On the surface, things are looking good for the Buckeyes. They are tied for first place with Michigan State and Even Turner has returned and is playing at full strength. He lead OSU past No. 1 Purdue in his first week back, added his 11th double double of the season against Illinois and has lead the Buckeyes to win nine straight games within the conference.
Since his return January 6th, Turner has averaged 19.3 points, 5.75 assists, 8 rebounds, and 34.4 minutes. Those numbers are outstanding even if you don’t consider the fact that he came back several weeks ahead of schedule. The fact that he continues to play at such a high level even with a month of vacation puts him very high on several draft boards including ESPN where has gone as high as No. 2.
There is no question turner will be a first team All American and is the leading candidate for the Naismith Award.
This should be good for the Buckeyes but what happens if you look beyond Turner. Sure, key contributors such as David Lighty (game high 20 points vs. Iowa) and William Bufford (game high 26 points vs. Minnesota) are starting to contribute more on offense. Dallas Lauderdale is a beast in the paint and Jon Diebler (game high 18 points against Illinois) can drain the three from anywhere on the court but if you look deeper you can see why some in the Buckeye nation are worried.
The question becomes, what is going on with Thad Matta’s usage, and I use that term loosely, of his bench? If you throw out the Northwestern and Illinois game (where OSU dominated) and you go back to the return of Evan Turner, only three reserves have seen significant playing time (10 minutes or more); Kyle Madsen, P.J. Hill, and Jeremie Simmons. In Iowa City the bench only played a combined 21 minutes. Things got worse in my mind versus Minnesota where again the reserves logged a stunning 21 minutes (with Madsen logging 12 of those). The Buckeyes were in the driver’s seat the entire game and never led by less than 12 in the second half, dominating the Gophers and winning by 22. There was no reason for Diebler to play the entire 40 minutes and Turner and Lighty to both contribute 39 minutes. Against PSU it was the same story different night. Kyle Madsen logged 17 minutes in relief for Lauderdale because of foul trouble and the same for Jeremie Simmons who saw the court for 7 minutes. No other reserve saw action.
Matta is an excellent coach with a recent championship game appearance on his resume so I have to believe there is one of two things at play here — either this team is very well conditioned and doesn’t take a lot of fouls or Matta has NO confidence in his reserves getting the job done against above average teams.
At this point in the season I am leaning toward the latter.
Follow Tim on Twitter at @twebster1229
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
The bench may get a test. It’s looking like Diebler may not play against Purdue. Dispatch is saying that he’s got a cast on his wrist.
Problem is there’s a clear division between the bench and the starters. Hill lacks any kind of offense and Simmons is a poor ball-handler. We’ve yet to see what Kecman or Sarikopoulos can do, and their big man presence could be big in the tournament or when someone figures out our offense. The only player I’d put faith in is Madsen because he’s been progressively better since last season, and that’s thanks to Dallas fighting foul trouble in some games.
You don’t fix what’s not broken, and so long as Diebler, Lighty, Turner and Buford can run around for 38 minutes and light up the board, why change it?
Dink, you make a good point but just what Jim said above is why you need to change it. Diebler leads the team in minutes and sparks a sometimes flat offense. He takes one charge and puts his hand down to break his fall and hurts his wrist. Luckily nothing is broken and he will most likely play vs. Purdue, but the question remains, what if?
In a tournament that is one and done you can’t only rely on 5 players. Refs get an itchy trigger finger and Turner is in foul trouble. Deibler takes a poke in the eye on one of his threes and can’t continue, then what do we do? We have to use players that haven’t been called on all year to step up in a huge spot.
And Madsen is a huge step down in the middle, you could see that in the Illinois game. He is gritty but just isn’t the presence that Lauderdale is in the middle.
On another note:
Congratulations the the Lady Buckeyes for becoming the only Big Ten basketball program – men or women – to win six consecutive conference titles.