Basketball Missing Consistency

Ohio State men's basketball has been maddening this year. The record is solid, the RPI is fantastic and the schedule strength is among the upper echelon. Yet the feeling is a somewhat empty as if we cannot get a bead on the identity of this team. More pointedly, the play has been schizophrenic, typified by periods of exceptional basketball befit of experienced teams along with horrid spells where making a basket of any type is an exercise in futility.

With a healthy dose of irony, the only thing that's been consistent is the inconsistency. This was never more apparent in the 76-60 win over a pretty good Minnesota squad on Saturday evening. After jumping out to a commanding 19-3 lead, the Buckeyes found themselves hanging on by only 3 deep into the second half. And just like that, a switch was flipped to catalyze a 32-19 run to end the game in a flurry. Such is life with a young team I suppose.

If the team has aspirations of an NCAA berth the next month needs to be the time to galvanize. A year long calming force has been veteran Jamar Butler. Even when he isn't scoring a lot, he's taking care of the ball and handling the junk defenses opposing coaches throw at him. He's beginning to get help as other players step up. In particular, Evan Turner has played extremely well of late despite the rotation becoming shorter and minutes increasing. Turner has been in double figures each of his last three games where he hasn't played fewer than 34 minutes (see above graphic).

Next up is a road trip to Penn State (sans Geary Claxton) and then to Iowa. Perhaps David Lightly can work on his turnover issues.