AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > April > 01 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USBuckeyes can write saga in indelible ink
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
The NCAA can level a program in a number of ways. Few are worse than with a bottle of Wite-Out.
Turn to the first page of Ohio State’s postseason media guide and you will find its history of successes and face-plants in the NCAA tournament. What you won’t find is any reference to 1999, when the Buckeyes went to their previous Final Four.
There is something about paying players and orchestrating academic fraud that leads NCAA investigators to lose their sense of humor, which is to assume they ever had one.
Nothing Ohio State can do will ever completely erase what, well, the NCAA already officially has erased. But win one more game and it’ll be as close to memory whiteout as the Buckeyes can get.
Their 67-60 win over Georgetown Saturday night has put them in a national title game for the first time in 45 years. It has been 47 years since Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek led the school to its only championship, a feat the school actually was allowed to keep.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not this soon. Not even with a freshman center who seemed NBA-ready (Greg Oden) and a freshman guard (Mike Conley Jr.). Not with a team that is forever dwarfed by the football program. When Thad Matta, the third-year replacement for the fired coach Jim O’Brien, handed players a Final Four pamphlet in the summer and spoke of the team’s goals this season, even some of them didn’t believe it.
“He talked about what we wanted to achieve and stuff — that was the first time we talked about it,” Conley said. “To tell you the truth, I probably didn’t believe him. I figured I would see how it went the first couple of games, and see if we’re as good as Coach says we are.” Let’s assume Matta was right.
This makes 22 straight wins.
Has there ever been a less talked-about team with a 22-game winning streak?
Ohio State did not do it the easy way Saturday. It had no choice. Hyperventilating referees gutted the game’s biggest sideshow when Oden was called for two curious offensive fouls in the first 2:41.
At that rate, Oden would’ve fouled out long before CBS could squeeze in another 17 commercials. So he was pulled. His first-half stats: 0 shots, 0 rebounds, two fouls.
“It was real tough, just sitting there,” Oden said.
His recap: “What happened was the referee blew the whistle.”
Fortunately for Ohio State, it was well practiced in these situations. It played the first seven games of the season without Oden while he recovered from wrist surgery. It has played several games with him in foul trouble. All the Georgetown game did was reaffirm what we should have already known — that this isn’t a one-man team, especially not with the quickest player on the floor (Conley).
Twenty-two straight. OK. They’re good.
Georgetown had become the feel-good story of this tournament. A famous coach’s son. A famous alum’s son. The Beast returns.
Fans wore T-shirts with “III” on the back, a reference to coach John Thompson III, and the caption: “Respect is back. Fear is next.”
Well, when “next” gets here, be sure to tell Ohio State.
Oden returned in the second half. The totals: 13 points, nine rebounds, in 17 minutes. “I told Greg at halftime, ‘You should be well-rested,’ ” Matta said.
His return actually was punctuated by a thunderous missed slam-dunk when he nearly knocked Georgetown’s Jeff Green into an altered state. “I was out for 17 minutes,” Oden said. “I wanted to get in there and just tear the rim down.” (As if risking life wasn’t enough, Green was called for a blocking foul.)
The Buckeyes have one more game to vent. Their football team was drilled by Florida in the BCS title game. Their basketball team was humiliated by the NCAA (and lost to the Gators by 26 points in December).
“It’s amazing,” said senior Ron Lewis, an O’Brien-era holdover. “Excellent coach, excellent team, and I’m looking forward to getting this ring.”
And to the moment not being erased.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Final Four, Jeff Schultz
Comments
By Peter
April 1, 2007 3:28 AM | Link to this
Dude I hate to go off topic (unless it’s about food. You left that out of the trip to Italy blog) but when did these blogs become so damned mean? Some of these guys should be writing in Crayon.
Did you see that the Kings have a SoCal guy?
By JSS
April 1, 2007 8:19 AM | Link to this
It’s OFFICIAL, YOU”RE A NO TALENT AND BLIND HACK!!! What “curious offensive fouls” are you talking about HACK? Oden set a moving screen, and then led with his shoulder from the right block… Man, just QUIT!!!
Congrads to the Lighty kid and Conley, OSU concrete campus section should be on their way back to the Columbus Shooting gallery… But that is why they play the games, it is a contest of skills, and ultimately will… The Poison flower school proved that…
Oh it is 8:20AM and Jeff Schultz is still what? A NO TALENT HACK thats what!!!
By j
April 1, 2007 8:47 AM | Link to this
Peter-go back to bed!