Explaining why Ohio State basketball coach Thad Matta showed his team film of the Buckeyes football team

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Thad Matta gathered up some of the best football film he could find, much of which was from the NFL, to illsustated a point to his basketball team.  No. 12 Ohio State, who continues its nonconference schedule at Nationwide Arena vs. North Carolina A&T on Wednesday night, is still breaking in a zone defense, one that Matta feels hasn’t moved well enough at times. Which brought him to football? It sounds weird, but Matta had an explanation.  “What we were trying to show them was when the offense comes, and every time the offense shifts, the defense shifts,” Matta said. “That was the gist of what we were trying to get them to understand. “There were some NFL clips in there, just the best clips that we could find of the quarterback comes up, he calls an audible or whatever, guys are moving this way, then you see the defense move and you see the linebacker hitting the linemen and moving them. “We just were trying to get our guys to understand when the offense moves against our zone, we have to move, too. You have to constantly be adjusting was what I wanted to show them.” So Ohio State’s football team should be happy it was good enough to make it into Matta’s highlight reel of active defenses. Matta showed the Buckeyes’ 49-37 win at Michigan State, the game that vaulted Ohio State into the College Football Playoff picture.  “No question,” Matta responded when asked if it was a compliment. “And I think there was more than Michigan State. There were a couple other games in there in well.  “We just found the best clips of 12 seconds of guys moving and guys shifting and guys pointing. You couldn’t hear them talking, but you knew they were talking. The defensive backs sending guys along…

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