Buford, Turner and Company Rally, Beat _ichigan
Thad Matta hates his bench, or so I’m inferring, but the point distribution from this game is still amusing. Buford led all scorers with 24, going 9/15 from the field. Much of his points came at opportune times, either during a mini-run from Michigan or were baseline three pointers aimed at breaking the spirit of the Wolvereenies. Therein, he was a perfect three for three from behind the line. He also crashed the boards, tallying nine and adding four assists to boot. Evan Turner put up the aggregate numbers that will buttress his claim for the Naismith Award. He even played admirably in light of acquiring 3 fouls early in the second half, for which he took only a 44 second breather before a TV timeout. This was our lone introduction to PJ Hill. Nevertheless, he finished with 18 points (8/11 shooting), 11 rebounds and seven assists. He was three assists and two turnovers away from a quadruple Turner double. His four blocks amounted to a career high. Lastly, Dallas Lauderdale played strong around the rim. He had a career high 14 points off 7/9 shooting. One of the better sights in Buckeye shooty hoops has been how well Turner and Lauderdale have been able to interact with each other on the court. Lauderdale is not exactly the guy you give the ball to on a post-entry pass and expect for him to do his thing. At best, he’s active on the offensive side of the ball and Turner has done a great job at drawing his defender away and feeding the ball to Lauderdale for easy baskets.
Combined, Buford, Turner and Lauderdale accounted for 56 of the Buckeyes’ 66 points for the game.
There’s probably some hesitation about the team going forward. The Wolvereenies made shots in the first half that they were not able to do in the second half, including a paltry seven minute field goal-less stretch, broken only in the final minute and with the result certain. However, the active defense played _ichigan resulted in numerous turnovers on which the visitors capitalized. The Buckeyes seemed to struggle here, looked lethargic and invited questions about just how taxing a 5.5 man rotation is on the starters entering March.
The Buckeyes finish the regular season at home with Illinois on March 2nd. You are instructed to go to that game if you live in Columbus. As it stands, the Buckeyes are .5 behind Purdue and need the Boilermakers to drop a game if the Buckeyes are to claim any part of the Big Ten championship. Again, the most likely candidate is tomorrow, as the Hummel-less Boilermakers play host to Michigan State. Purdue finishes with Indiana and Penn State, not exactly difficult games.
Good wrap, Vico. A few things this afternoon.
First, I was hoping, since it was _ichigan, for another Buford “junk-grab”, just to let them know what we think of them.
When we got lazy/passive with our 1st half defense, I think _ichigan was able to run their halfcourt plays, and get some good, unhurries looks; which they made. I liked when we ramped up the defensive pressure, it seemed to throw The Other Team off their game a bit.
In addition to lack of any bench strength, I think the other thing that may hurt us in the NCAA’s is lack of a true point guard. As much as I think that Turner is the best player in the conference and possibly the best in the country, I think his natural postion is a wingman, where he can slash & dash.
We definitely will need to get a run in the tourney! But I expect the Big Ten to do well as a whole in the tourney! The Big Ten is a shooter’s conference. And Shooter’s conference teams do well in the tournament!!!!
in the espn article on the game.it says turner is hinting about coming back for his senior year despite being a top 5 pick because like cam hayward just really enjoys college and would like to make a title run. i think if him and buford stay with our freshman coming in we’d be preseason number1 easy, win the big ten easy. final four at worst. ahhhh to dream! but thatd be sweeet
Turner wants to come back I think if he feels they can win a title. Not saying he will, but maybe, we can hope.
It was a great game, just for the fact we won. I love watching scUM lose.
Honestly see no reason for ET to come back. Good chance he’ll either end up with the Nets (billionaire owner), Jazz (good core) or Minny (Rubio). Has a bright NBA future.