Matt Terwilliger was a role player last season, but he’ll play a more prominent role this season, especially while Greg Oden is out.
Coach Thad Matta said it’s "the million-dollar question" as the Ohio State men’s basketball team prepares for a new season.
No, it’s not when Greg Oden will play for the Buckeyes. It’s how the Buckeyes will play while their precocious 7-foot freshman can’t.
"If you know anybody that has any answers, have them call us," said Alan Major, one of Matta’s assistants. "It’s something we haven’t been through."
With Oden, the Buckeyes could resemble last season’s team, which typically surrounded center Terence Dials with four perimeter players of varying sizes and strengths. This team could apply more defensive pressure on the perimeter because Oden’s shot-blocking ability mitigates the risk of his teammates being beaten.
Without Oden, the Buckeyes could resemble one of those maddening mid-majors that threatens bigger opponents with mobile post players who can score from the perimeter and open the lane. Junior Matt Terwilliger (6 feet 8, 245 pounds) and junior-college transfer Othello Hunter (6-9, 220), the only inside players other than Oden on the roster, are shorter and lighter than he is and are being groomed as inside-outside forwards. For the first two months of the season, they also could be inside-outside centers, which Oden is not.
"You potentially could have two different teams at the beginning and at the end," Matta said, "and (for now), I don’t completely know the answer to what we’re going to do."
Terwilliger, who backed up Dials the past two seasons, spent the spring working on his perimeter game with the expectation of getting minutes alongside Oden as a power forward, as well as backing him up. Coaches see in Terwilliger the potential to be a better-rebounding version of Matt Sylvester, the starter at the position last season.
After Oden had wrist surgery in June that could force him to miss games until January, Terwilliger devoted more time to his post game. Hunter did not arrive on campus until late August.
"With Matt, the big thing going into the offseason (was that) we wanted him to make his game more versatile, more inside-outside," Matta said. "My big thing with Matt (now) is he’s going to have to rebound the basketball and be a low-post defender. That’s going to be the biggest challenge for him, guarding the opposing center as the season begins."
Terwilliger seemed to improve on the block as last season progressed. Matta had enough confidence in him to leave him on the floor for the final five minutes of Ohio State’s first win at Michigan State in 14 years. Terwilliger held Spartans center Paul Davis without a shot while Dials sat on the bench with four fouls.
"I think I’m more confident this year than I was last year," Terwilliger said.
Inconsistent rebounding kept him from being more effective last season. He would like to think that won’t be a problem anymore.
"I didn’t really know how to be aggressive in high school," he said. "I was bigger and faster and I could jump higher than everyone, so I didn’t have to do a whole lot. Now that I’ve been here for three years, the aggressiveness I have in my game is at a completely different level than it was coming out of high school."
Coaches hope Terwilliger learned from going head-tohead against Dials in practice.
"Understanding how to beat people not just with your ability but also with your brain. That’s the thing Terence figured out," Major said. "How do you go from 10 (points) and six (rebounds per game) to 16 and 8? It’s running harder in transition and maybe getting easy buckets. It’s going to the offensive boards every time. It’s building your body up physically so you can play with more energy longer.
"As you get older, the physical part of your game starts to level off. But what can’t ever level off is the mental part of your game. Hopefully, he picked up those things because Terence did a great job of learning the game and becoming a student of the game the older he got."
