Sunday, February 18, 2007

OH...Yes...IO

After a frustrating road win against Penn State, in which The Ohio State University Men's Basketball team blew a 24-point lead before prevailing in a 2-point squeaker, OSU's convincing road win over Minnesota was a relief.

The Buckeyes are a freshman-dominated team with enormous talent. Getting big leads can sometimes be a bad thing for young teams: They're prone to letting up on their intensity under such circumstances. That's clearly what happened at Penn State with the Buckeyes. But today's win may indicate that Coach Thad Matta has convinced his team that even talented teams must play the entire forty minutes of every game.

In a way, the Buckeyes' close call against Penn State may have happened at just the right time of the season, shortly before their game with Wisconsin in Columbus and just prior to the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments. The Buckeyes now have a better understanding of the fact that talent without effort, especially against other good teams, doesn't always equal victories.

That's the good news. But the potential bad news for Ohio State fans is that defending national champions Florida may have learned the same lesson in their loss the other day. Could it be OSU v. Florida in the men's basketball national championship game this year? If so, it'll be like deja vu all over again...but I hope with a different result.

Go, Buckeyes!

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