Where: The Schott – Columbus, OH
When: 8:00pm EST
Records: OSU 10-2; Coppin State: 2-10
Opponent: Out of the mighty Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, Coppin State comes into The Schott to take on their third top-ten ranked opponent in the last seven days. These guys are gonna be ripe for another spanking after getting donkey punched 99-49 at #10 Alabama last Saturday followed up by a 84-41 thrashing at #9 UConn Wednesday. It’s worth noting that most MEAC teams have to schedule non-conference road games against teams from the power conferences as a way to fund their programs. Nine of Coppin State’s first 13 games will be on the road against teams from the Big Ten (2), ACC (1), SEC (2), Big 12 (3), and Big East (1). I guess that could help in recruiting of some players, but getting destroyed all the time would get old. Bottom line, these guys are way out of their league and face an OSU squad that is ready to unload on an inferior opponent after the shot to the ego suffered last Saturday in Gainesville.
Players: The stat sheet says they play 10 guys and guard Tywain McKee is clearly their best player. Tywain leads the team in points (17.8), rebounds (4.6), assists (3.0) and steals (2.2). Tywain. That’s a fresh name. No other Eagle averages double figures so I’m not going to bore you with their numbers. Click the 'Players' link if you are dying to know who their second leading scorer is. See. You don’t care either.
Notes: These guys are tiny – their tallest guys are 6’7" and were outrebounded against UConn 64-33...Coppin State has just one senior on the roster and he rarely plays.
Buckeye Breakdown: Ohio State is obviously going to be ready to play after the dismal performance at Florida and facing a team like Coppin State right before conference play is probably a good thing. Not that anyone with intelligence is putting a lot of stock in what happened last Saturday, but it will be good for the players to all have positive games to enhance the chances of clicking offensively versus Indiana Tuesday night.
Key Players: So far this year, Mike Conley Jr. has been our most consistent performer and comes in averaging 10 points, 6.5 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 2.8 steals per game. The guy simply does his job at both ends of the floor every night. Greg Oden will be looking to dominate in the 25 minutes he’ll play after being held to just 7 points and 7 rebounds as Florida’s bigs forced him further out from the basket than the lesser foes we’ve played. With Oden still unable to shoot with his right-hand, he was rarely in position to score when he received a post pass. Until the big man is able to shoot with his strong hand you can’t really criticize him too much as far as his offensive prowess is concerned. Against Florida, Jamar Butler reached double figures (11) for the first time in 9 games. I think it’s crucial that he build on that to establish himself as a guy who can deliver consistent scoring. This team has a bunch of guys who are capable of scoring but it lacks consistent production from most of those guys and Butler’s a guy who has proven he can be a consistent scorer in league play.
Notes: The Buckeyes dropped to #6 in both polls...The Dispatch ran a feel good story about walk-on’s Mark Titus and Danny Peters…I didn’t realize Titus played AAU ball with Oden, Conley, and Daequan Cook for five years…Next up: Indiana on Tuesday.
