I saw very little of the game, but SU was a big man away from beating OSU if some of the other players had a bad or so-so game, which is what happened. A dominating big man who can defend, block shots and rebound on both ends of the floor can make up for a multitude of deficiencies. Without melo the margin of error shrunk and that margin cost SU a trip to -4. If Joseph and Waiters make more plays and shot the ball better or some other player came up big like Southerland (not sure I got that name right) who put up like 10 points late in the game against us, it probably would have made the difference.
To put is simply to make -4 and even win the whole thing you either have to play at a consistently high level if you're a team that has a small margin of error, or play just well enough to win when you're a team that has a large margin of error, or simply get lucky enough times when your oponents happen to put up more of a stinker than you do. Without Melo SU simply had to player better to beat a team as good as OSU. The little I saw seemed more a case of a team that simply didn't make enough plays compared to a coaching staff that didn't make the right adjustments. Now maybe if I caught more of the game, I would be thinking differently.
What did most of you see? Could JB have made adjustments that would have made a difference, or did the players just simply not do enough against a very good team that simply made more plays?