MVN - Most Valuable Network

Buckeyes Look For Two In A Row In Cleveland

THE Ohio State men’s basketball team heads north to Cleveland tonight, to play the Vikings of Cleveland State in a rare in-state road game.  Since 1970, the Buckeyes have only played 9 road games against in-state competition, and in those 9 games the Buckeyes have only won 2 of them.  Tonight’s game will be played at Quicken Loans Arena, home of the Cleveland Cavaliers, but essentially counts as a road game for Ohio State.  Even though the Buckeyes are listed as 12-point favorites, they should not sleep on Cleveland State who is already 7-3 on the year, with a big road victory over Florida State 69-66 in overtime on November 17th.

Both teams are coming off wins in which they shot the ball extremely well.  Ohio State blew out Presbyterian on Saturday afternoon while shooting 71.4-percent from the field – good for 2nd all-time in school history.  Meanwhile, Cleveland State shot 65-percent from the field in their win over Youngstown State, also on Saturday. 

Cleveland State is led by their junior play making guard Cedric Jackson – and he is a good one.  The 6-foot-2 190-pound guard leads the Vikings in points per game (17.9), assists per game (5.4) steals per game (3.1) and three-point field goal percentage (44.7).  Jackson can do it all, and is the heart and soul of this team.  He scored a season high 27 points in the win over Florida State.  The one flaw in Jackson’s game however, is that he will turn the rock over.  Although he leads the Horizon League in assists, he also leads the league in turnovers.  As a team, Cleveland State has struggled in that area – averaging 14.8 assists per game compared to 14.9 turnovers per game.  The Buckeyes will need to capitalize on the Vikings turnovers, because they will be given chances.

The best match-up of the game tonight will be the two point guards – Jackson vs. Jamar Butler.  Both players are the leaders of their teams, but their style of play is different.  Jackson is stronger at penetrating and dishing the ball, and sometimes struggles with the outside shot.  Butler excels at the perimeter game, and is not as strong with the drive and dish.  It will be an interesting clash of opposing styles, and the difference in this game could simply come down to which one out-plays the other.

An area of weakness so far this season for the Buckeyes has been rebounding.  Opponents have been getting too many second chance points from the offensive glass, and in their losses, the Buckeyes have been dominated in rebounding margin.  The Vikings love to hit the glass hard this season, and if Ohio State wants to win this game, rebounding must be a focus tonight.  Cleveland State is led inside by J’Nathan Bullock (6-4), Chris Moore (6-9), Kevin Francis (6-8) and George Tandy (6-8).  Together the foursome averages 25 rebounds per game.  It is interesting to note that none of them are over 6-foot-9, and the Vikings leading rebounder is the 6-foot-4 Bullock who pulls down 6.4 per game.  Kosta Koufos (7-1), Othello Hunter (6-9) and Matt Terwilliger (6-9) have the size advantage over the Vikings, but besides Hunter, the Buckeyes have consistently struggled with boxing out after the shot gets in the air which has led to many offensive rebounds.  Koufos, who has grabbed only 3 rebounds in the past 2 games, must become more aggressive in this area.  At 7-foot-1, there is no reason why he should not approach double-digit rebounds every game.  I look for Koufos to show the missing aggressiveness tonight and put up a double-double, and the other Buckeyes will follow suit and control the glass.

The Buckeye defense has been at times superb this season, and they will need another outstanding performance tonight.  Over the past 2 games, the Buckeyes have held their opponents to 20 points or less and under 40-percent field goal shooting in the first half.  They will need to duplicate those numbers tonight to get off to a fast start and demoralize the Vikings who will come out emotionally charged.  Both teams are coming off fantastic shooting performances in their last game, so which ever team can play stiff defense in the early going and cool off the other, will have a big time edge.  I look for the Buckeye zone to clamp down on Jackson and keep him out of the lane, forcing the Vikings into long jump shot situations.  Cleveland State is only hitting 29-percent of their threes, so forcing perimeter shots will be a focus for the Buckeyes defense. 

Ohio State must be more assertive on offense to get to the free throw line more often.  Coming into this game, the Buckeyes have only 139 free throws – good for 15 per game.  Too many times this season the Buckeyes have settled for non-aggressive perimeter passing and long jump shots.  David Lighty and P.J. Hill have shown to be the best penetrators with the ball, and their ability to drive the lane and draw defenders will be needed to free up Kofous and Hunter underneath the basket and get more free throw opportunities for this team.  On the other side, the Vikings get to the free throw line 19 times per game, because of Jackson’s dribble-drive skills.  It would be nice to see the Buckeyes drive the lane more often tonight to see if they can add another dimension to their half court offense.  If Ohio State can keep Jackson out of the lane, and get to the line more then Cleveland State, then the final score should be lopsided in the Buckeyes favor. 

This will not be an easy win tonight – the Buckeyes need to come in with the same killer instinct as they showed on Saturday.  As mentioned earlier, Cleveland State beat a good Florida State team already - the same Florida State team who handled Florida and gave the Gators their only loss of the season.  The Buckeyes welcome the Gators to Columbus this Saturday, and they cannot overlook the Vikings tonight.  If they do, they could easily drop to 2-8 on the road against in-state opponents.  If Butler can win the individual battle against Jackson…and the Buckeyes capitalize on the Vikings turnover problems…and Koufos leads the way in rebounding, then Ohio State should be able to cruise to a win in Cleveland. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 at 7:43 am and is filed under J'Nathan Bullock, Cedric Jackson, Chris Moore, George Tandy, Cleveland State basketball, Kevin Francis, David Lighty, Matt Terwilliger, Jamar Butler, Kosta Koufos, Quicken Loans Arena, PJ Hill, Othello Hunter, Ohio State Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.