Van Wijk: From Barcelona to Small Town, USA.
 #3 Ohio State 5-0, 0-0 Big Ten Roster | Schedule |
November 25, 2011 6:30 PM ET - BTN —— The Schott Columbus, OH |
 Valparaiso 5-1, 0-0 Horizon Roster | Schedule |
Tonight Ohio State finishes up a run of 3 games in 5 days as they welcome the Valparaiso Crusaders to town. Valparaiso is a tiny (by comparison to OSU) college located in a town of the same name near the Northwest corner of Indiana. It is the largest independent Lutheran university in the United States, but only a little over 4000 students attend there.
Waiting in the wings for the Buckeyes on Tuesday night is a date with the newly crowned champions of the Maui Invitational, Duke. So you can forgive OSU if their focus is not primarily on the Crusaders tonight. As with the previous three games, this game should be viewed as a sort of pre-season game, an opportunity to tune up the starters and get the reserves some work before the real season begins.
After successfully dealing with the run-and-gun attack of VMI on Wednesday, the Buckeyes will be facing a more conventional team tonight, complete with a pair of players capable of scoring inside. OSU's big men will need to do more than just defend the perimeter tonight, but they will have a size advantage on the Crusaders' big men and should look to exploit that.
| # | Name | PTS | REB | ASST | POS | # | Name | PTS | REB | ASST |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Aaron Craft | 8.0 | 3.0 | 5.0 | G | 15 | Erik Buggs | 5.8 | 2.3 | 2.0 |
| 32 | Lenzelle Smith Jr. | 5.8 | 4.8 | 2.6 | G | 21 | Will Bogan | 7.2 | 1.8 | 2.0 |
| 44 | William Buford | 16.2 | 4.0 | 3.6 | F | 23 | Matt Kenney | 9.2 | 5.2 | 2.2 |
| 1 | Deshaun Thomas | 12.4 | 4.0 | 0.6 | F | 45 | Ryan Broekhoff | 15.5 | 9.0 | 2.7 |
| 0 | Jared Sullinger | 19.8 | 10.2 | 1.2 | C | 55 | Kevin Van Wijk | 17.8 | 8.6 | 0.4 |
Opponent
Valparaiso plays in the Horizon League, which is notable since their tournament champion last year went all the way to the NCAA Tournament final before losing to Connecticut. I'm speaking of the Butler Bulldogs, who defeated #1 seed Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the Horizon Tournament final. Last season Valparaiso went 12-6 in the Horizon, but lost to Milwaukee in the tournament semi-finals.
The Crusaders opened the 2011-2012 season with a loss on the road against the #16 Arizona Wildcats, but they were competitive for most of the game. Since then, they have rattled off 5 straight victories and are looking more and more like the most likely candidate to knock Butler off their perch as perpetual Horizon League champs. Leading scorer Kevin Van Wijk last week was named the league's Player of the Week after Valpo went 3-0 in the 2k Sports Coaches vs. Cancer Classic subregional.
Van Wijk is a 22-year old native of Holland who played in European junior leagues before spending a year playing for a Post Graduate program at the Canarias Basketball Academy in the Canary Islands. He led all players in the Spanish Junior Championships in 2007 with an average of 13 points per game. Van Wijk came to Valpo as a freshman last season and played in 34 games, averaging just over 5 points per game. But he has stepped up both his scoring and rebounding tremendously this season.
Valparaiso will need the increased production from Van Wijk as they lost over 40% of their scoring from last season. Starters Cory Johnson, Howard Little, and Brandon Wood have departed, along with some key reserves. However, they are bolstered by the return of starting forward Ryan Broekhoff and starting PG Erik Buggs. They are also getting significant contributions from reserves like junior forward Richie Edwards (13.7 PPG, 4.7 RPG) and sophomore guard Jay Harris (11.2 PPG, 3.6 APG).
The Crusaders tend to go inside a lot, but they will also attempt their share of 3-pointers. However, only Harris has had any kind of success from beyond the arc, and so I would not expect to see a barrage of threes attempted against the Buckeyes. You can probably expect Valpo to slow it down and work for a good shot while relying on their bigs to shoulder much of the scoring burden.
Buckeye Breakdown:
Ohio State took a turn in the wrong direction with free-throw shooting on Wednesday, making only 10 of 17 from the stripe. While most of that can be traced back to reserves, I expect to see Evan Ravenel play significant minutes throughout the season and I'd like to see J.D. Weatherspoon get more time as well, and so their collective 0-3 shows a need for improvement. Still, I'm pleased with what I have seen from Ravenel this season. He's much more nimble in the post than I imagined, and so teams will have to respect him down low.
Buford: Stepping up his production.No one benefits more from a good low post game than Will Buford, as the focus on Sullinger et al will create space for the senior G-F to get open looks. Buford had an excellent game against VMI, but he will not often face a team that pushes tempo as much as the Keydets, with the accompanying sloppiness on transition defense.
Buford was 10/16 from the floor on Wednesday, including 2/2 from beyond the arc. This is an encouraging sign for those of us who have been waiting for him to shake off his poor performance against Kentucky in the NCAA's last season and really start to light it up from distance. He is still only 6/16 from distance for the season, but perhaps his confidence is back and that will really help the scoring balance as OSU moves into Big Ten play.
Buford wasn't the only Buckeye to improve his 3-point shooting against VMI; Deshaun Thomas shot 3/4 from beyond the arc to improve his season total to 5/15. In general, Thomas seemed to be a bit more patient on Wednesday and allowed the game to come to him. Overall, the Buckeyes had a sizzling night from the field and hopefully that will build confidence as they head into the difficult part of the non-conference schedule.
If the hot shooting continues, I expect that OSU will build a big lead quickly and Valpo will struggle to keep up. On the other hand, the Crusaders will probably play much better defense than VMI, and if the Buckeyes are a little flat at the start it could get interesting. Valpo's tempo will limit Ohio State's offensive possessions and so making the most of each one will be the key to staving off an upset bid.
Etc
- The game vs. VMI was the 72nd time in Ohio State history the Buckeyes have scored more than 100 points and 52nd time at home. OSU is 71-1 in those games, including a perfect 52-0 at home.
- As a ranked team Ohio State is 400-108 overall and when ranked in the AP Top 10, the Buckeyes are 279-59.
- William Buford needs 13 points to move past Evan Turner for 16th all-time and 25 to pass Tony Campbell.
