date 11/29 || time 7:15 || venue || Cameron Indoor Stadium || video ESPN
Duke won the ACC/Big Ten Challenge for the second year in a row with Ohio State University. Remember last year’s Columbus ruckus when the Buckeyes were sensational, especially CJ Liddell fit for the Blue Devils.
Ohio State was going to have a kind of average season, and coach Chris Holtman’s glow faded a bit, and he had a little heat for it.
It wasn’t his fault. Ohio was seriously injured. Seth Towns, whom Duke was tracking in the portal, missed most of the season, as did Justice Thwing (Saul Goodman, you might have competition). Other injuries throughout the season included a Big Ten Tournament loss to Penn State and an NCAA Tournament loss to Chicago’s Loyola that limped the Buckeyes to the end with a 1–4 finish.
Suing is back and apparently healthy. He scored his 33 points against his tech in Texas in his Classic in Maui, but it’s not easy to do against that defense. Also, he wasn’t bombing from the outside. 6-6 Senior is the problem.
Like Duke, Ohio State has suffered huge losses since last year with nine players leaving, including Kyle Young, Justin Ahrens, Meechee Johnson and Jamali Wheeler. Liddell and Malachi Branham entered the NBA Draft and were selected in the first round.
Holtman finished with Swing and 6-8/255 lb Zed Kee (junior), 6-2 Bruce Thornton (freshman), 6-4 Sean McNeil (graduate transfer student from West Virginia), 6-5 Isaac Rikekele ( graduate students). Moved from Oklahoma.
The main benches are 6-6 senior Tanner Holden from Wright State, 6-6 freshman Bryce Sensabo, 6-4 freshman Roddy Gale, and 6-11 fellow freshman Felix Okpala. Eugene Brown, a sophomore from his sophomore year who played in many games last year, has not played so far after entering protocol for a concussion.
Convention doesn’t always hold, but on the face of it, Ohio State is missing two key ingredients: size and point guard.
The two most natural fits at this point are Riquele and Thornton, both starting. Average 6.2 apg between them (Likekele has 3.5 per game and Thornton has 2.7).
The three players averaged in double digits: Sensabaugh at 15.8, Sueing at 14.5 and Key at 12.5.
Key is also the team’s best rebounder (8.5), although a few players rebound quite a bit, even on the smaller side.
Ohio State isn’t a great three-pointer, but they’re better than Duke at the moment.
One of Jon Scheyer’s goals is to build a team of players who can shoot well from the outside.
So far, not very good. At the final check, Duke was shooting from behind the line where he was under 30%. At loss, it drops to 12.5%.
Part of this is that some young players are still adjusting to college basketball. Tyrese Proctor is 5-32 so far, but clearly he can shoot. He didn’t hit for some reason.
Still, it’s 15.6%. Dariq Whitehead is a little better than he is at 21.4%, but is still back on track after a summer leg injury.
Still, no one gets above 40% on threes. Mark Mitchell he is the best with 37.5%. His two very experienced players, Jacob Grandison and Jeremy Roach, achieve 33.3% and him 32.4% respectively.
Duke should have a big advantage when it comes to size. At 7-1 and 7-0 respectively, Derick Lively and Kyle Filipowski should have some chances around the basket. The only real shot blocker OSU has is freshman Okpala where he scores 1.2 per game.
However, there are multiple ways to solve the problem. Ohio State, like many schools until Duke snatches it up with better shooting, can choose to pack in a zone around the big shot and have Duke fire from the outside.
The team is still in development and will change significantly once Whitehead and Lively are fully integrated into the rotation. Sometimes you can see both of them doing really funny things. Lively is certainly a shot blocker, but he seems like a very smart passer and runs beautifully on the floor.
And Whitehead hasn’t let loose too much of his slashing game. He shoots a fair amount, but he doesn’t shoot very well. So far he has achieved 26.7% overall and 21.4% in 3s. He’s an extraordinary athlete and he’s always shot forward.Once he’s fully recovered, you can expect him to recover again.
It’s going to be a rewarding night. Holtmann is the real deal and he will have the team ready to go. Duke must match their intensity.
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