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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BREAKING NEWS: WR Duron Carter, DE Keith Wells Are Both Now FORMER Buckeyes

Grant Freking—Featured Contributor


After a tumultuous first season in Columbus, Ohio State sophomore-to-be wide receiver Duron Carter has withdrawn from OSU, according to Bill Greene of Scout.com.

Carter has reportedly enrolled at Coffeyville (KS) Community College. He is expected to spend one year there to improve his grades and then he will be eligible to play Division-I football again.

After earning a starting spot in 2009 and catching 13 passes for 179 yards during the regular season, Carter was ruled academically ineligible for the Rose Bowl and missed spring practice for academic reasons.

At Coffeyville, Carter will attempt to improve his academic status in addition to playing football, and will seek to transfer to a Division-I school in June of 2011. He will then have three years of eligibility remaining.

It’s been a rough day for Jim Tressel and Ohio State football.

Sophomore defensive end Keith Wells has also decided to leave the program, according to a university release and Jeff Svoboda of BuckeyeSports.com.

Wells saw limited action in 2008 as a true freshman, and redshirted last season after an offseason injury. Wells would have been a backup defensive end in 2010, behind starters Cameron Heyward and Nathan Williams.

He took part in spring drills but would have been fighting for playing time with redshirt freshman Melvin Fellows and junior Soloman Thomas.


6/23/10 - UPDATE

According to an article by Tim May of the Columbus Dispatch, Cris Carter says the plan is for his son Duron to get his academics in order so he may re-enroll at Ohio State next June.


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