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| The young talent needs Sullinger |
Well, that sucked. The dream, as unrealistic as it may have been, of an undefeated basketball season has come to a crashing end. The Buckeyes lost to mighty Kansas. To preface my article, I want to give a disclaimer. I have always been a Kansas Jayhawk fan, back to the Larry Brown days. I grew up going to a camp with a larger KU contingent as counselors (not a basketball camp), and they trained me in the art of Rock Chalk Jayhawk.
One of my coolest basketball moments was going to an NCAA tournament game at the United Center in Chicago, and watch KU knock off Kentucky, it was pretty cool hearing the Rock Chalk Jayhawk cheer reverberate through the rafters. I also respect the fact the Kansas fans are smart enough not to chant the pathetic overrated cheer, they know that it makes them look better to beat a great team, and they are aware that OSU was not at their best without Sullinger.
One more thing I see Kansas basketball as a similar entity to OSU football. They are traditionally a great team, with a great history, who often times fall just short of winning National Championships (see their 13 trips to the Final 4, with only 3 titles, not counting their pre-tournament titles in the 1920s). So there we go, I am done singing the praises of my 2nd favorite college basketball team. Yep, as much as I have cheered for them, I will never pick or root for any team including Kansas over The Ohio State University.
The game showed me some things about OSU. First of all no matter who is on the floor, OSU is a damn good team. They can compete with almost anyone. Aaron Craft is just a man. There is not a better defender in the B1G if not the entire country. He is as good a point guard as I have seen in a long time (though he could work on that jump shot). He put in 11 points in 38 minutes, and I love his slashing to the basket, but he was only 1-3 from the arc. The three point shot is a shot the Buckeyes as a whole, not just Craft need to work on. As a team the Buckeyes were 5 of 17 from three. While stats like that can get us wins against the likes of South Carolina Upstate or even VMI, we will need better performances like our 8 or 14 against Duke to beat teams like Wisconsin, MSU, or apparently the upstart Indiana Hoosiers.
I can also tell you that Deshaun Thomas and William Buford are good players, probably All-B1G performers, but they are streaky, really streaky. Thomas was great in the first half, and Buford was almost invisible, then they flipped that in the second half. Buford turned it on, and where did Thomas go? I believe if the two of them played with their upside the entire game, OSU would have beaten Kansas. I also saw that our normally stout defense had trouble rotating to the open shooter. Kansas had way to many open looks at the hoops. It looked like we were doubling down on players and not rotating quick enough to the open player. That again is something that needs to be worked on (that is the opinion of this middle school basketball coach). I also noticed that while Ravenel and Williams are good players, they are not Jared Sullinger. Losing Sully is huge.
The Buckeyes offense runs through Jared Sullinger. He either dominates off of Craft passes in the post, or he has the skill to kick the ball out to an open shooter. We didn’t have him down low controlling the offense or playing shut down interior d. Kansas showed no fear of the OSU inside game, and they exploited this weakness. I have no doubt that giving Ravenel and Williams more playing time in Sully’s absence will strengthen their game, but it is not the best for the Buckeyes right now. We need a healthy Sullinger. Teams that make deep runs in March have a strong level of chemistry built up throughout the season, and if one of your stars goes down that hurts team chemistry. I love the fact that Sully was on the bench cheering for his teammates, but I would rather have him on the floor in uniform playing.
Now I am not sure when this will happen. There were soft rumors he would be back for Kansas, nope. Now we are on to USC Upstate. Is this the game he comes back for, maybe in limited minutes to get his touch back? No one seems to know (as of the writing of this article). Maybe he will return the when they play at South Carolina (it is always nice beating an SEC team, I don’t care the sport). I, along with all of the media are in the dark right now. So let’s just sit back and see what happens next. Go Bucks and maybe just maybe we will have a chance to rematch with KU in March, with a full and healthy Jared Sullinger.
