- Just the editor’s desperate attempt to find a bright spot in Saturday’s loss to Michigan State.
I’ve never written one of these after a Buckeye loss. Here’s to hoping it ends up being some type of cathartic experience.
The fact that the best shooter wearing Scarlet and Gray on Saturday night was the halftime shooter, who was a mere inches away from winning free tuition for a year with a half court shot, was probably a bad sign for Ohio State.
In their 58-48 (48 points!?) loss to Michigan State on Saturday, the Buckeyes shot a measly 26.4% from the field and 13.3% from three. If the Bucks shoot like that the rest of the season, McDonalds won’t have to worry about giving away any more free fries. At least someone wins.
It is easy to get too high after a big win or too low after a big loss, so I am going to try to avoid that. Either way, watching Ohio State play like that in a game of this magnitude made me want to claw my eyes out. That’s not too low, right?
Sparty moved into a tie with Thad Matta’s bunch on top of the Big Ten standings with the victory, which is critical considering the Buckeyes still have to travel to East Lansing for a rematch later in the year.
Deshaun Thomas hit the game’s first shot three seconds in. It was all downhill from there. Ohio State struggled all night, falling behind by ten at the half and watching the lead stagnate between 8 and 12 for most of the second. The Bucks tried to make one final push when they cut the lead to four with about six minutes left, but, thanks to the poor shooting, they could never get over the hump.
The only real positive about the game was Aaron Craft’s defensive effort, especially in the second half. He is a crowd favorite for a reason, and it was on full display against the Spartans. Craft was diving for loose balls, harassing ball handlers, and constantly motioning to the crowd to keep them involved. It was like he was single handedly trying to get the Buckeyes back into the game through his sheer (and scrappy) will.
You could say that the Buckeyes pulling down 13 offensive rebounds was another positive, but that was largely due to the fact that there were so many offensive rebounds available from the terrible shooting.
Outside of Craft, Ohio State was way too soft in the paint defensively and, frankly, way too concerned with whining to the referees. The problem is, that kind of negative attention is exactly the kind of attention that much maligned head ref Teddy Valentine thrives on. It is his sustenance.
This is not sour grapes (because the officiating was terrible for both teams), but watching Valentine strut up and down the court every game with a half smirk on his face, clearly trying to make the game all about him, is starting to wear on me. The ESPN announcing crew even remarked – with dismay – on this display multiple times. This may be hard to accept Teddy, but nobody is paying their hard earned money for tickets to see the referees.
Draymond Green, who I think is the league’s best player outside of Jared Sullinger, was an absolute matchup nightmare for the Buckeyes. He is probably too quick for Sully off the dribble and can stretch him out with the outside shot, and Thomas, who (to put it kindly) struggles defensively, never had a chance. Green, along with centers Adreian Payne and Derrick Nix, combined for 33 of the Spartans 58 points, controlling the game from the inside.
As strange as it may seem if you weren’t watching the game and just looked at the numbers, Sully’s offensive performance may have been one of his worst as a Buckeye. Yes, he had 17 points and 16 rebounds (eight of them offensive), but he had ten turnovers (double digits for a center!?) and shot only 5-15. He was clearly bothered by Michigan State’s size inside and never really found any teammates from his post passing like he typically does. He was even somewhat of a Kobe Bryant-like black hole for stretches in the second half. Everyone is entitled to a bad game, and I’m hoping that’s all this was for the Buckeye big man.
With the loss, and resultant tie on top of the conference standings, the upcoming week – with two challenging road contests at Minnesota and M*ch*g@n – becomes all the more critical. Hopefully, the Buckeye shooting woes had everything to do with Michigan State’s suffocating defense and aren’t an indication of an upcoming slump.
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Other than Duke, there’s not a team I hate more than Michigan State. Unlike Duke though, that hate is out of respect. I thought this was a typical Buford game and a far cry from what we saw against Purdue. He needs to hit his shots, otherwise teams aren’t going to be honest about double teaming Sully. Michigan State did what they needed to do but we also fell flat taking opportunities late in the game. Nothing went right and now the team has to focus in hopes of a 1 seed.