Will Thin Bench Be OSU's Undoing ... Again?
Friday, January 21, 2011 at 10:07PM 
By JOHN P. WISEOne Great Season
A common refrain among college basketball observers this year has been some variation of "it's not often you lose the national Player of the Year and actually get better the next season."
Experts have been saying that the last eight weeks about Ohio State, which lost Evan Turner to the NBA after his junior season ended in a slightly surprising Sweet 16 loss to Tennessee in last year's NCAA Tournament.
But incoming freshman Jared Sullinger has been the best first-year player in America, and in the opinions of some, the best player in the country period. Exhibit A? Check the tape of his 27-point, 16-rebound effort in a nationally televised win at Illinois Saturday.
Steady seniors like David Lighty and Jon Diebler have another year of experience under their belts, as do William Buford and Dallas Lauderdale. Freshmen Aaron Craft and Deshaun Thomas have been splendid additions as well.
Stop me if you know where this is headed. We're five paragraphs in and we've mentioned seven Ohio State players.
Can you name any more?
Sullinger will collect plenty of postseason awards, Lighty will continue to stretch his winningest-OSU-player mark and the Buckeyes seem poised to win at least a share of another Big Ten regular season championship and perhaps the league's conference tournament.
But a lack of depth, the issue you read about plenty on these pages last year, will be Ohio State's undoing once again in 2011.
I once thought depth was an overrated element of NCAA Tournament success. If teams played disciplined defense, as Thad Matta's men often do, foul trouble shouldn't be an issue and a team with a thin bench should be OK playing two games in three days, as the tournament requires on three successive weekends.
But foul trouble isn't the only ailment that can expose a team with a weak bench. What if Diebler doesn't make 5-of-8 three-point attempts? What if Lighty suffers through a rare game in which he isn't filling up a stat sheet? What if Buford disappears, as he's done during stretches in a season that was supposed to see him take a huge step forward?
What if Sullinger rolls an ankle?
The starting five is nice, no doubt. But depth is not an insignificant issue here, and the Buckeyes lack it. Therefore, it wouldn't surprise me to see them take their No. 1 or No. 2 seed into the Sweet Sixteen against a tough, talented, deep and well-coached team and have their hearts broken once again.
Reader Comments (2)
If we are 7 deep this year, it is 2 deeper than we were last year. Very excited about theBucks this year.
Bucks rotated seven guys last year as well. The overall talent of this year's seven is better, but still lacking depth on the blocks. OSU is unbeatable when things are clicking and all guys are filling their roles, but to ask everyone to do it all the time is asking for perfection. All it takes is one off night in March.