Blue Ribbon Preview: Ohio State Buckeyes

[SanduskyCav]

Don't know if any of you guys pay any attention to OSU's basketball team but I figured I would post the ESPN Insider Blue Ribbon Preview for this year Buckeye basketball team in case anyone who doesn't have insider wants to read it or comment.

If anyone wants another teams Blue Ribbon Preview let me know and I will post it in the NCAA section.

Team preview: Ohio State
Blue Ribbon Yearbook

COACH AND PROGRAM

Another year, another lottery big man for Thad Matta and Ohio State.

In an amazing recruiting run for the Buckeyes' fifth-year coach, he has followed up Greg Oden (2006) and Kosta Koufos (2007) with B.J. Mullens, a 7-1 center from Canal Winchester, Ohio, who some analysts believe will be the top pick in the 2009 draft.

Ohio State Buckeyes
Last Season 24-13 (.649)
Conference Record 10-8 (5th)
Starters Lost/Returning 3/2
Coach Thad Matta (Butler '90)
Record At School 105-35 (4 years)
Career Record 207-66 (8 years)
RPI Last 5 years 147-51-5-1-49

Unfortunately for Matta, he can't get these guys to stay for more than the required year. Oden was a no-brainer one-and-done, but Matta was hoping the 7-1 Koufos (the No. 23 pick to Utah in June) might stick around to form a 14-foot-2 tower of power this season with Mullens.

Every once in a while, Matta even lets himself imagine what it would be like to have those three together on the same roster.

"Oh yeah," Matta said. "It's funny, I told my wife, 'Can you imagine what [UCLA] coach [John] Wooden went to bed feeling like?' He knew he'd have Lew Alcindor for three more years, and then he knew he'd have Bill Walton for three more years. Must have been nice."

The only thing Matta knows is that Mullens is another rare -- and much-needed -- talent, a player who should start right away for what is otherwise a small team. He'll be a key to the Buckeyes returning to the NCAA Tournament, two years after getting to the title game with Oden, and a year after Koufos was voted MVP in the Buckeyes' run to the NIT championship.

Mullens (#32), who averaged 27 points and 15 rebounds as a senior, is about 20 pounds heavier than Koufos at 275. And while he has nice touch from 15 feet, Mullens is more like Oden in that he prefers to toil near the rim. Koufos was more of a Euro-style player, although he had everything working as his freshman season concluded.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but he is a true center," Matta said of Mullens, who is Blue Ribbon's preseason choice as national newcomer of the year. "He's more like Greg in that way, and he's had a great summer. The thing I don't know about B.J. is how quickly he'll adjust to the college game, how he'll press through the hard times. You just don't know with freshmen until you see them do it."

The same can be said of much of Matta's 2008-09 team, which has no seniors. He welcomes four freshmen and two junior college transfers, and all six will have a chance to contribute.

Along with Koufos and his 14.4 points and 6.7 rebounds a game, the Buckeyes lose leader and leading scorer Jamar Butler (15.0 ppg), a tremendous four-year talent who ran the point for three of those years but was able to step back and become a spot-up shooter as a junior in 2006-07, point-guard Mike Conley Jr.'s lone season in Columbus.

Butler hit a rough patch as a senior, related to his frustration over some of his young teammates, but he finished strong and will be missed. So will big men Othello Hunter and Matt Terwilliger. Hunter was the third-leading scorer at 9.9 a game and No. 2 rebounder at 6.5. He was a solid power player. Terwilliger provided length and steady play off the bench.

PLAYERS

That leaves the frontcourt to Mullens, sophomore forward Dallas Lauderdale (#52, 0.9 ppg, 1.8 rpg), junior center Kyle Madsen (#15, 1.5 ppg, 1.2 rpg) and incoming JUCO forward Nikola Kecman (#24).

An inexperienced frontcourt, plus the fact it has a loaded perimeter group, means Ohio State will go small a lot. But if the Buckeyes are going to have the flexibility they need to compete in the Big Ten, Lauderdale is going to have to step up. Mullens needs a reliable partner when OSU needs to go big.

Lauderdale is athletic and eats space at 6-8, 252. Luckily for OSU, he's eating less space and food these days, having cut down from 265 pounds and from 19 percent body fat to eight percent. That should lead to better lateral movement and more bounce, which will keep him on the floor longer and give the Buckeyes more rebounding strength.

Lauderdale was not in great shape and did not approach the role he envisioned for himself as a freshman.

"The eight weeks we had in the spring for skill instruction was very beneficial to him," Matta said of Lauderdale. "The better he is, the better we're going to be. I think his freshman year will be a great learning tool for him, and a great motivational tool."

Madsen also will be looking for a larger role after seeing brief action in 12 games as a sophomore. The 6-9, 240-pound junior, who transferred to Ohio State after a year at Vanderbilt, had surgery in June to clear a blockage in his nasal passage.

"He was having trouble breathing, so now we're hoping he can go a lot longer and play harder," Matta said. "We think he can help us. He has a very, very high basketball IQ, he understands passing angles and how to play the game. And he has range to 15, 16 feet."

Kecman, a native of Serbia who transferred from Eastern Arizona College, is a 6-8, 220-pound sophomore forward with deep range.

"One thing he can do is really shoot the basketball," Matta said of Kecman, who averaged 13.4 points and shot 43.8 percent from three-point range as a freshman. "He has a great feel for how to play."

If the frontcourt is a little thin, the backcourt is flush with talent, even with Butler departing. Junior David Lighty (#23, 9.0 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 2.4 apg) returns as the most experienced player on the roster, a guy who has been a part of 59 wins in two seasons.

The 6-5 wing did not quite live up to expectations as a sophomore, rising and falling on the offensive end. But he defended and finished strong, and Matta is counting on Lighty to be this team's guiding force on the floor.

"We need him to have a great year," Matta said. "He's in the best shape going into a year that he's been in, and we're looking for him to provide a lot of leadership. He improved his three-point percentage by 12 percent [to .327] in one year, so we're looking for him to keep improving like that."

Lighty's partner on the wing will be 6-7 sophomore Evan Turner (#21, 8.5 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 2.6 apg), who has grown more than an inch since arriving a year ago, and who has the ability to lead this team in scoring.

The tools are there. Turner has a deadly crossover dribble, length and finishing ability, and an improving jump shot. He hit a third of his three-point shots last season (23-of-69) and made marked improvement in that area during the summer.

Turner really blossomed during Ohio State's NIT run, scoring 20 in the title game, and that experience figures to pay off for him in November.

"[The NIT] definitely helped him," Matta said. "He played his best basketball at the end of the season. And now you look at him, his body's more defined, he's worked hard to improve his shot. We're excited about what Evan can do for us."

Turner might even play a little bit of point guard here or there. Like power forward, point guard is a major question for this team.

Last year's backup to Butler, 6-1 junior P.J. Hill (#4, 1.1 ppg, 0.5 apg), is back and good enough to give the Buckeyes some minutes at the position. But Hill is not the full-time answer. Matta has gone to a traditional Michigan State stronghold -- Flint, Mich. -- to bring in two newcomers to battle for the job.

Anthony "Noopy" Crater (#10) is a quick, 6-1 guard from Flint who played his senior year at Wolfeboro (N.H.) Brewster Academy. He averaged 16 points and eight assists there, working hard on his offensive skills. Crater has been an advanced playmaker since his freshman year of high school, but his jump shot remains a project.

Jeremie Simmons (#2) is a 6-2 junior college transfer who won back-to-back JUCO national championships at Mott Community College in Flint. The Chicago native averaged 21.2 points and 5.0 assists as a sophomore.

Crater is a pure point guard. Simmons can play both spots.

"I really have no idea about our point guard situation until we start practicing," Matta said. "Anthony is a prolific passer and he worked hard on his shot this summer. He has great athleticism and quickness.

"With Jeremie, I love the fact that he won two national championships. He's a winner. He can play the point, but he also shoots so well that he can play the off-guard spot. Can he help right away? Yeah, I hope so."

Incoming freshman Walter Offutt (#3) of Indianapolis can also run the point. The question for Offutt is whether his right knee will allow him to do it this season.

The news has been encouraging since the 6-3 Offutt tore the ACL in his right knee in December, ending his senior season at Warren Central High. Two years earlier, Offutt suffered a similar injury to his left knee.

"He understands the rigors of coming back from knee surgery, and he's done a great job," Matta said of Offutt, who averaged 18 points and five assists as a junior. "We're bringing him back slowly, but hopefully we'll have him at 100 percent when practice starts on Oct. 17. He's a tough, combo-type guard, one of those guys who's a lockdown defender and who brings a ton of energy to the court. We think he'll be able to help us this year."

Matta is certain William Buford (#44) can help. The 6-5, 190-pound wing from Toledo is the most heralded member of this recruiting class not named Mullens, a consensus top-25 recruit who reminds some of former Buckeye Daequan Cook.

Buford has a pro body and he uses it well on the glass. He's big and athletic enough to slide to the four when the Buckeyes go small and athletic -- which may be often.

"He does a lot of things," Matta said of Buford, who averaged 23 points and 11 boards as a senior. "He's got a knack for scoring, he drives and finishes. He has an understanding of how to play and he shoots well."

Speaking of shooting, that brings us to the final member of the Ohio State playing group and one of this season's keys. Sophomore Jon Diebler (#33, 5.9 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 1.1 apg) went through some horrific stretches as a freshman. The shooting specialist was second on the team with 48 three-pointers, but he did it on 28.9 percent shooting.

The good news for the 6-6 Diebler, who is the state of Ohio's all-time leading prep scorer, is that he played through it and had some good showings late.

"Hopefully he can find his shooting rhythm this year," Matta said. "Mentally at times he struggled a little bit last season. But nobody's gonna work harder than him, and nobody wants to win more than him. Even when he was struggling, he stayed focused on the team, and that's a great sign for him and us."


BLUE RIBBON ANALYSIS
BACKCOURT: B-
BENCH/DEPTH: B-
FRONTCOURT: C+
INTANGIBLES: C+


The Buckeyes were upset when the NCAA Selection Committee ignored them in March, so they went out and made a bit of a statement in winning five NIT games. It was an encouraging finish that will serve as a reminder of what they can do -- and what they don't want to do again.

"Like I tell our guys, we don't want to leave it in someone else's hands this year," Matta said. "We have to take care of our business if we want to play in the NCAA Tournament."

Matta put together a tough but manageable schedule, with home games against West Virginia and Butler, along with a visit to Miami for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. That will challenge the young Buckeyes, but there are enough breaks to build their confidence as well.

This team is definitely good enough to earn an NCAA bid, especially if Mullens is anywhere near as good as hyped. There's loads of talent on the perimeter and Matta knows how to use it, but the Buckeyes are a polished big man and an experienced point guard away from making a Big Ten title run. Those players are already on campus, so it's just a matter of time.