free throw attempts. It was nice to see Lighty show up so strong after two relatively lackluster performances against Northwestern and West Virginia where he only scored seven and six points in respective games.
Just like the game against West Virginia, the Buckeyes didn’t use much of their bench. P.J. Hill did get six minutes of playing time after being left out of the previous contest completely. In all though, the Buckeyes’ bench used three players for 21 total minutes as compared with two for 19 minutes against West Virginia. Again, I don’t know if this team really is this shallow or whether Thad Matta just doesn’t trust his reserves enough.
I don’t want to sound overly negative about this game though. The Buckeyes did manage to find a way to win it in the second half on the road after a poor start. Their confidence and experience have to grow with each character building win like this. Plus, this was a real trap game as it is the last away game for a while. The Buckeyes play their next three at home against Minnesota, and Penn State before getting ready to play Iowa again.
These next three games are important. Ohio State is third in the Big Ten overall with a 5-3 conference record. Illinois is hot on their heels also with a 5-3 record but a worse overall record than Ohio State. Those two teams are looking up at Michigan State who is perfect in the Big Ten at 8-0 and Wisconsin who is 6-2. While Ohio State has their next three at home, MSU has to go on the road for two of its next three including games against Wisconsin and Illinois. Wisconsin is also on the road for two of its next three, but one of those (as I said) is against the #5 Michigan State squad. So maybe while the rest of the Big Ten is eating their own, Ohio State can make some headway in the standings.
(Photo Jim Slosiarek / AP)
5 Comments
A win is a win is a win especially on the road but I’m loving seeing Evan Turner getting all of the love that he so richly deserves. SI has a nice article on him today for Player of the Year.
Ha. I bet you just looked at the boxscore to write this story. Firstly, Iowa specifically slowed the game down as that was the only chance they had to win. A road game in big ten is always hard to win. And last night was particularly hard as Iowa allowed all of its students in for free as a pramotion, so they essentially manufactured a crowd of 12,000 maniacs. Lastly, Turner was saddled with foul trouble and was taken out of the game for the majority of the first half. He scored 13 points, pulled down 9 rebounds, and handed out 5 assists during the second half ALONE when he actually was on the floor and played. More importantly, he was crucial to the late comeback, with several steals and scores. That seems like a pretty solid day at the office to me – the only thing inconsistent is your analysis. Hope you catch the game next time b4 writing.
EEEEEEEasy NY Buck. I agree with a lot of your points but no need to hammer Craig.
I wish we had more depth. It’s going to kill us. But with Evan Turner, I’m really hoping this team makes the Sweet 16. That’s the goal.
I looked at the box score to write the post for sure, but I watched the game. I love Evan Turner and yes he came around at the end in crunch time. I just find it funny that you would say Turner was saddled with foul trouble in a game where he still played 36 minutes.
Either way, I am still concerned about the lack of depth on this team. I am encouraged that the Buckeyes found a way to win on the road, but I would have liked to see them just dominate Iowa from the beginning.
I’m not going to call OSU’s victory impressive, per se. But this is a game they were fortunate to win, if you watched it. Iowa had almost everything go their way and the Buckeyes still managed to get outta dodge (aka Iowa City) with a “W”.
The Buckeyes deserve credit for gutting it out and getting a road win against a hungry and determined, albeit inferior Iowa team.