Keys to scoring on Ohio State

Ohio State is primarily a man-to-man team. They like to pressure the guards. Smith and Thompson are very good at getting into the passing lanes so make good passes around them. They can be beat backdoor. Craft and Scott really pressure the ball handler. You must protect the ball around them. Use a "crack back," which is a big man setting a ball screen in the backcourt on the guard to release pressure. Thomas can be lazy on defense at times. Use him in a lot of ball screens. Ohio State likes to force side ball screens to the baseline. There are two ways to beat this. First is to have the guard reject the screen and beat the big on the baseline to the basket. The other way is to pop or slip the big setting the ball screen to the top. Here he will have an open shot or an angle to drive to the lane to make a play. Ohio State can be beat in transition. Because they attack the boards, they don't get back on defense every time.

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