Buckeyes Advance to NIT Quarterfinals
The hapless Bears ran into a Buckeye buzzsaw including a 24-4 run to put the game on ice.Playing the hoops equivalent of the Bad News Bears, Ohio State looked awfully impressive routing Cal 73-56 in front of a raucous sellout crowd tonight in St. John Arena. Props to the 13,276 who raised hell from the opening tip and to Matta’s troops for their inspired performance.
It looked like the Golden Bears might make it a game early on but the Buckeyes unleashed a 17-4 run late in the first half to take a 35-23 lead in to the locker room. The blitz featured 3 triples from Jamar Butler who led OSU with 20 points.
The Buckeyes also received 17 points and 6 rebounds from Kosta Koufos in addition to a monster dub-dub from Othello Hunter. The senior showed he’s not ready to hang ‘em up just yet dominating the Cal frontline with a game high 16 rebounds (7 off) to go along with 11 points, a block and a steal. His activity on the glass yielded 10 free throw opportunities but O converted just five.
The 2-2-1 press contributed to 15 Cal turnovers and the 3-2 matchup zone held Ryan Anderson to a season low 11 points on 4/11 shooting. For the game, the Bears shot just 40% and managed only 6 free throw attempts as the Buckeye zone stifled Cal’s offensive flow. In truth, Cal was simply a bad team looking to pull the plug on a 17-16 season but give credit to OSU for executing at both ends for 40 minutes.
The Buckeyes shot 50% (29/58), won the battle of the boards 34-29 and registered 10 steals.
On the downside, Jon Diebler had an 0/5 night (0/4 3’s) while Evan Turner stunk it up shooting 1/7 with 4 turnovers. I’m over the fact Diebler will never be anything more than a reserve spot up shooter but I’m a little more concerned about Turner’s recent slide. Sure, he’s been up and down all year but after 34 games he should be cutting down on the turnovers. Instead, he’s got 13 in his last 5 games.
The win sets up a Wednesday showdown with the #3 seed Dayton Flyers following their 55-48 victory over #2 Illinois State.
If nothing else, the game should be much more competitive as the Flyers will be looking to make an in-state-ment. Clever, huh? What do you expect after 4 days in Vegas?
That was some ball game. I couldn’t get a ticket tonight (late meeting), so I envy anyone who went. I’d happily trade my entire UNC-Asheville experience for five minutes of the game in St. John’s.
Ah, the good ‘ol days. Treg Lee from the baseline…. :)
Go Bucks!
Loved the St. John’s Arena on ESPN.
Everybody in the place was standing because there is NO room to sit. I remember being in the arena and being completely uncomfortable the entire time. I’m only 6′ tall, and my buddy was 6′5″. He almost needed 2 rows of seats.
Hey, I guess thats what the fans needed!
[...]phenomenal game analysis from our friends at ElevenWarriors.[...]
Anyone else see a potentially disappointing finishing with Florida coming up? Hate to think that, but it’s hard not to.
Great atmosphere. Loved every second of it. Just goes to show you don’t need t-shirt tosses and quirky scoreboard games and trivia. Don’t need crazy halftime shows or intros with the lights out to get people pumped. All you need is St. Johns. A friend of mine had seats in the upper deck almost last row and couldn’t stop telling me how amazing it was. It was great to be back.
If anyone else wants to set up a conspiracy to get more concerts scheduled during basketball season let me know.
I’m jealous of everyone that went to St. John, it sounded fantastic. This team seems very loose and that zone is tough to handle if you have not seen it before.
I don’t see a disappointing finish, because this team has played inspired ball the last couple of games. It has taken an entire season, but perhaps they are finally learning how to play hard, value possessions and win games. This can only help for next year.
The real speed bump is Dayton. I think they still have a couple of outstanding injuries, but they’re a very tough squad who should be playing in the NCAA tournament. They’d have busted someone’s bracket.
Basketball never was more amazing to watch than last night. Skipped working the concert and cheered on the Buckeyes instead. The Schott can have concerts and their Huntington Club level for exclusive fans but it will never be able to replicate last night’s atmosphere no matter what. I just hope to see more games moved back to St. John.
http://dispatch.com/live/content/bball/stories/2008/03/25/hunter25.ART_ART_03-25-08_C1_UL9O7RT.html?sid=101
I hate the newer larger arenas. Hate them. Too far away from the basket, and too many people that can afford the lower level seats are sitting in them.
I’d rather watch a MAC game in BG than a Big Ten game in Value City.
In other basketball news, Greg Oden went grocery shopping
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtV2qsfmtgk
BTW, NC State had a game at it’s old arena (St. Johnesque) a year or two ago, and it was amazing. Cameron Indoor is amazing. Small arenas (under 10,000) are the way to go. Of course, that’s presuming the sports are for the students, and not the fat-cat alumni.
Not a big fan of Value City Arena either, but does anybody think we would have landed Matta, Conely, Oden, Cook, etc. without the Schott? But yeah, I would like to see the occassional game moved back to St. John’s. Nice write-up Elven Warriors.
It would be nice to play more games there, but it’s not going to happen. Prioritize the following for the AD:
Create/Maintain Winning Programs
Graduation Rates of Student Athletes
Making $
I watched Cal a couple times and they looked decent. Nice job by the zone D! It should be a good crowd with lots of scarlet/red.
Duke doesn’t seem to have a problem recruiting. Not so sure we would.
Dan,
Yes, but Duke doesn’t have a huge athletic budget to pay for
I went to the last regular season game played in St. John’s. They brought back all the greats and my friends and I chased Jimmy Jackson out into the parking lot after the halftime ceremony to get his autograph. We had crappy seats way up in the nose bleed and I still remember the view was great. I loved it. We should play one game every year there as a gimmick.
Bob Valvano is filling in for Doug Gottleib on ESPN’s national radio show ‘The Pulse’ tonight which is being broadcast out of 1460 since Valvano’s in town calling both last night’s and tomorrow’s game. He raved at least 3 different times about the atmosphere in the arena last night and about how great of a building St. John is. Very cool.
“Chat with Malcom Jenkins Wednesday at 12:30
True or false, the Buckeye defense will hold opponents to 3.1 points per game next season?”
Personally, I hope not. It sure is cool to have the #1 defense in the national.
Until an opposing team goes on to score TEN times that many, unanswered, in a title game.
Good thing it didn’t happen or anything.