The Ohio State Buckeyes completed their 2009-10 basketball season with a disappointing 76-73 loss to Tennessee in the Midwest Regional semifinals, Friday night.

It was a game Ohio State should have won. With the top seeds dropping like flies in the Midwest, the Buckeyes had a great chance of making it to the Final Four for the second time in four years. But it wasn’t meant to be, which is highly disappointing.

Evan Turner scored 21 of his 31 points in the second half but didn’t get much help from his teammates in the final stanza who went 3-of-16 from the field.

The biggest problem for Ohio State came in the form of rebounding. Tennessee had a 41-29 edge off the glass and had a whopping 20 offensive boards. That was the decisive factor.

There’s just one question that remains. Does Turner stay for his senior season or does he bolt for the NBA? I have no idea which way he’s leaning. While most say he’s gone, it would not surprise me one bit if Turner came back.

If he does come back, the Buckeyes will more than likely be the preseason No. 1 team in the nation. That would mean that all five starters will return along with the addition of the six commitments that makes up arguably the best recruiting class for 2010.

As for myself, I am taking a three-week break to get some personal and professional things done and will return to blogging on April 19 to get ready for Ohio State’s annual Scarlet & Gray spring football game which is scheduled for April 24.

Tags: From Matt, Men's Basketball by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Right: Tennessee guard Scotty Hopson leads the Volunteers averaging 12.5 points per game. (Getty Images)

I would like to start out by saying that there’s been a lot made out of the upsets so far in the NCAA tournament, but I think the root of the problem just might be in the seeding.

Now I am not going to ramble on this subject, though I will use Tennessee as my prime example. The Volunteers entered the Big Dance with a record 25-7 and were ranked No. 15 in the Associated Press college basketball poll, No. 14 in the coaches poll, and chimed in with an RPI ranking of 14th.

Now that should of made them a No. 4 seed, right? One would think, but that was not the case. Tennessee enters Friday’s Midwest Regional semifinal vs. second-seed Ohio State as a sixth-seed.

During the regular season, the Volunteers had some impressive wins and some head-scratching losses. UT defeated both Kentucky and Kansas at home, but also lost to the likes of Southern California and Georgia on the road. Tennessee also lost to a ranked Vanderbilt team both times those two met on the hardwood.
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Right: Ohio State’s Greg Oden swats away the driving runner from Tennessee’s Ramar Smith as time expired. (Getty Images)

This is a game recap from the 2007 South Regional semifinals between Ohio State and Tennessee that was originally posted here at BuckeyeBanter.com on March 22, 2007. To watch a video of this game in its’ entirety, click here to go to the NCAA Vault.

There was a huge difference between Ohio State’s play in the first half and the one displayed by the Buckeyes in the second 20 minutes of action.

And whatever OSU head coach Thad Matta said in the locker room at intermission after the pitiful first half performance should be bottled up and saved.

“It’s part him telling us we didn’t come out to play the first 20 minutes, we were soft,” freshman point guard Mike Conley Jr. said on Coach Matta’s speech at the break. “We didn’t show a lot of aggressiveness, offensively, defensively.
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Tags: Men's Basketball by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Right: Ohio State’s Dallas Lauderdale throws it down in front of Georgia Tech’s Mfon Udofia. (Getty Images)

Ohio State, now the highest seed still remaining in the Midwest Region, defeated Georgia Tech 75-66 on Sunday to advance to the Sweet 16.

With the win, the Buckeyes will take on sixth-seed Tennessee, Friday night. Tip-off at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis is scheduled for 7:07 pm. ET, and the game will be televised on CBS.

The Volunteers defeated 14th-seed Ohio, 83-68, on Saturday and were led by J.P. Prince who scored 18 points and Scotty Hopson’s 17. The win gave UT their third Sweet 16 berth in four years.

In Ohio State’s second round match-up vs. Georgia Tech, the Buckeyes struggled as both teams put on an ugly display of basketball early in the contest. The Yellow Jackets scored the games first five points and led by as many as eight on three different occasions, the last occurrence coming with 12:01 left in the first half after Gani Laval canned a pair of free throws that put Georgia Tech ahead 14-6.
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No. 2-seed Ohio State (28-7) vs. No. 10-seed Georgia Tech (23-12)

Date: Sunday, March 21
Time: 2:20 p.m. ET
Place: Bradley Center – Milwaukee, WI (capacity 19,000)
TV: CBS Sports with Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel.
Radio: Flagship stations WBNS-AM 1460 and WBNS-FM 97.1 in Columbus plus 58 more stations across Buckeyeland on the Ohio State Buckeyes Radio Network with Paul Keels and Ron Stokes.
Series History: Ohio State owns a 10-3 all-time record vs. Georgia Tech.
Last Game: Georgia Tech defeated Ohio State, 73-53, at Value City Arena in Columbus on Dec. 3, 2003.

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