After an exciting sweet sixteen season a year ago, how will the 2010-2011 basketball bucks fair? We here at tBBC are here to preview the campaign and hopefully be one of your stops for basketball coverage throughout the year. We hope to have first hand information at times so check back during the season.
The Buckeyes return 4 starters (David Lighty (3rd team all Big Ten), Jon Diebler (3rd team all Big Ten), Dallas Lauderdale, and Will Buford (3rd team all Big Ten) from last seasons team. Obviously losing walk-on’s the caliber of Danny Peters (Currently working on the Arizona bball staff) and Club Trillion blog owner Mark Titus will be hard to swallow, but hopefully one of the nation’s top 3 incoming classes helps with their early departure. Oh yeah, there was that other guy that some called “The Villain” that we might miss as well.
The four returning starters all saw significant time last year, some might say a little too much as Lighty averaged 36 minutes, Buford 34, and Diebler 37. With the depth coming in this year we should see the ability to get more rest for them, as well as see a little more uptempo game at times.
One of the fun things to do at the beginning of the year is to predict the starting lineup. Well some might be wondering if Aaron Craft a first year player can handle the point guard position. I don’t expect a Mike Conley type season, but what I do see is the ability to manage the game, get the ball in the hands of the playmakers, and contribute in spots on the scoreboard if teams sag off. We will still see others at the point to give Craft rest time. Look for Diebler, Buford, Lighty, Smith to help bring the ball up court.
With that said I see a starting lineup of Craft, Diebler, Buford, Lighty, Sullinger.
Sullinger might surprise some, as what we have all heard about Lauderdale is how improved the returning stater is, but that’s how good Sullinger has been in the preseason. He also provides a scoring threat that Lauderdale doesn’t. What we will see though is both Dallas and Jared on the floor together at the same time. Sullinger will also be able to pull bigger defenders from the hoop with his ability to step out and hit the jumper. Lauderdale will once again provide a defensive mindset in the middle of the lane, and he is in the best shape of his career, so look for a big senior campaign from him.
Diebler, Buford, and Lighty is one of the top trios of wings in the country, and all three have shown the ability to find ways to have big scoring nights. Buford is our top returning scorer after putting up 14.4 pts/game last year. He had a busy summer as he was tapped to work out with the US National Team. Look for Will and DLight to take on more of a role of creating off the bounce this year and creating looks for Diebler. Also expect a lot of 3’s to go through the net for Jon this year as he is coming off a season averaging 13pts and 42% from behind the arc. He already holds the record for career 3’s (260) and 3’s in a year (116) which he set last year.
I look for DLight, DLaud, and Diebs to step up in a leadership role. Lighty has fought through a lot in his career here, and we will have an article sometime in the near future detailing that and what to expect from Lighty this year.
That leaves McDonald’s All-American Deshaun Thomas, Top 30 recruit Jordan Sibert, Lenzelle Smith, J.D. Weatherspoon, and Nikola Kecman coming off the bench. An injury to Kecman’s knee in the off season will probably not allow him to see much time this year.
Matta has made comments that we could go ten deep this year. From what I gather I am seeing a solid rotation of 8 with Lauderdale, Thomas, Sibert getting most of the bench minutes. Smith is still coming back from injury, and Weatherspoon is full of potential, just not sure this is the team to give one with a ton of potential much time.
Sibert battled an injury his senior year after leading his Princeton Vikings to the state title game against Sullinger and Northland his junior year, but make no mistake about how talented he is. He is explosive off the bounce, and springy off the floor. He also has a good jumper to knock down the open three ball.
Thomas has the ability to step out and play behind the 3 point line and go down low and post up and score in the paint. He has a body already to really compete at the college level after following his illustrious high school career, which saw him finish ranked 3rd best all-time among all Indiana high school boys basketball players with 3018 pts, 1 pt behind second place.
Versatility could be a word that we hear a lot when describing this team. We have multiple guys that can play multiple positions, and bring a lot of different dynamics to the floor.
Not only do we have the newcomers on the floor but we have a new assistant coach Dave Dickerson– for more info on Dickerson check out Eric’s article. He joins a great coaching staff of Thad Matta (10 straight 20 win seasons), Brandon Miller and always jumping Jeff Boals.
Evan Ravenel will provide a big practice body for both Sullinger and Lauderdale to go against as he sits our his transfer year after transferring from Boston College in the off-season.
We will get into preview of the schedule and Big Ten later, but look for the 2010-2011 team to compete for the Big Ten championship as well as an opportunity to make the Final Four. Preseason coaches poll has us at #5.
Also for your reading enjoyment, here are links to Eric’s articles that cover the pre-pre-season (1, 2, 3)
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