I wanted to take a ludicrously early look at next year’s team and make some guesses as to what the lineup might look like. You might think that this coming year will be easy to predict, but with only two Point Guards on the team, and both freshmen, things may not be so clear. I’m going to start the several part discussion with the players we know well, then tomorrow discuss the new blood and finally on friday take a shot at what the depth chart might look like at the start of the season.
David Lighty (6-5, 225, SF, Senior)
I’ll keep this discussion in seniority order, meaning that the last of the Thad Five gets to go first. It’s hard to imagine that David Lighty has been here for 5 years, and that all of his classmates were gone long ago. Hell, it almost feels like he’s been here forever – certainly not a bad thing. Lighty has been a consistent presence on the team and has been the defacto team leader since his junior year. His leadership that year was readily apparent when he broke his left foot and was forced to sit out the remainder of the season. The Buckeyes struggled the rest of the way without him and were forced to grow into new roles that helped the 2009 version of the team excel.
Speaking of that break, it was recently reported that Lighty again broke that left foot during spring practices. The recuperation from the surgery to repair the break is expected to take about 12 weeks, which should leave plenty of time for him to bounce back before fall practices begin.
Lighty has been and almost certainly will be a Small Forward. He plays very well in his role and has, on infrequent occasion, exploded on the score boards to the tune of 30 points. Those sorts of games need to be more the rule and less the exception if he wants to take his game to the next level. I think he’s poised to have a very solid year for the Buckeyes.
Jon Diebler (6-6, 210, SG, Senior)
We all know “Threebler” quite well. The three point shooting master had some rough going in his time in the scarlet and gray through his first couple seasons, but he really took strides in this last season in building his confidence. Shooting is all confidence so you can expect Diebler to be even more lethal next year from beyond the arc.
One key component to making Diebler a consistent scoring threat will be how hard he works in the offseason working on his dribble drive and lane penetration. He showed flashes during the season of developing that sort of skill set which began to force defenders to back off him a tad and opened up his three point shooting. Unfortunately, the instances of it were few and far between which allowed good defensive teams to shut him down.
There is only one position that makes sense for Diebler – at the 2 slot. With a decent dribble drive, he could make a potent 3-guy, but he’s played the 2 for three years and will likely play the 2 in the NBA so there’s little sense in changing him around.
Dallas Lauderdale (6-8, 260, PF/C, Senior)
Towards the end of last season, we began to see a glimpse of what Lauderdale could become when he understood his role in the offense. To that point Lauderdale had been nothing more than a Shot-blocking, (inconsistent) rebounding role-player who could score a couple of points a game. Suddenly, however, the Buckeyes were finding ways of getting him the ball so that he could score and make a significant impact on the score board. A couple of 10 point games later and the entire perception of Lauderdale as a player changed.
I’ve long thought that the reason Lauderdale struggles so much in scoring and rebounding is because he fits more naturally at the 4 rather than the 5. He’d play significantly better in a role similar to Othello Hunter did in his first season playing both PF in support of Greg Oden, and C when Oden was resting. Lauderdale is a capable 5, but it’s not his strongest position. Given a couple years of experience in the spot, though, Lauderdale may be redefining his role.
William Buford (6-5, 200, G, Junior)
Buford is the clear heir-apparent to the mantle of “Team Star”. He has shown flashes of brilliance and more in his 2 seasons under Matta and looks to take a big step towards becoming a consistent and powerful threat shooting the ball. He has the sweetest shooting stroke on the team and simply makes shooting look easy and natural, no matter how challenging the shot.
He’s not as natural of a ball-handler as Evan Turner was (this is absolutely not a knock on Buford – I’ve seen very few college ball-handlers look as natural as Turner) so it’s doubtful that we will see him get plugged into the 1 position. That said, it’s possible given the youth at that position. Keep in mind that Matta’s philosophy depends more on getting the best talent on the floor as much as possible and less on sticking to the traditional PG, SG, SF, PF, C concepts. If Buford can learn to dictate the offense and can bring the ball up the floor effectively we may see him in the 1. He’s a more natural 2/3 guy, though, and it seems likely that he will find his place there during the season.
Nikola Kecman (6-8, 225, PF, Junior)
Those of you who followed the Buckeye Battle Cry through the 2009-2010 season know that I have a strong liking for Mr. Kecman as a player. Nikola did not get many opportunities to see the floor during the season, playing almost exclusively in mop-up duty with “Big Z” Sarikopoulos, Mark “The Shark” Titus, Eddie Days and Danny Peters. In those times, however, the 6-8 forward showed an ability to shoot the long-ball and really challenge the defense with his size and versatility. There’s a chance we may get to see more of Kecman this season, depending on how fast the younger players develop into Matta’s system.
There’s no question in my mind that Kecman should play the 4 spot. With his shooting range and height he will give opposing defenses a headache and open up passing lanes into the paint for the big guys.
Zisis Sarikopoulos (7-0, 265, C, Junior)
Big Z is the heir to the title of “Buckeye 7-footer” following in the footsteps of Oden, Koufos and Mullens. Unfortunately, he hasn’t yet grown to fill the shoes of those players yet, having only played in mop-up duty thus far. Interestingly, each of the Buckeye’s 7-footers have become progressively less of an impact on the team. Oden was a massive impact. Koufos started and played reasonably well despite being a “Black Hole” (ball goes in, and never comes out). Mullens was a bench player behind Lauderdale who played decent minutes, and finally Big Z mostly rode the pine. It leaves one to wonder if Matta is deciding that the 7-footer just isn’t his style, what with the continuous play of the 6-8 Lauderdale and the recruitment of 6-9 Jared Sullinger to play Center.
It’s also possible that Sarikopoulos just needs more time in the program before becoming an effective player, much like Kecman. We’ll just have to wait and see if he makes a significant impact sometime in the future.
Eddie Days (6-0, 180, G, Senior)
Days was the player that almost no-one knew about from last season. Eddie participated in walk-on tryouts last fall and managed to make the team in October after already spending 3 years at Ohio State as your typical, everyday student. He played nothing more than mop up duty in 4 games and compiled almost no stats in his grand total 7 minutes of play. The likelihood of Eddie seeing the court much this year is probably still low, which probably plays into his plans a little bit as it seems he wants to go into the coaching profession.
Maybe he’ll be the next voice from the OSU Bench? You never know!
Tomorrow I’ll take a look at that ridiculous recruiting class Matta pulled in. There are some pretty good looking players on that list, and there is more than a little to get excited about for next season.
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