Our Honor Defend

With all but assurance of a spot in the field of 65 with a victory over Michigan State, the defending Big Ten Tourney champion Buckeyes fell short today, dropping a 67-60 decision in Conseco Fieldhouse.

One of the stories of the game was Drew Neitzel. He got the game started for Sparty with a 3pter over the top of the Buckeye zone defense, a feat he would duplicate 5 more times throughout the course of the game, tallying 28pts off of 6/12 3pt shooting, adding on 5 rebounds as well. The performance in Indianapolis more than atones for his woeful performance in Columbus, Ohio just 5 days earlier. The game began with a nice pace and tempo, almost certainly unlike the Wisky-Michigan game hours earlier.

For the second straight game, Koufos started on the bench, but would enter around the 17:30 mark and immediately make his presence known with a 3pter to tie the score at 9 all. Koufos was clearly the star of the first half for the Buckeyes, padding a few nice jumpshots with some nice defense and a highlight reel transition dunk to have 13pts, 5rebs and a block in the first half.

The game took a downhill turn for the Buckeyes midway through the first half. Butler picked up his 2nd foul at around the 11:30 mark, but would play for an additional 3 minutes before being subbed out for reserve JUCO transfer PJ Hill. Michigan State would also turn the heat on in transition, turning missed baskets into fast break points as well as turning the Buckeyes press into a routine game of hot potato. Before the garbage time set in, Sparty had a 14-2 edge in fast break points for the game.

Butler would come back in at the 5 minute mark, playing with 2 fouls, and would eventually come back with 30 seconds left in the half to drain a 3 footer and take a 30-30 tie into intermission. The beginning of the second half was slow and uneventful, though the opening seconds did see nice off-the-ball movement by David Lighty give the Bucks a 32-30. This would be their only lead of the game. The Bucks would hold the Spartans without a FG for about 4 minutes, with the only problem being that there was a 3 minute stretch where neither the Spartans nor the Buckeyes scored. Indeed, it seemed like the Wisky-Michigan game got drunk and the Sparty-Buckeyes game got the hangover.

The game would change irreversibly at around the 13 minute mark, where a disastrous 50 second spell not only broke the monotony of the game to that point, but put the Buckeyes in a 4pt hole from which they would never recover. The festivities began with a clear flop from Goran Suton, where the refs called Koufos for an offensive foul for basically being a 7fter who can handle the ball. Big men with ball handling skills naturally play low to protect the ball, and the Suton flop made Koufos look like he was leaning in when he clearly was not. Just seconds later on the other end, Koufos draws his second foul on a clean block — a “Spalding sandwich” as Steve Lavin would say — which had both Koufos and Thad Matta stunned stupid. On the next possession, Koufos, presumably having blown a mini-gasket by this time, commits a clear behind the back foul out of frustration, his 3rd in just under a minute. On the next possession down the floor, Othello commits a foul on a 2pt try by a Spartan player, loses his temper, grins, screams “NO” and starts clapping his hands in frustration. The Pac Big 10 officiating crew thought that was so outrageous and uncalled for that he drew a technical foul for it. In 50 seconds, Koufos went from 0 to 3 fouls and Hunter picked up his 4th, giving the Spartans 4 free throws in the process.

For all intents and purposes, the Buckeyes would never recover. Fortuitous bounces for the Spartans and offensive rebounds for Sparty would prohibit the Bucks from every really coming back. The Buckeyes would cut the deficit to 2 with about 7:30 left, but the Spartans would score 5 quick points unanswered. The Bucks would also cut it to 3 points with about 2 minutes left, to which Neitzel would score an easy layup as a result of a total boner on defense on the inbound play. The Bucks would fall behind 6 points with one minute left, and ultimately lose 67-60.

We tip our hat to Othello Hunter, though, who had a great performance for the entirety of the game. He would finish with 10pts, 7rebs and 5 blocks. Notwithstanding being a little more quiet in the second half, Koufous would finish with 19pts and 5rebs. However, the bigger story for the Buckeyes is what becomes of their postseason now that they were unable to play themselves off the bubble? Surely the Bucks didn’t hurt themselves as badly as a team like Florida did, almost having the doors blown off them by a woeful Crimson Tide team. Still, they didn’t help themselves either. And now the Buckeye men’s team, like their fans, will play the waiting game until Selection Sunday, curiously pondering what they will be doing next week.

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Oh the waiting game sucks, let’s play Hungry Hungry Hippos!