Seniors rose to challenge in ’06 title run
Editor's note: It has been 15 years since a battle-hardened Ohio State team that was short on bodies but long on experience made a run to an outright 2006 Big Ten championship. In this installment of the series, the Buckeyes had battled through a rough patch and were sitting at 14-3 overall and 4-3 in Big Ten play amid perception that the team had already peaked.as the calendar flipped to February, coach Thad Matta gathered his seniors to remind them of the ticking clock of their final seasons.
Coach Thad Matta: I wanted to get those guys' minds right to make the run down the stretch that we needed to make, because we had proven that we could do it.
Matt Sylvester, senior forward: As an 18- to 22-year-old, you know the clock is running out but you also have youthful bliss and don't even know it. I do remember that, yeah, it's coming to an end, but you still have a lot of basketball left and as a confident team you're hoping to play deep into March.
Terence Dials, senior center: What probably turned my season around was a conversation I had with (former OSU Allamerican) Bill Hosket. He's talking to me (on a road trip) and he's like, “I remember my senior season and how fast it goes. You want to make your mark as someone that Ohio State is always gonna remember.” It resonated with me.
The Buckeyes would win a pivotal game at No. 22 Michigan on Feb. 9, improving to 17-3 overall and 6-3 in the Big Ten after hitting 15 threes against the Wolverines. The pregame festivities added some juice for Ohio State.
James “J.J.” Sullinger, senior forward/guard: I remember a fan saying something really vulgar to Jamar Butler's parents. We heard it and that fired us up. We were out for blood that game.
Jamar Butler, sophomore guard: They called our parents ugly and talked about my mom, and out there on the court there's nothing you can do about it. So I took it out on them on the court.
TV cameras caught guard Je'kel Foster giving Dials an earful during a firsthalf timeout.
Dials: I was playing like crap. When I came to the bench, Je'kel got after me, telling me stuff I can't mention. Some choice words. That was the type of team we had; he could do that. I took his criticism and went back out and tried to play better.
Foster: Knowing me, I was probably trying to tell him to shoot more or be confident or something like that.
Butler finished with a team-high 20
points. The 94-85 win also produced a classic photo of Matta and Foster sharing a sideline laugh that still hangs in the coach's home office.
Matta: We couldn't miss. It's late in the game, we're up 10, they're fouling us, and he misses a free throw. They go down, they foul us again. I call him over and say, “Je'kel, if you get fouled again, just scoot back.”
Foster: I'm falling out laughing on the sidelines. The timing of it and where we were, I wasn't expecting him to say anything like that. It was a great moment.
The Buckeyes would beat Illinois at home three days later for a fourth straight win, lose at Wisconsin and then close the season with a five-game winning streak. A 79-68 win at Michigan State on Feb. 22 moved them into a tie for first place with three games to play.
Sullinger: I remember how dejected (Spartans coach Tom) Izzo was. I'd never seen anything like that. They were in the fight for a piece of the Big Ten, too.
Sylvester: (Former OSU football Allamerican) Mike Vrabel came on that trip with us. Before the game, he gave us a speech that only a football player could give. He's screaming and pounding his chest. Basketball speeches get fired up, but football speeches are on a whole other level. He gave us just a gnarly pregame speech.
The Buckeyes did not have a deep bench, and the minutes they all played would add up. After hitting 42.8% of their three-pointers through 21 games, Ohio State would make less than 25% of its threes in five of the final six regular-season games.
Foster: I take a lot of blame for that because I was playing well and a lot of the team started depending on my shot. My legs, I just didn't have it down the stretch when I really needed it. Legs were gone, I guess.
Sylvester: I was a mess (with back issues). I was probably missing one or two practices a week where I was literally on the sideline stretching and using a heat pad and having spasms all the time. I wasn't running well. I was in the process of breaking down. The Buckeyes would clinch at least a share of the Big Ten title with a three-point road win against Northwestern in the penultimate game of the regular season. An Illinois cheering section was on hand rooting for the Wildcats because a Buckeye loss would help the Illini's bid for a share of the title.
Sullinger: They were all the way at the top and they were the loudest fans there. They were chanting their fight song or their chant or whatever, but they did it the whole game. All it did was fuel our fire, man.
Ron Lewis would seal the game with a go-ahead basket with 10.1 seconds left and then a steal.
Matta: Ron Lewis was just a winner. That play, we were going to Terence down low on that game-winner and he saw something, broke the play and hit a little 3-foot shot to seal the deal.
Lewis: This was one of my breakout games as far as somebody needed to step up. I really took it upon myself that this was my time. I just remember coach Matta coming to me like, “This is the time. This is where you belong.”
Butler: We got into that locker room and there really wasn't much celebrating that went on. It was, we don't want to share anything. We want to win that thing outright.
The win set the stage for a storybook senior day, when the Buckeyes finished off Purdue, 76-57, to clinch their first outright Big Ten title since 1992.
Sullinger: The constant chatter about next year was fuel to our fire but it literally came to a halt that day simply because we could be champions. It was a lifelong dream of mine to put on the scarlet and gray and to have the opportunity on senior day to win the Big Ten outright. There literally was no better feeling.
Foster: For me it was just another game. The focus that we had as a team and that I had as a player, it's like an outof-body experience.
Dials: Being able to cut the nets down on our home floor in the last game of the season is probably the perfect ending that you can have — other than cutting them down at the Final Four.
Sylvester: I don't remember a ton of nerves. I think that is a testament to the way Thad coaches his teams. For it to culminate in holding an outright trophy, it was really special.
Matta: That was an emotional senior day for me. They shocked the world. That team, they brought Ohio State basketball back. ajardy@dispatch.com @Adamjardy