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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No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 4-seed Kentucky—History Favors Buckeyes?

In the history of college basketball, Kentucky is considered basketball royalty, and rightfully so—what with their total of 51 NCAA tournament appearances, 13 trips to the Final Four, and seven national championships.

Ohio State, however, has a higher success rate (50%) of getting to the Final Four. In their 20 NCAA tournament appearances, the Buckeyes have made it to 10 Final Fours, but have only won one national championship.

In their 71 combined tournament appearances, the Buckeyes and the Wildcats have faced each other five times before tonight's regional match up, with one team winning all five of the previous meetings.

It may surprise even the most astute college basketball fan to learn that Ohio State, not Kentucky, is the owner of that 5-0 record. The games were played in 1945, 1961, 1962, 1968, and 1987.

The only team with more tournament wins over Kentucky is Marquette, who coincidentally, could face the Ohio State-Kentucky winner in the regional final if the Golden Eagles knock off another member of the "men's basketball royal court" in No. 2-seed North Carolina.

While the Buckeyes have previously had Kentucky's number, no Kentucky player was even alive yet the last time the two teams played in 1987, so certainly this trend means nothing for tonight's meeting, right?

Say what you will of trends and how they are meant to be broken, but consider this—No. 1-seed Duke was previously 0-for-4 in the Sweet 16 when playing in the West regional.

In case you missed last night's Duke-Arizona game, the Blue Devils are now 0-for-5 in the Sweet 16 when playing out West.

Kentucky is very young, and albeit very talented, but Ohio State is the true definition of a team. They are as unselfish as they come.

National POY candidate Jared Sullinger, Jon Diebler, David Lighty, and William Buford are all capable of scoring 25-plus on any given night, but none of them seem to care if they do.

All they care about is winning, not personal highlight reels.

All that being said, Kentucky won't be intimidated, well, because they are Kentucky, so this game could end up being one of the best of the entire tourney.

While it's likely to be a back-and-forth close battle—one that could even come down to the final seconds tonight—expect the Buckeyes to push their all-time mark against the Wildcats to 6-0.


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Buckeye Basketball—No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 8 George Mason

This has nothing to do with the game at all. Just thought this video of the GM "Green Machine" band was worth sharing.



I admit this is pretty badass, but their band, nor their team, can hang with TBDBITL or the Buckeyes!

That will be proven Sunday at 12:00PM.

Sullinger, Buford, Lighty, and ThreeBler, all day baby...GO BUCKS!




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