Refs, tough defensive matchup to test Wesson
BOISE, Idaho — The lights of the biggest stage of the year often shine brightest on the biggest men on the court. As it prepared for its first NCAA Tournament game in three years, Ohio State has been hoping that would prove to be a good thing.
The grind of the Big Ten season is complete, and with the changing of the seasons comes the adjustment to new sets of officials unaccustomed to the style of play that has been established in conference play.
It’s a situation that affects everyone on the court, but perhaps nobody more than a player such as Kaleb Wesson. A member of the Big Ten’s all-freshman team, Wesson will be looking to acclimate himself to the new season and a new opponent in South Dakota State while staying on the good side of the whistles.
“It’s just going to happen,” he said of the game likely being called differently from what he’s accustomed to. “Sometimes the refs are going to call it ticky-tack. A guy like me where I’m using my body a lot, they might just say you’re moving people too much. Stuff like that.”
Wesson fouled out in Ohio State’s first two games in Portland as part of the PK80 Invitational in late November but only three times the rest of the season. One of those was at Indiana in the final game of the regular season, when he played a career-high 33 minutes in a doubleovertime win.
Throughout the season, coach Chris Holtmann has credited Wesson for adapting to the style of play in the Big Ten while learning to cut down on his fouls. He scored at least eight points in all but two Big Ten games, averaging 10.6 points in league play.
One potential task on his plate on Thursday at Taco Bell Arena: Jackrabbits forward Mike Daum, their leading scorer and rebounder, is a matchup problem at 6 feet 9 and 250 pounds, and he also is a dangerous perimeter shooter.
“I think he has to adjust and adapt, and I think he has done a pretty good job at that this year,” Holtmann said of Wesson. “There are bigger concerns obviously for me with Kaleb, and that is the matchup issue there. Kaleb just has to be Kaleb and we’ve got to try to utilize him when we can in the low post, and he has to be on point defensively against as difficult a matchup as he has played against all year.”
Wesson said he has looked to student assistant coach Greg Oden for advice. During his lone season with the Buckeyes, the 7-foot Oden dealt with foul issues during a run to the national championship game and, most memorably, a ballyhooed matchup with Georgetown’s Roy Hibbert in the Final Four. Both big men finished with four fouls.
“He’s also a big guy and it was always called tight against him,” Wesson said of Oden. “You can go to him and he will tell you it’s something you’re going to have to deal with.”
Senior forward Jae’Sean Tate is on similar notice. He was limited to 19 minutes in the Big Ten quarterfinal loss to Penn State due to foul trouble and was cited by Holtmann as a player who needs to keep his emotions in check when he disagrees with a call.
Tate said the Buckeyes are preparing to adapt as necessary.
“They tend to let us play a little more physical than other conferences,” he said. “Our adjustments are going to have to be felt out early in the game with so many different refs. We haven’t seen these refs or know how they call the game.”