On paper, Ohio State came into this season with one of the youngest and most intriguing rosters in the Big Ten. On one hand, the Buckeyes have a great coach in Thad Matta and plenty of talent on the team; on the other hand, they have one upperclassmen who has played significant minutes and plenty of questions about how all the new pieces will mesh together. On Sunday afternoon Ohio State won its lid lifter in disposing of Mount St. Marys by a score of 76-54. They held the Mountaineers to 33.3 percent shooting from the floor and won the battle of the boards by a hefty 50-22 margin. Turnovers and defensive lapses, however, show that while parts of this win were impressive, Matta’s team still has a lot of work to do.
Jae’Sean Tate led Ohio State with 21 points in their season-opening win over Mt. St. Mary’s. (Dispatch Photo by Barbara J. Perenic)
Trotting out a lineup no player shorter than 6’4″, this game was a physical mismatch. As a result, the Buckeyes shot 22-for-38 in the paint and snagged 44.8 percent of the available offensive rebounds. Junior Marc Loving and freshman Daniel Giddens were the ringleaders here, combining for nine offensive caroms by themselves. Offensively, Jae’sean Tate scored a game-high 21 points in a much more diverse way than he did a year ago, and Keita Bates-Diop notched a double-double with ten points and ten rebounds. Despite not scoring with great frequency, the latter showed enough versatility to do a little bit of everything down the line. Lastly, JaQuan Lyle was able to seemingly get into the lane at will. At 6’5″ and 230 pounds, he will be a physical nightmare for opposing point guards.
Ohio State’s turnovers and defensive lapses made this game much closer than it should have been. Lyle and Loving accounted for five miscues apiece, and it probably stemmed from a combination of carelessness, nerves, and a lack of cohesion due to inexperience playing together. A mistimed pass or lack of communication now might lead to a wide-open layup against Wisconsin in January after this unit gets the repetition playing with each other it needs. The defensive lapses, however, were considerably more troubling. The Buckeyes have the tools to become a nightmarish defensive team, but you could sense that they weren’t all on the same page in their man-to-man schemes. The visitors cut the deficit to 13 points with a little more than five minutes left in the second half, turning Ohio State over with its press and capitalizing on open looks that were way too easy to find.
Thad Matta’s group is talented, young, and, after one game, still no easier to figure out in terms of the B1G hierarchy. Ohio State fans have to feel both good about the opening effort in that some key players showed what they can do, but at the same time be a little concerned about the various things that will need to be cleaned up.