Thad Matta's Ohio State Buckeyes ride a two-game winning streak into Tuesday night's home game against the Michigan Wolverines. Victories against Northwestern and at lowly Rutgers last week pushed Ohio State's record to 16-10 overall and 8-5 in Big Ten play.
The Buckeyes still do not have a win against a team ahead of them in the conference standings. They yet again have a chance to change that Tuesday against Michigan (19-7, 9-4), on a night 2010 National Player of the Year Evan Turner's No. 21 is scheduled to get raised in the rafters.
Matta joined Paul Keels and Ron Stokes on 97.1 The Fan Monday for his weekly radio show.
Notes:
- Matta said he was disappointed in his team's lack of execution late in the game at Rutgers, especially in the fact that it turned the ball over 19 times: "Especially down the stretch, I was not pleased ... Those are things that we've gotta clean up."
- Matta mentioned Jae'Sean Tate, Keita Bates-Diop and especially Kam Williams found out what they needed to do in order to get Ohio State a victory against the Scarlet Knights. The trio combined for 65 of the team's 79 points.
- More on Williams: "I've been really pleased with how he's playing, but even in games where he isn't hitting he's really stayed with it on defense."
- Asked by a listener about Ohio State's next five games being against teams it hasn't played yet this season, Matta said he isn't sure if there is an advantage to that: "I've never thought about that."
- On Bates-Diop's performance Saturday, Matta said he was pleased with how he had great lift on his shot and played a consistent all-around game: "He just played a solid basketball game."
- Matta mentioned how he loves Bates-Diop's length at the top of Ohio State's 1-2-2 press and said he and the staff have enjoyed watching how he's grown defensively.
- Matta said he thinks when his team is "really dialed in" defensively it is one of the best at it in the country. The Buckeyes are ranked in the top-20 of defensive efficiency: "That's remarkable with a young team."
- Tate's rebounding led to his scoring output Saturday, Matta said.
- On Marc Loving's recent struggles, Matta said he is hoping the Rutgers game was just "one of those games where he didn't have it going for him. But we need Marc to get going. There's no question."
- Matta mentioned Michigan's big win this past weekend against Purdue at home and how the Buckeyes must be sound defensively so as to not give the Wolverines anything easy in transition. Michigan was the first team all season to out-rebound Purdue in a game, Matta said.
- Michigan switches from man-to-man, 2-3, 3-2 and 1-3-1 defenses often, a staple of coach John Beilein.
- Offensively, Matta said he told his team during the Rutgers game that it was obvious how if they ran sets correctly it provided open looks: "That's still something we're working on."
- Matta likened Rutgers freshman guard Corey Sanders to Allen Iverson due to his shiftiness and ability to score from anywhere. Sanders led the Scarlet Knights with 23 points Saturday: "We focused on making his shots tough 2s and challenging them." Rutgers announced Monday Sanders is suspended for the next four games for "a violation of team rules."
- Matta said in the two games this season against Rutgers, Tate did the best against Sanders individually: "His physicalness, his athleticism can put him into position to make those plays."
- Again, Matta spoke about how Tate reminds him of David Lighty: "He can guard all five positions."
- "There is an art to preparation, there's no doubt about that." — Thad Matta
- On freshman guard JaQuan Lyle, Matta said the first thing he always preaches with him is not hanging on to bad plays. Keep looking forward: "JaQuan is at his best when he's playing in the moment and letting what he can do take over."
- Matta on Evan Turner: "He's the best."
- A caller brought up the atmosphere and attendance to home games at the Schottenstein Center. He suggested that student's get in free and asked if it has ever been discussed. Matta: "I'm not exactly sure how that all works (ticketing). I apologize."
- Matta added how great it's been having the students on the side of the court and end of the basket: "I think that you look at college basketball across the board, it's a little bit down in attendance. Probably the biggest thing with that is start times."
- Back to Turner: "Evan is one of those guys, just from the standpoint of if you could ever have a poster child of a guy to where he started and where he is today in terms of NBA and impact he's having with the Celtics, it's a tremendous story. Evan deserves the credit. I don't know if I ever had a kid as committed to being a player as him."
- Matta joked the person who saved Turner was his youngest daughter Emily: "She said, 'Dad, don't yell at Evan. He's my favorite player.'"
- Matta spoke glowingly about Turner's work ethic and commitment to be the best he could be: "He'd text me at 1 a.m. when I was recruiting in the summer to tell me how many threes he'd made that night. He was always in the gym."
- Matta said he still looks at the longterm growth of his team every day: "I think that the Kentucky game in Brooklyn was one where we played a full 40 minutes ... You wish that there was a special drink where you could give your guys so that always happens."
- Freshman Mickey Mitchell has been battling a hamstring injury and missed 2-3 days of practice before the Rutgers game, Matta said. He returned to practice Monday.
- Matta said when he watched Evan Turner in high school, he didn't think he was particularly great at anything, but good at most things: "I loved that about him."
- On the Eastern Michigan game where Turner broke his back after a dunk, Matta recalled on that same day that Greg Oden had separated his leg: "That was just not a good day."
- Matta told Turner not to rush his recovery and if he didn't feel comfortable coming back that year he understood: "He did though, and that just shows what type of kid he was."
