The NCAA Selection Committee announced on Sunday that the Ohio State Buckeyes will stay close to home for the first and second round games of the NCAA Tournament.

Earning a second seed in the Minneapolis Regional, the Buckeyes will face 15th-seed Davidson at UD Arena in Dayton on St. Patrick’s Day. Tip-off is scheduled for 12:15 pm ET.

Davidson, earning the automatic bid by defeating Chattanooga 80-55 in the championship game of Southern Conference tournament, is led by 6-5 senior swingman Brendan Winters.

Winters led the Wildcats by scoring 33 points in the title game against the Mocs and averages 17.1 points per game on the season. His father, Brian, played nine seasons in the NBA and was a two-time All-Star.

The Wildcats finished the regular season with a record 20-10, and came in second place in the South Division of the conference with a record of 10-5.

Davidson played an extremely difficult non-conference schedule. The college, located in North Carolina just north of the city of Charlottle, played in-state powerhouses Duke and North Carolina.

The Blue Devils routed the Wildcats at Cameron Indoor by a score of 84-55, and the Tar Heels took care of business at the Dean Dome winning 82-58. Davidson also traveled to the Carrier Dome and lost to the eventual Big East tournament champion Syracuse Orange 90-80.

At the friendly confines of Belk Arena on the Davidson campus, the Wildcats defeated Massachusetts 66-63, and Missouri 82-73.

Ohio State and Davidson share one common opponent, the St. Joseph’s Hawks. The Buckeyes traveled to Philadelphia and defeated St. Joe’s 81-74 at The Palestra two weeks after the Hawks made the trip to Davidson, losing to the Wildcats 100-94 in overtime.

Other players to watch for Davidson are 6-foot-9 forward Ian Johnson, who is second on the team in scoring averaging 15.7 points per game, and is second in rebounding at a 6.2 boards per game clip. Surprisingly, he is Davidson’s best three-point shooter making 43.1 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc.

Two key players come off the bench for Davidson, one is a scorer and the other is a rebounder. 6-foot-2 senior guard Jason Morton is third on the team in scoring with a 10.2 points per game average, while 6-8 sophomore forward Boris Meno is the team’s best glass cleaner averaging 6.6 rebounds per game.

Ohio State’s three-point shooting is going to have to improve in a hurry if they expect to avoid a first round upset. Davidson is 10th in the nation in three-pointers made, averaging 9.1 per game. As a team, they have hoisted the rock 727 times from beyond the arc. Over a course of 30 games, that’s 24.2 times per contest! For the season, Davidson shoots 37.3 percent from long range.

By the way, Ohio State is 23rd with an average of 8.6 three-pointers made per game and have shot 38.8 percent from downtown this season, good for 28th place.

In Sunday’s Big Ten tournament final, Thad Matta and his Ohio State basketball team ran out of gas with six minutes and 32 seconds to play as the Iowa Hawkeyes outscored the Buckeyes 14-3 the rest of the way to earn the conference’s tournament championship.

The Buckeyes led most the the game, and by as many as nine points in the first half after jumper by Jamar Butler with 4:15 put Ohio State ahead 34-25.

The Hawkeyes trimmed down the deficit and trailed 37-34 at intermission.

In the second half, the Buckeyes had an answer every time the Hawkeyes scored during the first 13 minutes. Then OSU’s needle went on “E.”

With Ohio State ahead 57-52, Iowa’s Jeff Horner netted a three-pointer that was followed with a tip-in by center Erek Hansen which tied the game with 4:58 left to play in the game.

A layup by Horner with 4:26 remaining and a three-point field goal along the baseline by reserve guard Alex Thompson sealed the fate for the Buckeyes.

In the end, it seemed the fatigue had set in with the missed shots, turnovers, and the lack of defense displayed by the Buckeyes. Granted, Ohio State has just nine scholarship players on the roster, as noted by Matta in his post-game comments.

“I’m proud of our guys. I think it was pretty obvious we ran out of gas there down the stretch. We just didn’t have enough to finish it off with nine scholarship players here. I couldn’t be proud enough of the effort these guys brought and the intensity they played with. We put ourselves in position to win the game but (Iowa) made the plays down the stretch and we went cold. We could not get one to go in. As I told the team, by no means do we get down. We shift into another gear and get ourselves ready to play in the NCAA Tournament,” Matta said after the game.

One thing is for sure, if you get into Matta’s doghouse, it’s hard to get out of it. Ivan Harris seemed to be there earlier in the season, while Sylvester Mayes seems to be in it now. And it is apparent that Matta has absolutely no confidence in freshman center Brayden Bell.

One wonders if Ohio State got into any more foul trouble that Matta would of pulled a “Coach Norman Dale” and played with four players.

Tags: Buckeye Basketball //