Bucks advance as Thad Matta passes Fred Taylor

It was far from a convincing performance against the No. 11 seed in the conference tournament, but the sixth-seeded Buckeyes completed their objective by taking out the Minnesota Golden Gophers at the United Center in the Big Ten tournament to advance to the quarterfinals by a 79-73 margin. As always, the Buckeyes were paced by their star guard D’Angelo Russell, but they got multiple surprise scoring cameos from their supporting cast in a game played at a frenzied pace.

Above all, this was the game that put Thad Matta ahead Fred Taylor for most wins in Ohio State basketball program history with Win No. 298 in Columbus, and No. 400 in his career.

It was no surprise to see Russell pace the scarlet and gray with 23 points on 7-of-16 shooting to go with five rebounds, four assists, and three blocks. What was surprising, however, was his supporting cast making an appearance. Shannon Scott posted a career-high 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting, plus five rebounds and six assists. A 69 percent foul shooter, Scott connected on all six foul shots on the night and he helped balance the floor with a couple of long jumpers. Quietly, Scott has scored in double digits in five of the last seven games.

Then, there’s Marc Loving. He looked as if he actually cared on Thursday night, hitting 5-of-8 shots for 12 points along with 5 rebounds. From following his own missed shot, to fighting through picks on defense, to actually looking for his shot within the halfcourt offense in an aggressive manner, Loving looked close to his former self, the one that was the second greatest talent on this OSU squad in the early season. His ability to give Coach Matta 25 minutes allowed Thad to hide Jae’Sean Tate on a rough and quiet evening of just 4 points and 3 boards.

The Buckeyes had their fair share of lapses in this game, however, that allowed Minnesota to go into the half tied and then to hang around after the Buckeyes pulled away to a 13-point lead early in the second half. In the first half, OSU was only 1-for-12 from beyond the arc, with Russell clanking his first six trey attempts. Just as the Bucks were taking a 61-48 lead, they endured a field goal drought of nearly seven minutes. Minnesota’s 17-2 run closed the gap to just two with 5:16 remaining.

Turnovers, lazy fouls, and slow rotations all piled up during that run as Amir Williams turned in another abysmal performance (2 points, 6 rebounds) as Matta had no choice but to play him 33 minutes; Trey McDonald logged the other seven minutes while picking up four fouls as Anthony Lee missed yet another game. No play was more embarrassing than Minnesota 5-9 guard DeAndre Mathieu soaring up over Williams and tapping in a putback as Amir jumped for the ball rather than turning to box anyone out. Mathieu paced the Gophers with 16 points on 7-of-9 from the floor off the bench.

In the end, Ohio State’s shooting 50 percent, grabbing 11 out of a possible 28 rebounds at their offensive end against a large Minnesota frontcourt, and wearing out a path to the line (22-of-28) were too much for the underdog Gophers to overcome. The most important stretch of the game had to be coming out of the gate in the second half when Russell and Scott combined to score five buckets in the first six minutes of the period to build a small lead. Russell and Scott also took turns supplying the daggers late in this game. After a rare ten second call against Minnesota, Russell connected on a three-ball to extend the Buckeye lead to seven. On the next possession, it was Scott who sliced into the key and scored a layup with 54 ticks left to take the lead back to seven.

The win will be most memorable for Matta’s achievement. It’s been evident for several years now that Thad was heading toward becoming the best coach in Ohio State basketball history, but this is still a significant milestone. In 11 years at OSU, Matta has won at least 20 games every year and has never finished below .500 in conference. If you take out year one, those figures improve to 22 games every year and no worse than 10-8. With five regular season Big Ten titles, four conference tournament titles, seven conference title game appearances, two Final Fours, three Elite Eights, five Sweet Sixteens, a .764 winning percentage, and a 22-6 conference tournament record, Matta has made OSU a perennial Big Ten powerhouse. Though Fred Taylor has the school’s lone national championship as well as two more title game appearances, the rest of his credentials fall short of what Matta has already achieved at age 47.

Friday night, it’s a rematch against Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Spartans. In their only meeting this season, the Buckeyes lost by three in East Lansing on Valentine’s Day as Denzell Valentine hit a right-wing three for the game-winner. In that 59-56 loss, Ohio State got just 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting from Russell. The Spartans were paced by Denzel Valentine’s 17 as well as Branden Dawson’s 15 points and 5 blocks.