Men's Basketball
Buckeyes Crank up Defensive Pressure to Stifle Wolverines
By John Porentas

Around Ohio there is always interest in the best ways to do in Wolverines. The OSU basketball team decided that the best way to do in their counterpart from Ann Arbor was suffocation.

The Buckeyes ratcheted up the defensive pressure over the last ten minutes of the game, so much so that OSU defenders hardly gave Michigan's players room to breath, let alone shoot the basketball. It was exactly what the Buckeyes (16-7, 7-3 Big Ten) needed to take a 65-55 win in game in which they trailed most the way but had what it took when winning time came around.

The Wolverines ((5-17, 1-9 Big Ten) were prohibitive underdogs but stayed in the game thanks to effective shooting from three point range and the ability to break OSU's press and get easy scores when they did.

The Buckeyes opened the game with full court pressure but U of M guards Manny Harris and Kelvin Grady were up to the task of handling it. Once they broke the OSU full court pressure the Wolverines usually had a numbers advantage and used it to their advantage for easy scores. OSU Head Coach Thad Matta's response was to call off the press and rely on the 3-2 matchup zone to contain the Michigan offense.

"Ohio State pressed us in the first half and I thought we handled it beautifully," said first-year Michigan Head Coach John Beilein.

"That allowed us to score some points. Then he he backed out of the press and that was a factor in our offense," Beilein said.

When OSU backed off the press and got set up defensively the easy baskets disappeared. The Wolverines lead for most of the first 10 minutes of the game, but a 6-0 OSU run put the Buckeyes up by six at 9:07 at 19-13. The Wolverines countered with a run of their own fueled by two consecutive threes and a layup to go back on top by two with 7:18 remaining in the half.

"They were just hitting shots," said OSU forward David Lighty.

"We were contesting them and we were playing good defense. You've got to give it to them, they were just hitting shots," Lighty said.

The Wolverines led by one at the half and and went up by five at the 16:45 mark when Ron Coleman and Harris hit consecutive three pointers. Matta had seen enough and called a time out. Then he lit into his team.

"I don't think TV would allow me to say exactly what I said," said Matta in his post-game press conference.

"You could see in his eyes he meant business," said OSU forward Othello Hunter.

Matta challenged his team in that time out. It turned out they were listening. The Buckeyes played the rest of the game with a level of energy in their half court defense that had been lacking.

"We put in a new defense today," said Lighty.

"When you see coach put his fist up you know you have to get a stop. I think he did it almost every play down the stretch and we got a lot of stops."

The effect wasn't immediate, but it was there. The Wolverines continued to make some shots to keep themselves in the game, but none of them were easy and there were no second-chance opportunities for them.

The Buckeyes forced two shot clock violations and took the Michigan offense into the last five seconds of the clock on numerous occasions over the last ten minutes of the game. The sellout OSU crowd got rowdy exhorting their team on the defensive end, and the Buckeyes seemed to respond.

"The last ten minutes of the game I don't think there's a better college basketball environment than what we had in there tonight," said Matta.

"You hope they're driving home in their cars saying 'We helped the Buckeyes pull through tonight,' because they did a tremendous job tonight."

The pressure finally got to Michigan, and when the shots from long range stopped falling, the Buckeyes took over and put them away.

The Wolverines took a five point lead on a three by Jevohn Shepherd but OSU then answered with a 9-0 run to go up 56-52 with 5:03 remaining.

The Buckeyes never surrendered the lead after that. Michigan scored just three more points on a three point field goal in the remainder of the game and came up dry on their final five possessions.

"What they do defensively is very unusual," said Beilein.

"It's really a high-pressure zone. They did a great job of keeping us from even getting good looks in the last couple of minutes."

OSU's offense struggled in the first half, but was much more efficient in the second. The Buckeyes put five players into double figures led by Othello Hunter who scored a game-high 15 points and registered a double-double with 12 rebounds. Hunter also had a blocked shot and a steal. Jon Diebler added 14, David Lighty and Kosta Koufos 12 each and Jamar Butler 10. Butler also contributed a game-high nine assists.

Michigan was led by Kelvin Grady who with 11 points and was the Wolverine's only double figure scorer. Manny Harris, who entered the game averaging 17.1 points per game, was held to seven points and DeShawn Sims, who was averaging 12.3 points per game, scored just three.

"Zone's like this, it's very hard to get your leading scorers the ball in great situations because they can pay more attention to them," said Beilein.

"They can double team them, they can shade them. Man to man it's much easier to get the ball to certain players."

Ohio State held a one rebound edge at the half, but ended up collecting 10 more rebounds than the Wolverines due mostly to the effort of Hunter.

"O got 12 rebounds, he was a man inside," said Diebler.

"I think the way we played together in the second half, that's what makes us a good team because we have such talented players on our team. When we're all clicking on the same page we're pretty hard to defend."

Ohio State is now 8-0 against Michigan in the Thad Matta era. It has been 1,438 days since Michigan's last win over OSU in men's basketball.

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