March of the Buckeyes

The euphemistic title of this epic piece speaks volumes of the content that I'll provide forthwith: the winning ways of the Ohio State Buckeyes as they progress through the 2007 NCAA Tournament, and what it means to people like me.

The Shot Heard Round the Buckeye State
With just a few ticks left in the second half of their second-round game against the top-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes, and with a three-point lead over OSU and control of the outcome of the game in hand, a Xavier player stepped to the line with a chance to put the game out of reach of the Buckeyes. If he hits one free throw, the Musketeers are up four. If he hits both free throws, Xavier would have a five-point lead. Either way, it would be a two-possession game, and there was not enough time left for Ohio State to score twice. The first free throw missed. Okay, fine, hit the second one, dude. Nope, not gonna do it -- at this juncture. The second also failed to connect. Ohio State got the rebound, flew down the court, and hit a clutch three -- from about 25 feet -- as the clock expired. Ohio State won the game, fairly easily, in overtime. The win propelled the Buckeyes to the Sweet 16 (regional semifinals).

Down 20
Ohio State faced Tennessee last night (Thursday, March 22) with a trip to the Elite 8 (regional finals) on the line. As the top seed in the region, Ohio State entered the game as solid favorites to defeat the Vols. And then the game started, and......Ohio State sleepwalked through the first half (I still yawn just thinking about it), while Tennessee shot something like 60% from three-point territory. The Vols made something like ten threes in the first half en route to a 49-32 halftime lead. Probably many, at this point, had written off the Buckeyes' drive for the Final Four. I, of course, figured that they still had a chance.

And man, I don't know what Ohio State Coach Thad Matta said to his players at halftime, but they came out positively smokin' to start the second half. The Bucks were so hot, and Tennessee was so shell-shocked -- "Coach, how do we play with a 17-point halftime lead?" -- that by the time the second half was halfway finished, Ohio State had nearly drawn even with the Vols. Ohio State took the lead with approximately six-seven minutes left in the game, and prevailed in the seesaw affair toward the end of the game. There were several lead changes after the Great Comeback was completed, and in the end, the Buckeyes came out on top by a point -- 85-84. Ohio State moves on to the regional finals, where they will face 2-seed Memphis.

Carrying the Flag
For the six NCAA Tournament entrants from the Big Ten, there was a mixed bag of expectations. Ohio State was considered a solid/decent pick to advance to the Final Four, and one of the favorites to take home the national championship. Wisconsin (my beloved Badgers) was an odds-on pick to advance to at least the Sweet 16, if not the Elite 8 and Final Four. Wisconsin's late-season loss of Brian Butch, their leading inside scoring threat, hampered the Badgers' outlook. Indiana, a 7-seed, was given about a 50/50 shot of winning the Hoosiers' first game, and roughly no chance of advancing further. Purdue and Michigan State were in flip-a-coin 8/9 matchups and 12-seed Illinois was expected to lose to 5-seed Virginia Tech. So when the Big Ten went 5-1 in the first round, many Big Ten fans were pleasantly surprised. Many "experts" were "shocked".

And then came the second round.

Wisconsin, who played about 15 minutes of good basketball out of their two games, was shocked by UNLV. Purdue, Michigan State and Indiana all gave good efforts against their opponents -- tourney favorites Florida, North Carolina and UCLA, respectively -- but eventually fell short and were ousted from the Dance. The only Big Ten team to advance to the Sweet 16 was Ohio State, who squeaked past Xavier by the fuzz on star freshman center Greg Oden's chinny-chin-chin.One day, the Conference was on top of the hill. Literally two days later, the Big Ten was lamenting a catastrophic string of second-round defeats.

To this point, it has been another disappointing Tournament for the Big Ten -- last year's performance was not worth discussing here. And yet at least this year, the Conference has a team in the Elite 8, with every chance to do further damage in the Tournament. There is at least one bright spot, one hero left to fight on, one single-combat champion with (perhaps) three more skulls to add to the pile.

So it is that Ohio State carries the hopes of a mob of basketball fans stretching literally from central Pennsylvania to the barren tundra of western Minnesota and the corn and pigs of western Iowa. Can Ohio State carry the projected -- from us to them, as their dreams become ours -- basketball dreams of millions of devout Big Ten fans?

This Buckeye-fan-of-the-hour says that they can. Go Bucks.