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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No. 2 Ohio State — No. 1 Syracuse Clash In East Regional Final

Ohio State and Syracuse will meet Saturday night (7:05PM tip) for the right to advance to The Final Four next week in New Orleans.

Reaching the regional final was never really in doubt for the Buckeyes. The same can't be said for the Orange.

While the Buckeyes defeated Loyola-Maryland, Gonzaga and Cincinnati without too much difficulty on their journey to the East regional final, Syracuse, who beat beat Kansas State, 75-59 in the round of 32, faced serious scares from both UNC-Asheville and Wisconsin before and after beating the Wildcats.

Prior to the NCAA tournament, Cincinnati ousted Syracuse from the Big East tourney by a final score of 71-68 — the same Bearcats squad that Ohio State just defeated 81-66 in the East semi-final.

These could be signs that this matchup favors Ohio State, but regardless of those previous games, or how each got here, these are two stellar teams and nothing less than a great game should be expected.

Against the zone defense that Syracuse brings, Ohio State's senior guard, William Buford (pictured above alongside Syracuse guard, Scoop Jardine), must play well in order for the Buckeyes to win.

Buford has been inconsistent at times, and has taken a lot of heat from some unforgiving Ohio State fans. He has also often been the catalyst and unsung hero who thanklessly has led this team to victory countless times in his illustrious OSU career. He is just 42 points away from 2,000.

Both teams are solid defensively, so don't be surprised to see a close, low-scoring battle, with the winner being decided in the final seconds, perhaps on a last second buzzer-beater.

That's what makes this tournament so great. We all want our favorite teams to win, but sometimes even in defeat, great moments, great players, and great games are born.

Who doesn't remember that Duke-Kentucky regional final in 1992, when Duke's Christian Laettner hit the game winner for the Blue Devils as time expired?

We all do, and we all won that night, for having been witness to one of the greatest moments in college basketball history.

We can only hope as we watch from the edge of our seats, as the final seconds wane away, that this game will deliver a similar memorable ending — and a Buckeye victory — that we'll talk about for years to come.

This is March Madness after all — Who would want it any other way?

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No. 4 TCU vs. No. 6 Boise State: Further Proof The BCS Conspiracy Theory is Real

by HD Handshoe
Founder—Block-O-Nation



For the first time ever, two non-automatic-qualifiers (TCU and Boise State) have earned bids to play in a BCS bowl in the same season.

That is progress I suppose, and great for each of those programs and their players, but it's not still not enough.

Why might you ask?

The problem is, the BCS decided to pair them up against each other in the Fiesta Bowl, rather than to have each face a "traditional power" in separate bowls.

Now, don't get me wrong—I love college football, and a No. 4 vs. No. 6 matchup is generally a great thing, but not in this case.

This mid-major pairing was a major letdown. The BCS really dropped the ball here.

No matter who wins, the question will still remain: Just how good is TCU, or Boise State really...

Personally, I think the BCS does not like its' automatic-qualifier conference teams to look bad, and Utah made Alabama, and the SEC, look very bad in the 2008-2009 Sugar Bowl.

I believe that because of that game, this year the BCS did not want to take any chances of having any of its' other supposedly superior-to-the-mid-major-programs teams meet a similar fate as the Tide.

I'll watch the TCU-Boise State Fiesta Bowl, and it could be one of the top bowl games of this postseason. I just wonder how many others will miss it because it's two mid-majors, and because they played against each other last year in the Poinsettia bowl.

Ultimately, the BCS is about making money and they could have certainly increased their bowl revenue significantly in my opinion if they weren't trying to protect the teams from the big six conferences.

Here's how the BCS bowl games should have been paired up:




January 1, 2010
No. 7 Oregon vs. No. 8 Ohio State




January 1, 2010
No. 4 TCU vs. No. 5 Florida




January 5, 2010
No. 3 Cincinnati vs. No. 6 Boise State




January 5, 2010
No. 9 Georgia Tech vs. No. 10 Iowa




National Championship-January 7, 2010
No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 2 Texas


Those are the games I wish I could watch this bowl season, but the BCS monopoly avoided those pairings to save itself.

Just imagine the push for change if TCU thumped Florida or Cincinnati, or if Boise State blew out Cincinnati or Florida.

The BCS conspiracy is real, alive and well, and exists for the BCS like the primal instincts of an animal in the wild, with one main purpose in mind—self preservation.


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