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2016-2017 Season Thread

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Late game execution has been a serious problem with this program for a long time.

Oh well. Was a fun game to watch. Nice to see us battle like that.
 
Poor reffing, sure, but the Buckeyes need a real PG. 20 turnovers on the road isn't going to get it done. Amazed they were even in the game with that coupled with no Bates-Diop. Lyle is no D'Angelo, that's for damn sure...

Still, this team quit a bunch last year. Nice to see them fight a tough opponent on the road...and Marc Loving can't get off this team fast enough.
 
Shocked that Lyle settled for a fade away 35 footer...

Outshoot the opponent by 15% and lose because you turn it over twice as much.
 
Terrible way to end game.

But you have to be happy with em. We weren't even on the radar. If we start fixing some little shit, we can be a mid-seed that could do some damage.
 
Tough game to watch...The refs seemed to favor Virginia a bit as well. I was impressed with our fight but the way this team is constructed can lead to frustrating basketball at times.

We have such a potent bunch of guys....4 guards that are all capable of taking their guys off the dribble...all our deceptively athletic and when playing team ball, can really shine but without a true PG, we have to rely on our team's athleticism, which leads to careless turnovers like we saw last night.

I wish Thad would've put Tate back in a little sooner b/c Lyle was trying to do too much.

I do think this is the year this team gels and actually establishes an offensive identity and i would be shocked if we do not make tourney this year. We've shown the ability to play lock down D. We just need to get better offensively. This team has all the tools but they need to start focusing on the team concept vs. hero ball.
 
Lyle and Loving spurring on a solid L to 2-5 Florida Atlantic...

They personify the lack of player development that has been startling for many years now. So many guys leaving with the exact same weaknesses that they entered with.

Such a dumb team for being a very veteran group by today's standards.
 
Glad it wasn't on TV. Based on the box score, it looks like we settled for 3's and hardly made any.

They personify the lack of player development that has been startling for many years now. So many guys leaving with the exact same weaknesses that they entered with.

Such a dumb team for being a very veteran group by today's standards.

Yeah, i am not sure what is going on with player development as of late. The last player i can remember that truly got better throughout his OSU career was Deshaun Thomas. He went from practically unplayable his freshman year to a bonafide stud his Junior year.

All the "big-name" players since that weren't one and dones...Ross, Thompson, Williams, Scott....they seemingly all peaked their sophomore seasons.

I have always been a HUGE Thad fan but all the issues this team suffers from seems mostly coaching-related. Our offense is sloppy with no true identity. We play up and down to our level of competition. This team just doesn't seem focused yet. Not ready to write them off but these next two games are huge for this team, from a psyche standpoint alone.

A FAU loss is a bubble breaker, IMO. I had high hopes for this season and believe this team can still turn it around but someone needs to establish themselves as a leader and hold their teammates accountable already. We've lacked leadership since Craft's departure and it shows on the court.
 
Staring down the barrel of another mediocre season with 20 wins and slightly better than .500 in the conference. Player development has been as issue, and Matta needs to do a better job recruiting. His last 2 classes have gone very poorly. Despite a 9th ranked class in 2015, all but 1 guy transferred away.

2017: Outside the top 40 currently
2016: 35th
2015: 9th (4/5 of these guys have transferred out, only Lyle remains)
2014: 5th (D'Angelo Russell)
2013: 37th
2012: Outside the top 40 (Only recruit was Della Valle)


4 of the last 5 years have been mediocre at best. Can't be surprised when the team ends up being mediocre year in and year out. The player development side comes in when you see that in 2014, Bates-Diop and Tate were top 25 guys. Seems hard to believe when you looks at how underwhelming they've been.
 
2015 was the killer not only because of the transfers (which, in reality, all the guys who left suck, but it's never good to lose that much of your current roster) but because of who they missed on. There were *two* five star players in Ohio for the 2015 cycle (Luke Kennard and Carlton Bragg) and they lost out on both because those guys chose more traditional blue blood programs (Duke and Kansas, respectively).

I just don't know how it gets better. They're recruiting Ohio much harder now, but the guys who are committed in those classes are going to require a great deal of development, which we know is also an issue. The program is spinning its wheels right now and it's hard to be at all positive or optimistic.
 
2015 was the killer not only because of the transfers (which, in reality, all the guys who left suck, but it's never good to lose that much of your current roster) but because of who they missed on. There were *two* five star players in Ohio for the 2015 cycle (Luke Kennard and Carlton Bragg) and they lost out on both because those guys chose more traditional blue blood programs (Duke and Kansas, respectively).

I just don't know how it gets better. They're recruiting Ohio much harder now, but the guys who are committed in those classes are going to require a great deal of development, which we know is also an issue. The program is spinning its wheels right now and it's hard to be at all positive or optimistic.

It's a tough balancing act, but Ohio State needs to find a way to keep kids in state (in fairness, Kennard was always going to Duke), while also expanding their efforts nationally. This is Ohio State we're talking about. With their resources, they shouldn't be resigned to hoping for some stud kids who are Ohio State all the way (Sullinger/Russell). Go find the best players in the nation, and get them here. It doesn't have to be on Kentucky/Duke levels, but if you pull in top 20 classes year in and year out mixed with 1 stud class from time to time, your program will look pretty good.
 
It's a tough balancing act, but Ohio State needs to find a way to keep kids in state (in fairness, Kennard was always going to Duke), while also expanding their efforts nationally. This is Ohio State we're talking about. With their resources, they shouldn't be resigned to hoping for some stud kids who are Ohio State all the way (Sullinger/Russell). Go find the best players in the nation, and get them here. It doesn't have to be on Kentucky/Duke levels, but if you pull in top 20 classes year in and year out mixed with 1 stud class from time to time, your program will look pretty good.

They've noticed this flaw too, look out a few years and you'll see they're trying to put a wall up around the state.

Kaleb Wesson in 2017

Darius Bazely, Justin Ahrens and Dane Goodwin in 2018

Then attack the national guys.
 
They've noticed this flaw too, look out a few years and you'll see they're trying to put a wall up around the state.

Kaleb Wesson in 2017

Darius Bazely, Justin Ahrens and Dane Goodwin in 2018

Then attack the national guys.

2018 looks like a good start, but that's a ways off. A lot of things can change, including how highly each kid is thought of. 2017 doesn't do much for me. Wesson isn't a great prospect. He's big though, maybe he'll develop. They also lost a couple top 100 NEO kids to West Virginia and Butler in that class.

I'm less concerned with in-state, and more concerned with their national efforts.
 
I'm less concerned with in-state, and more concerned with their national efforts.

That's not the problem....look at our last "great" recruiting class...2015, we had five 4* recruits, only one from Ohio. Then they pretty much all left except Lyle. Those misses really set this team back. Thad thought he was getting some great players to add to the depth we had and now they're all gone. Keep in mind, aside from Lyle, none of them are performing up to their recruit status this year so they had everyone fooled. We were just the unfortunate soul that received commitments from them.

ANDDD I'm still salty that we didn't even look at Trey Burke b/c "we had Shannon Scott locked up." If Burke had been on our team with Sully, Buford, and Craft, we would've won a national championship. I know his family pretty well (frequented the place i served at for years) There's a reason his dad is always rocking a UM hat and they are Columbus natives.

I just think we've had some bad luck on the recruiting trail lately, coupled with the lack of player development. I am not sure what the answer is.
 

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