Not the prettiest game of all time, but it had an ending that, at least for me and other OSU fans, made up for the rest of the relatively sloppy game. Overall, the game turned out pretty much how I expected it to, with Ohio State gaining a slight lead early, Wisconsin coming back late to overtake the Buckeyes, and then the Bucks pulling out a close one in the end. The one aspect of the game that I totally didn't expect was how low scoring it was. Some people will say that this was an ugly game, like Gregg Doyel over at cbs.sportsline.com, while most Big Ten fans will argue that it was simply a hard-nosed, physical, defensive battle. Personally, I'm somewhere in between these two. While I don't think either team played their best, or even played very well, it was still an overall exciting game between two obviously very talented teams. Right now, neither team is the best team in the country, but with a hot streak and a little luck, both teams have the potential to cut down the nets in Atlanta. Oden was very unimpressive in this game, and in a way it showed that he will not be completely ready for the NBA next season. If he can be pushed around and defended physically by no-name post players on Wisconsin, he will not be able to dominate the centers and power forwards in the NBA. Also, Dequan Cook's silence lately has become a little alarming, as he was one of the Buckeyes most reliable scorers early in the season. Ivan Harris showed again why he's called "The Microwave", Mike Conley showed again why he could be next Chris Paul in college basketball, and Ron Lewis finally got back to his game of driving to the hoop and drawing fouls, as opposed to shooting deep fadaway three-pointers. Overall, a very good win, especially for the four players on the team who can now say that they were a part of the first Ohio State basketball teams to win back-to-back outright Big Ten titles since 1962.
This game should aid the Buckeye in their quest for a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, and I think that simply getting to the finals of the Big Ten tournament should be enough to clinch a top seed. Not only that, but with North Carolina and Florida falling this weekend, OSU has a chance to the top seed in the whole tournament. The two biggest factors in Ohio State's case to be seeded higher than those two teams are that they head into the postseason on a big winning streak, and OSU's losses (at Florida, at UNC, at Wisconsin) are much higher quality losses than some of North Carolina's (at NC State, at Virginia Tech, home against Virginia Tech, at Maryland) and Florida's (at Florida State, at Vandy, at LSU). Right now, I think that the only team that would be seeded ahead of the Buckeyes is UCLA, and UCLA still has away games at Washington State (a very tough place to play this season) and Washington and then the tough Pac-10 tournament to get through. If UCLA slips up at any point and Ohio State wins the Big Ten tourney, I think OSU will get that top seed. This is extremely important because, in my opinion, there are seven teams (Ohio State, UCLA, Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Texas A&M) that are head and shoulders above the rest of the country. I would much, much rather face Memphis or Washington State in the Elite 8 than Florida, Kansas, or Texas A&M.
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Well, Sam. I'd have to agree with you that I'm somewhere in between the wow-what-a-terrible-game people and the this-is-what-big-10-basketball-is-all-about-people. no matter how you label the game, it was a helluva win for the Buckeyes, and an especially big one for their confidence as they gained revenge from the loss earlier in the season.
As far as the top 7 teams theory, I can't necessarily agree. First, because I haven't seen the other teams play enough (and I doubt you have, either), and second, because there are no teams head-and-shoulders above the rest. Ohio State is even that much better than Penn State (as shown in two close games this season), and the other "elite" teams have slipped up against cream puffs (yes, i said it) like Santa Clara. As important as this win today was, I wouldn't look ahead to elite 8 matchups yet. Let's just get past the second round, because as we Buckeye fans know, those 7-10 seeds have potential to bite us.
While my top 7 teams theory does have some flaws in it, I still have to say that I stick by that claim. There are no dominant team in college basketball this year, and any of those top 7 teams could potentially be upset in the second round. I am also not going to pretend like I have seen all the teams in the country play enough to truly have a scouting report of them, for the most part I have seen 2 or 3 games of all the top teams. However, the way I look at it is which team would I not want my favorite team to play in the NCAA tournament. No matter what team I would potentially be rooting for, I would be scared to death of playing a team like Texas A&M, Kansas, or Florida, while I wouldn't be petrified to face off against Washington State, Memphis, or Pittsburgh. I will admit though that I am probably jumping the ship on looking ahead to the Elite 8. The way the Buckeyes have played against sub-par competition (Penn St, Purdue, Northwestern) shows that they could potentially be vulnerable to a 7-8-9-10 seed in the second round. Guess I just got caught up in the excitment from the win today.
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