Obviously, I’m more excited about Deshaun Thomas’ decision to return to Ohio State for his junior year.  This past season he went from a one-dimensional, shot-launching part-time player to a crucial part of the team that made it all the way to the Final Four.  He brought so much to the table — a scorer’s mentality and creative shot-making, an inside-outside offensive game, tremendous rebounding abilities, and significantly improved defense and interior passing — and was just a lot of fun to watch.  If his improvement from his sophomore to junior year is comparable his development this year, Thomas could compete for leading scorer and rebounder honors in the Big Ten next year.

Thomas, Aaron Craft, and Lenzelle Smith, Jr. give Ohio State a solid core of tested players for coach Thad Matta to build around.  He’ll work to fit Shannon Scott, Amir Williams, LaQuinton Ross, Evan Ravenel, and others into the mix, and the result likely will be a team that looks different from this year’s post-oriented squad.  With the athletes on the team, might the Buckeyes go up-tempo on offense and press on defense, and look for Williams to use his shot-blocking skills to erase mistakes if the press is broken?  The potential options are intriguing.

I imagine that another year working in the weight room and sharpening all facets of his game would help Thomas’ NBA prospects — but I don’t know enough about the NBA to say for sure.  What I do know is that Thomas’ election to come back is very welcome news for Ohio State basketball fans.

I don’t worry about bad luck on Friday the 13th, either.  Why?  Because on Friday the 13th of October, 1978, Kish and I had our first date.  We went to Dick’s Den — its evocative motto:  “Why Not?” — a campus bar and live music venue on High Street.  We drank beer, sat for part of the time with another couple that happened to be there, and listened to a band that didn’t require a cover charge.  Obviously, I was a big spender who knew how to show a girl a good time.

So, I have no fear of this dreaded day.  How could I be superstitious about Friday the 13th?  It certainly hasn’t meant bad luck for me.

Obviously, I’m sorry that the Buckeyes could not hold their lead and could not make their goal of the national championship game.  Their loss, however, does not take away from what has been a wonderful season for the team and its fans.  This is a group that battled through adversity and tough stretches and came back to play extremely well down the stretch and in the NCAA Tournament.  Much as I would like to have seen the Buckeyes win and get the chance to knock off Kentucky, there is no shame in losing by two points in a hard-fought game to a basketball powerhouse like Kansas.

I’d like to thank William Buford and Jared Sullinger for coming back to play another year, when they could have gone to the NBA and made a lot of money this year instead.  I’ve relished watching Aaron Craft play, and Deshaun Thomas develop into a much more well-rounded player, and Lenzelle Smith Jr. make crucial shots when the team needed them most.  I’ve enjoyed watching Shannon Scott and Amir Williams and Sam Thompson and catching glimpses of their bright futures.  And, I’ve appreciated the hard work of Thad Matta and his coaching staff as they have gotten the team ready to play, game after game.

An evenly matched contest like the one played tonight is a game of inches; the fact that things didn’t bounce the Buckeyes’ way at the end doesn’t detract from a great year.  I know it’s tough for the players and coaches, who were hoping for something even more; it will be some time before the sting eases.  In the meantime, I just want to say thanks for lots of great basketball, Buckeyes!

A lot has been written about the match-ups in the game.  How will Jared Sullinger, who missed the first game between the Buckeyes and Jayhawks in December, fare against shot-blocking center Jeff Withey?  Will cat-quick Jayhawk Tyshawn Taylor be able to play his game notwithstanding the suffocating defensive efforts of Aaron Craft?  Who will guard the Buckeyes’ versatile Deshaun Thomas, and who will try to stop Jayhawk Elijah Johnson?

One match-up that hasn’t been talked about much is the match-up of coaches.  Kansas is led by Bill Self, one of the best coaches in the game.  He has won a national championship at Kansas and has done a great job of getting this team — generally viewed as having less pure talent than prior Jayhawk juggernauts — into the Final Four.  I thought Self outmaneuvered North Carolina’s Roy Williams last weekend as both coaches dealt with the loss of UNC’s point guard.  In the second half Kansas went to a triangle-and-two defense that seemed to knock the Tar Heels off kilter and left them flummoxed for the rest of the game.

Ohio State’s Thad Matta, on the other hand, seems to be under-appreciated by many people.  They acknowledge that he is a great recruiter, and they applaud his courageous way of dealing with the challenges posed by his physical condition, but they downplay his “Xs and Os” skills, criticize him for not using his bench, and say he doesn’t use his timeouts effectively.

I don’t get this criticism, and think this year’s NCAA Tournament demonstrates that Coach Matta can match up with anybody.  He has this year’s team motivated and ready to perform, also also has shown a lot of flexibility in how Ohio State has played its opponents.  Against Gonzaga, which had a strong 7-footer in the middle, he moved Sullinger around and away from the basket for some uncontested jumpers.  Against the fabled Syracuse zone, he changed the positions of Thomas and Sullinger and Ohio State made interior passes that led to some easy baskets; he also recognized that Lenzelle Smith, Jr. was not the focus of Syracuse defensive plans, and in the second half Smith helped to lead the Buckeyes to victory.  In every game, Coach Matta and his staff have put the Buckeyes in the position to win — and that is what you want from a coach.

When the ball tips tonight, we’ll see how Coach Matta has decided to deal with the match-up issues posed by the fine Jayhawk squad.  Before the game begins, however, Ohio State fans should take a moment to thank Coach Matta and his assistants for a job well done — and then hope that they have done a similarly good job in preparing for tonight’s tilt with the Jayhawks.

The basketball Buckeyes left Columbus today for New Orleans and their Final Four matchup on Saturday with the Kansas Jayhawks.  Although there wasn’t a formal pep rally, the team buses drove through campus on their way to the airport and got an enthusiastic sendoff from the Buckeye faithful.

Go Buckeyes!

There’s a lot of buzz in Columbus about the Urban Era.  In many ways, he has been very different from Coach Tressel.  He seems to be more open to media appearances than Coach Tressel was, he’s a lot more direct in his communications, and he’s not afraid to upset the apple cart and change how things are being done.  His overarching focus seems to be on competition, competition, and competition, whether it is in winter conditioning or anything else related to football success, and he’s always thinking of ways he can motivate his players to be more competitive, more focused, and more dedicated to winning.  That might mean making players who underperform in conditioning wear a special colored shirt that reflects that status, or it might mean dictating that the underperformers must drink water from a garden hose rather than quaffing chilled Gatorade.  For every publicly disclosed motivational tool, there are probably dozens known only to OSU football insiders.

I don’t want to focus too much on football right now, because I want to enjoy the Final Four ride with the Buckeye basketball team.  It’s worth noting, however, that a different tone has been set, and the members of Buckeye Nation welcome it.  We’re glad that Coach Meyer sets high standards; now we’ll begin to see whether his players can meet them.  Even though Ohio State had a disappointing season last year and is barred from going to any bowl games this year, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this year’s spring game sets an all-time attendance record. We want to see Coach Meyer on the sideline at the Horseshoe for the first time, ready to lead the Buckeyes back to their rightful place atop the Big Ten.

What a fine, if foul-plagued, game this was!  Ohio State took the game to Syracuse from the first tip.  They played a smart game against the Syracuse zone, and once they figured out how the officials were going to call the game, they tailored their approach accordingly.  The Buckeyes attacked, they rebounded, and they hounded Syracuse into a series of turnovers when the game was on the line.

Virtually every Buckeye made a significant contribution in this game.  Jared Sullinger overcame first half foul trouble and dominated the game in the second half every time he touched the ball.  Aaron Craft was a hustling hurricane, Deshaun Thomas made some great passes and clutch shots, and the Buckeye bench — Sam Thompson, Evan Ravenel, Shannon Scott, and particularly Amir Williams — made the win possible.  But I particularly want to commend William Buford and Lenzelle Smith, Jr. — Buford, because he kept fighting and just wouldn’t quit, and Smith, who was fearless in putting the ball up and taking the ball to the rack.

It’s so rare for a team to make it to the Final Four.  So much depends on match-ups, and who is hot and who is not, and how the ball bounces.  It’s time to enjoy this great accomplishment, and revel in the cool of the evening.

The Ohio State Buckeyes will hope to carry the Big Ten flag forward when they play tonight against the Big East’s best team, the Syracuse Orange.  It will be a battle of two seasoned, highly regarded teams that spent the entire season ranked in the top ten.

Syracuse beat another Big Ten team, Wisconsin, to get to this point.  The Badgers almost pulled that game out because they canned 14 three-pointers shooting over the fabled Syracuse zone that Coach Jim Boeheim has perfected.  That’s not likely to happen tonight, because Ohio State simply doesn’t have the three-point shooters to take that approach unless William Buford gets hot.

The Buckeyes will be looking to break down the zone in other ways, by trying to get the ball to Deshaun Thomas at the elbow of the lane and have him shoot mid-range jumpers before Syracuse players can rotate over or dish to Jared Sullinger and others if holes in the zone open up.  Thomas has been a stud in the Tournament, and the Buckeyes hope his strong showing will continue.

The other key on offense will be rebounding.  The Buckeyes have been a good rebounding team, and teams that play zone — Syracuse included — often get outrebounded because they can’t get a body on every offensive player when the ball comes off the glass.  Syracuse’s rebounding challenges were compounded when they lost their big man, Fab Melo, for the tournament.  Ohio State will need to crash the boards, and that means Sullinger, Thomas, and Lenzelle Smith, Jr. will need to hustle and scrap for put-back buckets on the offensive end.

Syracuse has a lot of long and talented players who can run, shoot, and finish near the rim. They like to play up-tempo and score fast-break points off turnovers.  They are led in scoring by forward Kris Joseph and guard Dion Waiters, but the match-up I’ll have my eye on will be Ohio State’s Aaron Craft against Syracus guard Scoop Jardine.  Jardine is terrific, and Syracuse counts on him to get the ball to the players who can finish.  Craft will be trying to disrupt that and will be playing his tremendous pressure on the ball style to do so.  If Craft can get Jardine out of his rhythm and out of his game without getting himself into foul trouble, the Buckeyes will have a chance to move forward.

In the Elite Eight you expect to see tough games between great teams.  We’ll see one tonight.

This was a tough, tough win — just what you would expect in a Sweet Sixteen matchup.  The Buckeyes rode the stellar play of Deshaun Thomas and Jared Sullinger to a 12-point halftime lead.  Thomas, in particular, was spectacular, making shots from all over the floor as the Bearcats tried desperately to find someone who could match up with him.

The second half was another story, however.  The Buckeyes saw their lead vanish as Cincinnati hustled, forced turnovers, and shot lights out.  Credit to the Bearcats for playing a gutty game and not giving up.

The Buckeyes fell behind, but dug down deep, shut down the Bearcats, and pulled away.  Sullinger and Thomas were great, but Aaron Craft and Lenzelle Smith, Jr. provided the energy and the gritty defense that frustrated the Bearcats and allowed the Buckeyes to rebuild their lead and cruise to victory. Craft seemed to be just about everywhere, knocking balls loose, hitting the floor, and driving the Bearcat big men and guards alike to distraction with his quick hands.

Smith, on the other hand, made some great passes, got some crucial buckets, and helped to shut down the Bearcats when the game was in the balance.  This game showed why Coach Thad Matta likes to have Lenzelle in the lineup.  When he is playing his game, he contributes in so many different ways.

Both Smith and Craft contributed on offense in the second half; Smith had 15 points, and Craft ended with 11, most of which came on free throws.  William Buford, on the other hand, probably is glad he’ll never see another Sweet Sixteen game — he seemed out of sorts all game and could not get the ball to go down.  We’ll hope he’s gotten the game out of his system, because we’ll need him to score in the next game.

So, the Buckeyes advance to play Syracuse.  They’ll need to play well and shoot better from the free throw line, but we’ll worry about that game later.  For now, the Buckeyes have moved on and knocked Cincinnati out of the tournament in the process.

Somewhere, Jerry Lucas is smiling.

This is the third year in a row the Buckeyes have made it this far — and the last two years they went no farther.  In 2010 they lost a heart-breaker to Tennessee, 76-73; last year they arguably had the best team around and fell in a stomach-churning loss to Kentucky, 62-60.  The close scores made the losses more agonizing, and Buckeyes fans don’t want to endure another.

Ohio State and Cincinnati are in the same state but don’t play each other often.  Nevertheless, they have a rich basketball history.   Cincinnati beat the Buckeyes in two NCAA championship games 50 years ago, during the Jerry Lucas era.  Some of my friends would dearly like to get belated payback this year.

It’s safe to say that the participants in this year’s game won’t be thinking much about Lucas and the Buckeyes of the early ’60s.  They’ll be focused on stopping a UC team that is tough, scrappy, and balanced, with four players who average in double figures.  The team bounced back after a humiliating loss to crosstown rival Xavier — in a game that ended in an awful bench-clearing brawl — to play well in their conference and advance to the Big East title game.  UC’s experience in the Big East means they won’t be intimidated by the setting or the opponent.

As for the Buckeyes, they can’t afford another start like they had against Gonzaga, which dominated the boards early and got Jared Sullinger into foul trouble.  They’ll need to rebound better and will be looking for Lenzelle Smith to crash the glass and bring hustle on defense.  They’ll want to get the terrific contributions from Deshaun Thomas and Aaron Craft that they got against Gonzaga.  Finally, they’ll need big games from Sullinger and, especially, William Buford, who will be looking to exorcise some demons from last year’s loss to Kentucky.

The game tips tomorrow night at (ugh!) 9:45 p.m.  Already, the insides of the stalwart members of Buckeye Nation are churning.

This was a very good win against a very good team.  The Buckeyes were out of sorts early and were getting killed on the boards.  Shouted epithets rang through Webner House as the Bulldogs got put-backs and second-chance points after grabbing offensive rebounds.  But with Jared Sullinger on the bench with two fouls, the Buckeyes clawed their way back.  Amir Williams gave Ohio State a presence in the middle, and Aaron Craft and Deshaun Thomas brought the Buckeyes back to lead at the half.  In the second half, the terrific Craft led the way and the Buckeyes built up a 10-point lead.  Then, Gonzaga wisely went to a zone, the Buckeyes were thrown off stride, and their lead ultimately dwindled to nothing.  But Ohio State stuck at it, made their free throws, and finally got the crucial rebounds.  The final score was 73-66, but the game was a lot closer than that.

This may have been the gutsiest effort by Ohio State this year.  They played, and beat, an experienced team that is a perennial NCAA Tournament contender.  Equally important, it was a true team effort — perhaps the most total team effort of the season.  Four players scored in double figures and the Buckeyes got quality contributions off the bench from Amir Williams and Shannon Scott.  It was good to see William Buford on the line at the end, knocking down free throws to ice the game.  Buford deserves some love and respect from Buckeyes fans for coming back for his senior year when he easily could have gone pro and providing the team’s most dependable outside shooting.

So now the Buckeyes get to sit back and wait to see whether they play Florida State or Cincinnati in the round of 16 — where the Buckeyes have fallen the last two years.  Let’s hope they take a few moments tonight to reflect on and enjoy a job well done today.

The score isn’t important, and the fact that Thomas led the way isn’t really important, either.  What’s important is that the Buckeyes survive and move on — and that is what the NCAA Tournament is all about.  That is what last year’s Big Dance confirmed.  You don’t have to be the best team, you just have to survive by hook or crook in the game at hand and move forward.

The Buckeyes have done so tonight, moving past the Greyhounds and into the field of 32.  They did it even though their game started after 10 p.m., which is pretty ridiculous when you think about it.  These are college kids who just took exams, and purely because of money they start their national championship tournament after 10 p.m.  on a weeknight.  But that’s a posting for another day.

Next up for the Buckeyes is Gonzaga, which pulverized West Virginia tonight.  We’ll figure out later whether the Buckeyes match up well or poorly against Gonzaga — for now, the big point is that the Buckeyes are still alive, and so is every other Big Ten team that has played.  We’ll see how the Tournament goes, but right now the people who were saying the Big Ten was tough this year have a pretty good argument.

Before we get too wrapped up in March Madness, I hope all Ohio State fans take a moment to recognize what a fine season the Buckeyes had.  The team beat Duke and Florida early in the season, played in the toughest conference in the country, overcame some mid-season struggles, and won its last two regular season games to win a share of the Big Ten regular season title.  Winning the Big Ten regular season title is an accomplishment worth savoring, and Coach Thad Matta is making it seem routine.  What a fabulous hire he has been!  The Buckeyes then played two excellent games in the Big Ten Tournament before falling to the Spartans in a classic, physical slugfest.  Congratulations to Michigan State for winning a very tough game between two evenly matched teams.

Now that we’ve taken a moment to appreciate the season so far, let’s turn to the Big Dance.  I don’t want to hear any whining from Ohio State fans about being put in the toughest regional, or drawing unfavorable match-ups, or having to deal with different styles of officiating.  If you want to be a champion, you need to suck it up and find a way to overcome the obstacles in your path.  The last week of the regular season and the Big Ten Tournament suggested that Ohio State may be starting to gel as a very good team.  We’ll find out soon enough — starting Thursday, against the Loyola Greyhounds — whether this year’s version of the Buckeyes is made of championship stuff.

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.

I don’t care if Ohio State wins the Big Ten Tournament, but any game against Michigan is, well, a game against Michigan.  And if there is such a game, Ohio State must win, period.  I don’t care if its tiddlywinks or horseshoes, the good guys must prevail and the Maize and Blue must go down to ignominious, towel-crying, teeth-gnashing, humiliated-faced-fans-leaving-early defeat.

This won’t be easy, because this Michigan team is good.  Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. are studs, the Wolverines can play an inside game and an outside game, and they have lots of experience and talented role players.  It’s a game that will help to get the Buckeyes ready for the NCAA Tournament.  When you get to the Big Dance, you’ll play athletic, well-coached teams like the Wolverines game after game, and you have to figure out how to get past them and move on.

Beat the Wolverines!

Mr. Romney, this is your introduction to college sports at a school like The Ohio State University!  At schools like Ohio State, just winning isn’t enough.  When you play Santorum U. or Gingrich College, you’re expected to kick their butts six ways to Sunday and beat them into oblivion.  If you don’t — if the outcome is in doubt until, say, the late third quarter — fans begin to question whether you have the “killer instinct” and can do what is necessary to keep Ohio State atop the heap.

So get used to it, Mr. Romney.  If you are going to be the front-runner, you must shoulder and bear the front-runner’s expectations, and understand that when a complete thrashing is expected, a simple victory is not enough.  But you must also understand that just winning, somehow, eventually is its own reward.  Just like the 2002 Buckeyes, beating your opponent, game after game, eventually puts you in the position to play for the ultimate prize.