Let me start by saying that the Big Ten earned a freaking gift in the Challenge tonight when Clemson allowed Illinois to come back from 22 down to win the game and keep the Big Ten in it after Minnesota and Michigan failed to hold up their end of the bargin (particularly Michigan….thanks Michigan.) This put the ACC up to a 5-4 advantage in the Challenge going into the late night games of Duke/Wisconsin and Florida State/Ohio State.
Wisconsin is going to be a dangerous team yet again, despite being in a down year. Wisky gave Duke more than they could handle and pulled out the victory 73-69. That win set up the Buckeyes to coast to their own 77-64 victory over Florida State to secure the first win for the Big Ten in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge in 11 attempts.
The early going of this game was rough, as the Buckeyes seemed to struggle a bit against the size of FSU. Most of the early shots taken by the Buckeyes were three-pointers and it took about 3 minutes before one finally tickled the twine. The shooting issues continued early as Ohio State struggled to find open looks at the basket which were few and far between. The defensive effort, however, was excellent, preventing Florida State from scoring more than 2 points for the first few minutes of the game.
The team play early was substantially better than in previous games as the Buckeyes hunted for the open shot and hustled for the rebounds and loose balls. The Buckeyes created plenty of turnovers from Florida State that prevented them from getting any kind of offensive rythym. This, of course, was replicated on the other end as FSU managed to contest the vast majority of OSU’s shots, forcing the shooters to adjust and often miss the shot.
After taking a 12-2 lead, the Buckeyes went on a 5 minute scoring drought which allowed FSU back into the game. Luckily, the Seminoles were only able to score 8 points during that stretch before Jon Diebler rained in another 3 to take a 5 point lead. For the rest of the half the ‘Noles and Bucks generally traded shots, but with OSU answering 2’s with 3’s, they were able to gradually increase their lead.
The player of the half was clearly Jon Diebler who was damn near leathal from beyond the arc, scoring 15 points on 5-8 shooting from three (5-9 total). His shooting, Evan Turner’s hustle and 3 offensive rebounds, and the huge defensive effort by the Buckeyes allowed them to take an 11 point lead into the half at 31-20. Emphasizing that defensive effort, the Bucks flip-flopped between man defense and matchup-zone that seemed to completely confuse FSU’s offense in the first half as they struggled to passing lanes in to their big men. Once or twice a defensive breakdown did allow an FSU player to free himself wide open under the basket, but for the most part the Buckeyes defense was smothering in the half. Don’t believe me that the defensive intensity was high? Consider FSU’s 29.6% total shooting percentage (8-27) and their 0-6 three point shooting in the first half. That’s good defense there.
The second half started in the opposite way with FSU putting up points and OSU struggling to find offense. Florida State, though, quickly discovered that they still couldn’t buy a basket and after 7 minutes of play the lead was still 11. Major props to Florida State for making the defensive adjustment to glue a man to Diebler to prevent the three-ball that was falling in the first half. One answer for the Buckeyes would have been to try to get Buford open like they were for Diebler, but Buford was apparently suffering the Florida State shooting disease hitting a horrifying 1 shot in the first 27 minutes of the game after taking 12 shots. The actual answer was for Matta to make an adjustment to the screen plays to extract Diebler from his man and began to find him open from behind the arc again.
Florida State spent the second half finding success down low with 7 foot 1 inch Alabi posting up against the shorter Buckeye forwards. Kyle Madsen especially seemed to have big trouble defending him down low. This size problem is going to continue to plague the Buckeyes, and it seriously makes you wonder what is up with Big Z Sarikopoulis for him to not be getting into these games at all.
The game turned when Florida State star player Chris Singleton picked up his 4th foul. At that point, he was briefly removed from the game and the Buckeyes just took over. FSU quickly put him back in when they realized the game was slipping away but at that point it was essentially too late. The Buckeyes built up a quick 20 point lead on the shooting of Turner, Simmons and Madsen. Florida State valiently tried to fight back, but Singleton soon picked up his 5th foul on what looked like it might have been a cheap shot down low on Diebler which put the Bucks in the double bonus. At that point, it was only a matter of time.
The Buckeyes continue to impress me with their effort, especially Evan Turner. Every game he seems to have a play where he gives up a turnover and has to hustle back on defense. But rather than simply hustling back and watching the opponent make a play, he blocks the easy layup and completely denies easy benefit off his mistake. But even the team as a whole, when they come out with effort, plays wonderful hustle basketball, going after the boards and making things happen. This team easily could have allowed Florida State to massively out-rebound them with their substantial size, but they kept fighting for the rebounds and that effort put them in a position to win big over a very good Seminole team.
The Buckeyes got the vast majority of their points production in this game from Evan Turner (25), Jon Diebler (22) and Jeremie Simmons (14). The rest of the team came away with only 16 points amongst them, but gave solid production in ways that don’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet. The Buckeyes ended up shooting 43.1% from the field (25-58) and 42.9% from three (12-28) while allowing Florida State only 12.5% from three (2-16) and 41.7% from the field.
This was a great win for the Buckeyes going forward and it will only help to build confidence in the team in future games. I’m a little disappointed that Big Z and Kecman still aren’t getting any time on the floor, but with FSU trying to make a comeback at the end of the game, I’m not too surprised they didn’t enter here. Look for them to make an appearance next week.
The Buckeyes next face the Eastern Michigan Eagles in Columbus on Saturday afternoon (December 5th) at Noon. That game can be seen on ESPNU.
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