B1G Game 14: Gophers Visit Ohio State (2-13-20)

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Ignatius L Hoops

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Youth You Can’t Ignore​

Ohio State’s leading scorers, Sophomore Dorka Juhasz and freshman Kierstan Bell, headline a youthful Buckeyes club. The Buckeyes (7-5) are not only young; but, like Minnesota, the bench has shortened during the season. The recent departure of Freshman Kaelynn Satterfield, Klarke Sconier’s high school teammate, left the Buckeyes with a nine player rotation featuring five freshmen, three sophomores and one junior. Two games ago, against the Illini, the Buckeyes dressed eight available players because Aixa Wone Aranaz was sidelined for personal reasons. Then, with Aranaz returning against Wisconsin on Sunday, Juhasz, who tweeked her ankle against Illini, sat out the Badger game. However, given Juhasz’s participation in pregame warmups before the Badger battle, she will be available for action against Minnesota on Thursday night-lucky us.

Buckeye head coach Kevin McGuff had kept his starting lineup (Juhasz, Aaliyah Patty, Braxtin Miller, Madison Greene and Jacy Sheldon) unchanged since facing the Gophers in the second conference game. But, Juhasz’s injury, caused McGuff to fill her starting spot with another post, Rebeka Mikulasikova, who responded with 12 points and 5 rebounds in 23 minutes. Both Juhasz and Mikulasikova are 6’4” and eat up space in the paint. And both players fancy themselves as three point specialists. Well not really; but they do enjoy stepping beyond the arc and successfully launching threes. In B1G play, Juhasz is 19-39 (.487) and Mikulasikova is 9-22 (.409). So, you can’t ignore them anywhere on the court.

Another player you can’t ignore anywhere in the arena is guard Kierstan Bell. Bell comes off the bench for her 20+ minutes a night and injects her own occasionally out of control steam into a game. Bell is an enthusiastic three point shooter more than she is a good three point shooter. She leads the Buckeyes in attempts from beyond the arc making 29-75 (.316). Not surprisingly she is OSU’s high-volume shooter hitting 54-135 from the field. You can sum up her impact by noting she has 26 assists and 27 turnovers B1G play. She demands attention; but sometimes that attention pays defensive dividends.

Bottom Line: McGuff subs frequently and you ignore at your peril any of the nine (or eight) players he plays.

OSU Defeated Wisconsin for Their 3rd Straight Conference Win:

Last Sunday, the Buckeyes defeated the Badgers 82-74. While Ohio State struggled to stop Abby Laszewski who had a career high 26 points, the Badgers went 0-8 from beyond the arc. OSU’s 6-25 from three provided a gap Wisconsin could not overcome. For the Buckeyes, Bell had a solid day with 20 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists. Patty added 16 points, Croom 14 and Mikulisikova 12.

OSU Defeated Nebraska:

Kicking off the recent win streak was perhaps Ohio State’s most important victory of the season. Trailing at the half by 15 in Lincoln, the Buckeyes forced overtime and then escaped with an 80-74 win. It was Braxtin Miller knocking down the dagger three with :35 seconds remaining. Ohio State was 10-36 from three and the Buckeyes posted three double doubles. Jahasz had 13 points and 10 rebounds; Bell with 16 and 12 and Patty with 12 and 12. Miller scored 17 and Mikulasikova 13. It was the very definition of a balanced effort.

The Last Gopher/Buckeye Game

Juhasz and Bell aside, Gopher fans particularly remember the 6’3” sophomore Aaliyah Patty. In the early season matchup with Minnesota at Williams Arena, Patty, in 23 minutes, delivered 13 points and 10 rebounds. Plus, she hit the layup capping a seven point run giving Ohio State a 64-63 lead with 1:40 remaining. Gopher frustration followed with the only additional scoring being a buzzer beating lay-up by Juhasz making the final 66-63.

As a freshman, it was Patty, who, as the leading scorer (20 points, 6 rebounds in 30 minutes), abetted another fourth quarter comeback defeating Minnesota 65-55 at Williams Arena. Crooms was the only other Buckeye to play in last season’s contest.

Dorka Juhasz last six games:


TeamPtsRebAsstMinFoul
Illinois872291
Iowa22160342
Maryland1491311
Nebraska12131372
Illinois1361241
WisconsinDNP


Kierstan Bell’s last six games:


TeamPtsRebAsstMinFoul
Illinois1981190
Iowa1033242
Maryland660155
Nebraska16121302
Illinois1272251
Wisconsin20106272


B1G Wins: @ Minnesota 66-63, Michigan 78-69, Penn State 80-70, Illinois 77-47, @ Nebraska 80-74 (OT), @ Illinois 78-58, Wisconsin 82-74

B1G Losses: Purdue 50-66, @ Maryland 62-72, @ Michigan State 65-68, @ Iowa 68-77, Maryland 65-85.

Probable Starters (B1G Stats):

HGTPOSYRPLAYERMINAVGREB
6’4”FSoDorka Juhasz31.812.78.8
5’8”GFrMadison Greene24.88.21.8
6’3”FSoAaliyah Patty22.79.05.8
5’10”GFrJacy Sheldon27.87.72.8
5’11”GJrBraxtin Miller31.86.82.5

Bench (B1G Stats):

HGTPOSYRPLAYERMINAVGREB
6’1”GFrKierstan Bell20.712.15.3
6’4”FFrRebeka Mikulasikova15.86.82.8
5’10”GSoJanai Crooms22.06.73.7
6’3”FFrAixa Wone Aranaz5.20.90.7
 

www.thelantern.com

Women’s Basketball: Ohio State tries for fourth-straight win against Minnesota

Ohio State women’s basketball has finally found a rhythm as it looks to further its longest winning streak of the season to four games. The Buckeyes (14-9, 7-5 Big Ten) look to improve their now tied-for-fifth-place conference standing against Minnesota (15-9, 5-8), a team Ohio State has...
www.thelantern.com www.thelantern.com

From the Lantern:

Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff said he expects to see sophomore forward Dorka Juhasz, the team’s leading scorer, back on the court after sitting out the team’s win against Wisconsin with an ankle injury.

Juhasz and freshman forward Rebeka Mikulasikova are the two most efficient 3-point shooters on the team by percentage at .400 and .439 respectively.

“They’re both very unique players,” McGuff said. “They’re big, and they’re post players, but they both shoot the ball very well.”

McGuff said the team struggled early in the season to find balance in how they used the duo, but with a system in place, Ohio State’s offense has benefited.
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Anchoring the forward position for the Gophers is senior Taiye Bello, who averages a double-double in 2019-20 with a league-best 10 rebounds per contest alongside 12.2 points.

“Bello is always there trying to get every offensive and defensive rebound,” Mikulasikova said. “As a team, we really need to box out.”
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Based on today's StarTrib article, looks like Brunson will miss another game.
 


Tied 24 all after 1 Quarter. Diva finally hit a couple of 3s as did Scalia.
 



49-37 at half. We are throwing the ball away and can't hit on offense. Bad quarter.
 

1/2 time stats showing us shooting 35% n OSU 56%. They are leading by 12 with Powell leading our scoring with 10 points. Hope we get hot and they cool off in the 2nd half. Go Gophers !
 




Getting beat off the dribble way too easy, defense has to step up in the 2nd half.
 


Uggg. No offense or defense in the paint for us.
 

Just keep going to the rim, these refs are calling a ton of fouls.
 



We’re holding their high scorers mostly in check, it’s the other players that are killing us. Madison Greene, averaging 8.2 points, has 23 points after 3 quarters.
 

This game has gotten very ugly. They hit almost everything, we miss almost everything, except from the charity stripe. Now 88-63
 

Ohio State played great but our defense these last 2 games has been brutal.
 



Difficult to win when we shoot 31/28% and they shoot 56/43% from the field and 3.
 


We are not playing as a team right now, no extra passes, to much one on one. I believe the lack of sharing the ball and quick low percentage shots are contributing to our defensive woes.
The second quarter was like playing pick up ball, the first person to jack it does
 

MNGirlsHoops said:
We are not playing as a team right now, no extra passes, to much one on one. I believe the lack of sharing the ball and quick low percentage shots are contributing to our defensive woes.
The second quarter was like playing pick up ball, the first person to jack it does
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I thought they were supposed to play more like a team with Pitts gone.
 


www.thelantern.com

Women’s Basketball: Ohio State freshmen shine in 99-76 victory over Minnesota

Chants of “100” rained down on the court as eager fans wished for another basket while the Buckeyes dribbled out the clock for their fourth straight win. Ohio State women’s basketball (15-9, 8-5 Big Ten) continued its best stretch of the season Thursday night, beating Minnesota (15-10, 5-9)...
www.thelantern.com www.thelantern.com

Quote of the Game:

Despite the strong offensive production, McGuff said he was displeased with the way the Buckeyes played on the defensive end.

“If we had played stronger defense, we could have scored even more,” McGuff said.
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...

Other Quotes:

“We’ve been practicing really hard and preparing really well for these teams,” freshman guard Madison Greene said. “That’s really contributed to [the winning streak].”

The Buckeye freshmen were firing on all cylinders as they combined for 65 points while shooting a scorching 67 percent from the field.

Greene facilitated the offense, finishing with career highs in points and assists with 25 and seven. She didn’t register a single turnover.

“My teammates were just getting open,” Greene said. “They were setting good screens, the driving lanes were open so I would drive it and find them.”

Greene’s ability to get to the foul line played a key part in her scoring success, as she shot 11 free throws with five and-one layups
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...

Thursday was the first time the Ohio State offense scored over 90 points since Dec. 17. Ohio State had not scored 90 or more points in a conference game since Feb. 18, 2018 against Rutgers.
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This is the second game in a row in which the opponent’s field-goal percentages were more than 1.5 X our own shooting. Also (oddly) the second game in a row in which each team shot an identical number (61) of field-goal attempts. Ohio State made 34, whereas Minnesota made 19. That’s 1.789 X more makes per attempt by OSU.

As noted earlier, our only truly good statistic was free-throw shooting. We shot .886 from the charity stripe as a team. To give you an idea of how good that is, note that Destiny Pitts was shooting FT at .857 through her last game, and she was one of the NCAA leaders in that category. In this particular game, our whole team collectively shot free throws better than Destiny Pitts. Furthermore, we shot 35 free throws. Our season average free-throws per game is 17.88 - so this is about double our normal number of free-throw attempts. That’s more than likely a season record FTA (I didn’t check all 25 games to verify) and given the percentage, a record FTM as well. Of course, Ohio State made a lot of free throws too, so free throws alone were far from enough to win it.

I thought it was pretty amazing the other day when Taiye only missed four out of 19 free throws and Powell went 10-10. But in this game, the entire team only missed four out of 35 free throws and Powell missed one out of 15!

I didn’t watch game video, just followed the play-by-play, but it seemed even from that, that the refs were going crazy with foul calling.

@Ohio State statistics ...

StatMinnOSU
FT31-35 (.886)21-25 (.840)
FG19-61 (.311)34-61 (.557)
3FG7-25 (.280)10-23 (.435)
2FG12-36 (.333)24-38 (.632)
Turnovers108
Rebounds3539
Blocks02
Assists919
Assist:Turnover Ratio0.902.37
Missed or blocked layups95
Points off layups830
Final score7699

We lost in every statistical department except free throws, and that by itself was not enough.

Also another game in which the large number of OSU assists (although not as high as Michigan’s 25) swamps (doubles) our own assists - evidence of various points made by posters.

Note that the 22-point differential in points off layups accounts for all but one point of the difference in final score. OSU’s 30 points off layups includes several old-fashioned three-point (layup) plays by Greene.

Ohio State’s game plan seemed to be “OK, we think Minnesota is going to try to outshoot us from three, so instead we’ll outshoot them from three, while at the same time getting all the layups that they’ll give us.”

The reason their 2FG% is so high, is that over half of their 2FG shots were high percentage layups.

Our 3FG% has been falling short of what we need lately, because although we have four good three-point shooters, in any given game 1-2 of them are shooting bricks - thus reducing significantly the team overall three-point percentage.
 
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Here’s the highlights from the perspective of Ohio State. A lot of overlap but a few different plays, I think.

One thing I noticed in about 3 min of highlights: what looked like about 5 bad calls (or no calls) that went against us. Granted, can’t be sure of it cuz only had one camera angle.

But what it looked like to me, is that the refs had “scared” the Gophers out of doing any defense by means of being so loose with the whistle. So Gophers weren’t so much defending against OSU dribblers to the rim, as they were merely running along-side of them - fearful to make any kind of actual defensive move. But nevermind, the refs consistently gave them and-one gift calls anyway, just for running alongside with what looked to me like no contact. These are easy automatic 2.84-point layups. Easy because your refs scared us from defending (and so it’s almost a 100% certain layup make since nobody even extending an arm to try to block it); automatic/2.84 because the and-one call by the refs is virtually automatic, and they shot .840 on FT, so the expected value of the and-one is 0.84 points, plus 2 for the undefended layup = 2.84 points.

No wonder they got 30 points on layups. Not saying that OSU didn’t play well, or that we didn’t defend badly, just suspecting (a) that the refs padded their points from about 89 to 99; (b) we may have been the beneficiary of this effect too, but probably didn’t take advantage enough; and (c) maybe (not sure due to our shallow bench) under such conditions our players (except Taiye) should be instructed to just clobber the shooter (but short of intentional foul and nothing dangerous) to be sure the shot is missed and let them earn it the hard way from the stripe.

ohiostatebuckeyes.com

🎥 Highlights: Buckeyes vs. Minnesota

Ohio State Buckeyes
ohiostatebuckeyes.com ohiostatebuckeyes.com
 
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All this recent struggles will pay dividend next season. They certainly need more people in rotation. Getting bigs in recruiting will help.
 

CutDownTheNet said:
Here’s the highlights from the perspective of Ohio State. A lot of overlap but a few different plays, I think.

One thing I noticed in about 3 min of highlights: what looked like about 5 bad calls (or no calls) that went against us. Granted, can’t be sure of it cuz only had one camera angle.

But what it looked like to me, is that the refs had “scared” the Gophers out of doing any defense by means of being so loose with the whistle. So Gophers weren’t so much defending against OSU dribblers to the rim, as they were merely running along-side of them - fearful to make any kind of actual defensive move. But nevermind, the refs consistently gave them and-one gift calls anyway, just for running alongside with what looked to me like no contact. These are easy automatic 2.84-point layups. Easy because your refs scared us from defending (and so it’s almost a 100% certain layup make since nobody even extending an arm to try to block it); automatic/2.84 because the and-one call by the refs is virtually automatic, and they shot .840 on FT, so the expected value of the and-one is 0.84 points, plus 2 for the undefended layup = 2.84 points.

No wonder they got 30 points on layups. Not saying that OSU didn’t play well, or that we didn’t defend badly, just suspecting (a) that the refs padded their points from about 89 to 99; (b) we may have been the beneficiary of this effect too, but probably didn’t take advantage enough; and (c) maybe (not sure due to our shallow bench) under such conditions our players (except Taiye) should be instructed to just clobber the shooter (but short of intentional foul and nothing dangerous) to be sure the shot is missed and let them earn it the hard way from the stripe.

ohiostatebuckeyes.com

🎥 Highlights: Buckeyes vs. Minnesota

Ohio State Buckeyes
ohiostatebuckeyes.com ohiostatebuckeyes.com
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Thanks!! I thought the same watching the game. It was deflating to watch this game; tough for the players I imagine. I hope next year the incoming height will help us and they are basketball savvy players.
 

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