Buckeye Men Join Women As Tournament Champions
Unfortunately, the structure of the Big Ten Tournament — always the last to finish before the brackets are revealed — does not permit me to say too much in the interest of time. It was a very tough defensive effort early on. The Buckeyes took away the post-entry pass with strong perimeter defense early into the game while Minnesota dared Ohio State to enter the paint just to get mauled. However, even at this point, it was clear that, no matter Ohio State’s defensive pressure, Minnesota’s offense was just so limited in what they were able to accomplish that the Buckeyes had the edge going down the stretch. Sure enough, a three point lead at intermission ballooned to 11. A Minnesota run narrowed the gap between them, but the Buckeyes caught fire on the offensive end. They made something in the ballpark of 12 consecutive shots. What started out as a tough, defensive game turned into a blowout.
I’ll mention a few things briefly before coming back with some additional comments after the bracket reveal. David Lighty should get a ton of praise for his effort, especially against Ralph Sampson III despite giving up 6 inches. Further, Kyle Madsen again played most of the way instead of Dallas Lauderdale, performing admirably on defense, taking Colton Iverson out of the paint. Lastly, it was good to see PJ Hill and Jeremie Simmons get on the scoreboard in the final seconds and, of all people, it was Nikola Kecman who gave Ohio State its first bench points of the entire game.
More to come later, but, until then: let’s party Columbus.
Written by: Vico |