Thad Matta has a young Ohio State basketball team sitting above .500 as Big Ten season nears its midway point.
The Buckeyes (13-8, 5-3 Big Ten) travel to Illinois Thursday for a 9 p.m. tipoff to mark the halfway point of the conference season. Ohio State topped the Fighting Illini, 75-73, Jan. 3.
Matta joined the voice of the Buckeyes, Paul Keels, for his weekly radio show Tuesday on 97.1 The Fan. Normally, the show is one day earlier but Ohio State hosted and beat Penn State 66-46 Monday.
Notes:
- "I thought we did a good job (Monday) of doing things that we needed to do to be ready to play," Matta said. "Protecting your home court, we got off to a pretty good start."
- Matta said he thinks the good start against Penn State was a result of his players getting after it more in practice in recent weeks.
- After a 15-point lead was cut to seven in the second half against Penn State, Matta recalled the hard practices of late with his team when he called a timeout: "I looked to the guys and said, 'We work this thing hard, now. I expect you to fight a little bit and reap the benefits of what you put in.'"
- Matta said this current part of the calendar in conference play is a grind on every team: "It's amazing, you look across not only the Big Ten but college basketball, the rigors of everybody's schedule. It's not always easy. There's no doubt about that. I think hopefully our team is continuing to go into the right direction and we see the improvement every time we take the court."
- Matta said he thinks the starting five is subject to change. He elected to start A.J. Harris and Daniel Giddens over JaQuan Lyle and Trevor Thompson Monday against Penn State. It was Harris' first career start, and the first start for Giddens since Dec. 1.
- "We don't do well outside our comfort zone," Matta said. "We need to get out of our comfort zone and get better. We need guys to learn to play through fatigue and play when things get tough."
- Matta said Ohio State isn't good enough to win games without every player showing up fully engaged and ready to play: "It's not just making shots. If the shots aren't falling, rebound the ball, get assists, play better defense. Whatever it is. To me that is a lot of just a simple mindset of 'I gotta get myself ready to compete.'"
- Asked about the sixth man in college basketball, Matta said he thinks Kam Williams is thriving in it. He said he told Williams recently he's done enough to start, but loves what he brings off the bench. Williams was fine with it: "He said, 'Coach, I want to come off the bench.' I think he's really embraced his role. Last night, he had some great looks that just did not go down. I kept telling him to shoot it. I love the energy that Kam is playing with right now."
- David Bell did not practice Tuesday due to an illness.
- Matta said a few years ago the team went over to the Ohio State Medical Center to test hand strength, among other things. He said Amir Williams measured to have the strongest hands: "I don't know what they did to test that with a squeeze or whatever, but he had a tendency to get the ball stripped from him as you know."
- Matta said he's excited for what the future holds with this young team.
- Matta said he doesn't think we've seen the full arsenal to Mickey Mitchell's game. Mitchell missed the first 10 games of the season due to an NCAA ineligibility issue.
- On bringing Lyle and Thompson off the bench: "My job is to get you to play your best basketball. It might not be that you like me all the time, but I think from the standpoint of, we always say to our guys that tough times make tough people. Whatever we gotta do to get these guys collectively better together."
- On Maryland, who Ohio State hosts Sunday at 1 p.m.: "They're obviously a great basketball team. one of the best in the country. It'll be another quick turnaround for us. We'll have to take a day off before that game per NCAA rules. So Saturday will be a big prep day for us."
- Asked about the Duquesne team that was stuck on a bus for 30 hours over the weekend due to bad weather in the northeast, Matta said "That would be an amazing experience ... That would be the extreme of (team bonding)."
