On To The Dance

The Ohio State Buckeyes played a good game today but lost to the Michigan Wolverines, 72-69. The loss knocked the Buckeyes out of the Big Ten Tournament and kept them out of the championship game, where Ohio State has made a home for years.

No loss is ever a good loss — particularly when it’s against that unholy Team Up North — but this game had some redeeming qualities. Once again Ohio State fell far behind, but once again it came back, and against a darned good team. The Buckeyes stayed with Michigan even though the Wolverines shot lights out, and they held down the high-flying Michigan offense for long stretches of the game. In the end, it came down to some missed free throws, an offensive rebound that went Michigan’s way, and a ball that slipped out of Aaron Craft’s hand.

There were lots of positives in this game. OSU guard Shannon Scott was tremendous — hitting little stop and pop jumpers, bombing in treys, making some great passes, and playing tough defense. Scott looked every inch the five-star recruit he was when he first came to the Buckeyes. If he’s found his rhythm offensively, he’ll be the perfect complement to LaQuinton Ross, who played another strong game inside. The Buckeyes got decent production from a range of players, and they’ll also get an extra day’s rest after playing three tough games in three days.

Now it’s on to the Big Dance. Most people are saying the Buckeyes will be a five seed; I’m guessing a six. At this point, it doesn’t much matter – you need to win every game, or you go home. During the Big Ten Tournament, the Buckeyes showed a lot of toughness and will, and those are qualities that should serve them well in the days ahead. If the Buckeyes play offense during the NCAA Tournament like they did today, and manage not to run into a team that shoots better than 50 percent from behind the arc, they may be dancing past the first weekend. Those of us in Buckeye Nation would happily accept that result.

The Comeback Kids

Because I can’t use my left foot or get exercise in the conventional way, I’m trying to get my blood pumping by watching the Ohio State basketball team. So far, my plan is working like a charm.

Today the Buckeyes played Nebraska in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament. Ohio State stunk up the joint at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second and were getting embarrassed, 48-30. My blood pressure was spiking at the pitiful performance, with flushed cheeks and spittle and epithets flying.

But then, improbably, a mop-topped bean pole spurred the Buckeyes. With Amedeo Della Valle hustling his brains out, and LaQuinton Ross making just about every shot he put up, and Aaron Craft playing the tough D that is his trademark, the Buckeyes came back to win, 71-67. That’s a 41-19 run to close out the game — and it was fitting that Della Valle iced the victory by coolly making four free throws with the game on the line.

How do you explain this team? They disappear, then come roaring back. They can’t make a free throw for most of the game, but as the clock winds down they can’t miss. They seem to lose their composure, but as the game ends it’s the other team that is red-faced and stunned.

So, the Buckeyes move on. Tomorrow they play Michigan. The Buckeyes had better bring their A game for all 40 minutes tomorrow, because if they fall behind the Wolverines by 18 there’s no coming back.

Survive And Advance

For the first time in years, the Ohio State Buckeyes played on Thursday in the Big Ten Tournament. Today they were fortunate to win a squeaker, 63-61, over a game Purdue Boilermakers team that gave the Buckeyes all they could handle.

The Buckeyes have been a cipher for months, and today was no different. For stretches they look putrid, then then look pretty good. They can’t make a three-pointer, and their free throw shooting is abysmal. Today they were 1-14 from behind the arc — that’s a nifty 7.1% for the mathematicians out there — and a limp 64% from the free throw line. Once again, they missed free throws that could have put the game away. They also turned the ball over 12 times, and a lot of those turnovers were simple mental mistakes. It’s got to be maddening for Coach Thad Matta when March rolls around and those mistakes keep being made.

With such miserable shooting, it’s amazing that Ohio State won today’s game. If they’d played a better team — Purdue finished last in the Big Ten — they probably would have lost. But the Buckeyes survived and advanced, which is all you can ask for when tournament time rolls around. We can be sure of one thing, though: if they don’t play better, they aren’t going to advance very far. Maybe this game is the one you somehow win when everything goes wrong, and now everything will click into place. Or, maybe this is just another reflection of a team that can’t shoot straight.

Championship Game-Bound

The Ohio State Buckeyes may not be the prettiest college basketball team this year, but they surely are one of the toughest.

The Buckeyes ground out a hard-fought win over the Michigan State Spartans today, 61-58.  The two teams like to battle and play body-up defense, and they showed those qualities today.  Aaron Craft played brilliantly for the Buckeyes, and fortunately survived being hurled to the ground by the neck by the Spartans’ Derrick Nix, on a play that provoked a fusillade of obscenity and brought me out of my chair.  But the Buckeyes hung tough, played through adversity, and when they needed a final bucket to put the game on ice, Deshaun Thomas stepped up and rattled down a jumper.

I recognize that conference tournaments don’t mean a lot, but I’d rather win than lose and go into the NCAA Tournament with some momentum.  Ohio State has played well in the Big Ten Tournament under Thad Matta, and they are going to the championship game again — which seems to be an annual occurrence.  Win or lose tomorrow, and in the Big Dance, this team has come an awful long way since Wisconsin beat the tar out of them a month ago.  Ironically, the Badgers are the team the Buckeyes will face tomorrow, in the final contest of the Big Ten season.

Down Goes Michigan

The Michigan Wolverines have had a tough time of it lately.

Michigan was undefeated for the first two months of the season.  On January 12, they were 16-0 and ready to become the number one-ranked team in the nation.  At that point, everyone raved about the Wolverines’ offensive efficiency, their tough defense, their talented players like Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway, Jr., and their heralded freshmen like Glenn Robinson III and Nik Stauskas.

On January 13, however, Ohio State held the high-flying Michigan offense to 53 points and beat the Wolverines in Columbus.  Since then, the other coaches in the Big Ten — which some people call the best-scouted league in the country — have tried to exploit the weaknesses first exposed by the Buckeyes.  Michigan ended the regular season 25-7 and lost 5 of its last 10 games.  Today Michigan got knocked out of the Big Ten Tournament by Wisconsin, losing 69-58. The Wolverines lost even though they held Wisconsin to only 17 points in the first half.

Michigan fans are depressed, but college basketball is full of ups and downs.  If I were a Michigan fan — and I’m not, of course — I’d be glad that the Wolverines are done with the Big Ten and can focus on the NCAA Tournament.  Michigan has a lot of talent, and if they play teams that don’t play defense like they do in the Big Ten, Michigan could make a run in the Big Dance.  I wouldn’t count them out.

 

Tourney Time

It’s a great time of year if you love college basketball. (I know, this excludes my pro-loving friend Winship.)

Tonight I’m sitting and watching the first day of the Big Ten Tournament. I’m a traditionalist, so I think the regular season champion is the true Big Ten champion. Still, the conference tournament has its attractions.

For teams like Ohio State, which has already punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament, the Big Ten Tournament is a nice tuneup and a chance to stay sharp for the Big Dance. For the desperate teams — like both Purdue and Nebraska, who are playing now — the tournament means a chance to redeem an otherwise tough season. So long as they stay alive, there’s a chance they might win, and win, and make it to the NCAA Tournament. Imagine what it might be like in their locker rooms, knowing they might be playing their last games of the year and can only keep playing if they win this game!

So we’ll see how this game ends, and who survives to play the Buckeyes. And when this game ends, I’ll watch the next one. The Big Ten has been tremendously exciting and competitive this season, and I’m expecting nothing less from the Tournament.

As I said, it’s a great time for college basketball fans.

A Gameless Weekend

The Ohio State Buckeyes aren’t playing this weekend.  After a grueling last few weeks in the Big Ten meat grinder, and some hard work in pulling out a win over Northwestern at Evanston, the Buckeyes are getting a well-deserved rest.

We fans, however, are pining for a weekend game.  I enjoy the adrenalin rush the games provide, and I rationalize that the spikes in my blood pressure caused by bad calls from referees during an OSU game probably are good for my system.  Every once in a while, you want to make sure that your body can withstand various stresses.  Isn’t that what those doctor-supervised stress tests are all about?  Getting seriously into a Buckeyes game is just the self-administered version.

Still, in a way it’s also nice to have the weekend off.  We get to see other teams play without having an enormous emotional investment in the outcome.  Today I’ll watch the Michigan-Michigan State game.  Whatever the result, it will help the Buckeyes in their quest for a higher seed in the Big Ten Tournament.  If Michigan loses, they drop below Ohio State in the loss column; if Michigan wins, Michigan State joins Ohio State and Michigan with five losses in the conference.

So today I’ll watch the games with a relaxed attitude.  I’ll be husbanding my emotional and stress-related resources for Tuesday night, when Ohio State travels to Bloomington for a make-or-break game against the top-ranked Hoosiers.

The Big Ten Tightens Up

This year’s Big Ten has got to be the most entertaining basketball conference in years — and, perhaps, the best conference as well.

Over the past few days, the top three teams in the conference — Indiana, Michigan State, and Michigan — all have lost.  Ohio State’s victory over Michigan State on Sunday wasn’t that much of an upset, but Minnesota’s win over top-ranked Indiana last night was a real surprise, and Penn State’s victory tonight over Michigan, in a game in which Michigan frittered away a double-digit lead, is an absolute shocker.  Before that game, Penn State hadn’t won a conference game all year.  As a result of the upsets, Indiana leads the conference race with three losses, Michigan State and steady Wisconsin are right behind with four losses, and Ohio State and stumbling Michigan are one game farther back.

College basketball is a lot of fun because the players are kids, the students watching the game are into it, and emotion can play a significant role.  When a conference has have a bunch of very good teams, some good teams, and some teams that can rise to the occasion when their home court advantage comes into play, you get lots of surprises and unexpectedly close games.  The last few games of the conference regular season over the next week and a half are likely to be a free-for-all.  If a team like Ohio State wants to stay in contention, it had better be ready to play every game against every opponent — starting tomorrow night, when it travels to Evanston to play Northwestern.

After the regular season finally ends, we’ll have the Big Ten Tournament.  There’s a reason why this year’s tournament is the first one ever to be sold out:  it should be a very good show.

Beat The Wolverines!

Ohio State played very well last night against Purdue.  In an exciting, up-tempo game, they put the pedal to the metal in the last seven minutes of the game to pull away from the Boilermakers and win, 88-71.  Their reward is . . . Michigan.

The Buckeyes and the Wolverines have played twice this year and split the two games.  In Columbus, Ohio State spanked Michigan, 64-49.  In Ann Arbor, the Buckeyes played an uninspired game, shot poorly, and lost, 56-51.  It was one of those performances that caused some to question not only the team’s capabilities, but also its character.  This afternoon, the Buckeyes have the opportunity to win the rubber game.

I don’t care if Ohio State wins the Big Ten Tournament, but any game against Michigan is, well, a game against Michigan.  And if there is such a game, Ohio State must win, period.  I don’t care if its tiddlywinks or horseshoes, the good guys must prevail and the Maize and Blue must go down to ignominious, towel-crying, teeth-gnashing, humiliated-faced-fans-leaving-early defeat.

This won’t be easy, because this Michigan team is good.  Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. are studs, the Wolverines can play an inside game and an outside game, and they have lots of experience and talented role players.  It’s a game that will help to get the Buckeyes ready for the NCAA Tournament.  When you get to the Big Dance, you’ll play athletic, well-coached teams like the Wolverines game after game, and you have to figure out how to get past them and move on.

Beat the Wolverines!

The BTT

The Big Ten Tournament is underway.  Already Illinois and Penn State are out, Iowa and Indiana move on, and Northwestern and Minnesota are fighting for their lives as I write this.

Although I think the regular season Big Ten title is the real prize, the tournament has its place.  The tournament champion gets the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.  As a result, the tournament gives second life to under-performing teams and allows them to dream of going on a run and winning their way into the Big Dance, or to pad their resume with a few more wins.

For teams like Ohio State, the Big Ten Tournament is a different challenge entirely.  The Buckeyes clearly are NCAA-bound — and they also are banged up.  I hope Coach Thad Matta gives Aaron Craft, Jared Sullinger, and Deshaun Thomas as much rest as possible, and allows Amir Williams, Jordan Sibert, LaQuinton Ross, and others to play meaningful minutes in a tournament setting.  In the NCAA Tournament, you never know when an injury or foul trouble might require you to go deeply into your bench.  Why not give those team members some playing time in Big Ten Tournament games to get them ready?

One other thing about the Big Ten Tournament — it produced one of my favorite recent Ohio State sports moments, featuring Evan Turner and some disappointed Wolverines.  Buckeye fans, you know what I’m talking about, don’t you?

Wildcat Wishes

Ohio State fans like me are spoiled.  We expect our sports teams to win the vast majority of their games, to routinely move on to post-season tournaments and bowl games, and to win national championships every year.

Not every school is like that.  I realized that when Richard went to Northwestern and I started following the Wildcats.  NU has long had the reputation for being the toughest school, academically, in the Big Ten and the easiest, athletically, for the other schools to trounce.  Northwestern students may have been the first to come up with the “you’ll be working for us one day” chant directed at opposing teams.

In the past 20 years, Northwestern football has stopped being a doormat and has become very tough and competitive.  And Northwestern basketball has steadily improved under the careful tutelage of their excellent coach Bill Carmody.  However, the Wildcats have never been to the NCAA Tournament.  That’s right, never.  As in, not in the history of mankind.  Zero.  Nada.  Zilch.  Goose egg.

This year, though, the Wildcats have a chance to get off the schneid.  Entering the Big Ten Tournament, they stand at 18-12 overall, and 8-10 in the Big Ten.  They have two great scorers, in John Shurna and Drew Crawford, a pretty good point guard in Dave Sobolewski, and a number of role players that Coach Carmody has molded into a good team.  They shoot the three, run a Princeton-style offense that can burn teams with back cuts, and can stick around and pull games out at the end.  If they could somehow win a few games in the Big Ten Tournament, they might actually earn that first invitation to the NCAA Tournament.

I’m rooting for them to do so.  So please, Webner House readers — won’t you also root for the Wildcats this weekend?  It’s high time for them to partake of some March Madness, Northwestern style.

Another Battle For The Big Ten Lead

Tonight the Ohio State Buckeyes travel to Ann Arbor for a game with Michigan.  It will be a battle for the Big Ten lead.  The Buckeyes are 10-3, tied for first with Michigan State with the Wolverines just behind at 9-4.

Playing with first place in the Big Ten on the line has gotten to be old hat for the Buckeyes.  Virtually every game they’ve played lately has been with a conference contender, and for the most part — that is, with the noticeable exception of a rank performance at home against Michigan State — the Buckeyes have performed well under pressure.

The conventional wisdom is that playing lots of high-pressure games is a positive.  The Buckeyes now have many players who’ve made key free throws, clutch buckets, and important defensive plays with crucial games on the line and in hostile arenas.  When you reach the one-and-done point of the Big Ten tournament and the NCAA tournament, it’s nice to have that kind of big-game experience to fall back on.

Michigan presents another tough challenge.  The Wolverines are undefeated at home this season and their Big Ten record shows they are a good team.  In their first game, the Buckeyes shut down Zack Novak, Tim Hardaway, Jr. struggled with his shot, and the Buckeyes pulled away in the second half to win 64-49.  Tonight Aaron Craft will have to guard Michigan’s excellent point guard Trey Burke without getting into foul trouble and the Buckeyes will have to figure out how to score against the zone defense that the Wolverines are likely to play at some point during the game.  We’ll also be watching to see how Coach Thad Matta substitutes and whether freshman center Amir Williams gets some court time after a good showing against Minnesota.

Games like tonight’s contest will help to toughen up the Buckeyes, regardless of the outcome.  Since the opponent this evening is the hated Team Up North, let’s hope the outcome is a big win that allows the Buckeyes to take another step toward the Big Ten regular season championship.

 

A Class Act

You so often read and hear about bad conduct by student athletes, it is refreshing to read about acts that reflect class and sportsmanship — and when the student athletes in question play for the team you root for, it is even better.

Yesterday, after Ohio State had beaten Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament championship game, and after both teams had learned that they were in the NCAA Tournament, Buckeyes Jon Diebler and Jared Sullinger went to the Penn State locker room to congratulate Talor Battle and the other Nittany Lions.  It was a nice gesture, and it was appreciated by the Penn State players.

Ohio State and Penn State played each other three times and have gotten to know each other as a result.  Any time a team makes the NCAA Tournament, they deserve congratulations, and it was nice to see Diebler and Sullinger deliver their best wishes to the Nittany Lions in person.  As for me, I think there is a lot to like in this scrappy Penn State team, and I’ll be rooting for them to do well — at least until they play the Buckeyes again.

Kicking Some Badger Butt

It was very satisfying, indeed, to watch Ohio State crush Wisconsin today, 93-65.  The blow-out win was a fitting send-off to David Lighty, Jon Diebler, and Dallas Lauderdale, who will go down as one of the best — and certainly most beloved — senior classes in Ohio State hoops history.  It also was nice to see the Buckeyes “deal with it,” to use Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan’s deathless phrase.

Ohio State coach Thad Matta has molded together a really wonderful team.  It is staggering that the Buckeyes scored 93 points on the Badgers, who are one of the best defensive teams in the country.  Before today, Wisconsin had allowed only one team to score even 70 points.  But today, the Buckeyes beat the Badgers inside and beat the Badgers outside.  Jon Diebler led Ohio State in raining threes, as the Buckeyes shot a stunning 14 out of 15 from behind the arc.  Jared Sullinger, Dallas Lauderdale, and David Lighty also put up a lot of points in the paint, and the Buckeyes out-rebounded the Badgers as well.  Finally, Aaron Craft played a virtually flawless offensive floor game, dishing out 6 assists while having zero turnovers.  If Ohio State executes like that on the offensive end in the rest of its games this season, it will be a very hard team for anyone to beat.

On the defensive end, the Buckeyes shut down Jordan Taylor, who had torched the Buckeyes in Madison, and also took the Badgers’ excellent forward, Jon Leuer, out of his game.  The Buckeyes can play a suffocating man-to-man, as they did today, and their offensive efficiency also puts pressure on the opposing team’s offense.  When Ohio State is scoring on virtually every trip down the court, and often with a three, the temptation for the other team to come down and try to score quickly is difficult to resist — and often quick shots are bad shots.

The Buckeyes now need to put this very satisfying win behind them.  They move on to the Big Ten Tournament as the number one seed.  That tournament doesn’t mean much, except as a vehicle to cement an overall no. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.  The Buckeyes need to avoid injury, stay sharp, and let some of their back-ups play — and then they need to get ready for The Big Dance.

Goodbye, Evan, And Thanks

Evan Turner of the Ohio State men’s basketball team announced today that he is skipping his senior year and entering the NBA draft.  I’m sorry to see him go, because I think Turner is a good guy who has been a diligent student and good representative of the University — as well as being an exceptionally talented basketball player.  Among other things, Turner has befriended a high school kid who lives in New Albany, for whom he has served as a mentor and role model.

Much as I would selfishly like to have Turner stay with the Buckeyes and lead them for another season, it is hard to argue with his decision.  He won a carload of awards and honors this year and is projected to be a top 3 choice in the NBA draft.  Under the NBA set up, if Turner is a top 3 choice he will make more than $7 million in his first two years in the league.  How can you expect a kid to turn down the chance to earn such a potentially life-changing amount of money, and run the risk of some horrible injury that could make that money vanish like a puff of smoke in a stiff breeze?

Besides, although Even Turner will be gone physically, he will live on in the memories of Buckeyes fans — especially for his game-ending shot to beat Michigan in this year’s Big Ten tournament.

Thanks, Evan — you will always be a Buckeye!