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Buckeyes prepare for Georgetown rematch
Thursday, March 29, 2007
COLUMBUS — It wasn't the finest exhibition of basketball in Ohio State history.
Last year's second-round loss to Georgetown at UD Arena was a 70-52 defeat, but may have felt worse than that.
Extras
"We've debated whether to show our guys any film from last year or not," Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. "Because it wasn't real pretty."
The No. 2-seeded Buckeyes fell to the seventh-seeded Hoyas after shooting 40 percent from the floor, with more turnovers, fewer steals, fewer free throws and fewer rebounds than Georgetown.
Ohio State's roster wasn't as deep with four guys playing 35 minutes or more. Matt Terwilliger was coming off an appendectomy.
Roy Hibbert scored 20 points and Jeff Green 19 as Georgetown led 38-25 at halftime and expanded the lead. Saturday's Final Four game is a rematch, but Ohio State has five new guys and a nine-man rotation.
"The one thing we know is they got us really good last year," Matta said. "They beat us. For the older guys, they have a feel for that. For the newer guys, they're not as aware of that game last year."
Clean the glass
Hibbert, a 7-foot-2 center, leads five Hoyas grabbing 3.8 rebounds or more. Georgetown averages 11.1 offensive rebounds as Hibbert, Green, guard Jessie Sapp, forward DaJuan Summers and forward Marc Egerson all can cash in on put-backs.
"It's difficult when they give you that feeling like they're going to shoot until they score," associate head coach John Groce said. "One of the things that teams who have had success against them, and it's hard to do, they've been able to compete with them on the backboard. That's the biggest thing."
Three brothers
A Final Four is what AAU teammates Daequan Cook, Greg Oden and Mike Conley Jr. had in mind when they signed with Ohio State.
"It's more than just basketball for us," Cook said. "We're more like a family. We committed to each other early and talked about the things we wanted to do.
"One of the things was to get better and play with a team where players were going to make us better or get with us to win games. That's what we did."
