Turner drives past May

Welcome to our premium postgame basketball feature What We Learned. Here we go following Ohio State’s 68-58 win over visiting Iowa on Sunday.

We learned Turner is looking more and more like the favorite for the Naismith Award

Ohio State junior point guard Evan Turner tied his career high with 32 points and was clearly the difference when it came to holding off a scrappy Iowa team.

Turner is a shoe-in for Big Ten Player of the Year. The only question is whether he will win the Naismith Award as the nation’s top player.

And at this point, I think the award is Turner’s to lose. Kentucky’s John Wall and Duke’s Jon Scheyer are among the other candidates, but Turner is the odds-on favorite.

Big Ten Network analyst Tim Doyle might have put it best:

“Evan Turner is like a varsity basketball player going against the JV,” he said. “If you’re an Ohio State fan, savor these moments because he is a special player. Watching him play, it’s like watching an 18-year-old play Little League. It’s actually unfair for the conference – that’s how good he is on the basketball court.”

Against the Hawkeyes, Turner was 12-of-22 from the field and 8-of-11 from the foul line. He finished with seven rebounds, five assists and four steals. And you know that one weakness in his game that all OSU fans can live with because he is so good in every other area? Well, get this: He didn’t have a turnover on Sunday. Not one.

Turner is getting better as the season progresses and he thinks he just recently returned to full strength as far as his conditioning. Not being able to run for roughly a month set his conditioning back, but he can play 40 minutes with ease now. (More on that later in terms of whether that’s a good idea though.)

We learned OSU’s defense takes a serious hit anytime Lauderdale leaves the court

Well, maybe we already knew that, but Sunday reinforced it.

Ohio State (18-6, 8-3 Big Ten) junior center Dallas Lauderdale has plenty of faults in his game. But he has established himself as a defense force, a post presence that the opposition is always aware of.

The problem is that he is foul prone and the Buckeyes do not have a viable backup. Senior Kyle Madsen does what he can, but when Lauderdale is on the bench, teams are able to attack the paint. We’ve seen it several times this season and that was the case once again on Sunday.

After OSU built a 47-33 lead over Iowa (8-16, 2-9) in the second half – with all signs pointing to a rout – the Hawkeyes were able to climb back to within eight (51-43). Lauderdale picked up his fourth foul and that made it easier for Iowa to do damage.

The good news for the Buckeyes was that their trapping zone defense (basically a 2-1-2) was effective for most of the way and forced 14 Iowa turnovers (OSU had just seven). Ohio State head coach Thad Matta has done a good job of mixing up his defenses and keeping teams off balance lately. However, he can’t be happy that Iowa shot 40 percent from 3-point range (8-of-20) while OSU was in the midst of a cold shooting day from the perimeter (2-of-13 on 3-pointers).

We learned OSU’s bench continues to shrink

(“Shrinkage? It shrinks?” … “I was in the pool!”)

Just when you thought the Buckeyes couldn’t ignore their bench any more than they already do, they prove you wrong. A total of six players were used by Matta on Sunday – the lone reserve being Madsen.

Guards Jeremie Simmons and P.J. Hill did not see the floor and Matta’s disregard for using bench players is unique in his profession to say the least. No one is confusing Simmons and Hill for great college basketball players that should get big minutes, but they have proven they can hold their own and they might be needed down the stretch of the season. This game wasn’t a blowout, but there were certainly times Matta could have put Simmons and Hill in the game and give a couple of his starters a quick rest.

Can OSU get away with never subbing for Turner, William Buford, Jon Diebler and David Lighty in the NCAA Tournament? Looks like we’re going to find out. And Matta wouldn’t sub for Lauderdale either, but he has a tendency to get in foul trouble.

Personally, I think it would do nothing but help Turner to get a quick rest in the first half of a game. I understand the temptation of never wanting him to leave the floor – we’re talking about perhaps the best player in college basketball. But even Michael Jordan (while in his prime) took a few rests per game. Granted, NBA games are 8 minutes longer, but I did say a few rests per game. Just asking for one with Turner.

And if not Turner, at least get Simmons and Hill in there on occasion. When Hill is in the game, Turner could slide to the wing. Just something to mix things up and keep people fresh. An eight-man team is pretty thin to begin with. But now it’s basically a six-man squad for OSU?

We learned May has serious game

Proving that his 18 points against OSU in the first meeting wasn’t a fluke, Iowa freshman Eric May scored 16 on Sunday to lead the Hawkeyes. He came in averaging 9.1 points per game and appears to be a player that has a very bright future.

Iowa should be a decent team next year as it will return all of its players, led by May, Matt Gatens and Aaron Fuller.

We learned the Buckeyes have a legit shot at the Big Ten championship

The regular-season conference crown is now very much in reach for OSU, which moved to just one game back of Michigan State (9-2 Big Ten) for first place. If the Buckeyes can go into East Lansing and win the only regular-season match-up this season between the teams on Feb. 20, Matta might have his third Big Ten title in his six years in Columbus.

Doyle was not holding back his opinion when asked about the race for the league championship.

“I think Ohio State is the best team in the Big Ten right now,” he said. “They have as good of a chance as anyone to win the conference outright.”