Category: OSU Basketball (Page 9 of 11)

Ohio State continued their strong Big Ten start with an 80-64 win over Purdue. Je’kel Foster tied a career high with six steals and finished the game with ten points. The important stat here is the six steals, as it was the defense that keyed the victory.

OSU forced 21 turnovers that led to 30 points and Purdue never had a chance. Thad Matta finally has this team buying into his system and the results are staggering. This isn’t the Purdue of the Gene Keady days, but a win like this on the road is still impressive.
Thad Matta= great coach.
OSU=underrated Big Ten team.

Still, they have some big games coming up, including a tilt with Michigan State. We will have a much better idea of just how good this team can be after that game.

The Buckeyes were dealt their first loss of the year and it was in heartbreaking fashion as they fell 81-79 against Indiana. AGAIN, in what is becoming a common occurence for the buckeyes, OSU was homered against the Hoosiers.

A charge against Dials in the waning seconds of the game gave IU the free throws they needed to take the lead for the eventual win. That simply isn’t a call you see ANYWHERE in the last few seconds of the game, but the officiating seemed inconsistent the entire night.

That being said, this was a very strong game for the Buckeyes. There are always problems with officiating, but the great teams have to rise above all of that. OSU isn’t great yet, but they are good and a very solid Big Ten team. A strong showing on the road against a tough IU team proves that they can hang with anyone, but If I’m ranking the b10 top five right now, it’s looking

1. Michigan State
2. Illinois
3. Indiana
4. Iowa
5. Ohio State

The Buckeyes continue to roll as they push their unbeaten streak to 11 games with a 104-69 win over Penn State.

Lewis led the way for OSU with 26 points and Sullinger had 18 points. The two combined to go 18-19 from the field as OSU torched Penn State by shooting over 65% from the field.

Thad Matta has this team playing excellent basketball and they are taking care of business, which is what good teams do. What is even more important is how the bench is playing in games like this. It’s against the Penn States of the world where you can develop your bench to step up in the clutch, and if OSU is going to make a run in the Big Ten and be competitive in the tourney, they will need that bench. The experience and contributions they are making now are going to pay big dividends for them come tourney time.

The Buckeyes extended their unbeaten streak to 10 games with a 78-76 win over LSU. It was Matt Sylvester with the game winning 3-pointer with 5.5 seconds left.
recap

This was a crucial win for the Buckeyes and showed that they have the heart and character to battle it out in tough games. They were down 15 points with under six minutes to play but still battled back to be in a position to win with mere seconds left. This team is tough and is going to be one of the big players in the Big Ten this season.

Je’kel Foster is the player of the week on Andy Katz’s weekly watch

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2265018″ target=”_blank

It’s praise that Foster rightly deserves and hopefully will get more of it as the season goes on. Everyone wants to focus on next year, and it will be a great year, but this year’s team is going to be interesting. The big ten will be tough, but it should be an entertaining season and people are finally starting to take notice.