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• Feb 22, 2012

  Big Ten tournament tix go on sale

  All-session and single-session tickets for the Big Ten men's basketball tournament March 8-11 in Indianapolis go on sale at 10 a.m. Monday on ticketmaster.com, by calling Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000, or at the box office at Bankers Life (formerly Conseco) Fieldhouse.

  All-session tickets are available for $240 or $175, depending on seat location. Single-session tickets range from $20 to $80, depending on the session and seat location. Orders will be limited to eight tickets.

  Here are single-session prices:

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  Posted by Bob Baptist on Feb 22, 2012 | 0 Comments

• Feb 22, 2012

  Michigan State game tips at 4

  Ohio State's final game of the regular season, March 4 at Michigan State, will start at 4 p.m. and be televised by CBS, the OSU athletic department announced today.

  The Buckeyes are 11-4 in Big Ten games and tied for second place with Michigan, one game behind Michigan State in the loss column. The Spartans (11-3) play tonight at Minnesota.

  If Ohio State and Michigan win their final three games, and Michigan State wins its next three and loses to the Buckeyes, it would create a three-way tie for the conference championship. All three would finish 14-4 and with 1-1 records against each other, meaning the tiebreaker for the No.1 seed in the Big Ten tournament would go to each team's record against the No.4 seed. If they were still tied, it would go to the No.5 seed, and on down the line until the tie is broken.

  The three teams' remaining games:

  Michigan State -- at Minnesota, Nebraska, at Indiana, Ohio State.
  Michigan -- Purdue, at Illinois, at Penn State.
  Ohio State -- Wisconsin, at Northwestern, at Michigan State.

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  Posted by Bob Baptist on Feb 22, 2012 | 0 Comments

• Feb 22, 2012

  Postgame: Illinois

  The difference in the Buckeyes' offense against Illinois?

  A lot of little things, coach Thad Matta said, including better screens and a faster pace that was evident from the first possession.

  "Those are things we have to continue to improve on," he said, "but I thought our spacing and, overall, the angles that we wanted for the drives, those types of things were much, much better tonight."

  Ohio State shot its second-best percentage (.653) of the season. The only game they shot better (.676) was in a 107-74 victory over Virginia Military Institute in November.

  Did the Buckeyes get themselves better shots than they had recently, or just shoot better?

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  Posted by Bob Baptist on Feb 22, 2012 | 0 Comments

• Feb 21, 2012

  Buckeyes jump on Illinois

  By Bob Baptist

  THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

  After watching his team struggle to make baskets in losing two of three games, coach Thad Matta said he wanted to see his players get “more into attack mode” on offense.

  The Buckeyes were into it from the jump tonight, and Illinois was the road kill.

  Eighth-ranked Ohio State rebounded decisively from its loss at Michigan on Saturday by making 11 of its first 12 shots from the field, building a 20-point lead in the first 10 minutes and cruising to an 83-67 victory in Value City Arena.

  Ohio State shot 65.3 percent from the field, making 32 of 49 shots, including seven of 13 from three-point range. The Buckeyes had shot 44 percent or lower in five of their past six games. It was their second-best field goal percentage of the season.

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  Posted by Bob Baptist on Feb 21, 2012 | 0 Comments

• Feb 21, 2012

  Crunching numbers on shots

  While catching up on stats before the game tonight, I decided to break down some shooting percentages for the Buckeyes, given that that seems to be their biggest problem at the moment.

  What the numbers suggest bears out what was obvious when the schedule came out before the season: beginning with the home game against Michigan on Jan. 29, the stretch run was going to challenging. So it has been.

  Here's how the numbers compare for three different spans of the season: the first 13 games, all nonconference; the first eight Big Ten games alone; and the past six conference games, beginning with the home game against Michigan:

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  Posted by Bob Baptist on Feb 21, 2012 | 1 Comments

• Feb 19, 2012

  Postgame: Michigan

  I had one question I wanted to ask coach Thad Matta more than any other after the loss at Michigan. It went something like this:

  Your team is 27 games into the season. It has made fewer than a third of its three-point shots. Yet, in some games -- such as tonight's -- it continues to shoot them rather than look for better options closer to the basket. Is there a point where your guys should think twice about taking threes and try to get something better?

  "No doubt about that," Matta replied.

  But he also pointed out that when the Buckeyes did try to go inside for closer looks, "what did we charge, five times?

  "I thought the looks, especially in the first half, were really good looks."

  Me: "But you're not making those good looks. When do you get to the point you tell them to get good looks closer to the basket?"

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  Posted by Bob Baptist on Feb 19, 2012 | 8 Comments

• Feb 19, 2012

  Buckeyes fall at Michigan

  By Bob Baptist

  THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

  ANN ARBOR, Mich. _ Ohio State’s long-range shooting cost it again. Whether it causes the Buckeyes to reassess what a good shot is for them, that is a question that won’t be answered for at least another game.

  The sixth-ranked Buckeyes fell behind Michigan in the first half after they fell in love with the three-point shot last night, and they never caught up, falling 56-51 in the Crisler Center and into a second-place tie with the Wolverines in the Big Ten standings.

  “You’re hoping at some point the dam breaks and you’re able to get something going,” Ohio State coach Thad Matta said.

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  Posted by Bob Baptist on Feb 19, 2012 | 4 Comments

• Feb 17, 2012

  Matta, Sully on Ross' tweet

  Coach Thad Matta said today he was "shocked" by LaQuinton Ross' angry post on Twitter after not playing in the game at Minnesota on Tuesday night, but he added that Ross came to him to apologize before Matta heard about it otherwise.

  "He came to see me when I got done with (my postgame interview)," Matta said. "He said, 'Hey, I think I made a mistake.' I’m like, 'I’ve only been gone for 10 minutes. What happened?' He told me what he did and said he was going to issue an apology."

  Ross, a freshman guard who did not become eligible until December, was one of three players not to play in Ohio State's win. Matta used his bench more than in most games, playing 10 players in the first half alone.

  Afterward, Ross tweeted, "Don't know how much longer I can take this BULL----!!!!!"

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  Posted by Bob Baptist on Feb 17, 2012 | 5 Comments

• Feb 16, 2012

  Field for 2012 Hall of Fame Tip-Off

  The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has officially announced the field of teams and brackets for its 2012 Tip-Off tournament, which will include Ohio State. The Buckeyes will play four games in the event, two on campus before playing two Nov. 16 and 18 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.

  The eight-team tournament will include brackets for major and non-major programs. Ohio State will play two home games against teams from the non-major bracket -- Loyola (Md.), Norfolk State, Albany and Missouri-Kansas City -- followed by two games in Connecticut against teams from its major bracket: Seton Hall, Rhode Island and Washington. The specific matchups will be announced later.

  The four major teams will square off in semifinals Nov. 16. Winners and losers will face each other Nov. 18 in championship and consolation games.

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  Posted by Bob Baptist on Feb 16, 2012 | 0 Comments

• Feb 15, 2012

  Postgame: Minnesota

  The postgame was a quick one tonight. Got a few quick quotes from the players outside the locker room, a few more from coach Thad Matta, and slammed everything together  in about 20 minutes to make my deadline.

  The Buckeyes were in a hurry, too. They didn't land in Columbus until about 2:30 a.m. and have classes this morning. As Amir Williams tweeted after their chartered jet landed: "Won't be back to my room til like 3 or 3:30. And I have a 8:30 tutor? Not lookin too good."

  Here's some of what didn't make it into my story:

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  Posted by Bob Baptist on Feb 15, 2012 | 2 Comments

• Feb 13, 2012

  Buckeyes' ball-screen defense

  A reader passed along Mark Titus' latest post on grantland.com, which was filed before the Buckeyes' loss to Michigan State on Saturday but after their top-ranked defense was torched by Purdue last Tuesday.

  In it, the former Ohio State walk-on pinpointed the main reason the Buckeyes gave up 84 points to the Boilermakers -- because they are "atrocious at defending ball screens."

  Last week wasn't the first time this was apparent. Ball-screen defense cost them at Wisconsin last season.

  But Titus explained why the Buckeyes have so much trouble defending them: miscommunication. He said coach Thad Matta likes to change up how he defends them from game to game to keep opponents guessing, but that the players sometimes "forget what they're supposed to do" from one game to the next, and when they do, "Tuesday night happens."

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  Posted by Bob Baptist on Feb 13, 2012 | 2 Comments

• Feb 12, 2012

  Postgame: Michigan State

  First, the lowlights. Then again, there weren't any highlights against Michigan State, save for maybe a defensive effort that coach Thad Matta said would have been good enough to win had the Buckeyes shot better:
  
  - The 48 points by the Buckeyes were their fewest in a game since a 65-43 loss at Wisconsin on New Year's Eve 2009. That's also the last time they made as few as 14 field goals in a game.

  Their point total was their lowest in a home game since a 76-48 loss to West Virginia on Dec. 27, 2008. The last time they made fewer than 14 field goals at home was in 1997, when they had 13 in a 67-49 loss to South Florida in St. John Arena. So last night was a record low for Value City Arena, which opened in 1998.

  
  
  - The Buckeyes' .264

  field goal percentage was their lowest since they shot .246 against Texas A&M in a 70-47 loss to the Aggies in the 2007 NIT Season Tip-off in Madison Square Garden in New York. They also had 14 field goals in that game.

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  Posted by Bob Baptist on Feb 12, 2012 | 6 Comments