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March 19, 2015Chris Borland, football culture, and Ray Flanagan and the Authorities… While We’re Waiting
March 20, 2015If the gradual parody of the college basketball landscape and the pair of 14 seed victories earlier in the day hadn’t already informed you, a 10 over a 7 seed isn’t much of an upset. In fact, the Buckeyes were the only double digit seed to be favored in Vegas. But, the Buckeyes did surprise most of the Buckeye fans that have stuck with them through better or worse in the way they got things done on Thursday. With several key plays made down the stretch by the much-maligned (especially by me) senior class and a freshman flash from an unknown, the Buckeyes kept their tournament alive with a 75-72 victory over Shaka Smart’s VCU Rams in Portland.
Through the first 15 minutes of the game, the Buckeyes looked and played like death warmed over. The VCU press sped the scarlet and gray up, turning them over and forcing less than ideal shots when they didn’t. Smart’s squad also blitzed all of the high pick and rolls involving the Buckeye center, making life difficult for D’Angelo Russell and Shannon Scott and forcing the Buckeyes to move it quickly to secondary options to get good looks. OSU fell behind 25-13 as they failed to score for nearly six and a half minutes of game time, coming up dry on 11 straight possessions.
D’Angelo Russell turned in the headline performance, but it wasn’t until Coach Matta (and Paulus) changed up the Buckeye approach to attacking the aggressive Ram defense. Taking Russell off the ball even more, it was Shannon Scott that was charged with probing the defense and creating windows for Russell to get the ball as he worked tirelessly to get open. Once Russell scored his second field goal with 5:07 left in the first half, he rattled off eight more before halftime as he connected on a pair of left-wing threes and caught the Rams napping on a back-door layup designed play off a high screen. The Bucks closed the gap to just one at halftime on the strength of a 16-5 run as VCU went a little cold themselves.
It was Amir Williams getting a lot of open looks and cashing in on enough of them that was a huge development. There were still head-scratching, teeth-gnashing plays where Amir didn’t take it up strong and convert or turned it over, but he did manage 13 points. Shockingly, the 62% free throw shooter, connected on 5-of-6. He was 4-of-5 from the field, but he had only 2 rebounds in 26 minutes. He sat for an extended period of the second half as VCU went small due to foul trouble on Mo Alie-Cox as we saw a 6’5′ and under party on the court. With that being said, I’ll take this production all day from the center position given OSU’s options right now.
Scott was just 4-of-12 from the field, but every made layup seemed critical, and he changed the game by driving, kicking, and dishing his way to 10 assists. The Buckeyes didn’t get much to speak of offensively from Marc Loving or Sam Thompson, who combined to shoot 2-for-7. However, they did get some great production from their other two freshman aside from Russell. Jae’Sean Tate scrapped his way to 12 points and 8 rebounds as he was around the basket on both ends making a difference. More on the other surprise freshman showing in a moment.
This game got away from the officials in the second half. Ohio State suffered a gut punch late in the second half as Sam Thompson and Jae’Sean Tate picked up questionable fourth fouls on consecutive plays. Tate’s was an offensive foul where his arm-bar was out (but not extended) and coincided with a well-timed flopped by the defender. Just moments later, D’Angelo Russell suffered a double whammy as well. He had a bucket waved off on a terrible offensive foul call where the defender slid under him as he was already gathered and soaring toward the hoop. Then, as he made an incredible defensive play on the ball on the other end to prevent a layup, Russell was elbowed by Doug Brooks above his left eye. Upon review, the officials assessed a flagrant one to Brooks after calling nothing initially. Thankfully, the training staff had time to stop the bleeding on the huge gash.
Around that time of the painful pair of fourth fouls is when seldom-used freshman forward Keita Bates-Diop entered the game over Loving. Bates-Diop went on to show that he was not afraid of the moment despite his limited playing time all season. KBD hit a go-ahead three pointer with 3:39 to go in the game as Russell looked for someone to help him out at a defensive stoplight. He also drove in and dumped it down to Amir for the game-tying points with 1:17 left that would eventually send the game to overtime. Then, in the extra five minutes, he buried another trey off a Scott pass from the right wing with 2:34 that gave them the lead for good. Just for good measure, he pulled down the defensive board with 11 seconds left that allowed Russell to seal the deal from the line. The five-star recruit was ranked 22nd in ESPNU’s rankings, and he’s now shooting 20-of-41 from three-point range in just 10.1 minutes per game. With Loving still at recess mentally, I think it’s time for Matta to run with Bates-Diop far more as he made the decision to do with Tate in the middle of the season.
Over the last 4:56, Russell did not score as he was used as a setup and decoy. The Bucks got their final seven points from Bates-Diop and Amir Williams. With the game tied in the final minute, both teams had a chance to break the tie and win the game. Ohio State had Shannon Scott get free and drive down the right side of the paint, but he ended up missing the lay-up. The Rams countered without taking a timeout with Treveon Graham on Sam Thompson. As Graham got to the bucket, Thompson held firm without fouling which would have led to his disqualification. The shot misfired, and the Bucks secured the rebound to force overtime. You never know how one point here or there would’ve changed things in the final moments, but VCU had two extra free throws and one point as result of Trey McDonald having the wrong number (50 instead of 55) in the score book.
In the extra five minutes, the Buckeye zone, which has been in mothballs for most of the second half of the season, held strong as the Buckeyes survived 10 three-point makes from VCU. VCU made 3-of-6 in OT, but two costly turnovers were the difference as Ohio State was clean in that area. Despite their shaky 13-of-22 free throw shooting and the VCU three-point barrage, the Buckeyes out-shot the Rams by just enough at 49% compared to 38%.
With his 28-point effort (on 10-of-20 shooting), Russell moved past Michael Redd for the most freshman points in Ohio State basketball history as he now has 665 to Redd’s 658. In the second half, Russell was brilliant, cutting to get the ball when he didn’t have it and using his dribble in transition and halfcourt to create a shot for himself or a teammate.
Now, for the less fun part, looking ahead to Saturday’s matchup against the second seed Arizona Wildcats. Full disclosure, I picked Arizona to win one of the two brackets I filled out, and I had them beating Ohio State in both. Arizona is a very good two seed who had an argument for a top seed. They had no trouble in handling their opponent Texas Southern as they put up 93 points. Thad is 2-0 in tournament matchups against his former assistant. In 2013, it was LaQuinton Ross’s three-pointer with two seconds remaining that pushed the second seed Buckeyes by the sixth-seed Wildcats. In 2007, it was an overtime victory in a second-round scare when Miller was at Xavier that allowed Matta’s Oden-Conley Bucks to march to the title game. However, Miller’s teams have been building for a deep tournament run, and this could be the year.
(Photo: Craig Mitchelldyer/AP)
5 Comments
As a Ram fan, I’ll admit my bias here, but the fact that Doug Brooks was called for a flagrant for his unintentional elbow to Russell (after Russell initiated contact in the air) and Jae’Sean Tate wasn’t for his pressing his elbow down on Treveon Graham’s face is ridiculous.
They could have avoided that situation by calling the initial push on Graham during that under the basket sequence. Once they went to the ground, however, Tate deserved the foul exclusively rather than a double foul.
The Russell play at the hoop was a toss up. I wouldn’t have complained about a foul call, but that elbow was vicious. If it was intentional, he would’ve been tossed. Intent doesn’t have to matter on a flagrant one.
Won Not Done
We rise and fall with Russell. Yesterday, it was ugly, but we gutted it out.
PS. Good stuff Kirk, but wanted to pass along a friendly edit for the first sentence: parody===>parity
Ahh, dammit. Thank you.