Thus Ends Shooty Hoops
I guess I should not bemoan this result too loudly. We lost to a team that had the rare victories over Kentucky and Kansas. I do not believe that our limited bench caused the legs of our key players to “give way”, though I will grant that Tennessee’s liberal substitution policy kept them fresh for the full forty minutes. Instead, in a weirdly officiated game with phantom fouls on both sides, Tennessee rode Wayne Chism through some rough stretches when the Buckeyes had a two possession lead. Chism played valiantly for the Vols while the team in general finally broke the 1-3-1 defensive look with some baseline cuts and high-low actions.
Meanwhile, Ohio State rode Evan Turner in the second half as far as he could take them. Turner had 21 of the Buckeyes’ 31 second half points. He started the game poorly from the field, but finished with 31 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Five assists in light of the limited offensive display from the four other Buckeyes on the field is actually, fairly remarkable. It was not enough in the end.
Thus, we say goodbye to some faces on the bench that we’ve been accustomed to seeing for four years. Jeremie Simmons, who signed on after the exodus of 3/5ths the Thad Five, moves on to the next stage of his career. Simmons, the de facto 7th man, came into the game after Lighty picked up two quick fouls and gave the offense some spark. He did not see second half action, but he at least put a stamp in his final game at Ohio State, providing “automatic offense” to the tune of 9 points, 3/4 from the floor (all from three). Further, universally liked walk-on turn player Danny Peters — son of a Buckeye basketball assistant — has seen his playing days for Ohio State come to an end. Kyle Madsen, the sixth man of this team and transfer from Vanderbilt, sadly sees his collegiate career end on a turn of events in the final minute that brought Buckeye fans like me to their knees.
I’ll miss two players in particular, two players for whom this loss will probably sting for a while. Mark Titus unfortunately sees his whirlwind four year career with Ohio State basketball come to an end while sick as a dog in his hotel room. Flu-stricken, the star 12th man of Ohio State’s basketball team could not even be with his teammates as he witnessed a significant part of his life come to an end. Titus came to Ohio State quietly, but transformed the role of the benchwarmer at Ohio State. His irreverent blog, Club Trillion, started as a means to be creative, but became a hit among Buckeye fans and, soon, college basketball fans across the country. Recognizing a demand for paraphernalia to show allegiance to Titus and the Trillion Man March, Titus hooked up with Homage Clothing to create the Run DMC-inspired Club Trillion shirt to sell for charity. The proceeds go to A Kid Again, a charity aimed at assisting children with life-threatening illnesses to live a happy life as a child. The exact numbers escape me, but Titus’ ingenuity to invest himself into his blog has raised over $30,000 (at the least) for this charity. While I don’t expect Titus to disappear from the consciousness of Ohio State fans, his time as a student-athlete has come to an end.
There is more to his story as well. PJ was always unique, beyond the dreads. While PJ was unsung coming to Ohio State, his sister, Tayler, was kind of a big deal in shooty ladyhoops. Tayler and PJ are close and, when it came to a college decision for the All-American Tayler, she ultimately followed his brother to Ohio State. PJ has helped his sister through the transition year, both have practiced their crafts together, and both hang out frequently through the basketball season. While it was an obvious transition from high school to college for Tayler, it was a different type of transition for PJ in the same year. An integral bench player for Ohio State as a junior, he drastically saw his minutes reduced to zero during the Big Ten season. Matta had made a decision to use Turner at the point almost exclusively while PJ became his little used backup. Despite the lack of playing time, PJ never once complained and always seemed to take advantage of whatever playing time he got. When Turner fouled out in the Big Ten semis this year against Illinois, it was PJ Hill’s quick hands that got the ball eventually poked out into David Lighty’s hand in a full court press. Lighty eventually finished with the layup.
Further, PJ has never once wavered from his interest in space. When he came to Ohio State, the instant talking point on PJ was that he wanted to be a spokesman for NASA. He still wants to be involved in NASA. He is even hoping for a trip to space. A recent graduate this past quarter with a degree in Economics, PJ is already making tentative plans to go to graduate school to pursue advance education in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering. The immediate plan is to make some money playing professionally in Europe, a preparation that just became a reality for PJ. However, there is just something intriguing about a guy who is still enthralled with his childhood wonderments. An admitted stargazer as a kid, he is still, literally and figuratively, gazing at the stars and hoping to see it for himself. All considered, it is why I always took an interest in PJ Hill as a player for the Buckeyes and am hopeful to hear big things from him down the road.
In the end, I’m not too torn up about the loss to the Volunteers. It sucks. It really does. However, I pictured the Buckeyes as a Sweet 16 team before the season. To that end, they met my expectations. The hard part is getting a taste of what may come, only to have it all suddenly end. The Buckeyes are still blessed to have Thad Matta and company at the helm of the program. Dave Richardson, the strength and conditioning coach, also deserves special praise for keeping a 5.5 man rotation fit for the Big Ten run. Simply put, we would never be dreaming this big under Jim O’Brien. Further, the roster losses for the Buckeyes are all very manageable (at least, the five seniors) and Evan Turner has led us to believe that a return for his senior season is still a possibility. However you look at it, there is not that instant thought of defection like some of the Thad Five. Lastly, the Buckeyes are getting an incredible recruiting class next year, led by Jared Sullinger. Hopefully, Sullinger will be a necessary complement in the post.
Besides, the Spring Game is less than a month away. I think this means I should get back to work on the BKAB features. I’m also hoping to get some insight into the Buckeye baseball team as well.
Sorry, Vico, but this article is a PERFECT example of how poorly Ohio State fans support Ohio State Basketball.
You basically spent the last 2 paragraphs saying ‘Yeah, this sucks, but it’s not that bad and hey here comes football!!’ .. Give me a break, man.
Reaching the Sweet 16 is not good enough. We won the Big Ten. We won the Big Ten Tournament. We gained a two seed in a bracket that fell apart and paved our way to the Final Four. Then we got upset by a team that had no business beating us because our entire team (outside of Turner) went into the tank on both ends of the floor.
This is not a ‘success’ or a ‘meeting of expectations’ .. This is akin to Ohio State football having the best player in the country while storming through the regular season and overcoming adversity to win the Big Ten title.. only to woefully underperform and get upset in the bowl game by a lesser SEC team. Not ONE of us would call that season a success or suggest that we met expectations.
If we want to be an elite college basketball institution, our expectations need to be much higher.. and we need to show up for the games, regardless of who we’re playing.. and we need to not write or think things like ‘Besides, the Spring Game is less than a month away’ .. I hate that our basketball program is taken for granted and underappreciated like that.
Someday, Matta will leave to go someplace like Kentucky or UCLA or Kansas.. someplace where they eat and breathe basketball like we do football.. and we will regret that we didn’t latch onto what we had in the same way we do with the football team.
Ummm, hate to break it to ya, but basketball and football aren’t close to the same sport so analogies like yours don’t work. tOSU was not built for a long run in the tournament. The only reason they made it this far is that Georgetown laid an egg. No inside presence. An inability to rebound. David Lighty suddenly deciding that he wanted to imitate John Diebler and take spot up threes. Tennessee deciding that no matter what, John Diebler was not going to beat them. tOSU not penetrating and dishing to an open player underneath. These were all the real reasons tOSU lost. Basketball is a game of matchups. This was a bad matchup.
Vico, very good article…Brian E, you sound like an idiot…typical line of crap from what a couch potato
fan…This team went farther then wxpected and Todd is right…this was not a good matchup. So in Brian’s world, if OSU is not winning National titles, the coach is a failure…are you that successful in your line of work?
I love when others engage in ad hominem attacks. They just lend further credibility to my position.
Vico, good season wrap-up. Onward we go.
TNB, that’s a pretty good analysis, I think. With our “lacks” this year, I was surprised (pleasantly) that we did as well as we did. By “lacks”, I mean a lack of a low-post game and lack of depth off the bench.
Brian, yes, jack nause did take an ad hominem shot at you. It detracts from jack’s criticism of you, but doesn’t enhance your credibility.
Ken: Fair point. What I should’ve said was this: His ad hominem attack detracts from his own credibility.
Just to be clear, I generally love Vico’s write-ups.
Brian, getting back to your original comment for a minute; a couple of your points in the last two paragraphs struck home with me. They were the lack of appreciation and if/when Thad moves on, we had a good thing with him.
Yes, Ohio State is thought of as a “football school”, rightfully so, but OSU has a pretty good (IMO) basketball tradition that we can point to. I’d love to watch OSU-BB as often as I can, but we live in Buffalo, so I don’t get the regional coverage if I’d still be in Ohio. I’d like to see more coverage of OSU’s women’s basketball; they’ve had some pretty good teams recently, despite early NCAA flameouts.
Yes, Ken, absolutely.
And you just hit home on one of the central points I was trying to make in that paragraph.. We have EVERYTHING that the other elite basketball programs have EXCEPT a strong fan base.
Let’s look at what the elite programs generally have (To be clear, when I refer to ‘elite’ I mean a Top 20 all-time basketball program):
1. A winning tradition. Yes, there have been a lot of lean years, but OSU ranks in the Top 50 for both all-time wins and all-time winning percentage. We have 1 National Championship and 10 Final Four appearances. We have had 10 consensus All-Americans and won at least a share of the Big Ten Title 19 times, third most behind Indiana and Purdue.
2. An all-time classic coach. Fred Taylor. Enough said.
3. Excellent facilities. I have no love for the Schott, but it IS a world class arena with a world class practice facility attached to it. Throw in the classic feel of St. John arena and we have the ability to play to nostalgia or 21st century taste.
4. Recognition of elite status: http://beyondthearc.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/10/1128425.aspx
5. A fearsome fan base that brings home court advantage and travels well. Think Duke and the Cameron Crazies. Think Phog Allen Field House. Think the Dean Dome. Think Pauley Pavilion. Rupp Arena. Assembly Hall. When you hear those words, you think HOME COURT ADVANTAGE and CRAZY FANS. We simply don’t have this advantage.. At times, the Schott has been loud and crazy enough to be considered as part of this list, but those times are far and few between. Our local newspaper supplants college basketball stories for Spring Practice preview articles. The fan base meagerly populates the stands for out-of-conference games early in the season. This year, we averaged 13,411 fans per game. That’s 6,000 below capacity and puts us in SIXTH place for attendance in the Big Ten.
Perhaps it’s because Eldon Miller and Gary Williams didn’t engender much excitement after Fred Taylor left. Perhaps it’s because of the awful blight on the program from 1993-1998. Perhaps it’s because watching Jim O’Brien coached teams bored the hell out of most people. Perhaps it’s because of the spate of one-and-done’s we have seen lately.
Whatever it is, people need to get over it and recognize that we ARE an elite college basketball school that deserves nearly equal billing with the football program.. and this means equal fandom and equal attendance.
[...] instead of writing any kind of season warp up, I think I’ll just link what Vico wrote (with a nice little PJ Hill tribute), which encapsulates more or less what I feel. In the end, [...]