Yes!
I didn't get to see the game. But I was pleased with the results.
As people who know me well can tell you, I'm an even bigger fan of Ohio State basketball than football. That all started back, while growing up in Columbus, when Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek, Jim Bowman, and Dick Taylor...and Gary Brads and Mel Nowell...and others became my basketball heroes.
Frankly, I was concerned about today's game against the Wisconsin Badgers. They and the Buckeyes split two previous meetings this year. Ohio State has a freshman-dominated squad that, in spite of massive talent, sometimes has lacked focus. On top of that, it hasn't been until recent weeks that the Buckeyes have played as a cohesive unit.
That's probably because at the start of the season, freshman center sensation Greg Oden was healing from surgery on his wrist and missed a chunk of games; the rest of the squad did well without him, reeling off seven wins before dropping their first game to North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (I firmly believe that even without Oden, Ohio State would be ranked among the ten best teams in the country this year.) But it seems to have taken the Buckeyes this long to learn how to use their big man while not turning the rest of the squad into a bunch of "also rans."
Last Summer, my hope was that Ohio State would win national championships in both football and men's basketball. The University of Florida football team, whose basketball squad now has a chance to pull off the same feat for that university, dashed that dream for OSU fans in January, with their saddening--and convincing--win.
But I'm still convinced that the Buckeyes can bring a men's basketball title to Columbus this March. I'm so psyched, I can hardly stand it!
As people who know me well can tell you, I'm an even bigger fan of Ohio State basketball than football. That all started back, while growing up in Columbus, when Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek, Jim Bowman, and Dick Taylor...and Gary Brads and Mel Nowell...and others became my basketball heroes.
Frankly, I was concerned about today's game against the Wisconsin Badgers. They and the Buckeyes split two previous meetings this year. Ohio State has a freshman-dominated squad that, in spite of massive talent, sometimes has lacked focus. On top of that, it hasn't been until recent weeks that the Buckeyes have played as a cohesive unit.
That's probably because at the start of the season, freshman center sensation Greg Oden was healing from surgery on his wrist and missed a chunk of games; the rest of the squad did well without him, reeling off seven wins before dropping their first game to North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (I firmly believe that even without Oden, Ohio State would be ranked among the ten best teams in the country this year.) But it seems to have taken the Buckeyes this long to learn how to use their big man while not turning the rest of the squad into a bunch of "also rans."
Last Summer, my hope was that Ohio State would win national championships in both football and men's basketball. The University of Florida football team, whose basketball squad now has a chance to pull off the same feat for that university, dashed that dream for OSU fans in January, with their saddening--and convincing--win.
But I'm still convinced that the Buckeyes can bring a men's basketball title to Columbus this March. I'm so psyched, I can hardly stand it!
Go, Buckeyes!
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