A WILD NIGHT
For one shining moment, OSU basketball returns joy to Buckeye fans
In the natural order of things, football factories are not supposed to beat basketball blue bloods at their own game.
Ohio State is a football school. Duke is a basketball school. The Buckeyes are supposed to overpower the Blue Devils on the field. The Blue Devils return the favor on the floor. Both schools tend to stay in their lane.
Ohio State drove that point home Tuesday during the Big TEN/ACC Challenge men’s game against the Dookies, when during a timeout the Value City Arena camera zeroed in on three former OSU athletes: Jerry Lucas, Archie Griffin and Ryan Shazier. By my count, that’s one famous former basketball player to two famous former football players. At a basketball game. Nothing new there. The most memorable moment during an Ohio State basketball game over the past 20 years occurred in 2001 when Jim Tressel promised fans his football team would make them proud against Michigan.
“I saw a look in his eyes. He was aggressive.”
Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann said, explaining why he put Russell on the floor for nearly as many minutes (15:45) as he had played previously (23:00).
But sometimes the football team doesn’t make Buckeye Nation proud against the Wolverines. When that happens, as it did Saturday in Ann Arbor, many fans fall into a funk that sends them trudging out to put up Christmas lights in freezing temperatures. Such is the misery of a Michigan loss that men willingly choose holiday chore martyrdom.
Into the residue of that depressing backdrop stepped 74-year-old Mike Krzyzewski and his Blue Devils, ranked No. 1 and coming off a brilliant win against previous No. 1 Gonzaga. Undefeated at 7-0, Duke boasted five starters who as recruits all rated higher than any player on Ohio State’s roster. Freshman 6-foot-10 forward Paolo Banchero could go No. 1 in the NBA draft.
Krzyzewski is retiring after spending the past 40 years winning five national titles at Duke. Tuesday was just the next stop on his farewell tour. Win and move on. No reason to think otherwise. The Buckeyes were unranked. The Blue Devils’ only concern, beyond fighting jet lag and heavy legs after flying from Las Vegas to Columbus, was Ohio State’s somewhat unorthodox roster.
As an opponent, Ohio State presented an odd challenge. Injuries, transfers and an inexperienced backcourt meant Duke wasn’t exactly sure what they would see at tipoff.
As Blue Devils junior forward Wendell Moore Jr. explained it, the Buckeyes are confounding because of “how many wild card guys they have,” which is a nice way of saying OSU is held together by stray parts and pieces and E.J. Liddell.
One of those pieces is graduate transfer Cedric Russell, whose total time on the floor during OSU’S first six games was about the same as the kid who mops under the basket.
“Didn’t know much about him,” Moore Jr. said.
Who did? Russell had scored 3 points over four games. Essentially, he was the Buckeyes’ “Roundball Rudy.”
But remember how the movie ends? Rudy Ruettiger gets carried off the field by his Notre Dame teammates after sacking the Georgia Tech quarterback.
Russell didn’t get carried off the court after scoring 6 of his 12 points in the final 2:32. Instead he helped carry the Buckeyes to their improbable 71-66 sacking of one of the great basketball programs in college history.
“I saw a look in his eyes. He was aggressive,” Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann said, explaining why he put Russell on the floor for nearly as many minutes (15:45) as he had played previously (23:00).
It was a look missing from Ohio State in Ann Arbor, but not against Duke in Columbus. Trailing by 15 points early in the second half, the Buckeyes buckled down defensively, got a career-high scoring night from Zed Key (20 points) and went on a 12-0 run over the last 3:31 to complete the comeback.
The horn sounded and fans stormed the court to celebrate OSU’S first win against a No. 1 team since 2017, when the unranked Buckeyes stunned Michigan State. The Schott was awash in good feelings. Sweet Caroline blasted over the arena speakers.
The shocker was hugely important for the basketball program, but also cathartic for Ohio State fans still smarting over Saturday’s 42-27 loss at The Big House. Even at a football school your basketball team sometimes has to bail out the guys wearing helmets.
We remain three months shy of March Madness, but for one shining moment the Buckeyes broke the natural order of things by taking down the Blue Devils. A sight to behold. A thing of beauty. And not the kind of farewell tour stop Coach K wanted.