Jake Diebler wants his Ohio State program to push the pace, and he sees that as key against a methodical Virginia Tech team in the NIT's second round.
It’s said in the world of combat sports that styles make fights. If styles make basketball games, Ohio State should be going from an unfamiliar contest against Cornell to one it knows all too well against Virginia Tech.The Hokies play at a similar pace to the Buckeyes, averaging 68.8 possessions per game to OSU’s 69.1.
“They’ll be a little more deliberate, I think, offensively than what we saw and we may not be in as many advantaged situations offensively as we were against Cornell,” Diebler said. “But we still want to make sure we are pushing the tempo and taking advantage of early-clock opportunities. The Big Red came out with a unique style involving a full-court press, relentless pace and an offense centered around spacing the floor with a litany of backdoor cuts. The Buckeyes needed some last-minute heroics to pull out an“I talked about how challenging of a team that is to prepare for such a quick turnaround, but I thought the last three, four minutes of the game, it was a great experience for us,” Diebler said.
Two other Virginia Tech players cross the 13-point per game threshold, those being guard Hunter Cattoor and center Lynn Kidd at 13.4 and 13.2 points a contest. Kidd also paces the squad in rebounding with 6.6 boards per game.
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