RE: Ohio State
A quick dive on the Buckeyes:
Ohio State is coming off a 71-62 win over Big Ten rival Michigan, ending the game on a 14-2 run while holding Michigan to two points in the last 4:54 of play.
6'7" Junior Forward Keita Bates-Diop paced the Buckeyes over the first 10 games of the season with 17.4 points a game with a total of 99 rebounds (9.9 rpg). He is one of three regulars shooting better than 50 percent from the field (64-126/.508). He also led the Buckeyes with 22 made 3-pointers (50.8%) and was the team leader in blocked shots with 14. Oh, …and he also is an 80% free throw shooter, just for good measure.
6'4" Senior Guard Jae’Sean Tate connected on 55 percent of his shots (56-101) for an average of 13.3 ppg. He topped the Buckeyes with 12 steals and was second with 30 assists and grabs 6.2 rebounds from his guard position.
6'1" Junior Guard CJ Jackson averages 13.2 ppg and 3.8 apg, while shooting 39% from three and 85% from the FT line.
In four starts over nine games, 6'9" freshman center Kaleb Wesson scored on 31 of 54 field goal attempts (.574) and led the team in both made (41) and attempted (57) free throw attempts. He also has 8 blocks, second on the team.
The Buckeyes allow 35% shooting from the three point range, allowing 8.6 3 pointers per game to their opposition.
They make a fairly high number of turnovers per game, at 14.3 per contest.
Ohio State owns a 10-2 record all-time vs. teams representing the Colonial Athletic Conference following a, 80-55 win over Northeastern, Nov. 19 in Columbus.
My Take: I probably think that 15% chance of victory feels about right.
We are, obviously, taking a step up in class (against the Buckeyes and TCU) and we will need to rise to the occasion, as well. The key, as always, for us, will be hot shooting and keeping them off the boards. They apparently are willing to help out by making some turnovers and we will definitely need to be the winner on 50-50 balls and have very few unforced turnovers.
Shooting, on the road, is always more difficult, but we showed that even bad starts can be overcome once we find the range.
Nathan needs to be able to stay on the floor and, maybe, get his freshman counterpart into foul trouble and extra time on the OSU bench.
A little defense is always a plus and the 3-2 zone looks like it may be starting to be understood a little better as the season goes on.
They will probably be overlooking us, a bit (just normal - they just played Michigan), so we need to take advantage early and see if we can turn a hot start into an early lead and make them play from behind.
If nothing else, it will certainly be a good measuring stick for this young, and improving, team.
(This post was last modified: 12-08-2017 11:27 AM by billymac.)
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