After watching OSU pull off three straight NCAA tournament wins with terrific second half performances, I’ve come to realize Greg Oden, OSU’s biggest asset, is also its biggest hindrance in the first half.
The All-American freshman has played terrific in the tournament games’ latter 20 minutes, but his inability to stay out of foul trouble in the first half has come close to killing the Buckeyes twice.
Just look at his first half stats against Tennessee and Memphis. Fouls limited him to nine first half minutes in each game, enough time to pick up just seven points combined. His impact was even less on the defensive end, culminating in a combined three rebounds and two blocks. But he’s come back with a vengeance after intermission, dropping a combined 21 points, eight rebounds and three blocks in 24 minutes.
So, going against everything I’ve learned from 18 years of watching basketball, I’m asking Thad Matta to pull Oden from tomorrow’s game against Georgetown immediately after the opening tip. Send Othello Hunter or Matt Terwilliger to mid-court after the referee releases the ball. Call a timeout if you have to, just get Oden out of the there.
Otherwise, the whistles against Oden will come, and come quickly.
Hoyas coach John Thompson III is one of the country’s best coaches and he will have his star big men, Roy Hibbert and Jeff Green, going at Oden from the first possession. We saw it with John Calipari and his Memphis Tigers and Bruce Pearl and his Tennessee Volunteers. Thompson is a better coach than both of them and his big men are much better than any big guy the other coaches had to work with. Getting Oden in foul trouble will be Thompson’s first goal.
And the fouls will come, I guarantee it. Oden has shown he just can’t avoid them.
Although he’s a terrific defensive player, maybe the best in all of college basketball, but he reaches his arms out on most of his blocks, rather than jumping straight up. That’s fine when you’re playing against the minute centers of the Big Ten and you can reach forward without making much contact, but Hibbert and Green are 7 -foot-2 and 6-foot-9 respectively and very skilled offensively. Reach your arms out against them for blocks and you’re going to make contact with the arm more often then not.
Taking Oden out immediately after he wins the tip is the only guarantee to prevent him from early foul trouble. He plays his best basketball when he’s been out of foul trouble and is comfortable playing aggressively. His recent foul trouble has prevented that aggressive play.
Bring him back in after five-to-ten minutes when the game has settled down, the refs have started to swallow their whistles and he can come in and play aggressively for the last ten to fifteen minutes of the first half without as much fear of foul trouble.
The Buckeyes have shown in the tournament they can survive with Oden on the bench. Hunter and Terwilliger are doing a quality job filling in defensively when Oden sits and Mike Conley Jr. and Ron Lewis have been getting to the basket at will in the tournament. Let those two guards have five to ten minutes of driving at Hibbert and Green and try to get them in foul trouble. Turn the tables for a change. Oden’s two offensive moves, the jump hook and the dunk, are not enough to get them in any kind of foul trouble.
If Oden picks up two fouls early, all the momentum will swing Georgetown’s way. Then Hunter or Terwilliger will have to come in and face an already powerful Hoyas frontcourt charged by Oden’s departure. Better to have one of them come in immediately after the tip and have Oden as the momentum changing substitute midway through the half.
Besides, Matta rarely makes a point of going to Oden on the offensive end to start the game anyway. So far, in the tournament’s four games, it’s as though the only reason Oden starts the game is to pick up two fouls so he can ride the bench until halftime.
Matta tried playing zone most of the Memphis game to preserve Oden, and while it had limited success against the Tigers until it suffocated them at game’s end, a zone will be much tougher against Georgetown’s Princeton offense and its superb big men.
Matta, play Oden early at your peril.
Kevin Bruffy is a master’s student in sport and exercise humanities and can be reached at [email protected].
