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Men's Basketball
Buckeyes Back in the Driver’s Seat
By Brandon CastelThe word destiny refers to a predetermined course of events, and while Ohio State’s path is anything but certain with six games to play in the Big Ten schedule, their fate is now firmly back within their hands.
After Wednesday night’s 69-52 win over hapless Indiana, Thad Matta and his Buckeyes moved into first place in the conference standings for the first time this season. At 9-3 (19-6 overall), they share the top spot with Illinois and Michigan State, who lost its third straight game Tuesday after starting the Big Ten season with nine straight wins.
Ohio State got off to a different kind of start to their conference schedule. They lost games at Wisconsin and Michigan without star point guard Evan Turner. They fell to 1-3 in conference play after beating Indiana in Columbus and losing at Minnesota, both with Turner in the lineup, but it was their upset of No. 6 Purdue that propelled the Buckeyes back into the driver’s seat.
Including that win, a 70-66 come-from-behind victory in West Lafayette, the Buckeyes have won eight-straight Big Ten games to go from 1-3 to 9-3 in less than two months. They have two games left against Illinois and one at Michigan State, but right behind those three teams in the standings is Purdue at 8-3 and Wisconsin at 8-4.
“It is fun because every game counts when you have so many teams within one game of each other,” OSU captain David Lighty said.
“You have to work that much harder because you know if you lose that could be your chance to win the Big Ten.”
The Buckeyes certainly have some hard work ahead of them if they want to capture their first regular season conference crown since the 2006-07 season. They face Illinois, winners of their last five, Sunday in Champaign before returning home against Purdue on Wednesday. They travel to East Lansing three days later and close out the season with the Illini at home.
“Somebody told me coach (Tom) Izzo said that four losses is going to win the Big Ten this year,” OSU Head Coach Thad Matta said.
“There’s so much basketball still to be played and so many things can still transpire. I’d like to say three. That’d be us, but you don’t know. Injuries and that type of stuff can happen.”
Despite that, Matta has yet to look at the standings, at least publically.
“I don’t look at it. I look at it in March when it matters most,” said the coach known for taking it one day at a time and one game at a time.
While the Spartans faced a major injury scare with point guard Kalin Lucas, no team took a more significant blow during the season than Ohio State. Despite missing a month of the season, Evan Turner is out in front for player of the year in the conference, and maybe the country.
Although he scored only 10 points in 21 foul-plagued Minutes Wednesday, Turner is averaging a near double-double for the season. Along with 19.2 points and 9.3 rebounds, OSU’s point guard is also dishing out 5.7 assists per game to go with nearly two steals a night. He’s a matchup nightmare at both ends of the floor and has cut down on his turnovers drastically from last season.
“Evan’s got a pace about him right now that I really like. He seems to know when to go,” Matta said before Wednesday night’s game.
Coming off a 32-point performance against Iowa Sunday, Turner appears to be back in the form he showed during nonconference play when he posted a pair of triple-doubles. It’s his mental toughness, however, that his impressed teammates and coaches.
“When you get to this stage of the season everybody’s strong, everybody can jump, everybody’s fast, everybody can execute their offense. I think the biggest thing is mentally. Where’s your mind at? Mental toughness is the thing that can get you over the hump,” forward Dallas Lauderdale said.
At 19-6 the Buckeyes have all but secured another 20-win season for Matta, but they have their eyes set on a bigger prize. Turner came back to win a championship and everyone on the team has a bad taste in their mouth from the first round exit in last year’s NCAA Tournament.
“That’s why these guys know, we worry about one team and one team only and that’s us,” Matta said.
Current 2009-10 Big Ten Standings
Michigan State 9-3 19-6 Ohio State 9-3 19-6 Illinois 9-3 17-8 Purdue 8-3 20-3 Wisconsin 8-4 18-6 Minnesota 5-5 14-8 Northwestern 5-5 14-8 Michigan 4-7 11-12 Indiana 3-8 9-14 Iowa 3-9 9-16 Penn State 0-11 8-15 The-Ozone Mall
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