While We’re Waiting…Gibson To Work Out With Browns, Tribe Rotation, LBJ FT Shooting
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March 20, 2010It ended around midnight EST but Ohio State officially advanced to the 2nd round with a comfortable win over 15 seed and Big West representative UC-Santa Barbara last night in Milwaukee. The catalysts for the victory last night were the shooting of Jon Diebler on the offensive end and the activity of Dallas Lauderdale on the defensive end. National player of the year Evan Turner put his imprint on the game controlling the ball and hitting the glass but he suffered through a 2-13 shooting night. He finished with 9 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists. The Buckeyes had the luxury of moving forward with a subpar performance from Turner because of the overmatched Gaucho squad. They advance to face stiffer competition in Georgia Tech on Sunday afternoon.
Jon Diebler and William Buford (who had one of the more incredible and athletic reverse layups I have ever seen) led the Buckeyes on the offensive end. Diebler, who had been battling flu symptoms all day, hit 7 three pointers and finished with 23 points. Many have said for weeks that, despite the overall greatness and notoriety of Turner, the key to a deep run in the tourney and perhaps to the Final 4 resides with Diebler and his outside shooting. OSU starts 4 wing players that are all 6’5 or taller. Turner, Buford, and David Lighty can all penetrate and get in the paint but the threat of Diebler outside keeps the floor spread and provides room to penetrate. Doug Lesmerises wrote about Diebler yesterday and was on the money describing Diebler’s impact on a game and the potential Buckeyes tournament run. Against the NBA caliber front line of Gani Lawal and Derrick Favors at Georgia Tech, they will need to be hitting their shots from outside.
That Georgia Tech front line could have their hands full on the offensive end if we see the kind of effort and performance out of Dallas Lauderdale that we got last night. Lauderdale finished with 12 rebounds and 8 blocks. He may have actually blocked more than 8 shots but nevertheless he controlled the paint and altered the Gauchos offense almost every time they came inside the arc. UCSB was a one shot offense and that was the key to building the initial comfortable lead that was never relinquished. I realize this effort came against a low major opponent but Lauderdale was up against 7’3 Greg Somogyi at times and the 6’8 Lauderdale completely ate him up on the block. He wrote last night that Coach Matta had challenged him step up his play coming into the tournament to :
Coach [Thad] Matta came to my room about 11 on Thursday night, after we watched film. It was a surprise. The door was already open so he busted in. I had an idea what he wanted to talk about because this was the first time he ever came and just talked to me like that.
Obviously, I didn’t perform to my best level in the Big Ten Tournament and he expected a lot more out of me, a lot more out of me. And that’s what I had to do. I had to perform. I had to come out and bring it. My coach was doubting me, so I just had to go out and prove him wrong.
It will be interesting to see how Lauderdale does on Sunday. He was able to stay out of foul trouble in the 2nd half last night against an inferior opponent. That may not be the case against Lawal and Favors on Sunday.
I imagine Matta may start Lauderdale on Favors which will present a matchup problem for whoever, probably Turner or Lighty, has to guard Lawal. Georgia Tech has NBA size and talent all over the floor but has not been able to get results out of that talent. Their guards, including the NBA prospect Iman Shumpert, struggle to get the ball to those post players and turnovers are a constant problem. Each team will present matchup problems for the other. Hopefully for OSU, Evan Turner got his one bad shooting night out of the way early.
(Photo:Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
2 Comments
Lauderdale plays like he’s 7’8″ not 6’8″ I was impressed with him last night.
He is listed at 6’8 but I really think he is a little taller than that having seen him in HS. His wingspan is 7’5 as we hear repeatedly. He had a great night last night against inferior competition and in a physical game. If he plays like that Sunday, they should get by GT easily.