It was an up and down season for Thad Matta’s Ohio State Buckeyes. The team ended their season last Saturday night with a 29-8 record and a loss to Wichita State in the Elite Eight 70-66 after trailing by as many as 20 points in the game. Prior to that, the Buckeyes were on a 11-game winning streak that included wins over Michigan State (twice), Wisconsin, Indiana, and lethal offenses in Iowa State and Arizona in the NCAA tournament. In many respects this team overachieved, yet their hot streak, easy tournament draw, and wide open West bracket left falling short of the Final Four a clear disappointment. Here, I’ll cover some of my lasting thoughts from another season of Buckeye basketball. [Read more...]
Two turnovers. Two missed free throws at the front end of 1-and-1s. Four missed free throws total in the second half. A layup that had too much spin on it and spun out.
Deshaun Thomas has been everything for Ohio State’s halfcourt offense this season, more than he should have to be. On Saturday afternoon in Happy Valley, however, Thomas was just 4-of-13 for 11 points. That meant other players needed to step up, and they did led by sophomore Sam Thompson. Sam’s 16 points led the Bucks and Lenzelle Smith Jr. added 11 as the 14th-ranked Buckeyes dispatched of the winless Nittany Lions with relative ease by a 65-51 count.
Fresh off their home victory against the previously undefeated in-conference Wisconsin as well as close losses to Indiana and Michigan State earlier in the season, the Iowa Hawkeyes were looking to draw more Big Ten blood in Columbus to show they belong in the discussion of Big Ten contention. They nearly did so behind a flurry of offensive rebounding and a very effective fullcourt press that took a 24-point deficit and trimmed it to just four with 1:29 remaining. But, the Buckeyes used balanced scoring and solid shooting to hold off Iowa in the Schott by a 72-63 count.
Winning on the road in the Big Ten conference isn’t easy. Winning on the road in East Lansing is even more difficult. The Buckeyes nearly did it on the back of Deshaun Thomas, who continued his march as the Big Ten’s best scorer with a 28 point masterpiece. However, Thomas didn’t get the shots in the final possessions for the Buckeyes, and Shannon Scott had an absolute brain cramp on the game’s final possession as the Buckeyes fell short against the Spartans 59-56 in a physical game of runs where a better overall team beat the best player.
With Duke’s loss to North Carolina State yesterday afternoon, one team remained undefeated in all of college basketball. That team was the Michigan Wolverines. With a certain bump to number one assured with a win Sunday afternoon, the Ohio State Buckeyes stopped that movement dead in its tracks. The Buckeyes turned in a dominant defensive performance, led by as many as 21 points, and held off a late charge from the Wolverines as they won on their home floor in front of a raucous sellout crowd 56-53 in a knockout, dragdown Big Ten battle.
