Saturday, March 18, 2006
Georgetown is led by 7-foot-2 center Roy Hibbert in today's Minneapolis Regional matchup.
DAYTON (AP) -- Ohio State's Terence Dials didn't do a very good job of trying to hide how tired he was of answering questions about Georgetown center Roy Hibbert.
"I've played 31 games this season. I've played the same way all season long. I'm not going to change my game because he's 7-2," Dials said.
Dials, the Big Ten's player of the year, then left the podium. He wasn't angry, but he heard enough about the tall challenge he'll face when the second-seeded Buckeyes (26-5) take on the No. 7-seeded Hoyas (22-9) today in the Minneapolis Regional.
Dials all alone
Much has been made of the Hoyas' upper hand in height -- they start 7-2, 6-9, 6-9 underneath. At 6-9, Dials is the Buckeyes' tallest player, and he'll be largely alone against all those big guys inside.
Georgetown coach John Thompson III doesn't believe Ohio State will alter its approach because of a height disadvantage.
"Whatever your strengths are, that's what you're going to do," Thompson said. "If you're just looking at heights, I don't know too many teams that we're going to play who are going to have someone bigger than us. Ohio State is going to do what they've had success with all year. They're not going to reinvent the wheel."
The Hoyas, back in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2001, go with the 7-2 Hibbert, and 6-9 bookend forwards Brandon Bowman and Jeff Green.
Led way in opener
Hibbert hit 8-of-10 shots from the field and had 17 points and nine rebounds in a 54-49 victory over Northern Iowa in the first round Friday. Bowman and Green combined for eight points and 14 rebounds.
"It will be a little bit more of a challenge with that size and length around the basket," Buckeyes coach Thad Matta said of the task facing Dials. "Hopefully, he can get some angles to score. He's just got to go at him [Hibbert]."
After the first-round win, Thompson was asked for his impressions when he first saw the raw, inexperienced Hibbert.
"My first thoughts were that he's awful. He could barely walk," Thompson said, pausing for the laughter to die down. "I remember how our trainer, in the fall of his freshman year, had him in the gym working on running: 'This is how you run.' "
Thrown into games without much seasoning, Hibbert has matured and developed. Although he still has miles to go as an offensive threat, he has come a long way in terms of altering shots, court awareness and rebounding.
Need to shoot better
Like most of the teams still alive in the tournament, Ohio State is more concerned with correcting the flaws in its own game. The Buckeyes were one of the top shooting teams in the nation until the latter stages of the season. They've shot 23 percent on 3-pointers over the last seven games, pulling their season average behind the arc down to 37 percent.
Most worrisome is the shooting of Je'Kel Foster, their top outside threat. Foster hit 2-of-24 3-pointers in three Big Ten tournament games last week, then followed that up by going 1-for-4 in the Buckeyes' 70-62 victory over Davidson in the first round.
Father lends hand
Foster said he tossed up around 1,000 shots earlier this week with his father rebounding for him, trying to get out of his slump. His father wasn't at the first-round game, but he called with a critique.
"He told me that the shot looked great," Foster said. "Just keep shooting it, he said, and it will fall for me."
Thompson said he was concerned about Foster and the rest of the Buckeyes finally finding the range.
"They are a team that can score points in bunches because of their shooting," he said. "They can surround a very good interior presence [Dials] with four very good shooters. That's what causes problems."
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