Right: As predicted, Dayton had no answer for Kosta Koufos inside. AP Photo/Terry Gilliam

Last night, the atmosphere almost resembled high school tournament games that are played at Value City Arena.

While the majority of the fans were pro-Ohio State, a good number of Dayton fans made the trip over on I-70. Even the Flyers’ pep band joined in the fun.

Unfortunately for those Flyer fans in attendance, it was a long trip home after seeing their team get dismantled, as the Buckeyes won 74-63 in front of a sellout crowd of 19,049 at Value City Arena.

One difference between a school from one of the BCS conferences, like Ohio State, as oppose to a mid-major program, like Dayton, are the “bigs.” The Flyers had no answer for 7-foot freshman center Kosta Koufos, who scored a game-high 21 points on 9 of 11 shooting from the field, including a three-pointer.

The great equalizer for mid-major teams, though, is the three-point line. Smaller teams have to take advantage of their quickness and they have to knock down their treys. Dayton wasn’t able to do neither of those things, especially in the second half.

After the intermission, Ohio State head coach Thad Matta had to switch to a smaller line-up, mainly due to the fact that starting forward, Othello Hunter, had to ride the pine due to foul trouble.

With Hunter on the bench, freshman Jon Diebler checked in with Jamar Butler, David Lighty, and Evan Turner. All four are essentially guards, along with Koufos.

The difference in the game was the second half, and in particular, the play of Turner and Diebler, who combined for 21 points in the final period. Neither of those two scored a point in the first half.

Turner had 11 points and six rebounds, while Diebler scored 10 points on 2 of 3 shooting from three-point land in the last 20 minutes of action.

Just 37 seconds into the second half, Turner sprung free through the lane and scored on a layup to give Ohio State a 32-31 lead, and the Buckeyes never trailed the rest of the way.

But in the first half, there were six ties and four lead changes. Dayton led by as many as five points on two different occasions, and held a 31-30 advantage at the break.

I’m not sure what Matta said at halftime, but it obviously worked.

After Turner scored, both teams traded baskets on four consecutive trips down the floor.

With 15:36 left to play in the game and Ohio State clinging to a one-point lead, the Buckeyes outdistanced themselves from the Flyers by going on a 13-2 run, capped off on a three-point by Butler from the left wing that put OSU ahead 49-37 with 11:54 remaining.

During that span, Diebler connected on his two, three-pointers that proved very pivotal during the run.

Dayton could only get as close as nine points after Brian Roberts drained a deep three with 7:49 left to make the score 55-46.

On the next trip down, Butler misfired on a trey, and Dayton’s Chris Wright came down with the rebound.

With the Flyers trying to cut into the deficit, a turnover by London Warren near the scorer’s table resulted in a layup by Butler to put Ohio State ahead 57-46 with 7:17 left, and the Buckeyes led by double digits the rest of the way.

My prediction of Ohio State winning by 15 points nearly came true until Matta emptied the bench with 43 seconds remaining.

Along with Koufos, Diebler and Turner in double figures for the Buckeyes was senior Jamar Butler, who scored 12 points in his final game at Value City Arena.

Roberts led the Flyers with 20 points.

Ohio State shot a blistering 53.2 percent (25-for-47) from the field, while holding Dayton just just 40.0 percent (24-for-60).

The Buckeyes also forced 16 Dayton turnovers and scored 20 points off them while committing only nine.

While it was great for Ohio State to play an in-state foe, I seriously doubt it’s going to happen again any time soon in the regular season.

I think the biggest problem is economics. Sure, teams like Dayton, Xavier and Cincinnati would jump at the chance to play Ohio State in Columbus, but at the same time, I am sure they would also want a return trip, a home-and-home series.

With that, it boils down to facilities, which neither of those schools can match. UD Arena is the largest of the three, but only seats 13,409. The only exception might be playing either Cincinnati or Xavier at U.S. Bank Arena, which was a capacity of roughly 17,000 for basketball.

This past season, Ohio State has already played an in-state team on the road, and it might be the only time in the near future that will happen. Back on Dec. 18, the Buckeyes took on Cleveland State at Quicken Loans Arena, which seats 20,562, and it’s about the only venue in the state of Ohio that’s comparable to Value City Arena.

Up next, Ohio State will play Mississippi in the semi-finals of the MasterCard National Invitational Tournament, next Tuesday. It will be played following the Florida-Massachusetts game at Madison Square Garden, with the tip-off roughly at 9:15-9:30 p.m. ET, depending how long the first game takes.

Tags: Men's Basketball by Matt Barker
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Ohio State Buckeyes
21-13, 10-8 Big Ten
vs.
Dayton Flyers
23-10, 8-8 Atlantic-10

Date: Wednesday, March 26
Time: 9:00 p.m. ET
Place: Value City Arena - capacity 19,049
TV: ESPN2 with John Saunders and Bob Valvano.
Radio: WBNS-AM 1460/WBNS-FM 97.1 in Columbus, plus WING-AM 1410 in Dayton, and 57 more stations across Buckeyeland with Paul Keels and Ron Stokes.

Series History: Depending on which information you use, Ohio State is either 5-3 (according to daytonflyers.com) or 3-2 (ohiostatebuckeyes.com) all-time against Dayton.

Last Meeting : The last time Ohio State and Dayton met on the hardwood was on Dec. 17, 1988, with Ohio State winning 104-76 at UD Arena.

UD’s Starting Five:
F 41 Kurt Huelsman - 6-10, 240, So. (5.9 ppg, 4.1 rpg, apg)
F 33 Jimmy Binnie - 6-7, 211, Sr. (6.1 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 1.4 apg)
G 32 Marcus Johnson - 6-3, 193, So. (10.1 ppg, 5.2 rpg, apg)
G 3 Andres Sandoval - 6-4, 198, Sr. (6.5 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 1.3 apg)
G 2 Brian Roberts - 6-2, 175, Sr., (18.4 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 3.5 apg)

OSU’s Starting Five:
F 31 Kosta Koufos - 7-0, 265, Fr. (14.0 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 0.5 apg)
F 45 Othello Hunter - 6-8, 225, Sr. (9.9 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 0.8 apg)
C 21 Evan Turner - 6-6, 200, Fr. (7.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 2.5 apg)
G 23 David Lighty - 6-5, 215, So. (8.8 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 2.3 apg)
G 14 Jamar Butler - 6-1, 185, Sr. (14.9 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 5.9 apg)

Right: Dayton’s Brian Roberts (2).
AP Photo/Skip Peterson

Dayton’s offense revolves around 6-foot-2 senior guard Brian Roberts, a First-Team, All-Atlantic 10 selection, who is averaging 18.4 points per game while knocking down 45.5 percent of his shots from beyond the arc.

The Flyers’ second leading scorer and the team’s top rebounder is 6-foot-8 freshman forward Chris Wright (10.4 ppg, 5.9 rpg), who fractured his right ankle back on Jan. 9, and made his first appearance since that injury, Monday night, in Dayton’s 55-48 win over Illinois State.

Roberts was the only Flyer to scored in double figures in Dayton’s second round NIT match-up, while Wright came off the bench to contribute nine points in 10 minutes of action against the Redbirds in Normal., Ill.

Third on the Flyers’ in scoring is 6-foot-3 sophomore guard Marcus Johnson, who averages 10.1 points per game.

Though Dayton went 10-deep against Illinois State on Monday night, those three mentioned above are the Flyers’ only real scoring threats.

Starting guard Andres Sandoval did not register a mark in the scoring column during his 23 minutes of action, while starting post players Kurt Huelsman and Jimmy Binnie combined for 13 points on 6 of 10 shooting in 49 minutes.

Keys to the Game: If Ohio State plays like they did Monday night against California, then the Buckeyes win handily. But OSU must contain Roberts just like they did with Ryan Anderson, plus Ohio State needs to dominate the inside against the smaller Dayton squad, while winning the edge in rebounds.

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Right: “Twig” Matt Terwilliger throws down two of his half-dozen points in Ohio State’s 73-56 win over California in the second round of the National Invitational Tournament at St. John Arena, Monday night. AP Photo/Terry Gilliam

It was only appropriate that Bruce Springsteen was belting out his hits like, “Glory Days,” at the Schottenstein Center as Thad Matta’s basketball team played in Ohio State’s former home, St. John Arena, against California in the second round of the National Invitational Tournament, Monday night.

I’m sure Springsteen also performed his 70s classic rock anthem, “Born to Run,” too, and that’s just what the Buckeyes did against the Golden Bears.

Ohio State forced 16 turnovers and cashed those in for 20 points, with many of those coming in transition, especially when Matta switched from his half-court, 3-2 zone defense to a full-court diamond press midway through the first half.

Ohio State’s swarming defense also held the Pac-10’s leading scorer, Ryan Anderson, to just 11 points on 4-for-11 shooting from the field.

Anderson was averaging 21.4 points per game entering last night’s contest.

Meanwhile, the senior duo of forward Othello Hunter and guard Jamar Butler dominated inside and out. Butler scored a game-high 20 points on 8-for-13 shooting from the floor, and was 4 of 9 from three-point land. Hunter scored 11 points and pulled down a team-high 16 rebounds for the Buckeyes.

If only Ohio State played with the intensity and desire they showed last night against teams like Iowa, Michigan, and Minnesota earlier in the season, the Buckeyes would be playing in the other tournament.

But Matta’s cagers got off to a sluggish start offensively, as it appeared they were content on taking ill-advised shots from beyond the arc.

For the game, Ohio State was just 5-for-22 in trey tossing, with the bulk of those attempts coming in the first half when the Buckeyes chucked the rock 16 times from downtown, connecting on only four.

Cal led by as many as five points in the first half, and took a 19-18 advantage when Bears’ guard Jerome Randle swiped the ball from Butler and scored on an uncontested layup with 6:40 left in the opening stanza.

But from that point until the horn sounded to end the first half, Ohio State went on a 17-4 run to close out the period, fueled by three, three-pointers from Butler, as the Buckeyes headed into the locker room at intermission leading 35-23.

Ohio State came out in the second half to score the first seven points that padded their lead to 42-23 with 17:27 to play.

The closest the Bears got the rest of the way was 15 points on two separate occasions, while the Buckeyes biggest lead came when Jon Diebler made a pair from the charity stripe with 3:23 remaining that put OSU ahead 69-44.

Along with Butler and Hunter in double figures for the Buckeyes was freshman forward Kosta Koufos, who scored 17 points with six rebounds.

Randle led Cal with 18 points, with Anderson the only other Bear to notched double digits in the scoring column.

Ohio State was an even 50 percent (29-for-58) from the floor, while holding California to 23 of 57 from the field (40.4%).

The Buckeyes also dominated the glass, pulling down 38 total rebounds compared to 31 for the Bears. Of those 38, 14 caroms came on the offensive side with OSU scoring 17 second-chance points.

Up next, Ohio State will take on Dayton, Wednesday night. Tip-off at Value City Arena is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. ET, and it will be televised on ESPN.

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Ohio State (20-13, 10-8 Big Ten) vs. California (17-15, 6-12 Pac-10)

Date: Monday, March 24
Time: 7:00 p.m. ET
Place: St. John Arena - capacity 13,276
TV: ESPN with John Saunders and Bob Valvano.
Radio: WBNS-AM 1460 and WBNS-FM 97.1 in Columbus and 57 stations across Buckeyeland with Paul Keels and Ron Stokes.

Series History: Ohio State has an all-time record of 7-9 vs. Cal, but the Buckeyes are 2-1 vs. the Golden Bears in games played in Columbus. The last time the Buckeyes and the Bears met on the hardwood here in the Capital City was on Dec. 23, 1949, with OSU winning 78-67 at the Fairgrounds Coliseum.

Last Meeting : March 19, 1960. Ohio State won 75-55 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco in the NCAA Championship game to claim that year’s national title. Sophomore forward Jerry Lucas led the Buckeyes with 16 points and 10 rebounds against Cal, and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. Lucas had earlier won the Big Ten Player of the Year award after averaging 26.3 points and 16.4 rebounds per game during the 1959-60 season.

Cal’s Starting Five:
F 14 Eric Vierneisel - 6-7, 210, Sr. (5.2 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 2.3 apg)
F 34 Ryan Anderson - 6-10, 240, So. (21.4 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 1.4 apg)
C 35 DeVon Hardin - 6-11, 250, Sr. (9.5 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 0.7 apg)
G 23 Patrick Christopher - 6-5, 215, So. (15.5 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 2.0 apg)
G 3 Jerome Randle - 5-10, 165, So. (11.6 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 3.8 apg)

OSU’s Starting Five:
F 31 Kosta Koufos - 7-0, 265, Fr. (13.9 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 0.5 apg)
F 45 Othello Hunter - 6-8, 225, Sr. (9.8 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 0.8 apg)
C 21 Evan Turner - 6-6, 200, Fr. (7.9 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 2.5 apg)
G 23 David Lighty - 6-5, 215, So. (8.8 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 2.2 apg)
G 14 Jamar Butler - 6-1, 185, Sr. (14.7 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 6.0 apg)

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Right: Former Michigan quarterback Jim Harbaugh, seen here in a publicity photo when he played himself in an episode of “Happy Days.”
ABC Entertainment Photo

Jim Harbaugh, a former quarterback at the University of Michigan, took over as Stanford’s head coach when he was hired in December of 2006.

One of the problems Harbaugh faces at Stanford is the higher admissions standards, which reduces the amount of available recruits.

Harbaugh inherited a team that went 1-11 during the 2006 season, and guided the Cardinal to a record of 4-8, 3-6 in Pac-10 conference play, which included a 24-23 win over then-No.2 Southern California at the Coliseum in his first year at the helm.

Harbaugh was quoted as saying this to Glenn Dickey of the San Francisco Examiner, last May, about the academic standards at Stanford compared to those at his alma mater, Michigan:

Michigan is a good school and I got a good education there, but the athletic department has ways to get borderline guys in and, when they’re in, they steer them to courses in sports communications. They’re adulated when they’re playing, but when they get out, the people who adulated them won’t hire them.”

ESPN.com’s Pat Forde wrote a column last August in which he said:

All it takes to see that is a scan of the 2007 Michigan media guide. Only 30 players have listed majors, and 19 of them are pursuing degrees in something called “general studies.” That’s 20 percent of the team, and 63 percent of the players who have declared a major.”

This past week, the Ann Arbor News ran a four-part series entitled, “Academics and Athletics,” which examined the delicate balance between the two at the University of Michigan, written by Jim Carty, John Heuser and Nathan Fenno.

The AA News conducted a seven-month investigation that included interviewing 87 people and reviewing more than 3,500 pages of internal documents.

The first part of the series, that was published on Sunday, targeted a certain psychology professor.

From the Ann Arbor News:

John Hagen was, as he has been for decades, close to some of the most recognized athletes at Michigan. University records obtained by The News show that the veteran psychology professor has taught at least 294 independent studies from the fall of 2004 to the fall of 2007, and 85 percent of those courses, 251, were with athletes.

This finding isn’t exactly earth-shattering, considering that The New York Times ran a similar story about Auburn University nearly two years ago.

In an article published on July 14, 2006, Pete Themel and Adam Himmelsbach of The Times wrote that a certain professor in the sociology department at Auburn taught 18 members of the 2004 football team, and they “took a combined 97 hours of the courses during their careers. The offerings, known as directed-reading courses, resemble independent study and include core subjects like statistics, theory and methods, which normally require class instruction.”

The professor in question at Auburn was Thomas Peete, the sociology department’s highest-ranking member, who rewarded athletes with high grades who never had to attend a class.

This all came to light when Professor Gundlach, the director of the Auburn sociology department, was watching an Auburn football game on television in the fall of 2004, and a graphic during the broadcast honored a certain prominent player for his work as a sociology major.

The problem was, Gundlach never heard of him, which led to his own personal investigation as reported in the same N.Y. Times article:

So Professor Gundlach looked at the player’s academic files, which led him to the discovery that many Auburn athletes were receiving high grades from the same professor for sociology and criminology courses that required no attendance and little work.”

Eventually, Peete and James Witte, the program coordinator for Adult Education, were forced to resign at Auburn.

At Michigan, some of the findings were:

Three former athletic department employees said Hagen’s independent study courses are sometimes used by academic support staff to boost the grade point averages of athletes in danger of becoming academically ineligible to compete in sports.

At least 48 athletes have taken two or more independent study courses with Hagen; nine of those 48 have taken three or more.

Quarterback Chad Henne, wideout Mario Manningham, hockey player Chad Kolarik and softball ace Jennie Ritter are just a few of the Wolverines who have taken independent studies with Hagen, as have Jake Long and Shawn Crable, two of the captains on last season’s football team.

When asked what they learned in Hagen’s courses, some athletes described being taught how to take notes, use a day planner, make a calendar and manage their time.

Are you kidding me? While taking notes is an important skill to master in college, learning how to use a day planner? Making a calendar? Give me a break! Note: BuckeyeBanter.com tried to contact Henne and Manningham, but could only leave a message asking both, “How many days are there in the month June?”

Professor Matt’s College Tip of the Day: Use a tape or digital voice recorder and park that bad boy on your desk and hit “play” before the start of any lecture. Now before you start daydreaming of warm, spring days and the hotties sunbathing on The Oval, take written notes to go along with lecture you are recording. You don’t have to copy it verbatim, but maybe jot down an outline or the most pertinent information.

While I love to bash Michigan every chance I get, one of the comments I have heard over the years in which Jim Tressel has taken over as head coach and Ohio State dominating the rivalry since 2001, is that while the Buckeyes win on the field, Michigan is superior academically. That doesn’t appear to be the case, either.

According to the same report, the preferred major for Ohio State football players is business, with 10 student-athletes on the 2007 roster studying that discipline.

When I was a freshman at Ohio State, one of the things that struck me in my very first UVC (University College) class was that, “Ohio State has a liberal arts curriculum, so a major isn’t as important because of the broad-based education you will receive at the university.”

While at OSU, I majored in Political Science with the hopes of someday attending law school. Although that hasn’t happened yet, it’s still my plan. But if I had to do it all over again, I would of majored in something more specific.

While the circumstances at both Auburn and Michigan have been documented in the media, if it’s happening there, I’m sure similar situations like these are occurring on other campuses across the country.

In some ways, I feel that the college athlete is being exploited, but at the same time, some of these student-athletes are getting an opportunity that they might not get otherwise if they didn’t excel in a sport.

Below: Ohio State defensive end Vernon Gholston, reminding Michigan quarterback Chad Henne to add this sack to his day planner, last November. File Photo

Tags: Big Ten Football by Matt Barker
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