March Mayhemness - OSU Recap - Elite 8 Edition

Wichita State was the 3rd consecutive team that was a good shooting 3 pt. squad. Add in the fact that they are physical like a Wisconsin or Michigan State and the Buckeyes had their work cut out for them. WIth Wichita nailing 3's ( they hit 5 ) and the Bucks shooting only 25% and being out rebounded by 8, Ohio State was lucky to only be trailing by thirteen, 35-22 at the half. The officiating left a lot to be desired but they were not the reason the Bucks trailed.

The second half started out as a continuation of the first. Ohio State still couldn't shoot the ball and the officating was equally bad. The Bucks trailed by 20 points with 11:48 to go. The Bucks got a little energy, led by Ross and cut the lead to 13 at the under eight minute time out.

The Bucks went on  16-4 run to cut it to 8 at the under four minute time out. Wichita State was really feeling the pressure and let the Bucks crawl back in to the game. The officiating still sucks.

The Bucks kept pressing and cut it to 3 but in the end could not get over the hump. Give Wichita State credit. They beat the #1 seed Gonzaga and the #2 seeded Buckeyes. The Bucks are left with an off season of asking the question why didn't they play that hard in the first 30 minutes of the game? Final score Wichita State 70 Ohio State 66

Game ball to DeShaun Thomas 23 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks in what was probably his last game as a Buckeye

Game ball to LaQuinton Ross 19 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block


At the end of the day, and the season, The Bucks had a pretty good year. They finished the season with a 29-8 record.

 

Brutal Buckeye

I really don't think fans of other schools understand what being a Buckeye Fan truly is all about. The Season long highs followed mostly by, more often than not, vicious, nasty falls from the summit. UK fans have no clue. Neither do Notre Dame, Alabama, USC, or any other "Big Time" program. This isn't just in our one dominant program it happens to the Bucks in every sport. Personally I blame a little know secret, something that has been hidden away in the recesses of Buckeye fandom for a very long time. Brutus Buckeye has an evil twin. When he makes it to a game Ohio loses and more often than not it is in a "big" game. And much like these brothers

he kidnaps the good Brutus and causes agony and havoc for OSU fans. Every so often the evil twin manages to break out of the cell inside Ohio Stadium where he is kept locked away and creates chaos and mayhem for the Buckeyes. His name you ask? Brutal Buckeye. Think of him from a weird alternate, bizzaro type world.

Here are the Top (or Bottom depending on how you look at it) 10 Brutal Buckeye losses in my lifetime.

10. March 25, 1961 in Kansas City. Basketball. The undefeated, and defending National Champion Buckeyes lost 70-65 to Cincinnati in the Championship game. OSU was led by Jerry Lucas, John Havilcek and Larry Siegfried. Ohio State finished the season 27-1.

09. March 24, 1962 in Louisville. For the third straight year OSU was in the Championship Game. And for the second straight year they lost to Cincinnati, this time by the final score of 71-59. It was a great run for Lucas and Hondo. Bucks finished 26-2 capping a three year run of three straight Championship game appearances, 1 National Championship and a 3 year record of 78-6. They lost only to Utah, Kentucky, Indiana, Wisconsin and Cincinnati (twice) during that span.

08. November 22, 1969 in Ann Arbor. Football. The defending National Champion Buckeyes came in undefeated and ranked number 1. New Michigan coach led the school up north to a 24-12 upset victory, probably costing OSU another National Championship.

07. January 1, 1971 in the Rose Bowl. Football. 27-17 loss to Stanford and Jim Plunkett and Randy Vataha. The Buckeyes end their three year run with 1 National Championship and a record of 28-2, losing only to Michigan and Stanford.

06. April 3, 1993 in Atlanta. Women's Basketball. Cheryl Swopes and Texas Tech beat the Lady Bucks 84-82 for the National Championship. Ohio State was led by Katie Smith and Averill Roberts. They finished the season 28-4.

05. June 12, 1965 in Omaha. Baseball. Ohio State dropped a 2-1 heart breaker to Arizona State, Sal Bando and Rick Monday in the NCAA title game. The Bucks would win it all the next season and have a two year record of 57-19-1.

04. April 2, 1998 in Boston. Hockey. The Cinderella Bucks lost to Boston College 5-2 to deprive the world of an OSU-UM NCAA Hockey championship game. Glass slipper shattered!

03. November 7, 1998 in Columbus. Football. Brutal reared his ugly head in the rain as the Number 1 Bucks lost to Michigan State 28-24. Oh the humanity of it all

02.April 2, 2007 in Atlanta. Basketball. The young stud Buckeyes lost to Florida 84-75 in the National Championship Game.

01. Probably, to me last night's basketball game. Dis-Honorable mention to several Rose Bowl loses to USC.

As you can see there are no shortage of games where Brutal has made an appearance and ruined a Buckeye season. You could easily do top ten lists for both football and men's basketball but I wanted to show everyone that Brutal is an equal opportunity spoiler of Ohio State Seasons.

Tale of the Tape

Here is a brief history of the UK/OSU basketball series.

Kentucky leads 10-8 but the Bucks lead the more important category NCAA Tournament wins 5-0.

The last time they played in March of 1987 Dennis Hopson scored 32 to lead OSU over Rex Chapman, Ed Davender and the Cats 91-77.

On March 16, 1968 The Bucks beat the Cats 82-81 to advance to the Final Four. Dave Sorenson and Bill Hosket led the way over Dan Issel. Sorenson scored on a last second in bounds play for the victory.

In 1962 Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek led the Bucks to a 74-64 win.

In 1961 Lucas and Larry Siegfried led the way over Roger Newman and Bill Lickert 87-74.

In the first Tourney meeting, held in NYC in 1945, the Buckeyes won 45-37.


My Prediction for this one? I think UK will give Sullinger fits underneath and Diebler will have problems shooting over the top of the Cats defenders. But when the dust settles, and Sullinger fouls out, OSU will come out on top with a hard fought 67-61 victory.

The Sweet 16

Well if the Buckeyes end up National Champs they will have earned it. Of course if they can keep shooting it like they did today they'll be in for the long haul. Aaron Craft had a school record 15 assists and David Lighty had 25 points. Teams that OSU might see are Kentucky on Friday, and if they win either North Carolina or Marquette on Sunday. If they survive that they will see either Duke, UConn, Arizona or San Diego State. We'll cross the championship game bridge when we get there. Here are the Sweet 16 Teams:

Ohio State
Kentucky
Florida
Richmond
San Diego State
Butler
BYU
Wisconsin
UConn
North Carolina
Duke
Arizona
VCU
Marquette
Kansas
Florida State

Go Bucks!!!

The Reversible Fan's Conundrum

Merriam-Webster lists a definition of Conundrum as: an intricate and difficult problem.

Well that is what I have. I have been called the Reversible Fan by our friend in Indiana and I not only accept that nom de pleur but I like it.

For all of my life I have been a fan of the University of Kentucky basketball program. From Adolph Rupp's teams to Joe B. Hall and on to John Calipari I have been a Wildcat basketball fan. Period. End of Sentence. I write them on my brackets in the down years when they didn't make the tournament.

flashback to the fourth grade and my school had three visitors from the OSU Men's team and I had new heroes. And a secondary team.

But I always rooted for the Cats when the two went head-to-head. I was upset when OSU won 82-81 to go to the Final Four but rooted hard for the Buckeyes against North Carolina. They lost, stupid four corners, but rebounded to beat Elvin Hayes and Houston in the third place game. Most people don't remember that Houston lost both games that year to UCLA and the Bucks.

I was also one of the few who rooted for KY when they came to town to face the Clark Kellogg led Buckeyes in the early 80's. Overall the KY-OSU series is 10-8 in favor of the Blue. But the Buckeyes are 5-0 against the Cats in the tournament.

And come next week I will be sad when the game is over for one of my two are going down but not for long. And I will root hard for the survivor to win it all.

Sweet 16?

Well my brackets are blown to the netherworld and back but it has been an exciting tournament so far. Ohio State plays at 5:15 PM against George Mason. The Bucks better be ready to plat because these kids are more than solid and they are very good, comparable to Wisconsin. I only hope their guard, Cam Long, doesn't have a monster game against Ohio State. Villanove pretty much shut him down and here's hoping Lighty and company can do the same.

• Junior F Mike Morrison finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds against Villanova. He secured the double-double in dramatic fashion, with a game-clinching dunk in the final seconds.

• Senior G Isaiah Tate came awfully close to being the goat for George Mason in the opener. He fouled Corey Fisher shooting a three with 31 seconds left, and Fisher made all three free throws to give Villanova a 57-56 lead. That didn’t last long, fortunately for Tate, as Mason scored the final five points of the game to win it.

• Senior G Cam Long was the focal point of the Villanova defensive effort, and it showed. He was held to seven points, more than eight below his season average.

• Senior G Cam Long, who led the Patriots in scoring at 15.1 points a game, was named to the All-Colonial Athletic Association first team. It was the third straight season was named to an All-CAA team. He finished eighth in scoring, sixth in steals, 11th in field-goal percentage, 12th in assists and was the league’s top 3-point shooter (44 percent).

• Junior F Ryan Pearson was a second-team All-CAA selection after finishing in the top 12 in the conference in scoring (14.7 ppg) and rebounding (6.9 rpg) and coming in fifth in field-goal percentage (52.6 percent).

• Sophomore G Luke Hancock, all-Rookie Team performer a year ago, landed on the All-CAA third team. He averaged 11.1 points a game and was third in the conference in assists at 4.4 per game while ranking fifth in assist/turnover ratio and seventh in free-throw percentage (82.0 percent).

Prediction

Bucks "struggle" early and the game is close for about 15-20 minutes. Then talent overwhelms Cinderella and the Bucks roll to a match up with Kentucky. Final 79-61 Ohio State

Go Bucks!!

Ohio State cruised to an easy 75-46 win over University of Texas at San Antonio in Cleveland. The Bucks will play George Mason, in what will be a tough game for them, on Sunday. Hopefully Diebler and Buford will stay hot.

Let The Games Begin

Big Ten Update

Another big day for college hoops today. The Buckeyes have to deal with a re-energized Michigan team to advance to tomorrow's finals. It was a real shame to see Wisconsin get beat by Penn State. I was looking forward to seeing the Bucks beat them by 30 or so again. Go Bucks!

Let The Games Begin

93-65 consider it dealt with

Go Bucks!!

Congratulations to Ohio State which won the Big Ten outright today when Purdue lost to Iowa 67-65 in a pretty good game. The Buckeyes will be the number one seed in next weeks Big Ten Tourney. Go Bucks!! Let the Madness Begin

Jon 3bler owns the record!! Buckeyes Win

Jon Diebler went 10 for 12 from behind the arc and scored a career high 30 points to lead the Bucks to a 82-61 victory over Penn State. The Bucks clinched at least a share of their 4th Big Ten title in the last 6 years. If they beat Wisconsin, in Columbus, on Sunday they will have their 3rd outright title in that span.

Diebler now has 348 career 3's to smash the unofficial record by Michigan's Louis Bullock (339). William Buford added 21 points.

March Madness is Here!!

Well the best time for college basketball is here. It is March and let the madness begin! Confrence Tournies first and the Big Dance starting on March 17.

It is Sunday so that must mean OSU is on TV

Well the Buckeyes play yet another Sunday game. This time, however, it is in Columbus so look for the Buckeyes to play much better against the Hoosiers than they did against Wisconsin or Purdue.

Jon 3bler watch:
Diebler is at 336. Still needs 3 to tie the real Big 10,11,12 record set by Michigan's Louis Bullock who had the record of 339 tossed out like last nights dishwater for a long, long list of no-no violations by the Wolverines.

Not real fond of Purdue either

E'Twaun Moore played out of this world and OSU's defense let them down again as the Buckeyes dropped their second straight Sunday road game this time to Purdue 76-63. Moore scored a career high 38 points as the Buckeyes could never get it going.

For the second straight week the Bucks were torched by a premiere perimeter player (Jordan Taylor 27 points) and went through extended sluggish stretches on offense. These are two things that must be fixed in the next three weeks if OSU is to go very deep into the Madness of March.

The good news was that Jon Diebler made two three-pointers to set a Big Ten record of 333 for his career, breaking the recognized record of 332 by former Penn State guard Pete Lisicky. The actual record of 339 by Louis Bullock of Michigan was vacated because of NCAA violations. Here's hoping he ends up with 340+.

We hates Wisconsin we do

Here is proof that Wisconsin does some sort of VooDoo that they do on OSU. Bucky Badger is a Necromancer. Just wait until they come to Columbus for the last game of the regular season. We'll get you yet Bucky!! Oh yeah they once again upset #1 Ohio State 71-67. Hrrump. We must dispel what ever he did to Jordan Taylor and David Lighty.

Go Bucks!

from the AP:

Ohio State is a unanimous choice as the No. 1 team in The Associated Press Top 25 for a second straight week.

The Buckeyes are 24-0 and the only unbeaten team. They are No. 1 for the fourth consecutive week and received all 65 first-places votes Monday from the national media panel.

Selection Sunday

The selections are in. Some pretty good teams got left out. Congrats to Syracuse, Kansas, Kentucky and Duke as being the number ones. Ohio State had a good showing as a number two seed and has a pretty good bracket. Don't forget to go over to Yahoo and sign up for our JonCon picke 'em!!

Evan Almighty

Sorry John Wall, you are good but you are no Evan Turner. At least this year.