Ohio State Tops Syracuse, Headed to New Orleans With Eyes on the Final Four Prize

Four of Ohio State's five starters scored 13 or more points — led by Jared Sullinger's 19-point performance despite early foul trouble that limited him to just six minutes and change on the floor in the first half — and the Buckeyes earned a hard-fought 77-70 victory over the Syracuse Orange to advance to their first Final Four since 2007 — the 11th Final Four appearance in school history.

The somewhat surprising performance of the night goes to Lenzelle Smith Jr. who, despite leaving the game briefly after an inadvertent elbow caused a cut over his eye which required stitches, dropped 18 points on the Orange, including a couple of timely 3-pointers and a beautiful raindrop runner just over the outstretched arms of a defender.

Smith has proven to be an unselfish player that doesn't necessarily care about his personal statistics, but who is a guy that can be counted on to step up offensively when needed.

Deshaun Thomas and William Buford were the other starters in double figures, with 14 and 13 respectively.

Next up for the Buckeyes, the UNC-Kansas winner.

Not to get too far ahead of ourselves here, but if UNC wins and Ohio State beats them to advance to the title game verses Kentucky, should UK beat Baylor in the other Regional Final, the Buckeyes could potentially knock off three of the tournaments No. 1 seeds en route to a national title.

That being said, my great HS basketball coach once had a motto that still resonates with me today when it comes to basketball, especially tournament basketball:

One Bite At A Time -- Bob Haas, HOF HS basketball coach, Willard HS, Willard, Ohio

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Buckeyes Blast Boilermakers, Set Up Tourney Semi-Final Against Ann Arbor

The Ohio State Buckeyes basketball team pulled away in the 2nd half of Friday nights B1G quarter-final game for a much easier win over Purdue than in the last meeting in Columbus, where the Buckeyes escaped a near upset with an 87-84 win.

Jared Sullinger grabbed 12 boards and paced OSU with a season-high 30 points to lead all Buckeye scorers, followed by Deshaun Thomas with 22, William Buford and Lenzelle Smith Jr with 11 each, and Aaron Craft with 10 points, as No. 7 Ohio State dropped Purdue, 88-71.



With the win, Ohio State advances to Saturday's semi-finals where they will face that hated team from the north at 4:00PM. The season series, and more importantly, where one of the B1G Tournament Championship game finalists will be decided.

On January 29th, OSU cruised to a 64-49 home victory over Ann Arbor, but in their February 18th meeting in Ann Arbor, the Buckeyes never led and fell, 56-51, to a then-undefeated-at-home AA squad.

The public address announcer threw a little gas on the flames of the already-heated rivalry when true freshman, Trey Burke — Sullinger's HS teammate — was introduced to the fired-up AA crowd as "The pride of Columbus, Ohio."

Winning on the road in the B1G is no easy task, so it's no huge surprise the Buckeyes lost a close one in AA.

Now on a neutral court and with a trip to the title game on the line, we'll see who truly stands as the pride of Columbus on Saturday at 4PM.

Burke, like most AA players from OHIO, is very talented, but Saturday, the smart money is on Sullinger.

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Buckeye Basketball: #4 Ohio State @ #9 Florida Tonight at 6PM on ESPN

We don't run OSU basketball stories all that often here on BlockONation, but this game warrants some attention even from a Buckeye football blog.

Not only is it a matchup of top 10 teams, but it is against the hated Florida Gators.

They beat tOSU on the gridiron in January 2007 for the BCS title and again just two short months later on the hardwood in March 2007 in the NCAA Championship game.

The Buckeyes finally beat a down-UF on the court during the 2007-2008 season, but Buckeye fans still have a bitter taste in their mouths from the championship defeats.

A victory tonight in Gainesville for the basketball Buckeyes would go a long way in solidifying the hype and their current ranking.

It would also be great for Buckeye fans to beat the Gators when they are considered to be one of the 10 best teams in the nation instead of in rebuilding mode as they were during the 07-08 season.

Below is the game preview for tonight's game from ESPN.com, which can also be viewed here.

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The last time Ohio State and Florida met as ranked teams, the national championship was on the line. The stakes aren't nearly that high this time, but an early-season matchup should reveal plenty about each club.

The fourth-ranked Buckeyes and No. 9 Gators each face their first significant test of the new season Tuesday night when they meet in Gainesville.

Ohio State (1-0) and Florida (1-0) haven't been ranked when they faced each other since the Gators won a second consecutive national title by beating the Buckeyes in 2007.

Ohio State took the rematch 62-49 at home in December of that year, but neither team was in the Top 25 at the time.

Now, a number of young, promising players make another March meeting a realistic possibility.

The reigning Big Ten champion Buckeyes, who cruised to a 102-61 win over North Carolina A&T in their season opener Friday, may have exerted themselves more while practicing to take on the Gators.

"Our intensity in practice prepares us for all of the big games," said senior forward Dallas Lauderdale, who had 12 points, 13 rebounds and eight blocks against the Aggies. "The way we practice makes all of the games easier."

Lauderdale, who averaged 6.5 points and 5.2 rebounds last season, will likely be joined in the front court by Jared Sullinger, Ohio State's top recruit.

The forward turned in a superb collegiate debut Friday, scoring 19 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Fellow freshman forward Deshaun Thomas had 24 points and eight boards.

"He has been so focused on his defense in practice," Matta said of Thomas. "I always say if you focus on defense the offense will come and he found this out. That's the impact we thought he would have."

Much like Ohio State, Florida is considered a favorite in its conference and a trendy pick to return to the Final Four.

The Gators opened their most anticipated season in four years without much trouble Friday, beating UNC Wilmington 77-60.

Coach Billy Donovan saw plenty of room for improvement, especially defensively. Florida allowed the Seahawks to shoot 47.9 percent.

"We've got to get more disciplined," Donovan said. "I think that we have a team that can press. We've got to get more disciplined in terms of what we're doing and I do believe we have a chance to be a good pressing team. We've just got to keep getting better at it."

With a deep group of young players, Donovan may continue to rotate players often in order to press the entire game. Four freshmen -- Patric Young, Scotti Wilbekin, Will Yeguete and Casey Prather -- totaled 10 points, seven assists and five steals Friday.

"It helps a lot," sophomore guard Kenny Boynton said of the frequent substitutions. "I can't remember too many times in the game when I was tired. Coach had us rotating in and out, and they gave us good minutes off the bench."

Boynton, who averaged 14.0 points while starting all but one game as a freshman, scored 10 in the season opener.


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