Our Honor Defend

‘Twas an exciting night of basketball and an exciting conclusion to the 2009 Big Ten/ACC Challenge.  Minnesota dropped a close one on the road and Michigan didn’t help any.  However, a furious 23pt rally by Illinois and a once-in-a-decade upset of Duke by the Badgers leveled the scoreboard at 5 games a piece.  Winner of Ohio State-Florida State would determine the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.  Ohio State’s 77-64 win over the Seminoles concluded the Big Ten/ACC Challenge in favor of the Big Ten for the first time in the Challenge’s history.

Soooo… we did it!

Yes, and by “we”, I mean “Ohio State”. We put it over the top.  Not you, only Ohio State.  Yup, just us.  Did it all by ourselves, with no help from Nerds, Boilermakers or Nittany Lions.

See, just like Bobby Knight said, I don’t care about the other members of the Big Ten.

Anyways, the Buckeyes were the beneficiaries of several things that made this win over Florida State possible.  The Seminoles struggled with ball control, and turnovers put them in an early bind in the first half.  To be sure, the Buckeyes played pretty good defense.  Coming in and out of the matchup zone complicated things for a Seminole offense without much leadership at the point guard position.  Second, when the Buckeyes were able to take away the paint — few and far between as that was, it forced the Seminoles to settle (or even wantonly take) 3 point shots.  I lost exact track of how many they missed, but it took until 5:03 left in the game and the Seminoles down 19 before Luke Loecks put a one in the “made” column.  With a deficit mounting, the FSU went full-on press mode and was able to delay the eventual victory.

Quick Thoughts

• Getting Chris Singleton in early foul trouble helped.  Getting him fouled out of the game with about a half of the second quarter left to play really helped.  An important part of their team, he finished with 8 points on 3/10 shooting.  He also contributed 6 turnovers.
• The Seminoles’ length was a huge source of consternation for the Buckeyes this game, mostly in the first half.  They barricaded the paint, forcing Diebler (much to our delight) to carry the Buckeyes with his 3 point shooting.  That relaxed a bit in the second half.
• However, their length and presence got so intimidating that the Buckeyes were even short-arming shots anticipating pressure that sometimes was not there.
• This changed a bit when the Buckeyes went into more of an attack mode in the second half, forcing the issue, making body contact and drawing fouls.
• Will Buford’s slump worries me.  He has not found his rhythm yet this season and tonight didn’t help.  He was 1/12 from the field.
• Jeremie Simmons provided a nice spark off the bench, making some 3pters when FSU’s press was able to chip away at the lead.
• I’ve only seen about 2.5 games with Dallas Lauderdale this season, and one of them was against the Red Flash.  However, his body control is soooo much better as a junior than it was as he came into the program.  The difference is night and day.  He picked up fouls (and he had a tough assignment to boot), but better body control will put him into a better position to contest shots without bowling people over with his frame.  He’s an important part of the team going forward, and I like that he’s improved on this.
• Evan Turner finished with 25 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists.  There are times when you wonder if he’s really that good.  Then there are times that he shows that, yes, he really is that good.
• Diebler finished with 22 points, going 6/13 from the field and 6/12 from beyond the arc.  His shot is almost automatic when he gets into a rhythm.  Should opposing teams slow down the game for him and not pressure him to put the ball on the floor, he can be absolutely deadly.

I think “conference pride” can be bit of a cumbersome topic to discuss.  I usually associate it with the mouthbreathers I have to deal with daily in Alabama.  Moreover, it will only be a month or so before we all degenerate into our own little factions, wishing mean, horrible, nasty things on each other on the hardwood.  Still, the chants of “Big Ten!” in the Schottenstein Center, and the chants of “We are!! Big Ten!!” from my Penn State friends in my Twitter feed show this definitively: the Midwest is just the balls, and there’s no better place in this country to live.  Blast-faxing kudos all around helps to remind us of the superiority of Midwest living, shortly before we go back to our regularly scheduled programming of mutual antipathies.  My only complaint: the rest of the country needs to know of the peace and tranquility of Midwest living… by force.  The ACC found that out in their bellcow sport of shooty hoops.  The rest of the country needs to find that out on the gridiron.

But that topic will come shortly after the bowl matchups are announced.