Pregame Glance: Delaware State

Game two of the three game stretch of easier games is upon us.  Delaware State comes to town tomorrow (Saturday) and should give the Buckeyes another chance to gel a little without the services of Evan Turner.  Lets get to it!

In the last game against Presbyterian, the Buckeyes showed some things that we haven’t seen very much of outside of Evan Turner.  Several players (Diebler, Lighty) showed a willingness to drive the lane.  PJ Hill boosted his offensive stats by getting open for the three – and actually was willing to take the shot.  And, lastly, a couple of the guards played hard for the rebounds (Buford, Lighty).

It’s a good thing that players are starting to step up to accept some small part of Evan Turner’s role.  We will need that as the season develops.  One thing that didn’t happen was Matta didn’t chase away some poor Presbyterian fan for shouting tame things at his free-throw shooters.  Thad, if you want to be the big time, you gotta make these kinds of decisions!  (Roy Williams Zing!)

As for the Hornets of Delware State, they currently stand at 4 wins and 4 losses on the season, including losing the last three straight.  Their best opponents so far have been Arkansas (4-5) who beat them 71-53 and Arizona State (7-3) who demolished the Hornets 76-34.  In fact, the thrasing that the Sun Devils gave them was so bad that Delaware State was only able to score 12 points in the first half.  Consider that Presbyterian scored 21 on Ohio State in the first half of our previous game and you begin to get a sense for just how badly that game became.  Unlike against Presbyterian, however, Delaware State was down one at 9-8 with 14 minutes left in the half before the Sun Devils went on a 23-0 run over the next 8 minutes of the game.

Delaware State is a big team with 17 total players.  Of those, 15 have seen minutes during the season but only 9 or 10 with any regularity.  This is probably the oldest team the Buckeyes have faced, with 4 Seniors and 1 Junior seeing the floor often, along with a Sophomore and 4 Freshmen.  The starting lineup itself is comprised of 3 Seniors a Junior and a Sophomore, making it the most experienced lineup the Buckeyes have faced to date.

The biggest issue facing the Hornets is size.  Of those 17 players the tallest is 6-8, and he’s not often a starter.  Two of their starters measure to 5-11, and one of their Freshman Guards is 5-8 – though he doesn’t play often.  Playing with the “big boys” with this kind of size deficiency can lead to blowouts in a hurry, especially against a talented big-man.  COuld you imagine what Oden would have done to this team?

The tallest man on the court at the tip is Senior Forward Greg Smith (6-7, 245).  He doesn’t usually play for long, and doesn’t get much for his time on the court averaging only 3 and a half points per game.  For the big guy, his shooting percentage is ugly at 36.1% leading me to believe that Delaware State doesn’t play too much at the rim.  They likely prefer to sit outside and take 10-15 foot jumpshots to try to neutralize the opponent’s Centers.  With his shooting percentage, though, it’s probably not working too well.

Senior Forward Frisco Smith (6-6, 210) is one of the better shooters on the team with a 47.2% field goal percentage.  He averages 12 points and 6 rebounds per game and likely plays closer to the rim than his slightly taller compatriot.  The best shooter on the team is Freshman Guard Alibaba Odd (great name!) (6-2, 170).  He hits a cool 50% of his shots and 55.6% from downtown making him a leathal threat when he’s got the ball in his hands.  Luckily he’s a bench player – probably the 6-man – and doesn’t see the court for even a full half of every game.

The only other hot shooting hand on this team is Senior Guard Marcus Neal (6-5, 205).  He has the height to be a big matchup problem, and shoots 44.8% from three.  He’s also the leading scorer on the team with 14 points per game.  Look for David Lighty to be the man charged with defending Neal.

The last two guards are Junior Trevor Welcher (5-11, 160) and Sophomore Jay Threatt (5-11, 170).  Neither is a particularly good shooter, Welcher being the best with a 31% shooting percentage.  Threatt is the distributor on the team passing out 4 assists per game.  He also manages to score 7 points during his 33 minutes on the floor.  A lot of time, not a lot of production.

This should be another game to allow the team to gel after the loss of Evan Turner.  Lighty is starting to look more and more like the leader we all want him to be, and it’s allowing some of the others to loosen up and play their game.  PJ Hill is especially adding to his offensive game and it would be nice to see that continue tonight.  I would also like to see Buford be a more consistent weapon.  When he gets the ball, I want to feel like bad things are going to happen to the other team.  I felt that way the first couple of games, but ever since Madison Square Gardens, he’s sort of lost that evil guy mentality.  He needs to get it back in a big way, and hopefully that starts tonight.

The game will be played at 4:00pm on Saturday (December 19th) at Value City Arena.  You can catch the game on ESPNU.

* There isn’t a single website in the world that lists this date.  It’s as if this building has existed since the dawn of time.  Either that, or DSU fans care even less than I do.  That’s kinda sad.