The Ohio State Buckeyes may not be the prettiest college basketball team this year, but they surely are one of the toughest.
The Buckeyes ground out a hard-fought win over the Michigan State Spartans today, 61-58. The two teams like to battle and play body-up defense, and they showed those qualities today. Aaron Craft played brilliantly for the Buckeyes, and fortunately survived being hurled to the ground by the neck by the Spartans’ Derrick Nix, on a play that provoked a fusillade of obscenity and brought me out of my chair. But the Buckeyes hung tough, played through adversity, and when they needed a final bucket to put the game on ice, Deshaun Thomas stepped up and rattled down a jumper.
I recognize that conference tournaments don’t mean a lot, but I’d rather win than lose and go into the NCAA Tournament with some momentum. Ohio State has played well in the Big Ten Tournament under Thad Matta, and they are going to the championship game again — which seems to be an annual occurrence. Win or lose tomorrow, and in the Big Dance, this team has come an awful long way since Wisconsin beat the tar out of them a month ago. Ironically, the Badgers are the team the Buckeyes will face tomorrow, in the final contest of the Big Ten season.
On January 13, however, Ohio State held the high-flying Michigan offense to 53 points and beat the Wolverines in Columbus. Since then, the other coaches in the Big Ten — which some people call the best-scouted league in the country — have tried to exploit the weaknesses first exposed by the Buckeyes. Michigan ended the regular season 25-7 and lost 5 of its last 10 games. Today Michigan got knocked out of the Big Ten Tournament by Wisconsin, losing 69-58. The Wolverines lost even though they held Wisconsin to only 17 points in the first half.
We fans, however, are pining for a weekend game. I enjoy the adrenalin rush the games provide, and I rationalize that the spikes in my blood pressure caused by bad calls from referees during an OSU game probably are good for my system. Every once in a while, you want to make sure that your body can withstand various stresses. Isn’t that what those doctor-supervised stress tests are all about? Getting seriously into a Buckeyes game is just the self-administered version.
Over the past few days, the top three teams in the conference — Indiana, Michigan State, and Michigan — all have lost. Ohio State’s victory over Michigan State on Sunday wasn’t that much of an upset, but Minnesota’s win over top-ranked Indiana last night was a real surprise, and Penn State’s victory tonight over Michigan, in a game in which Michigan frittered away a double-digit lead, is an absolute shocker. Before that game, Penn State hadn’t won a conference game all year. As a result of the upsets, Indiana leads the conference race with three losses, Michigan State and steady Wisconsin are right behind with four losses, and Ohio State and stumbling Michigan are one game farther back.
The Buckeyes and the Wolverines have played twice this year and split the two games. In Columbus, Ohio State spanked Michigan, 64-49. In Ann Arbor, the Buckeyes played an uninspired game, shot poorly, and lost, 56-51. It was one of those performances that caused some to question not only the team’s capabilities, but also its character. This afternoon, the Buckeyes have the opportunity to win the rubber game.
For teams like Ohio State, the Big Ten Tournament is a different challenge entirely. The Buckeyes clearly are NCAA-bound — and they also are banged up. I hope Coach Thad Matta gives Aaron Craft, Jared Sullinger, and Deshaun Thomas as much rest as possible, and allows Amir Williams, Jordan Sibert, LaQuinton Ross, and others to play meaningful minutes in a tournament setting. In the NCAA Tournament, you never know when an injury or foul trouble might require you to go deeply into your bench. Why not give those team members some playing time in Big Ten Tournament games to get them ready?
Not every school is like that. I realized that when Richard went to Northwestern and I started following the Wildcats. NU has long had the reputation for being the toughest school, academically, in the Big Ten and the easiest, athletically, for the other schools to trounce. Northwestern students may have been the first to come up with the “you’ll be working for us one day” chant directed at opposing teams.
Playing with first place in the Big Ten on the line has gotten to be old hat for the Buckeyes. Virtually every game they’ve played lately has been with a conference contender, and for the most part — that is, with the noticeable exception of a rank performance at home against Michigan State — the Buckeyes have performed well under pressure.
Michigan presents another tough challenge. The Wolverines are undefeated at home this season and their Big Ten record shows they are a good team. In their first game, the Buckeyes shut down Zack Novak, Tim Hardaway, Jr. struggled with his shot, and the Buckeyes pulled away in the second half to win 64-49. Tonight Aaron Craft will have to guard Michigan’s excellent point guard Trey Burke without getting into foul trouble and the Buckeyes will have to figure out how to score against the zone defense that the Wolverines are likely to play at some point during the game. We’ll also be watching to see how Coach Thad Matta substitutes and whether freshman center Amir Williams gets some court time after a good showing against Minnesota.
Yesterday, after Ohio State had beaten Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament championship game, and after both teams had learned that they were in the NCAA Tournament, 
Ohio State coach Thad Matta has molded together a really wonderful team. It is staggering that the Buckeyes scored 93 points on the Badgers, who are one of the best defensive teams in the country. Before today, Wisconsin had allowed only one team to score even 70 points. But today, the Buckeyes beat the Badgers inside and beat the Badgers outside. Jon Diebler led Ohio State in raining threes, as the Buckeyes shot a stunning 14 out of 15 from behind the arc. Jared Sullinger, Dallas Lauderdale, and David Lighty also put up a lot of points in the paint, and the Buckeyes out-rebounded the Badgers as well. Finally, Aaron Craft played a virtually flawless offensive floor game, dishing out 6 assists while having zero turnovers. If Ohio State executes like that on the offensive end in the rest of its games this season, it will be a very hard team for anyone to beat.
Much as I would selfishly like to have Turner stay with the Buckeyes and lead them for another season, it is hard to argue with his decision. He won a carload of awards and honors this year and is projected to be a top 3 choice in the NBA draft. Under the NBA set up, if Turner is a top 3 choice he will make more than $7 million in his first two years in the league. How can you expect a kid to turn down the chance to earn such a potentially life-changing amount of money, and run the risk of some horrible injury that could make that money vanish like a puff of smoke in a stiff breeze?
