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Ohio State: Afternoon Notes Likes What Yelling Produces
David ThurmanNov 17, 2010
Drew Thurman (12:21 pm)
1) Halftime adjustments have been the name of the game this week for the Buckeyes. After a great comeback by Tressel and company Saturday against Penn State, Matta and the No. 4 ranked Buckeyes put on a second half show of their own against the No. 9 ranked Florida Gators. The Buckeyes struggled on defense and with rebounding in the first half, and thus never really controlled the tempo in the first stanza. In fact, the Gators went into halftime with a 41-38 lead thanks to 19-8 rebounding margin and 60 percent shooting. Thad Matta was none too pleased, and was tough in his halftime speech. Jared Sullinger had this to say about the lecture they got at halftime:
"He yelled at us," Sullinger said. "His face was red. He let us know it was time to rebound. 'It's either buckle down or just get out the gym.''"
Well yelling must work. Tressel's fiery speech Saturday got the OSU motivated, and Matta's sparked the Buckeyes to a 93-75 victory, outscoring the Gators 37-18 in the last 12:09.
2) The Buckeyes were led by the two-headed monster of Jared Sullinger and David Lighty last night. Sullinger had his second-consecutive double-double, scoring 26 points and hauling in 11 rebounds in 34 minutes of work. Lighty had 26 points as well, shooting a phenomenal 9-11 from the floor. Buford added 16 points and eight assists and Diebler 14, to round out those with double-digit points. Besides rebounding, the only other thing to pick on was the lack of playing time from the bench. Matta played essentially a six-man lineup all night, with the big four aforementioned all playing well over 30 minutes. In his defense, this was a statement game early in the year and it makes sense to limit bench play. With that said, Matta has a track record of not using much of a bench and it will be interesting to see if he develops the one he has down the stretch.
3) Tressel had his weekly press conference yesterday, which was about as interesting as listening to a discourse on mid-century modern architecture. We were swamped here at TSB and didn't share anything yesterday, but it wasn't like Tressel said anything to truly motivate us into rushing a post. In fact, about the most interesting part of the whole presser was when he was asked about his passionate halftime speech.
"I was disappointed that we weren't playing like we were capable of playing. We've all been in games where you've played as well as you could and you lost and that happens, or you played as well as you could, but you made those two mistakes and, therefore, you lost. I didn't think we were playing anywhere near we were capable of playing and we were playing against a team that they knew was good. We play them every year, it's not like we hadn't played them in a while, and we were playing in our stadium and all the rest, and at this time of year when you're supposed to have been improved, so, yeah, I was disappointed in our—and up until that stop, I wasn't disappointed in that, in fact, I was energized by that, but disappointed up to that point."
1) Halftime adjustments have been the name of the game this week for the Buckeyes. After a great comeback by Tressel and company Saturday against Penn State, Matta and the No. 4 ranked Buckeyes put on a second half show of their own against the No. 9 ranked Florida Gators. The Buckeyes struggled on defense and with rebounding in the first half, and thus never really controlled the tempo in the first stanza. In fact, the Gators went into halftime with a 41-38 lead thanks to 19-8 rebounding margin and 60 percent shooting. Thad Matta was none too pleased, and was tough in his halftime speech. Jared Sullinger had this to say about the lecture they got at halftime:
"He yelled at us," Sullinger said. "His face was red. He let us know it was time to rebound. 'It's either buckle down or just get out the gym.''"
Well yelling must work. Tressel's fiery speech Saturday got the OSU motivated, and Matta's sparked the Buckeyes to a 93-75 victory, outscoring the Gators 37-18 in the last 12:09.
2) The Buckeyes were led by the two-headed monster of Jared Sullinger and David Lighty last night. Sullinger had his second-consecutive double-double, scoring 26 points and hauling in 11 rebounds in 34 minutes of work. Lighty had 26 points as well, shooting a phenomenal 9-11 from the floor. Buford added 16 points and eight assists and Diebler 14, to round out those with double-digit points. Besides rebounding, the only other thing to pick on was the lack of playing time from the bench. Matta played essentially a six-man lineup all night, with the big four aforementioned all playing well over 30 minutes. In his defense, this was a statement game early in the year and it makes sense to limit bench play. With that said, Matta has a track record of not using much of a bench and it will be interesting to see if he develops the one he has down the stretch.
3) Tressel had his weekly press conference yesterday, which was about as interesting as listening to a discourse on mid-century modern architecture. We were swamped here at TSB and didn't share anything yesterday, but it wasn't like Tressel said anything to truly motivate us into rushing a post. In fact, about the most interesting part of the whole presser was when he was asked about his passionate halftime speech.
"I was disappointed that we weren't playing like we were capable of playing. We've all been in games where you've played as well as you could and you lost and that happens, or you played as well as you could, but you made those two mistakes and, therefore, you lost. I didn't think we were playing anywhere near we were capable of playing and we were playing against a team that they knew was good. We play them every year, it's not like we hadn't played them in a while, and we were playing in our stadium and all the rest, and at this time of year when you're supposed to have been improved, so, yeah, I was disappointed in our—and up until that stop, I wasn't disappointed in that, in fact, I was energized by that, but disappointed up to that point."
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
4) Tressel was asked if he knew what the team was going to get at Iowa.
"Oh, no, you never know. I never know. I've never known what we were going to get anywhere and so often what happens early affects it. There's one school of thought that, you know what, we went down so easy that first drive but came up short that was there this feeling that, oh, you know, this is going to be like a number of the other games, because emotion, thought process can turn any minute. So I've never known. If I thought I ever knew, I could write the story early, but you never know what you're going to get. You never know what's going to change the emotion of the game, that's why we talk about special teams all the time. Nothing flips the emotion of the moment like a special teams play. Maybe only second is a turnover. And just turn on the Iowa Michigan State game, Michigan State's a good team, they've lost one game. But they have three picks, two of them go one to the house and one way down there, all of a sudden they turn around and it's 30-0 and they're a good team."
5) The other cool moment in the press conference was Tressel talking about the big weekend from Buckeye players in the NFL.
"Well, Troy, I guess he had a heck of a game. I got a text from his quarterback coach saying, hey, he did a tremendous job and has done a great job leading. I was a little bit sad that Santonio -- but it was kind of bittersweet. But we had like four guys on the Jets, so I couldn't not be a little happy, but only a little. Someone said Kurt Coleman got a pick."
Tressel would later spend a lot more time talking about Troy, but I will let you read that on your own.
6) Speaking of Mr. Smith, he was named the starter for the 49ers this week. It wasn't like Coach Singletary had much of a choice, even with Alex Smith medically cleared, thanks to the performances from Troy in his last two outings. This was a lot more obvious than the Vick-Kolb debate if you ask me!
7) In other Buckeye NFL news, one former OSU kicker is replacing another. With Mike Nugent hurt, the Bengals signed Aaron Pettrey, who was waived by the Panthers and the Lions earlier this season.
8) Doug Lesmerises of The Plain-Dealer, looks at Pryor's performances against Top 25 teams. As you might expect Pryor has been average, carrying a 6-4 record while averaging 12-of-22 for 160 yards, with 13 carries for 53 yards.
9) Finally, I wish Adam Rittenberg of ESPN would just admit his man-crush on Dan Persa. Rittenberg, a Chicago native who has covered the Wildcats in the past, has been pushing Persa all year long.
"Oh, no, you never know. I never know. I've never known what we were going to get anywhere and so often what happens early affects it. There's one school of thought that, you know what, we went down so easy that first drive but came up short that was there this feeling that, oh, you know, this is going to be like a number of the other games, because emotion, thought process can turn any minute. So I've never known. If I thought I ever knew, I could write the story early, but you never know what you're going to get. You never know what's going to change the emotion of the game, that's why we talk about special teams all the time. Nothing flips the emotion of the moment like a special teams play. Maybe only second is a turnover. And just turn on the Iowa Michigan State game, Michigan State's a good team, they've lost one game. But they have three picks, two of them go one to the house and one way down there, all of a sudden they turn around and it's 30-0 and they're a good team."
5) The other cool moment in the press conference was Tressel talking about the big weekend from Buckeye players in the NFL.
"Well, Troy, I guess he had a heck of a game. I got a text from his quarterback coach saying, hey, he did a tremendous job and has done a great job leading. I was a little bit sad that Santonio -- but it was kind of bittersweet. But we had like four guys on the Jets, so I couldn't not be a little happy, but only a little. Someone said Kurt Coleman got a pick."
Tressel would later spend a lot more time talking about Troy, but I will let you read that on your own.
6) Speaking of Mr. Smith, he was named the starter for the 49ers this week. It wasn't like Coach Singletary had much of a choice, even with Alex Smith medically cleared, thanks to the performances from Troy in his last two outings. This was a lot more obvious than the Vick-Kolb debate if you ask me!
7) In other Buckeye NFL news, one former OSU kicker is replacing another. With Mike Nugent hurt, the Bengals signed Aaron Pettrey, who was waived by the Panthers and the Lions earlier this season.
8) Doug Lesmerises of The Plain-Dealer, looks at Pryor's performances against Top 25 teams. As you might expect Pryor has been average, carrying a 6-4 record while averaging 12-of-22 for 160 yards, with 13 carries for 53 yards.
9) Finally, I wish Adam Rittenberg of ESPN would just admit his man-crush on Dan Persa. Rittenberg, a Chicago native who has covered the Wildcats in the past, has been pushing Persa all year long.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
