After making Ohio State fans feel like they were suffering from cardiomyopathy on Monday night when they gave up 102 points on their home floor, the Buckeye men’s basketball team came out on Friday night and looked much better on that end, giving some credence to the notion that IU Indy’s style of play and breakneck pace may have just been an outlier.
After hitting their first eight shots of the game on Monday, Ohio State came out and 10 of their first 12 against the Mastodons, jumping out to a double-digit
lead in under three minutes of play. The two-man game of point guard Bruce Thornton and seven-foot, pseudo point guard Christoph Tilly was getting it done early, with the pair scoring 16 of the Buckeyes’ first 24 points.
Aided by a 7-0 Bruce Thornton run at the end of the half, Ohio State took a 45-30 lead into the locker room. The Mastodons took advantage of several Ohio State turnovers in the second half to cut the lead to single-digits five minutes into the second half, 55-46, and that 10-point mark felt like a barrier Ohio State couldn’t pass for some time. However, a three-pointer from Mobley with 7:30 remaining pushed the lead out to 75-57, and that was all she wrote from there.
Bruce Thornton set a new career-high with 38 points on Friday night, moving past Jon Diebler and Evan Turner into 15th-place on the all-time program scoring leaderboard, as the Buckeyes bounced the Mastodons, 94-68.
The main thing I was looking out for during Friday’s game were defensive rotations, contesting shots cleanly, and getting back down the floor after made baskets. Ohio State was not great defensively, but it did feel like they made some progress towards becoming the team they need to be if they want to make the NCAA Tournament.
While it wasn’t the slaughter that some may have hoped for, Ohio State looked much more well-rounded on Friday night, somewhat assuaging concerns about the Buckeyes’ defense. After giving up 50 first-half points on Monday, Ohio State held PFW to 30 points in the first half on Friday night. Thornton, Gabe Cupps, and A’mare Bynum stood out in particular making impressive individual defensive plays, but as a team Ohio State was quicker to the ball, rotating on time, and forcing Purdue Fort Wayne to take tough shots.
Percentage-wise, PFW shot a very respectable 40% in the first half, but they also turned the ball over on nine of their 36 first-half possessions, which meant they took fewer shots than they could have. Because of this, the Mastodons only scored 30 points in their 36 first-half possessions, which calculates out to .83 points per possession. As a reference point, the very worst team in college basketball last year, Mississippi Valley State, averaged .83 points per possession last season.
Cupps once again looked like a player whom Diebler can pull of the bench at any time and know he’s going to get handsy, aggressive defense for as long as he’s in the game. Cupps definitely blurs the line between clean, aggressive defense and reach-in fouls at times, but as a coach Diebler would much rather have that than a player who’s afraid to get right up in the grill of the ball handler. If there’s one thing that’s true about Cupps, he’s not afraid to do that.
Freshman forward A’mare Bynum had an impressive defensive play late in the first half as well, guarding PFW’s Ebrahim Kaba. Kaba, who stands 6-foot-9 and 215 pounds, had the ball in the corner of the floor opposite the Ohio State bench. At first, he looked like he wanted to shoot the ball, but Bynum closed the gap too quickly, and Kaba knew the shot would’ve been blocked. Bynum lifted his arms up, putting a wall in front of Kaba and using the sidelines to help trap him. Kaba pivoted several times trying to find space to pass the ball but was unable, and ended up stepping on the sideline while doing his pivot-dance. Bynum hasn’t looked super comfortable thus far, but that felt like a good moment for the freshman.
Unrelated to the defensive side of the ball, Ohio State has committed far too many turnovers through two games (they had 19 on Friday after committing 17 on Monday). Mobley and Tilly were the main culprits on Friday night, with Mobley’s four giving him a whopping nine through two games. Either Mobley has to clean it up, or Ohio State will need to get creative about making sure the ball is in Thornton’s hands more often, and squash the “Bruce off the ball” thing that the coaching staff is trying to incorporate this season.
Ohio State probably grades out as a “C” or a “C+” defensively on Friday, but it felt like a step in the right direction after the offensive marathon we saw in the season opener.
Comparing defensive stats from game 1 to game 2:
Here’s a side-by-side of some team statistics from Ohio State’s game against IU Indy vs the same statistics from Friday night’s game against Purdue Fort Wayne:
IU Indy points scored: 102
Purdue Fort Wayne points scored: 68
IU Indy FG% : 50%
Purdue Fort Wayne FG%: 44.1%
IU Indy points per possession: 1.24
Purdue Fort Wayne points per possession: 0.97
IU Indy offensive rebounds: 12
Purdue Fort Wayne offensive rebounds: 7
IU Indy turnovers: 13
Purdue Fort Wayne turnovers: 13
