Confirming suspicion about themselves Ohio State bowed out with an embarrassing double overtime loss to Sienna, 74-72. That's right Sienna. A small private school in scenic upstate Loudonville, New York. It is a small Catholic school that has a pretty decent basketball team. Usually The Buckeyes get past the first round before breaking our hearts; this being only their third first round loss ever. Sienna just won their fourth NCAA game ever (OSU has 38)and advanced to the second round for the second year in a row.
Projected by some (Who I can not even imagine)to be a first round pick BJ Mullens played exactly 22 of the 50 minutes and was four out of five from the floor. Dallas Lauderdale played 34 minutes and was four-for-four from the field. So why did they only get 9 shots between them? I haven't seen an answer from Matta yet about that. The two big men also went 2 for 5 from the free throw line including two late crucial misses by Mullens. Even so they should have been given many more opportunities to score. Probably the biggest reason is that despite their size advantage they got crushed on the boards. Mullens had three total rebounds and Lauderdale four while Sienna had players with fifteen, thirteen, and nine respectively. Combine getting beat on the boards (53-37), horrible 3-point shooting (7-25 .280), mediocre foul shooting (17-23 73%) and TWENTY turnovers (as opposed to 15 assists) you will not win many games.
PJ Hill and Evan Turner played decent games but needed some help. Matta did wonder why his players didn't foul Sienna when they had a three point lead with time running down. The players instead let Sienna hit a wide open three to tie it up and send it to a second over time. One and done. Last year it was the NIT, which they did manage to win. This year fifth place in the league and a first round exit in the NCAA. Maybe next year it will be the sweet sixteen.
Is it me? Am i becoming one of those fans who demands/expects too much? Since the 98-99 season Ohio State is 251-112 ( I don't factor in the NCAA vacations of 113 games that Boban played in from 98-02) with two Final Four Appearances. During that span only six schools have reached more Final Fours than the Buckeyes. Not bad for a football school I guess. Those schools are Michigan State(4), Duke, Florida, North Carolina, Kansas and UCLA (3 each).
They have won, or shared 4 Big Ten Titles in that span. That is matched by Michigan State and Illinois. Not too bad I guess.
They have been to the Big dance 7 times in those seasons, the NIT twice and stayed home twice. And even though they frustrate us to no end I guess it could be worse. We could be Michigan. Bring on November and next season. With No seniors on the roster and only 6 Jrs the Buckeyes could be pretty decent next season. If Mullens and Turner return (I think Turner will, Mullens won't) and the return of David Lighty this team could be a significant challenger for the Big Ten and a Top Tier seed next season. If one, or both of those two leave Thad will have to start a scramble to bring in a quality player to step in right away or suffer through yet another rebuilding year where the most obtainable prize is a low level NCAA seed and early exit or maybe the NIT. Thank God we haven't fallen to playing in The College Basketball Invitational yet.
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