soccer10k

With Oden they wont have to double down as much as UCLA is and Florida probably wont get all those open look 3s. I didnt see the blowout earlier this year at Florida so im not speaking from much experience. The problem for OSU is Oden can't guard both Horford and Noah so Florida is going to have a mismatch right there. Plus if Oden gets in foul trouble, that's two mismatches. Where as if one of Noah/Horford gets in foul trouble, the other can still guard Oden. So OSU is going to have to either gamble with one-on-one coverage of either Noah or Horford or double and hope Florida isn't hitting from outside. Ohio St. does have other size. They have 3 other big men that get decent minutes. Oden can guard Horford who is less active, and Hunter/Harris can guard Noah, because they are more athletic. Ivan Harris gives up four inches to Noah and will get dominated inside by him. Harris, maybe but he still gives up 2 inches. And it's not like Noah isn't athletic. He's one of the most athletic and active big men in college and it will be a mismatch in Florida's favor. Ohio State is a guard-oriented team after Oden. Florida matches up extremely well with them. They didn't win by 26 earlier this year for no reason. Humphrey, Green, and Brewer shot a combined 21-34 for 54 points in that game so OSU has to figure out what to do there as well. I never said Noah wasn't athletic. I was saying Harris/Hunter are more athletic than Oden (As far as guarding a player like Noah). Nobody is going to matchup against Noah. But it's far from Oden having to guard him and Horford at the same time. Especially, considering OSU will play a lot of zone. And I think the main reasons Florida won by 26 points is because they were at home and they had 5 returning starters against a team with 3 of its top 4 players having less than 12 games experience. Oden had about 7 games of college experience, and that was all with 1 hand at the time. I just don't see all that much changing. I don't expect it to be an exact repeat of the first meeting though I am predicting a 15 point Florida victory. Of course OSU is better now then they were the first meeting because of experience. If Oden gets in foul trouble (which I would say is likely), OSU will be in trouble. Florida will dominate them on the offensive boards (and could even if Oden isn't in foul trouble) assuming they don't shoot 60% from the field again. I just think Florida does so many things well as a team and they have so many ways that they can beat you that OSU doesn't pose a huge threat to them.

With Oden they wont have to double down as much as UCLA is and Florida probably wont get all those open look 3s. I didnt see the blowout earlier this year at Florida so im not speaking from much experience. The problem for OSU is Oden can't guard both Horford and Noah so Florida is going to have a mismatch right there. Plus if Oden gets in foul trouble, that's two mismatches. Where as if one of Noah/Horford gets in foul trouble, the other can still guard Oden. So OSU is going to have to either gamble with one-on-one coverage of either Noah or Horford or double and hope Florida isn't hitting from outside. Ohio St. does have other size. They have 3 other big men that get decent minutes. Oden can guard Horford who is less active, and Hunter/Harris can guard Noah, because they are more athletic. Ivan Harris gives up four inches to Noah and will get dominated inside by him. Harris, maybe but he still gives up 2 inches. And it's not like Noah isn't athletic. He's one of the most athletic and active big men in college and it will be a mismatch in Florida's favor. Ohio State is a guard-oriented team after Oden. Florida matches up extremely well with them. They didn't win by 26 earlier this year for no reason. Humphrey, Green, and Brewer shot a combined 21-34 for 54 points in that game so OSU has to figure out what to do there as well.

With Oden they wont have to double down as much as UCLA is and Florida probably wont get all those open look 3s. I didnt see the blowout earlier this year at Florida so im not speaking from much experience. The problem for OSU is Oden can't guard both Horford and Noah so Florida is going to have a mismatch right there. Plus if Oden gets in foul trouble, that's two mismatches. Where as if one of Noah/Horford gets in foul trouble, the other can still guard Oden. So OSU is going to have to either gamble with one-on-one coverage of either Noah or Horford or double and hope Florida isn't hitting from outside.

Assuming Florida wins this game (a pretty good bet at this point) I don't see OSU giving Florida a much better game than they did earlier in the year. Sure, Oden's healthy now and OSU is playing better but I think Noah and Horford are going to eat Oden alive inside and OSU is going to have to pick its poisen whether its Noah/Horford or Brewer/Humphrey/Green.

UCLA does know Corey Brewer can shoot, right?

Wow, Horford only has 3 points and no field goals today.

Their combined ugliness so close to each other shocked the refs so much that they were unable to blow the whistle for a foul call.

UCLA in trouble down 11.

Well that sounds like an enjoyable night Truffle.

Danger time for UCLA.

Florida can't anything early on today.

Take that, Raisin Oh, I forgot to add, don't ban me Raisin. :wink:

Seeing as I now want OSU to lose in the final, I think I'll have to pull for Florida over UCLA in the semifinal here. I just don't hate Joakim Noah like most people do. Sorry Raisin.

The speeches the award winners have been giving (Tucker and Kevin Durant earlier) have been so hilariously cheesy. Unintentional comedy at its finest.

When you get to be middle-aged, the face tends to sag a bit. If I didn't know any better watching Packer interview Oden there after the game, I would have thought OSU lost based on Oden's facial expression while he was standing there. Conley was smiling as was Matta but Oden looked like he was about to cry.

Does Greg Oden have to look so glum all the time? Dude never shows any emotion at all.

Georgetown killed themselves with turnovers today (14 to 7) and defensive rebounding (OSU had 16 offensive boards).

If Ohio State kills my bracket here, I'm thinking I'm going to have to pull for the winner of the UCLA/Florida game in the final.

This one is just about over.

That's BS!! That's should be a charge on Oden and his fourth foul. The Georgetown player had his feet set and Oden barreled right into him. That's crap.

Come on Hibbert, make some free throws.

Three fouls on Oden and three on Hibbert now. EDIT: Crap, Hibbert has four now.

The Cubs also won big in the opener in 2003.

I guess they are counting Piazza, Mondesi, etc. as pre-1995 Piazza has been up since 1992 Mondesi in 93 Don't forget about our favorite! Todd Hollandsworth was part of that trio of rookie of the years i believe. Edit: It was 1996 with Nomo being 1995 and Mondesi being 1994 Eric Karros also won ROY.

Oden isn't. Not this year. This is absurd. Oden is clearly the best player on Ohio State. He leads them in points, rebounds, blocks, field goal percentage and points per shot. He's also their best defensive player -- by a wide margin. Even if he didn't score at all, his defensive presence makes an enormous, though unquantifiable, difference. Plus, until the last three tournament games, he hasn't been in foul trouble at all. Mike Conley Jr. controls the ball all the time. He's their point guard. It's easier for Oden to get a ton of points/rebounds/blocks when he's primarily guarded by and guarding guys that are a couple inches shorter than he is. It's also easy to rack up a high field goal percentage when you don't shoot from more than eight feet out and a lot of your scores are dunks and layups. That's why they are called high percentage shots. Yes he is probably the best defensive player on his team and one of the best in the nation but his offense leaves a lot to be desired.