Eleven Warriors - A Buckeye Sports Blog

Can Swatterdale repeat his numbers?

#6 Ohio State 14-4, 28-7 Big Ten Roster | Schedule

March 21, 2009 2:20 PM ET – CBS —— Bradley Center Milwaukee, WI

Georgia Tech 7-9, 23-12 ACC Roster | Schedule

A week ago, we thought the Midwest Region was the Beast of the tournament, but after the first 3 days of play, it has become the region that has blown up brackets across the land.

Ohio State overcame a tough game from Evan Turner to take down UCSB 68-51 in the first round, while Georgia Tech took down Oklahoma St. 64-59. The Jackets slipped into the Dance by making a run in the ACC tourney, after they finished tied for 7th with a sub .500 record of 7-9 in the conference.

Georgia Tech has an RPI of 27 and have played the 10th toughest schedule. They are a little on the younger side, playing 4 freshmen and a sophomore amongst their top 8. They are 5-9 against the RPI top 50, but 4-3 against top 25 teams this year, including wins over Duke and Maryland.

Opponent

The Yellow Jackets lost 6 of their last 9 regular season games, but have won 4 of 5 since, giving up just 60.4 points per contest. G. Tech comes in scoring 73 points a game, on 46.1 shooting overall and 36.9 percent from deep. They do have a tendency to get sloppy, averaging 16.3 TO’s a game, but counter that by forcing 15 from their opponents. On the season, GT gave up 65.4 points a game and held teams to 38 percent shooting, which is good for 5th in the country.

Georgia Tech has some height across the front, lead by the 6′10″ freshman Derrick Favors and 6′9″ junior Lawai, who both average over 8 boards a contest. 6′8″ senior Zach Peacock will come off the bench, playing about 20 minutes, registering 8.6 points and 4 boards a game. Maurice Miller and Brian Oliver, both guards will also see over 15 minutes, combining for 11 points a game.

In their opening round game, the Jackets connected on 24 of 25 FT attempts, while Oklahoma State made 9 of 13. They only shot 10 threeballs in their 44 FG attempts, but allowed the Cowboys to shoot 50 percent from the field. They dominated the glass, 32-17 and were able to snag 10 offensive caroms, but only had 1 block.

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Seriously?

So yeah, that just happened. In what has to be one of the Top 5 upsets in college basketball post-season history, Northern Iowa took down seemingly invincible overall one seed Kansas. Assuming Ohio State can sneak past Derrick Favors and Georgia Tech, the Buckeyes may wind up being this weekend’s biggest winners.

Obviously another NCAA tournament rematch with Tennessee would be an incredible challenge for The Villain & co., but the idea of getting an UNI, Michigan State, or Maryland has to be infinitely more appealing than running into the elephant in the room that was KU. So, best tournament of all-time? Mark Titus sure thinks so.

Diebs (7/11 3’s) and Dallas (12reb, 8blk) blew up

With the probable NPOY left frustrated thanks to a pesky defense influencing a 2/14 shooting night, Jon Diebler stepped up and caught fire from deep (7/11 3FG), good for 23 points as Ohio State advanced to the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament following a 68-51 win over UCSB tonight in Milwaukee.

Wil Buford also had a big night with 16 points (6/12) and eight boards while Turner finished with nine points, 10 rebounds and five dimes against four turnovers. Turner spent a good chunk of the night showing his frustration and forcing the action but he picked a great time to produce an offensive stinker considering how his teammates came through.

After a 7-2 start to the second half cut OSU’s lead to 32-24 at the 17:07 mark, Ohio State went on a game seizing 10-3 run featuring a Diebler triple, back to back thunder dunks from a rejuvenated Dallas Lauderdale and a Lighty triple propping the lead to 42-27 with 15:01 left. UCSB wouldn’t get closer than 10 the rest of the way meaning the Buckeyes will take on Georgia Tech at 2:20pm on Sunday.

Lauderdale, a no-show for the bulk of the conference tournament, finished with probably his most meaningful game as a Buckeye recording 12 boards and a ridiculous eight blocks while Kyle Madsen joined the block party with two of his own. Throw in swats from WB and Lighty and the Buckeyes finished with 12 while winning the glass 37-30. OSU’s tight man defense overwhelmed the Gauchos holding them to 31% from the field and from distance (6/19).

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/Insert awful Ian Eagle/Jim Spanarkel Dallas Lauderdale pun (Photo by Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images)

After dismissing UC Santa Barbara 68-51, Ohio State will truly get to find out that answer with a date with #10 seed Georgia Tech and monster center Derrick Favors on deck. Ohio State was in control the entire night, despite an uncharacteristic off night from The Villain. Jon Diebler more than picked up the slack, in spite of battling a mean stomach flu virus for much of the last 72 hours, putting up 23 points on 7/11 shooting from 3. Don’t ever change Threebler. More on tonight’s game and Sunday’s to come, but until then, it’s a celebration. The copyright powers that be stole our celebration video, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still get your celebratory ride (ride, ride…) on:

Scary Brutus says “JUST WIN, BABY!”

It’s kind of ironic that UCSB alum Jim Rome will be in Michigan today. It’s only fitting that the guy that’s been (tongue-in-cheek) talking about the Gauchos shocking the world, should be in the state that best represents suffering while he, himself, is suffering tonight.

Late word on Diebler is that he should play, but will be limited with the flu. That might fly tonight against a 15 seed, but his importance to the team can’t be overstated. After all, when he hits four or more three-pointers in a game, the Buckeyes are undefeated.

So crack one while watching the game and direct all UC-SB mascot jokes to this thread.

The Madness got off to a roaring start with a slew of upsets, none bigger than Ohio’s upset of Georgetown. The Hoya Destroyas, led by former Matta assistant John Groce, torched Georgetown, putting up the most points (97) ever scored against the Hoyas in 70 games of NCAA action and becoming the only 14 seed to defeat a three by double digits.

Naturally, the win helps clear a path for the Buckeyes as Georgetown was a trendy Elite Eight pick and some Ohio State fans were still smarting from the pasting the Hoyas delivered to the two-seeded Buckeyes in 2006. If the Buckeyes take care of business this weekend and the Bobcats gets past Tennessee Saturday (with the way with the way Armon Bassett and D.J. Cooper are playing, it wouldn’t be wise to discount the thought), we could be staring down an all-Ohio Sweet Sixteen matchup.

Day one also featured three overtime games — more than occurred during the entire tournament last year — and the overhyped Big East going 1-3 out of the gate (with the lone win a comeback overtime victory by two seed Nova over a 23-12 Robert Morris team).

While Thursday’s action will be hard to top, we do get to see the Big Ten today as all five conference selections will be in action. Four of the five are favored, with the Gophers checking in as the only dogs. Best of all, the Evan Turner show is your nightcap.

Launch The Madness

‘Bout to show the world why he is the best.

#6 Ohio State 14-4, 27-7 Big Ten Roster | Schedule

March 19, 2010 9:40 PM ET – CBS —— Bradley Center Milwaukee, WI

UCSB 12-4, 20-9 Big West Roster | Schedule

The Buckeyes enter this year’s dance with redemption on their minds. Last season came to an abrupt end with a first round loss to Siena and that humiliating feeling helped drive this year’s squad to a Co-Big Ten Season Title, the B10 Tournament title and a #2 seed in the Midwest.

The first day upsets shouldn’t make you nervous, but the flu bug that has hit John Diebler should. We can be tough on Diebler at times around these parts, but there is no doubt his 3-point shooting is key to any tournament run.

The Gauchos, won the Big West Tourney, defeating Long Beach St., 69-64, after sharing the regular season title with Pacific.

Opponent

UCSB comes in scoring 68.2 points a game, on 44.8 percent shooting overall and 38% from deep. The Gauchos didn’t play a single opponent in the top 25 this year, went 0-2 against the RPI’s top 50 and lost to California 87-66, the only common foe with the Bucks.

Coach Bob Williams plays all 5 starters at least 20 minutes a game, but he could sub up to another 5 off the bench, lead by Jordan Weiner’s 14.3 minutes and 3 points. As you can see, their primary scoring comes from 2 players, but James Shurna averaged 10 in the conference tourney, while Powell stepped it up to almost 16 a game during the tourney run. Powell is the only senior that sees significant minutes and starts alongside 4 sophomores.

According to Bob Baptist at the presser yesterday, the Gauchos hope their match up zone will confuse the Buckeyes and lead to cold shooting on the perimeter, while trying to avoid getting into a track meet. Coach Williams also expressed concerns over getting “murdered on the glass” and shooting the ball really well. Essentially saying, UCSB has to play a perfect game, while OSU would have to repeat last March’s effort to pull off the victory.

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“Now listen to me son, I owe Thad Matta a big favor for helping me get this job. We need to beat the Hoyas tonight.”

Thank you Thad for grooming such a clutch head coach! John Groce and the 14-seeded Ohio University Bobcats have defeated 3-seed Georgetown 97-83 to help make the path just a little bit easier for the Buckeyes.

We can at least celebrate tonight while we await tomorrow night’s match-up between the Bucks and the Gauchos. Happy March Madness everyone!