Basketball Preview: #3 OSU vs. #8 Florida

The following is an excerpt from ESPN.com’s article breaking down all 21 games in 25 hours of the ESPN College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon:

"8 p.m. ET: No. 8 Florida at No. 3 Ohio State (ESPN2/ESPN3)Welcome to hour No. 21. It was this time last season when, having just chatted for 20 straight hours, yours truly was beginning to think the Marathon would never end.  I became awash in existential doubt.  I may have been hallucinating.  I can’t really remember.  Then Jared Sullinger and the Ohio State Buckeyes woke me up.  I wasn’t the only one.  OSU’s dominant win in Gainesville announced the presence of Sullinger and the Bucks as one of the nation’s true national championship contenders — and they’ve been hunting that title ever since. Sullinger is back for his sophomore season, and he’s already begun to flash his expanded perimeter game; he even knocked down a 3 in Ohio State’s season-opening romp over Wright State. But Florida is no Wright State.  When the Gators arrive in Columbus, they’ll bring one of the best — certainly the deepest — backcourts in the country.  Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton are experienced; freshman Bradley Beal is among the nation’s elite new talents; and Rutgers transfer Mike Rosario, who reached the 1,000-point mark with the Scarlet Knights by his sophomore season, is a scoring machine.  Florida’s frontcourt won’t do much scoring this season, but thanks to sophomore Patric Young, it will be as physically forceful as any in the country.  Florida is hoping to make a statement symmetrical to Ohio State’s, using an impressive road win to prove that it should be counted among the nation’s elite.  Your fatigue-induced hallucinations will have to wait."

I won’t take the time to break down the entire roster for both schools, but here is a brief run-down of each team’s five (probable) starters for tonight’s game:

FLORIDA GATORS (Head Coach – Billy Donovan)

Erving Walker (#11, Guard, Senior, 5’8″, 171 lbs)

Career stats – 12.4 points per game, 3.5 assists per game, 1.1 steals per game

Walker is a tiny, speedy point guard who has matured in his role as the leader of the offense, but he has bouts where he loses focus, gets frustrated, and gets sloppy with the basketball (see 2010 vs. OSU, 7 turnovers)

Kenny Boynton  (#1, Guard, Junior, 6’2″, 189 lbs) 

Career stats – 14.1 points per game, 2.7 assists per game, 1 steal per game

Streaky player who has very few consistent (14 point) games, and instead tends to either put up a point total in the twenties or single digits

Bradley Beal  (#23, Guard, Freshman, 6’3″, 185 lbs)  

Career stats (based on 1 collegiate game) – 14 points per game, 3 assists, 1 steal

Regarded by many as the top shooting guard in the 2011 high school class, and described as having a fundamentally solid offensive and defensive game

Patric Young (#4, Forward/Center, Sophomore, 6’9″, 247 lbs)

Career stats – 3.6 points per game, 3.9 rebounds per game, 0.9 blocks per game (12 points in his 1 game this year)

Solid player, but unless we see drastic improvements in his game tonight, he should be in over his head guarding Sullinger, and the lack of big-man depth for the Gators does not help him

Mike Rosario (#3, Guard, Junior, 6’3″, 191 lbs)

Career stats – 16.5 points per game, 3.7 rebounds per game, 1 steal per game

Transfer from Rutgers who is a natural scorer and good shooter

— Also seeing significant playing time — Erik Murphy (#33, Forward/Center, Junior, 6’10”, 230 lbs)

OHIO STATE BUCKEYES (Head Coach – Thad Matta)          

Aaron Craft (#4, Guard, Sophomore, 6’2″, 190 lbs)

Career stats – 7.1 points per game, 4.7 rebounds per game, 2 steals per game

Defensive expert who will be looking to also manage the offense and shoot a bit more than last season with the departures of Lighty and Diebler

William Buford (#44, Guard, Senior, 6’6″, 220 lbs)

Career stats – 13.4 points per game, 2.4 assists per game, 4.4 steal per game

Sharpshooter (44.8% FG for his career) who will be OSU’s main offensive threat outside of the paint this season

Lenzelle Smith Jr. (#32, Guard, Sophomore, 6’4″, 205 lbs)

Career stats – 1.5 points per game, 1.1 rebounds per game, 0.3 steals per game (8 pts, 7 rebounds, 2 steals in 1 game this year) 

New man in the rotation is a good defensive player — much needed after David Lighty graduated — and good shooter, also his size creates matchup problems for smaller teams

Deshaun Thomas (#1, Forward, Sophomore, 6’7″, 225 lbs)

Career stats – 7.6 points per game, 3.6 rebounds per game, 0.4 steals per game

Very talented scorer and rebounder, will need to learn to control his play and occasionally slow his tempo and pass the ball every once in a while

Jared Sullinger (#0, Forward, Sophomore, 6’9″, 270 lbs)

Career stats – 17.2 points per game, 10.2 rebounds per game, 0.6 blocks per game

OSU revolves around Sullinger, who put up 26 points against Florida last year, but he has proven that he is up to the task and with some added size in the rotation he may get to work on his mid-range game a bit more as well

Prediction:  OSU 78     Florida 72

This should be an excellent game, and a great way to really dive into the 2011-2012 college basketball season.  So much is unknown about how a team will play this early in the year, so it could go either way, but I’d expect Ohio State’s size and advantage underneath to play a big part in the game.  Look for Sullinger to dominate in the paint on the offensive side of the ball, and for OSU’s height advantage to help them in maintaining an edge on the glass all night.  I am predicting double-doubles for both Jared Sullinger and Deshaun Thomas, as well as a 16+ point performance by Florida’s Mike Rosario.  It’s officially basketball season when you get treated to a huge matchup like this in November…enjoy and Go Bucks!