With more than a minute left and Oklahoma leading Texas A&M by 25 points, we are stuck watching this game. I am assuming the Ohio State game will be joined in progress.

Finally, the Oklahoma-Texas A&M game is over, and we didn’t miss a minute of the Ohio State game.

Matty B’s Keys to the Game:

Ohio State must play a complete, 40-minute game. The Buckeyes need to get off to a good start and finish strong.

Must avoid the mental mistakes and turnovers.

Play hard, and with some intensity and a sense of urgency!

Crisp passing!!!

17:31 – First Half: Minnesota 2, Ohio State 0

Matta calls a timeout after Minnesota scores on basket inside after two offensive rebounds. Coach rips into his guys after a lackluster effort on that play.

15:51 – First Half: Ohio State 4, Minnesota 3

Both teams playing very tight. The Buckeyes seem to have good movement in their half-court set, but at times the spacing isn’t very good. In the motion offense, you don’t want to be all bunched up.

11:22 – First Half: Minnesota 11, Ohio State 8

OSU can’t really get into a rhythm offensively. Koufos has been invisible.

6:36 – First Half: Ohio State 14, Minnesota 13

So far it’s been a very ugly first half for both teams.

3:53 – First Half: Ohio State 17, Minnesota 15

Not a lot of scoring, 35 percent field goal shooting for OSU, 30% for Minnesota.

Halftime: Minnesota 24, Ohio State 23

Koufos leads the Buckeyes with eight points and Butler has added six. Ohio State is 9-for-24 (37.5%) from the field, and 2 of 7 from three-point range. Minnesota is 7-for-23 (30.4%) from the floor, and 2 of 12 from beyond the arc. Reserve guard Blake Hoffarber has come off the bench to score eight points to lead the Gophers.

Troubling stat: Minnesota has outrebounded Ohio State, 19-13, and have pulled down nine offensive boards. Ugh. Also at last check, the Buckeyes have forced 11 turnovers, yet have only scored 23 points.

17:31 – Second Half: Minnesota 34, Ohio State 28

The Gophers take their biggest lead of the game on McKenzie’s three-pointer.

10:47 – Second Half: Minnesota 49, Ohio State 37

This one’s starting to get away from the Buckeyes. Minnesota has made adjustments and are knocking down their shots, while Ohio State wouldn’t hit water if they fell out of a boat.

7:42 – Second Half: Minnesota 56, Ohio State 42

This one is going down the crapper in a hurry.

4:27 – Second Half: Minnesota 58, Ohio State 49

Koufos scores on a conventional three-point play and there’s still hope.

3:11 – Second Half: Minnesota 62, Ohio State 49

Ohio State’s P.J. Hill drives down the lane totally out of control and is guilty of a charge. Why is he on the floor!? He’s downright terrible.

Final – Minnesota 71, Ohio State 57

Pathetic. An absolutely pathetic display, especially in the second half. Kosta Koufos scored 17 points and Jamar Butler added 13, but it seems they were the only Buckeyes who decided to show up and play. Minnesota’s Lawrence McKenzie scored a game-high 20 points, all coming in the second half when Ohio State’s defense couldn’t stop a fat lady from an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Full recap to follow…

Tags: Men's Basketball by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Minnesota head coach Tubby Smith reacting to a call during the Golden Gophers’ 65-53 loss to Purdue, last Wednesday. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Ohio State (17-11, 8-7) at Minnesota (17-10, 7-8)
Date: Saturday, March 1
Time: 4:00 p.m. ET
Place: Williams Arena – capacity 14,625
TV: ESPN, with Dave O’Brien and Stephen Bardo.
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 73-52 vs. Minnesota, but is just 28-34 in games played in Minneapolis.
Last Meeting : Jan. 26, 2008. Ohio State won 76-60 in Columbus as Jamar Butler scored 27 points to lead the Buckeyes.

It’s getting close to crunch time as Ohio State needs a win badly in hopes of advancing to the NCAA Tournament in March, unless Thad Matta’s cagers plan on winning the Big Ten tournament. The Buckeyes have lost three straight, and four out of their last five games, and this contest has significant importance now after OSU lost to Iowa and Michigan on the road. Currently, Ohio State sits in fifth-place in the Big Ten, one full game ahead of Minnesota.

Though both teams have nearly identical records, and in the latest RPI rankings furnished by Ken Pomeroy, Ohio State is 48th, while Minnesota checks in at No. 102. This is largely due to strength of schedule, as Ohio State ranks 30th, while Minnesota’s SOS is 129th. The Buckeyes are 2-9 against teams in the RPI Top 50, the Golden Gophers are 0-8.

Minnesota won two straight games at home, defeating Michigan 69-60, and Penn State 75-68 before venturing out on the road losing to 16th-ranked Purdue 65-53, last Wednesday.

Lawrence McKenzie, a 6-foot-2 senior guard, led Minnesota with 13 points. Forward Dan Coleman, 6-foot-9 senior, had 10 points and 13 rebounds and 6-foot-9 senior center Spencer Tollackson had 10 points in Minnesota’s second-lowest scoring game of the season.

The Golden Gophers’ lowest offensive output of the season was a 63-47 loss to Wisconsin back on Feb. 3 in Minneapolis.

Coleman leads Minnesota in both scoring (12.4 ppg) and rebounding (6.2 rpg), while McKenzie is second on the team averaging 11.4 points per contest. Tollackson is the third Gopher to average in double figures, chipping in 10.5 ppg.

Tags: Men's Basketball by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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It’s official.

After losing to 12th-ranked Indiana 72-69, Tuesday night, Ohio State has now lost three-straight games, and four out of their last five. It also means that the Buckeyes’ chances of dancing come March are sinking like a hydrogen-filled zeppelin.

What bothered Ohio State last night has plagued them all season long, and that’s the ability to play a complete, 40-minute game. Either they get off to a great start only to fade, or sputter in the first half like the did against Indiana and unable to climb out of such a deficit.

Against Wisconsin, Ohio State scored 21 second half points, and in last night’s game against Indiana, the Buckeyes could only muster that same offensive output in the first 20 minutes of action.

With 11:38 left in the first half, it looked like the Hoosiers were going to blow the Buckeyes right out of the gym after a two-handed jam by Jordan Crawford put IU ahead 18-7.

The Hoosiers biggest lead of the game was when Armon Bassett drained a trey with 2:35 remaining in the opening period that gave Indiana a 30-17 advantage.

For the next 22 minutes and 35 seconds, Ohio State outscored Indiana 52-42, but as they say, it was too little, too late.

 The only time the Buckeyes held a lead was very early in the game after Kosta Koufos drained a three-pointer 80 seconds into the contest. Indiana took over for good when Bassett scored on a layup at the 17:12 mark of the first half.

Ohio State did make it interesting, to say the least, in the second half.

The Hoosiers led 30-21 at halftime, but the Buckeyes went on a 9-2 run to start the second stanza, and after a tip-in by Othello Hunter, OSU trailed 32-30 with 15:39 left.

With 10:57 remaining, a short jumper by Koufos trimmed Indiana’s lead to 42-41, but Ohio State could not get a stop when needed, or a key bucket the rest of the way, while Indiana made the free throws they had to down the stretch.

Neither team shot the ball particularly well as Ohio State was 28-for-62 (45.2%) from the field, but just 7 of 25 (28.0%) from three-point range. Indiana was 24-for-61 (39.3%) from the floor, and 5 of 25 (20.0%) from downtown Bloomington.

Indiana had a 41-37 rebounding advantage, while Ohio State committed 16 turnovers to 13 for IU.

Koufos finished with 21 points and six rebounds, and Evan Turner chipped in 13. Hunter and Jamar Butler each added a dozen for the Buckeyes.

Bassett led the Hoosiers with 23 points, while Eric Gordon added 17 and D.J. White contributed 16.

Up next, Ohio State travels to Minneapolis to take on Minnesota, Saturday afternoon. Tip-off is schedule for 4:00 p.m. ET at Williams Arena.

Tags: Men's Basketball by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Ohio State (17-10, 8-6) at Indiana (23-4, 12-2)Time: Today, 7:00 p.m. ET
Place: Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana
TV: ESPN with Brent Musburger, Steve Lavin, and the voluptuous Erin Andrews.
Radio: WBNS-AM 1460 and WBNS-FM 97.1 in Columbus, plus 57 stations statewide with Paul Keels and Ron Stokes. Buckeye Warm-Up begins on the network at 6 p.m.
Series History: Indiana all-time record against Ohio State is 100-72, and owns a 28-5 advantage at Assembly Hall.
Last Time: Indiana won 59-52 on Feb. 10 in Columbus. 

Exit Kelvin Sampson and enter Dan Dakich, who took over last Friday after Sampson was forced to resign. This is good news for me, since I will no longer get dozens of calls from Sampson on a daily basis. If I have told him once, I told him a thousand times that my eligibility ran out a long time ago.

Ohioans will be familiar with Dakich, who played and was an assistant for legendary coach Bob Knight at Indiana before he became head coach at Bowling Green for 10 seasons. He was the third-winningest coach in Falcon history with a 156-140 mark.

Indiana is ranked 12th in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Coaches polls. The Hoosiers are coming off an 85-82 win at Northwestern, last Saturday.

The Hoosiers boast the top two scorers in the Big Ten Conference with freshman Eric Gordon (21.5 ppg) and senior D.J. White (17.1 ppg). White also leads the league in rebounds, averaging 10.4 per game.

One of the leading candidates for Big Ten Player of the Year honors, White has been named the league’s Player of the Week four times, the second most in Big Ten history.

Gordon, the favorite to win the Big Ten freshman of the Year, has set the Indiana record for freshman scoring with 560 points surpassing the old mark of 500 which was set by Mike Woodson in 1976-77.

Sophomore Armon Bassett has stepped up his play with his 24-point effort at Northwestern, while freshman Jordan Crawford had a career-high 21 points against the Wildcats. Bassett is the top three-point shooter in the league (48.6%).

Ohio State is coming off a a disappointing 58-53 loss to Wisconsin on Sunday. The Buckeyes didn’t score in the final 3:15 of the game, and was held to just one field goal in the last eight-plus minutes after Jon Diebler drained a three-pointer with 8:38 left to give OSU a 49-47 lead.

Senior point guard Jamar Butler, who didn’t start against the Badgers due to a “coach’s decision,” still played 36 minutes and scored a team-high 14 points. Freshman center Kosta Koufos scored 10 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.

I’m not sure if Ohio State has anything left in the tank, physically and emotionally, after losing four out of their last six contests, and that was clearly evident when Butler launched an air ball on a three-pointer with 22 seconds left against Wisconsin that would of tied the game.

The Buckeyes are going to have to dig deep if they expect to win in Bloomington tonight, or the result could be ugly.

Tags: Men's Basketball by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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