Luck of the Buckeyes?
At the end of the year, the Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team was ranked #1 in both polls, and many were speculating that the Buckeyes would be the team to win it all in the NCAA tournament. What with freshman phenoms Mike Conley, Jr. and Daequan Cook at the guards, paired with the 7-foot behemoth Greg Oden, Buckeyes fans surely were correct in expecting the world from this talented team. They lost 3 games all year, most of them at the beginning of the year, and finished the regular season with 30 wins, one of two teams in D-1.
And the Buckeyes met up with the Xavier Muskateers in the second round of the Big Dance last Saturday afternoon. Xavier, an at-large bid seeded 9 from the Atlantic 10 Conference, was supposed to have no business playing the Buckeyes as closely as they did; and, quite honestly, they deserved to win the game more than the boys from Columbus.
Xavier deserved to win the game more than the boys from Columbus.
The Buckeyes had a history of playing close, low-scoring games this season, most notably their one-point 49-48 win over Wisconsin earlier in the year to give them the Big Ten regular-season conference title. However, the Buckeyes played like absolute poop; they shot terribly, and couldn't seem to handle the under-sized Muskateers. Xavier's sensational point guard, Drew Lavender, who is from Columbus and transferred to Xavier from Oklahoma during the off-season, stands at a mighty 5'7". Justin Doellman, the tallest starter for Xavier, checks in at 6'9", and was blessed with the duty to guard the man in the middle, who had him by 3 inches.
But don't worry about all that. The Xavier Muskateers played with heart. They played inspired, and kept the game at the pace they wanted to play: at the end of regulation, the score stood tied up at 62-62. Forget that Drew Lavender, who averaged 11 points per game in the regular season, shot a dismal 2-13 from the field, including 1-6 from three, and scored six points off his average, because he came up clutch with eight assists and four rebounds. Justin Cage was the most explosive player on the floor; he scored 25 points, and missed more shots at the free throw line than he did from the field (8-8 FG, 6-8 FT). The problem is that one of his last free throws was one of a string of miracles that ended up costing Xavier.
Forget the luck of the Irish, how about the luck of the Buckeyes? At the end of the game, Justin Cage brought down a rebound after a missed foul shot and was immediately fouled by Oden, his fifth. Cage flew out of bounds after the hit, and Oden walked away like a man who didn't want to acknowledge the murder he'd just committed. The first miracle: Oden's foul at the end of the game was not considered a flagrant or intentional. Obviously at the end of games teams are looking to foul "intentionally" to stop the clock, but there's nothing like body-checking and shoving a man out of bounds to put an exlamation points at the end. Xavier was up by two points at the moment in the game, and Cage was sent to the free throw line. If the foul would've been a flagrant, Cage would've had the chance to sink both free throws, pushing the lead to four, and Xavier would get the ball back. Instead, the Buckeyes experience miracle number two.
Justin Cage, the hero for the Muskateers all game, stepped to the line with only a few seconds left and 5-6 from the line earlier in the game. He sunk the first, pushing Xavier's lead to three, and proceeded to miss the second. Ohio State cleaned the glass, and Xavier's balloon deflated exponentially. Of all the times to miss a free throw, this was not one of them; a make would bring the lead to four, and the odds of a four-point play on Ohio State's trip down the floor (with seconds left) is worse than winning the Mega Millions, or getting lucky with Carmen Electra. Nevertheless, it seemed the Guy Upstairs was listening to the prayers . . .
And miracles three and four. For whatever reason, Xavier's coach Miller didn't tell his team to foul on the possession, or if he did nobody listened. With a three point lead, having Xavier foul would send one of the Buckeyes to the free throw line, where it is physically impossible to score three points. The potential Buckeyes free throw shooter would've had to make the first and miss the second, grab the rebound, and make a shot in order to send the game into overtime. Instead, nobody fouled, and Ron Lewis, Lavender's high school teammate, connected on a long-range trey to end regulation. From there, Xavier seemed so spent and depressed that they let the game slip away, providing the opportunity for Ohio State to take the reins and earn the W.
Except is it really earned if you didn't deserve to win in the first place?
Photo credit: http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/teamphotos?photoId=1489608&teamId=194
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