Ohio State vs. Florida Postgame

Well, that sucked. Ohio State lost, 86-60. The Buckeyes were outshot, outrebounded, and outplayed by the Gators. Mike Conley played well for the Buckeyes, posting 13 points, five rebounds, and seven assists. He also played pretty well defensively, chipping in three steals. He was outscored by his counterpart from Florida, Taurean Green, who went for 24 points. Conley's the only Buckeye who I thought played well.

Greg Oden had seven points, seven rebounds, and four blocks. Florida, surprisingly, had success driving to the basket in the second half. I chalk this up to Oden being tired, since Othello Hunter did not play well. As a result, Oden played most of the second half, and by the end of the game, didn't look much better than Hunter (and that's a bad thing). It raises the question: why didn't Matt Terwilliger play before garbage time? True, he's not as talented as Oden or Hunter, but he can be a solid player, and solid's what we needed from Oden's backup. Hunter seemed almost invisible when Florida went into the lane; someone who was tangible would have been an improvement.

Regardless, Oden was outplayed by his counterpart from the Gators, who turned out to be not Joakim Noah, but Al Horford. Apparently, when Billy Donovan said "He's not going to play," he meant Horford was going to play 27 minutes. He had a double-double, going for 11 points and 11 rebounds.

But whether Horford played or not, the Gators were going to win. They made 50% of their threes; the Buckeyes made 35.9% of their total shots. Florida outrebounded Ohio State, 37-20. Ohio State had 13 turnovers to Florida's 16, but that's the only statistic where the Buckeyes had an advantage.

So what can we take from this? Well, this should quiet down the Oden hype for a while, though people shouldn't be too critical of a guy that still has a ways to go before he's healthy. And we've learned again that Ohio State loses when they can't make threes, but that's not exactly news. That the Buckeyes did so poorly on the glass was a concern. A perimeter-oriented team is going to get outrebounded by a team with two quality big men; that's not a surprise. But if the Buckeyes are going to be outrebounded by 2 to 1 margins, they are going to lose more games.

Looking at the big picture, though, I'm willing to trade a loss in the basketball game against Florida for a win in the football game. Here's hoping we get it.