One boasts a 10 game winning streak. One is mired in a vortex of 10 straight losses. For twenty minutes last night, standings, gaudy wins, bleak losses, five-star recruits, and marginal prospects were rendered meaningless. Inspired by a confident and positive Ed DeChellis, Penn State outscored Ohio State by 19 points in the second half, 43-24. Let me repeat that for emphasis, Ohio State gave up 43 points to Penn State in the second half. One wonders what was said in Ohio State’s locker room.
An Inspired DeChellis
Judging from the results, Matta proffered a few back slaps and a stay the course policy. On the other side the wall in the BJC, DeChellis was mixing one part pyschology with 2 parts calculus. After stoking their inner confidence, DeChellis defltly decided to switch his defense from a passive 2-3 zone to tenacious 1-3-1. In response, Matta and his bevy of assistants had no answer. Despite an ability to penetrate at will with Mike Conley at the point, Ohio State was customarily stagnant on offense, simply passing the ball around the perimeter to stationary ball hogs. The result being, despite a 24 point deficit in the second half, Penn State actually had a shot to win at the buzzer. Like Maurice Joseph of Michigan State, Mike Walker took an open three to win that was a hair too long. Another win for Matta and Ohio State; another loss for DeChellis and Penn State; and once again, Ohio State is lucky.
For twenty minutes, Penn State showed the level of play of which they are capable. Claxton and Cornley are terrific players and apart from inconsistent guard play replete with turnovers, it’s baffling their record isn’t better. Penn State played effective zone defense, attacked the rim on both ends of the court and displayed confidence. Most importantly, when the Lions could’ve packed up their duffle bags and ordered a few buckets of beer, they gave no quarter. When they could’ve lost by 40, they attacked and Ohio State failed to respond.
Matta’s Monologue
Throughout this season, Matta has held his inner thoughts (if he has them) close to the vest. His press conferences contain generic truisms of hoops with little offerings of perceptive thought. Ohio State’s poor play and malaise in the second half is consistent with its effort all season. At this point, it is incumbent upon Matta to find answers to his team’s inability to play 40 minutes. More comments like last night’s explanation, “[t]hey caught fire. We’re very fortunate,” are disingenuous not only because they’re untrue (Penn State shot 46% in the second half, which is not exactly fire) but it obscures Matta’s responsibility. As reported in today’s Columbus Dispatch, Matta said, “[w]e need more leadership from the guys who have been through it,” Matta said. “I don’t say that in a negative way; those guys are just a little bit more quiet or different and have never been thrust into that role. But I do know this, (former Ohio State guard) Je’Kel Foster would have busted somebody upside the head at some point today.”
It’s February 14 and Matta is bringing up Je’Kel Foster. He can’t be serious. Matta is still the head coach and he’s getting paid handsomely to provide some leadership incumbent with the job. Since Matta apparently recognizes a lack of leadership on the court, if anybody should be busting somebody upside the head it should be him.
[…] Interestingly, another lackluster performance against an inferior team was lost on Thad Matta who, after the game sarcastically dismissed the notion that his offense needs to run through Greg Oden or, at the least, get more touches for the once in a generation big man. In perhaps a sign of tension within Ohio State, Mike Conley “told the team, ‘If you’ve got to pass up open shots to get the ball to Greg, you’ve got to do it sometimes.’ I hope everyone takes that to heart.” Thus far, Conley’s approach is falling on deaf ears, including, apparently, his coach’s. As they have all season, Ohio State stands around on offense when confronted with a zone. Love it or hate it, the performance of the Ohio State and the shots they take correspond to Matta’s offensive philosophy and are no accident. Perhaps as the sarcastic Matta intoned, he’s winning pecks of games so everyone should back off. But as Hoopraker has observed for the past two seasons, not only is Matta’s perimeter offense counterintuitive, cumbersome and frustrating for a basketball fan to watch, it’s prone to implode when faced with a good defensive team as it surely will be in the NCAA Tourney. […]
Left by Hoopraker · Loose Balls: February 22 on February 22nd, 2007