1) Use his 2nd Half Timeouts to Freshen Up Oden - Timeouts can be used for several things during the course of a basketball game, they can be used to draw up plays in the last minute of the game, to recoup when the other team is on a huge run and they can be used to give your guys a breather. There was no reason with the 2 minute tv timeouts and the arsenal of timeouts at Matta's use for him to be tired. If Matta used 3 timeouts sporadically during the 2nd half to give his big man a breather but not have him miss any time, that's how he could have done it.2) Install a Player to Never Leave Humphrey - Whether it was Lighty, or Butler, or Lewis, someone should have shadowed Humphrey and not left him at any point in time, until they were absolutely 100% positive one of their big man wrapped up the rebounds. There were 3 occasions where Humphrey was completely wide open for a three which he buried, and his 4th three was off a sweet pump fake which you can't do much about, certainly can't blame Matta for that one. But the wide open ones should have been dealt with.
3) Hedge the Screens - For the most part when Richard or Speights was in the game running the pick and roll Oden was covering them. When they ran the pick and rolls to get Oden uncomfortable which freed up Green, for open 3s cause Oden dropped back there was a simple solution. Hedge the screen. If Oden jump the screen before Green could have turned the corner it would have given Conley or Butler, whoever was covering Green the time to recover back to the ball. I can't imagine that Matta didn't know they were going to try to run pick and rolls against Oden. And when they ran them with Richard and Speights, guys that aren't terrific offensive weapons, hedging the screen wasn't a risky maneuver and could have possibly resulted in Green not nailing every single one of the threes he shot. (This was actually one of the few good things Billy Packer pointed out during the game)
4) Harris Should Not have Played the 4 - He was completely overmanned by Noah who is not that physical of a post player, and on the occasions he covered Horford he was completely dominated down low. Terwilliger or Hunter should have been in the game more to match up for defensive purposes, but both only played 5 minutes a piece. And it's not like they would have missed much on the offensive end, Harris had 7 in 26 minutes and was 2-8 from the field, all 3 point shots. Which goes with the next point. I'd also argue Lighty should have been in there more than Butler who was providing nothing, but I have less a problem with that.5) Pound the Paint, Stop Shooting 3s - I know some people will say you can't go against what got you here. The Buckeyes buried a lot of 3s this season and that got them to the championship and brought them back in games against Tennessee and Xavier. But here's the fact, 10-15 (Oden FGs), 4-23 (3 pt FGs and 2 of those came in the last minute when it didn't matter). Not only was Oden dominating whoever covered him but no one could stop Conley from getting to the rack which does a bunch of things. First the Buckeyes were in the bonus in the second half with 10 minutes to play. Second, Horford, Noah and Richard all had a ton of fouls. Third you better utilize Oden and Hunter (The Last point) for offensive rebounding purposes. Long rebounds from 3s are almost impossible for Oden to snatch up cause they can go anywhere, if Conley gets to the paint and perchance Oden's guy goes up to contest the shot, even if he misses it could be a quick cleanup for Oden. I can't find the stat online but CBS posted the points in the paint differential with about a minute or so to go and it was something like 46-20 Buckeyes. It was obvious that was the way the Buckeyes could have won the game, especially when they got it down to 6. But they kept bombing their miserable 3s.
In addition Oden should have never left the low block for any reason. They couldn't handle him, and the pick and roll just got Oden away from the basket. It was successful in other games but it wasn't needed yesterday. Conley could beat his guy by himself no problem. All the screens accomplished was getting Oden away from the hoop which Florida was probably happy about. And why do they ever pass Oden the ball in the high post on the elbow, he's not Tim Duncan, he doesn't have that in his game yet. Oden should have been on the block all game long, no exception.
I'm not saying that Ohio St. would have won the game if Matta had done these things, but he certainly could have made the game competitive down the stretch. All in all I think he'll look at this game film sometime this week and know that he got completely out coached.
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