In what is becoming somewhat of a recurring theme, Thad Matta popped in on his weekly radio show the day after coaching his Ohio State men's basketball in a losing effort.
The Buckeyes have lost five of their last six weekend affairs, including Saturday night's 85-72 effort at Iowa that wasn't as close as the score indicated. Winners of three of its last four games before facing off against the Hawkeyes, Ohio State flopped.
As is accustomed in-season, Matta joined Paul Keels and Ron Stokes on 97.1 The Fan on Monday to break down the loss to Iowa and preview Tuesday's home matchup with No. 17 and Big Ten-leading Maryland. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. from Value City Arena.
Notes:
- "I didn't think we played at the level that we needed to play at. We could never put ourselves in a position to get ourselves back into the basketball game. We didn't make the plays that we needed to make."
- On Iowa taking away Trevor Thompson, who only played 13 minutes due to foul trouble and did not score. Matta said Ohio State has spoken to the junior about playing more consistently: "We need him to play better basketball for us ... the silly fouls and all that."
- "I've always said this: The harder you play, the less you foul."
- Matta said the foul trouble and thus changing up of lineups shouldn't be used as an excuse for the struggles against Iowa: "We've used those lineups before. Overall we just have to play better."
- Tim Horton's Coffee With the Coach Question from Dan in Cleveland is on finishing the season strong with the second half of league play on tap. Matta said the biggest focus is to find consistent play: "You've gotta do a good job of fighting through adversity, you gotta lean on each other, you gotta do better at figuring things out on the fly."
- "Defensively, we have to have five players moving in line at the same time," Matta said. "That, to me, is the biggest thing."
- Matta said every team in college basketball has problems: "From that perspective, getting ourselves in the right mindset to go out and play [Tuesday] and then on Saturday and whenever we play again is what has to happen."
- Matta said he and his staff evaluate everything they do, from changing practice schedules, to where people sit on the bus, where they sit during film sessions and everything in between: "You're trying to figure it out constantly ... trying to find the buttons for each individual player as well as the whole group."
- Matta said he thought about calling a timeout in the second portion of the first half but elected not to because he felt things would get going for the Buckeyes. Then the Hawkeyes buried a deep 3-pointer to lead by 11 at halftime: "I still felt like we could get it going after halftime but anything we did they just answered it."
- Matta said he asked his team who was the most important player this season has been since Oct. 1. The players answered Andre Wesson. Why? "I said, it's because he's committed ... He's bought in. He wants it ... I've always said those are the people that have the most success here."
- Stokes asked Matta if he ever thought about banning cell phones on team bus or planes due to social media: "I don't understand why people do that all the time, the Twitter and stuff. Why do you care when someone wakes up? Or what they're eating? I have plenty of other stuff to do ... But if that stuff deters what you can do with your game then you probably won't be worth much as a basketball player."
- Matta recalled a time when his daughter told him he was on Facebook but he didn't know what Facebook was. So they looked it up on the computer: "Sure enough, that's me. But it wasn't me. I don't get why people do that."
- Matta said Keita Bates-Diop's surgery to prepare the stress fracture in his leg was successful last Wednesday. The doctors put a rod in his leg, the longest one they've ever had to use before due to his length. Bates-Diop is at home and in line for recovery that lasts 3-6 months.
- Matta said Bates-Diop is learning while watching: "The next thing is we've gotta put some strength on him and get him stronger ... then the next thing is his ball-handling. I want him to be multi-dimensional."
- Matta said his players didn't know Iowa's leading scorer Peter Jok would miss Saturday night's game until about 8 minutes before: "You'd hope that wouldn't have any impact on your mindset because you're playing Iowa in a great environment. You're just not playing Peter Jok."
- Denny in Mount Vernon called in to ask about the difference between a player being coachable during the game as opposed to in practice. Matta recalled the early portions of Evan Turner's career, where he would say the player's name and if he looked him in the eye he knew he was locked in. Other times, if it is difficult to get his attention then their focus is elsewhere.
- Bob in Columbus asked about the length of film sessions and how the conversation goes. Matta said Ohio State was in the film room for more than an hour and a half on Sunday dissecting the Iowa loss. The Buckeyes spent 40 minutes on Maryland on Monday and will be doing more before tipoff on Tuesday: "It's all dependent on how familiar we are with the team, along with other factors."
- On Maryland: "[Melo] Trimble is one of the best guards in the country. They've got size in the post, we're going to see a ton of ball screens ... It's a game where we've gotta have great movement and understanding what we want every time we go down the court. Really good basketball team."
- Matta said Trimble is playing more off the ball this year but still is terrific at getting to the rim and drawing fouls.
- Jay in Columbus asked about if a "more enhanced" strength program could bring more toughness to the program. Matta said they've wanted guys that opponents "couldn't grab and hold" in terms of added girth. That way opposing players "couldn't catch them." Matta: "As long as it is the right type of weight, that's the important thing."
- Matta said freshman Derek Funderburk came to Ohio State at 190 pounds. He now weighs 214 pounds.
- Jay also asked if Matta has considered going the JUCO route to get some bigger post players to add more toughness. Matta said every recruiting class depends how much Ohio State looks to going that route but the Buckeyes are constantly looking at it.
- Matta said Kam Williams is "hands down" the most conditioned athlete on the team right now: "He can go all, day, long."
- Matta said Nebraska head coach Tim Miles told him the Cornhuskers don't have a Saturday home game all season: "That's really odd." The Buckeyes and Nebraska announced on Monday evening that they will meet in Columbus on Feb. 18, a Saturday, at 6 p.m.
- Saturday's game against Maryland is Ohio State's first Saturday home game since Dec. 10, when the Buckeyes beat Connecticut 64-60.
- Matta said he did not like the looks Ohio State took early against Iowa: "the first 5 minutes, our shot selection was not good. Some of the threes we took off the reads we made, they didn't really make any sense. Just quick shots... Hopefully, we'll be better [Tuesday] night."
