Here’s Part 1 from yesterday. Today we’ll cover some things Coach Matta must do to succeed, superlatives and predictions.

5 Things Thad Matta Must Do

1. Play Kam Williams early and often

The lack of depth in the backcourt could really sting the Buckeyes if D’Angelo Russell struggles to adjust to the college game. While Williams has the same about of game experience as Russell, he’s been around for a year. Practiced for a year. He knows his coaches, their system and his teammates. He’s an extremely valuable piece to this squad and Matta has to make sure he gets as much experience as possible in the early games. Hell he may end up as the starting 2 if Russell does indeed stumble out of the blocks. Either way, Matta needs to get him comfortable and scoring by the time Big 10 play rolls around at the end of December.

2. Push the ball in transition

Talked about this a little in Part 1 of the preview. I just threw up in my mouth thinking about our half court offense last year. Russell and Lee will help as polished scorers, but it will take time. Don’t expect us running like a well oiled machine right out of the gate. That’s one reason why we need to make a concentrated effort to get buckets in transition – it gets the underclassmen’s blood flowing, momentum swings in the right direction and it points the almighty points on the scoreboard.

Matta also needs to take advantage of this teams’ athleticism. We all know what Slam Thompson can do, and so does ESPN. Scott and Russell can run and finish. Lee will be able to blow by his heftier counterparts. And for a 5, Amir Williams can get up and down the floor better than most (again, when he wants to). Then when we go small and you add Loving, Kam and some of the freshman in the mix? Oh lawd

3. Settle on a rotation quickly

Is our first move going small or McDonald off the bench? Who will play the point when Scott needs a blow? What freshmen will get the most minutes? Loving and Williams will obviously get the lions share of the PT off the bench. But depending on what role Matta determines Tate and KBD will be able to play, this could potentially be a 10 man rotation. A good problem to have, and one we haven’t had to deal with much lately. Obviously need to figure out who plays well together, our go-to lineups for buckets and stops, who can play different positions to create matchup problems (Loving, Thompson at the 4) and who can’t (Tate at the 2).

4. Get Amir Williams touches early

I don’t know if it’s an attitude thing with Amir. It’s certainly a motivational thing. When he gets touches early, scores a couple buckets, throws down a couple hammers, he seems to be more inclined to hustle. Look, I want to like him. I really really do. He has the potential to be a great defender. If getting him the ball and stroking his ego a little bit early in games gives us that rim protector for the rest of the game, let’s do it.

5. Stop skids

Easy for me to say, right? This one is sort of two fold – skids within individual games and skids in the schedule. With a freshman as your go-to scorer and quite a few underclassmen in the rotation, Matta needs to make a conscious effort to stay on top of the momentum meter during each game. If that means taking a timeout a little earlier than he normally would, he needs to pull the trigger. Last year he could count on Craft to calmly walk the ball up, get the team under control and run the shot clock down to one before launching a shot that had no chance. This year, not so much. He’s gone. He’s gone and he’s never coming back. I don’t think Scott will be the verbal leader Aaron was, and he has more inexperience around him.

The 4 game losing (ended up losing 5 of 6) streak in early January last year was a killer, no doubt about it. Only once during the year did a loss not turn into a losing streak (well twice but I’m not counting the 48-39 shit show in Champaign). No offense to Minnesota, Nebraska or Penn State, but the Buckeyes need to beat the teams they’re supposed to beat. Add Rutgers and Maryland to that list this year. The Big 10 is a meat grinder and I know it’s nearly impossible to not have a slip up or two, but another streak like they had in January last year would be extremely detrimental to this Craft-less group.

Superlatives

MVP – D’Angelo Russell

He’s gotta be good. He’s gotta. The Buckeyes need a scorer in the worst way. Lee, Kam, Slam, Loving, they can all find the bucket. But if Russell can do what he’s supposed to and be the focal point of the offense, they’ll all be able to do it quite a bit more.

6th Man of the Year – Kam Williams

For reasons I’ve already beat you in the head with, Williams role this year is going to be extremely important. If he can emerge as a legitimate scoring threat in the Big 10, maybe even win a starting job, the problem of guard depth Matta faces gets just a little bit easier.

Rookie of the Year – Anthony Lee

Sorry buddies, but Ichiro already set the precedent. Lee already has a couple years of collegiate basketball experience but this is his first year in Columbus. He’s an athletic big man who can rebound and score. So that’s pretty cool.

Player that will become a household name come March – Marc Loving

Should see his 10.9 MPG increase drastically this season. Most of his time will come at the 3 or 4. Did some good things his freshman year, showed the ability to score with a pretty jumper. Good from the free-throw line. I imagine a similar scenario to how LaQuinton Ross came into his own during the NCAA tournament two years ago.

Aaron Craft Award – Keita Bates-Diop

The Aaron Craft Award is something I just made up and is pretty much just whoever my rebound is going to be now that he’s moved on. If we’re being honest, whoever I give it to this year will just be keeping it warm for Mickey Mitchell next year anyway, but I really do like KBD. I don’t know how much PT he’ll get until he bulks up a bit, but he can do a little of everything.

(this is Mickey Mitchell)

Prediction

25-7 (12-6 Big 10), 3rd place in Big 10, 4 seed NCAA Tournament. Take it to the bank. And take it now because I’ll just come back in and edit this post at the end of the year.