OSU men's basketball: New look, same respect
CHICAGO -- Jamar Butler and David Lighty thought they would be able to play the no-respect card this season.
With the Ohio State men's basketball team having lost four starters and returning only four regulars from the team that reached the NCAA championship game last season, Butler thought the Buckeyes would be picked to finish in the bottom half of the Big Ten.
They were surprised yesterday when told that a 22-member media panel voted them for third, behind Michigan State and Indiana.
"I guess some people still like us a little bit," Lighty said during the conference's basketball media day.
Ohio State lost three freshmen -- Greg Oden, Mike Conley Jr. and Daequan Cook -- chosen in the first round of the NBA draft, and two seniors, Ron Lewis and Ivan Harris, who are playing professionally in Europe.
Butler, who was voted to the preseason all-Big Ten team, is the team's only returning starter. Lighty, Othello Hunter and Matt Terwilliger played regularly off the bench.
"I don't know who picked, but somebody must know something I don't," coach Thad Matta said.
What they know is Matta's track record. He has led two different Ohio State teams -- Butler being the only one to start on each -- to Big Ten championships the past two years. In his first seven years as a coach, at Butler, Xavier and Ohio State, Matta's teams have won conference championships five times.
"Thad has got the respect now that he has won with different guys," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. "It wasn't just with Greg Oden and Conley."
But Matta acknowledged that Greg Oden and Conley were a big reason he was able to win with a lineup that included four freshmen and a junior-college transfer. That team was the preseason pick to win the Big Ten, opened the season ranked seventh nationally, never was lower and finished the regular season No. 1.
This season, the roster includes five freshmen and two transfers and was just outside the top 25 in the first coaches poll released last week.
"With this team, I'm glad we're not No. 1 in the country," Matta said. "Looking back on last year's team, it was probably good that we were there. I think it put some pressure (on) that I didn't want those guys to have, but I thought they handled it very well. With this team, I don't know how well we would handle it, so where we are is fine with me."
The Buckeyes play their first exhibition game Wednesday against Ashland in Value City Arena.
"Right now, we're just trying to learn," Butler said. "We have a ways to go. We have a lot of things we need to learn and to put in for this team to be successful."
Butler was one of five seniors voted to the preseason all-Big Ten team, two years after finishing his sophomore season as one of the best point guards in the conference. Last season, he took one for the team, moving off the point to make way for Conley.
"I'm just going to go out and play the way I played at the point my freshman and sophomore years and just play my game," he said. "If I jump up on the radar and they say I'm the best point guard in the Big Ten, I'll be happy with it."
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