Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / Ohio State Men's Basketball: Big Ten Season Preview

Transcript

Ohio State Men's Basketball: Big Ten Season Preview · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

• 0:00
  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Wednesday, January third. I'm your host,
• 0:03
  Tom Moore. The Akron game is in two hundred and forty one days,
• 0:06
  the game against Michigan in three hundred and thirty two days. We're going to
• 0:10
  take a slight break from our pretty much uninterrupted football programming from the last few
• 0:15
  months to let you know that the Ohio State basketball team has in fact been
• 0:19
  playing basketball for a couple of months now for salone, and this team eleven
• 0:23
  and two overall, one in one in the conference entering tonight's game at home
• 0:28
  against Rutgers, Scarlet Knight's coming to town. The last time they were in
• 0:31
  town, boy, that was a memorable game. Last year. That was
• 0:33
  the Tanner Holden buzzer beater where there was a little bit of controversy afterwards,
• 0:38
  and it was the first buzzer beater at home and I don't know, roughly
• 0:40
  a million years, quite a memorable night. We'll see if tonight is that
• 0:43
  memorable night as well. We'll be out there at the shot covering that one
• 0:46
  for you. But I'm guessing that the majority of this audience is probably in
• 0:51
  the camp where when football is happening football is kind of all encompassing, and
• 0:56
  then basketball sort of gets noticed once football season is over. Football season is
• 1:00
  now over. So we're gonna do a little Ohio State men's basketball one oh
• 1:03
  one today with their buddy Tony Gerdiman from Bucky Huddle dot com. Tony,
• 1:07
  I think probably the default feeling when you hear a Chris healp win team is
• 1:11
  eleven and two entering January is uh huh. And then what so we're gonna
• 1:15
  before we get to the end, then what I think, let's start with
• 1:19
  the fact that this year, if it's gonna be different, is gonna be
• 1:23
  different because they have some really good guard play this year, which is not
• 1:27
  something they've always had in previous seasons. Yeah, they have Bruce Thorarton starting
• 1:33
  point guard and Roddy Gale starting shooting guard. At your top two scores and
• 1:38
  when the thing that I've noticed is when one of them is off, the
• 1:42
  other usually picks it up. Or you know, if Bruce Thorton shot isn't
• 1:47
  falling, the drive is same with Broddy Gale. If his three isn't falling,
• 1:49
  he will drive it, he will score, he will get to the
• 1:53
  foul line. He's shooting fifty two percent from the field this year to tell
• 1:56
  you how much he's getting to the paint. So when we talked about tournament,
• 2:00
  the NCAA Tournament, and that's a long way off, you always look
• 2:01
  at what kind of backcourt do they have, kind of guards do they have,
• 2:06
  because the guards will generally lead you there. And right now, Ohio
• 2:09
  State's got as good a backcourt as they've had in terms of the one to
• 2:13
  two punch, as they've had in a while. And it's a it's a
• 2:16
  consistent right from the start, like Cup last year or whenever two years ago,
• 2:22
  if Malachi brand them, that kind of built as the season went on.
• 2:25
  But these two guys have been right there. They've played thirteen games this
• 2:30
  season and they've each led the team in scoring five times in terms of Thornton
• 2:35
  and Roddy Gale. So they are the most consistent guys. And if they
• 2:38
  can continue to do that, then this is a team they can do some
• 2:40
  damage. And this is a team that has some decent wins already. They
• 2:45
  just beat West Virginia the day after the Cotton Bowl. They have a win
• 2:49
  over Alabama, which is number five in Ken Palm right now. So they've
• 2:52
  got some they've got some halfway decent wins already. And one of you,
• 2:57
  Braddy Gale, had a big night against against West Virginia a couple of days
• 3:00
  ago in that overtime win. So you've got a couple somewhat familiar returning faces
• 3:04
  in the back court there. You've also got a couple returning familiar faces in
• 3:07
  the front court. Felix Akpara, zed Key. They're kind of splitting time
• 3:13
  down low. Akpara has been the starter and zed Key's you know, Zekei,
• 3:15
  I think is probably the name that people are remembering because he's been around
• 3:20
  for so long and been a pretty effective player for the Buckeyes for so long.
• 3:23
  But it feels like that match up there, that that pairing of those
• 3:27
  two guys in the front court is working out reasonably well right now as well.
• 3:32
  Yeah it is. And if you look at their minutes, they they
• 3:35
  have played together somewhat here and there, but Felix Akpara just over twenty minutes
• 3:40
  a game, Zekey just over nineteen minutes a game. So there's your forty
• 3:44
  minutes per game at the center position. But together they're averaging sixteen points a
• 3:51
  game. So like if you're getting that out of your center, you'll take
• 3:53
  that, whether it's split up between two guys or three guys. And that's
• 3:58
  what they're doing right now. Point seven points per game for zeed Ke,
• 4:00
  six point three for Felix Akpara. Together, they're averaging twelve rebounds per game.
• 4:05
  Ocupia by himself averages a couple of blocks per game, and any given
• 4:11
  day, in those twenty to twenty five minutes, he can block two shots
• 4:15
  or six shots, just depending on how often people are going to go after
• 4:18
  him and how how well he stays out of foul trouble. So what I
• 4:23
  like about that pairing is they have the defense of the defense of Felix Akpara
• 4:28
  and the athleticism. But then zed Key is essentially the sixth man. He
• 4:31
  started just once this year, and that's because Felix Akpara was ill, I
• 4:34
  believe, And so he's a veteran scorer, a veteran presence in the paint,
• 4:42
  and not just in the paint but on the court. In terms of
• 4:44
  zed Key, there are times turns, there are times when he's one of
• 4:46
  the best scorers in the Big Ten in the paint, and that's what he
• 4:50
  can give Ohio State when maybe the guards aren't shooting well. He has a
• 4:55
  calming factor. And I think what is one of the best aspects of this
• 4:59
  team is last year year. In the years past, they've had to rely
• 5:00
  on z Key for scoring, for rebounding. Now that they don't, they
• 5:05
  don't have to rely on it, but when they get it, it's an
• 5:09
  added bonus and it's something that makes them better than they were a year ago.
• 5:15
  So those are your sort of returning familiar faces among the guys on the
• 5:18
  team that are playing a significant number of minutes right now. You also have,
• 5:23
  you know, sort of the next category of player on the modern Ohio
• 5:27
  State basketball team is here's all the transfers they brought in last offseason, whose
• 5:30
  names you may or may not remember from previous stops. The name that I
• 5:33
  think people are most likely to remember is Jamison Battle. He was He's a
• 5:38
  fifty year player that now transferred in from Minnesota. He's been a big part
• 5:42
  of the team this year. And Mahaffey transferred in from Penn State. He's
• 5:45
  only a sophomore, but he played a ton for Penn State last year and
• 5:47
  has turned into a pretty regular rotation player. For Chris holtman Dale Bonner,
• 5:51
  another fifth year guy he transferred in from Baylor. That's a nice sort of
• 5:57
  sprinkling of some maturity, some experience that just sort of helps, you know,
• 6:02
  build out that rotation a little bit where you're not going to be relying
• 6:05
  so much. There's a lot of roster transfer or turnover this year again,
• 6:10
  but you're not relying so much on freshman like they were a year ago.
• 6:15
  Yeah, going one by one with these Jamison Battle basically takes the place of
• 6:19
  Justice Suing, And like Justice Suing, he's a lefty forward who can bring
• 6:24
  the ball out, he can play the perimeter, he can defend, but
• 6:27
  he's a more athletic, a better shooter than Justice Suing right now shooting forty
• 6:31
  two percent from three and has a quick trigger, and they will look for
• 6:36
  him. They can take him around screens and draw some threes up for which
• 6:41
  they've done this year, averaging thirty minutes a game, fourteen points a game.
• 6:45
  If they can continue to get that out of them all season, they
• 6:47
  would take that right now, fourteen points a game, and you never know.
• 6:50
  There are times where that's going to be twenty five. There are times
• 6:54
  where you know, he's just he's a more consistent player than Justice Suing was
• 6:59
  four Io State and right now he's he's a veteran presence. Obviously, he's
• 7:03
  seen a lot, He's done a lot, and he gives the guards an
• 7:09
  outlet, he gives the centers an outlet. He is a fantastic secondary guy
• 7:14
  in terms of kicking the ball out and he's open for three and he'll knock
• 7:17
  it down, like I said, forty. So he's a good shooter as
• 7:20
  well. He makes teams pay for basically, you know, like second second
• 7:26
  opportunities, second shots when the ball is bouncing around and he's looking for a
• 7:30
  shot. And he also averages five rebounds a game. He does little things
• 7:33
  and he's not a turnover machine. And it's been a really good addition.
• 7:39
  And if he can continue this, there would be He's he's a gain that
• 7:45
  you can't always just in terms of defense, you have to you don't necessarily
• 7:49
  focus on him, but if you lose him, he'll make you pay.
• 7:54
  And then a couple freshmen, of course, there's always a freshman or two
• 7:57
  sort of getting their name in the mix. He Scotty Middle is the one
• 8:00
  who's doing them contributing the most and playing the most minutes right now of the
• 8:03
  freshman Devin Royal kind of the ninth guy in the nine man rotation for Chris
• 8:07
  Holtman. Neither of those guys are taking on, you know, quite the
• 8:13
  roles of guys that you know, the freshmen that have sort of jumped into
• 8:15
  that rotation at you know, in recent seasons for Holtman. But it feels
• 8:20
  like both of those guys are going to play a role moving forward, and
• 8:24
  if you get more out of him later, great, But if you're not
• 8:26
  leaning on true freshman, that's probably not a bad thing this time of year.
• 8:31
  Yeah, not a bad thing. Right now, they're both together,
• 8:35
  they're averaging about twenty five minutes per game, and that probably goes down in
• 8:37
  Big ten play. But what I've liked about Scotty Middleton and he's not afraid
• 8:41
  of any kind of big shot. He's it's not the prettiest shot, there's
• 8:46
  no rotation on his shot, but he will take it and he's comfortable with
• 8:50
  it. He's shooting forty from three. He loves playing defense. He's long,
• 8:56
  he can put the ball on the floor, and he can also pull
• 8:58
  up and just shoot you know, twelve footers and fourteen footers. He's comfortable
• 9:01
  with that. So I like these two guys and the two freshmen they're not
• 9:07
  you know, you know, I say they're playing twenty five minutes a game.
• 9:11
  That's eventually what we saw from like Bryce Stsimal himself or you know,
• 9:16
  pass freshman where they just continue to emerge. And I don't know how many
• 9:20
  minutes are available for these two guys as the season goes on, but there
• 9:26
  they'll get better. Devin Royal is just a kind of a grinder and we'll
• 9:31
  play some defense and we'll rebound, and has a way of scoring under the
• 9:35
  basket that you know, he's had to get used to all of his life
• 9:37
  being basically like a six to six power forward. And then Middleton obviously an
• 9:41
  athletic guy. One of the things that I do like about this team is
• 9:46
  to go back to Dale Bonner they transfer from Baylor at point guard. He's
• 9:50
  a very good second point guard and talking to the players before the season,
• 9:54
  they said he's kind of like a second Bruce Thornton, and what makes makes
• 9:58
  things different. I think the past iterations of Chris Holtman's basketball team is Dale
• 10:03
  Bonner would be starting for Chris Holtman most seasons, and he's coming off the
• 10:09
  bench here, and most of Chris Holtman's starting point guards should have been coming
• 10:15
  off of the bench if you catch my drift, And not until Bruce Thornton
• 10:18
  got here that they were really having Oh, this is a really good starting
• 10:22
  point guard and he started as a true freshman. But Dale Bonner, there's
• 10:24
  a lot of good things. He's quick, he's not the best shooter right
• 10:26
  now, but he's still taking shots, which I think is I think taking
• 10:31
  shots and missing shots for guards is better than not taking shots at all and
• 10:35
  just becoming somebody that the defense doesn't have to worry about. The shots will
• 10:39
  eventually fall, and even if they don't, just continue to shoot. Don't
• 10:41
  take bad shots, but be part of the offense, and don't just be
• 10:45
  a guy who passes the ball around. And he's quick and he can get
• 10:48
  to the basket. So I like the pieces and the fact that right now
• 10:50
  you basically have an eight man rotation. Chris Haltman has said in the past,
• 10:54
  you can you can't play ten guys. It's just impossible. And we've
• 10:58
  seen him in the past and it just doesn't work. And you've got guys
• 11:03
  that should be playing who are sitting. So right now, it's an eight
• 11:05
  minute rotation that may shrink, that generally does shrink in Big ten play,
• 11:09
  and that would mean maybe Devin Royal get gets the squeeze, loses some of
• 11:11
  his minutes, but overall it's a it's not an overly deep team, but
• 11:16
  he doesn't want an overly deep team. He wants a talented team that he
• 11:18
  can rely on as veterans, and a couple of talented young players and the
• 11:22
  good guards that can emerge and continue to lead this team into February March.
• 11:30
  We won't. We don't need to talk about January toime. Yeah, there's
• 11:35
  it's not an overly deep team, but there's some built in redundancy. That's
• 11:39
  not a bad thing. You got a second point guard, you've got a
• 11:41
  second center. You've got you know enough where if Bruce Thorton falls out,
• 11:46
  you got another guy. If fee looks like par fouls out, you got
• 11:50
  another guy. And that's that's something that they have not had. If you
• 11:54
  lose someone to an injury at some point, that's going to become important.
• 11:58
  This is you know, this is this sort of an optimistic tone show I
• 12:01
  think about the basketball program, and one thing that maybe helps with the optimism
• 12:05
  is this is not a great year in the Big Ten. Purdue is number
• 12:09
  one in the country. They are obviously doing just find Zach Edy is back.
• 12:13
  They will see if they can get out of the first round of the
• 12:16
  tournament this year. But so far they are number one in the country.
• 12:18
  Behind them, Illinois just their star wing, Tarren Shearon, and was just
• 12:22
  suspended indefinitely, So we'll see what Illinois looks like. Wisconsin is a head
• 12:28
  of Ohio Stating and the Ken Palm rankings right now, Michigan State a little
• 12:30
  ahead, then the buck Eyes, and then behind them is the most of
• 12:35
  the rest of the Big Ten. And this is a year where you could
• 12:39
  be the twenty something best team in the country and finished with a winning record
• 12:45
  in the Big Ten and be a five seed something like that in the tournament.
• 12:48
  Four seed maybe in the tournament if things break well. That all they're
• 12:52
  one and one. As I said in the conference right so far, had
• 12:54
  an eighteen point late at Penn State and gave that game away. That is
• 12:58
  not I think that's going to be one they're going to want to have back.
• 13:01
  But they can get trying and get back to their winning ways in the
• 13:03
  Big Ten against Rutgers tonight, Rutgers, here's your little preview of Rutgers.
• 13:09
  Ready, what if Brian Farrens coached a basketball team. They are two hundred
• 13:13
  and fortieth in offense in Ken Palm, sixteenth in defense, two hundred and
• 13:16
  fifty forty fifth in tempo. So, Tony, it's not going to be
• 13:18
  a It's going to be a tightly defended poor game on offense, and it's
• 13:24
  going to be a slow pace. So it feels like a bet the under
• 13:26
  situation tonight. I don't even know what the over under is, but feels
• 13:30
  like it might be a bet the under situation tonight at the shot, you
• 13:33
  know what, don't bet on college basketball? How about how about that that's
• 13:37
  an even better idea. Yeah, and you look at this year and you've
• 13:41
  got Iowa and Michigan State both oh and two in conference play so far.
• 13:46
  I think over the last three years, including this year, Michigan State is
• 13:50
  like three games over five hundred in conference play, which seems pretty crazy,
• 13:56
  but you always expect them to at some point by this is boy, this
• 14:01
  is not a don a great year for the Big Ten, and there are
• 14:07
  so many years where it's touted as the best conference in the nation, and
• 14:11
  it is pretty good for the regular season, but then the conference starts and
• 14:15
  are they The tournament starts and everything goes to heck with all of the plans
• 14:20
  that the coaches have laid there, and the refing is much different than they've
• 14:24
  expected or that they've been used to in the Big Ten beating each other up.
• 14:28
  But you know what, it's never unexpected, so I don't know why
• 14:31
  they continue to fall for it. Yeah, it's we'll see how this Big
• 14:37
  Ten season goes. This just sort of has the vibe of, oh,
• 14:39
  look, they got like eight nine teams in and there's two of them left
• 14:43
  the second weekend of the tournament. That's just sort of a general vibe of
• 14:46
  the Big Ten this year because I think we've all lived through Big Ten basketball
• 14:50
  seasons like that in the past. But we've got a long way to go
• 14:54
  till March. Heck, you just started paying attention Big ten basketball about ten
• 14:56
  minutes ago. So we're gonna be Yeah, we're going to be out at
• 15:01
  the shot tonight seven o'clock tip off against Bruckers. It'll be televised on Big
• 15:05
  ten Network. If you want to watch along or if you want to join
• 15:07
  us at the shot, you can find us there. We'll probably have some
• 15:11
  postgame coverage of Chris Holtman's press conference, all the all conference and all that
• 15:15
  kind of stuff for you after the game as well at YouTube dot com,
• 15:18
  slash Buckey Hubble. That will do it for today. I thank you guys
• 15:20
  all for joining us every great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow