PUZZLE SOLUTIONS
CHALLENGER JUMBLE
bayou buddy ninety nearly
After the rock group trashed their hotel suite, the hotel manager — Banned the band
CRYPTOQUOTE
Truly, thoughts are things, and their scope of operation is the world itself. — Napoleon Hill
On March 4, 2012, senior guard William Buford came off a screen and hit a sweet, sweet jumper from the top of the key with one second showing on the clock. His shot lifted Ohio State to a 72-70 victory over Michigan State in East Lansing.
It gave Ohio State (and, by the way, Michigan) a share of the Big Ten regular-season title. It gobsmacked Draymond Green in what was his final home game in Sparty green-andwhite.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the last time Ohio State won a men’s basketball game at the Breslin
Center.
Oh, they came close Thursday. Ohio State fans will no doubt assign blame to the referees, who ate their whistles when Duane Washington Jr. was hacked and E.J. Liddell was mugged in the final seconds of a 71-67 loss. These non-calls came on the heels of a truly strange call in the first half, including the rubbing out of a Washington threepointer, upon further review. Who supplied the replays to the refs? Toronto? What were they looking at?
It certainly looked like one of the zebras has some kind of vendetta against OSU coach Chris Holtmann, who was ultimately ejected.
Yet, when you get down to it, the officiating was brutal on both sides. If Holtmann didn’t get bounced, then Tom Izzo would have. (That may be why Izzo made sure to sprint over and shake Holtmann’s hand as Holtmann was being ordered off the court. Izzo knew it.)
Social media roiled with the bile of Buckeyes fans as ESPN cut to Sportscenter. The bile was still bubbling Friday morning. It’s understandable. It has been a tough week for No. 4 Ohio State, which lost an epic battle with No. 3 Michigan in Columbus on Sunday before it went on to the Bates Motel
Breslin Center and got knocked off by unranked Michigan State.
For the first time this season, Holtmann’s charges have lost two in a row. Worse, they had to eat a double Michigan veggie burger, with “veggie” serving as a euphemism here. It’s tough to swallow. It feels ulcerous.
In the bigger picture, though, it’s not all bad. Here’s some perspective from Bob Baptist, who is enjoying his sixth year of retirement after 39 years at The Dispatch — the last 18 of which were spent on the Buckeyes basketball beat. He’s still a must-follow (@Bbaptist_30_) for local college hoops junkies.
“This is probably the best (OSU) team since 2012, or maybe 2013,” Baptist said from his armchair on Friday morning. “This team has improved markedly at guard since Washington stopped making (unforced errors) about a month ago, which is important. Nice team. Very balanced.”
These Buckeyes are not in the strata of No. 1 Gonzaga, or No. 2 Baylor — or No. 3 Michigan, which is on the come. But they’re in the next tier, and probably right at the top of it. They can still aspire to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
They have some new issues. They missed the indefatigable spirit of senior forward Kyle Young (concussion) down the stretch Thursday. They have to adjust to how teams are defending sharpshooter Justin Ahrens, who is being face-guarded to submission. They have length issues when they run up against players such as Hunter Dickinson, the 7foot-2 center who has pushed Michigan to another level.
Yet, with a good draw, these Buckeyes can go deep. They are capable.
They play some beautiful basketball. And when they score in bunches and carry a lead, they can kill teams with their free-throw shooting down the stretch. (Case study: The 2014 Uconn Huskies shot 87.8% from the free-throw line in the tournament and were 10 for 10 in their victory over Kentucky in the championship game.)
In fact, the 2020-21 Ohio State Buckeyes are historically good. If one uses the AP poll — the gold standard since its inception, in 1949 — as a measuring stick, then they have a chance to be among the top 10 teams in program history. Which dates to 1898.
Between 2007 and 2014, Thad Matta had three teams that were ranked in the top five in final AP polls, which are released at the end of the regular season. Randy Ayers had two in the early 1990s, teams led by Jim Jackson.
Fred Taylor had four in the early 1960s, when Jerry Lucas led a bunch of future pros who won one national title in three trips to the NCAA finals. Tippy Dye had a No. 2 team in 1950. Harold Olsen’s 1939 team lost to Oregon in the 1939 national-championship game.
Holtmann’s current Buckeyes are in that mix, somewhere. Pretty good team. Enjoy.
marace@dispatch.com