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Men's Basketball
Loss Brings Out the Best and Worst
By John Porentas

A loss in a close game is never easy. A loss in a close game that ends your season, ends your dreams and denies you your goal is quite another thing all together.

That's exactly what the OSU basketball team dealt with in St. Louis after Evan Turner's last two shots failed to go down. The magic had left, nobody was singing Hang on Sloopy, and Rocky Top was ringing in their ears as the Buckeyes tried to make sense of what just happened.

Turner, whose dream it was to make the Final Four, got up off the floor where he had been dumped on his last shot, and simply walked off the floor. He did not interact with anyone immediately after the game. He was followed closely by his head coach, Thad Matta, who also did not interact. The rest of the Buckeyes tried to collect themselves and eventually shook hands with the Volunteers. For most of them, however, the struggle was not to congratulate Tennessee, but to accept the reality of the season-ending defeat.

"It's very hard to accept," said senior forward Kyle Madsen.

"I didn't hear the buzzer sound honestly.

"I dribbled out and tried to shoot another one, then I realized everybody was already celebrating and the game was over.

"I just looked up into the stands and it kind of hit me that I probably won't be in front of this many people every again. It's just a really weird feeling. I don't know how else to describe it," Madsen said.

Junior center Dallas Lauderdale had much the same reaction. In the immediate aftermath of the defeat his mind just could not register what had happened. His mind, he recalled, told him many things. The one thing it did not tell him was that it was over, that there was no hope. His mind told him there was somehow, some way, still a chance.

"Like something has to happen," Lauderdale said of his immediate thoughts.

"Some ref has to call something, a foul or something, put some more time on the clock, something."

No foul was called, and no time was put back on the clock, leaving Lauderdale in stunned disbelief. Later in a subdued OSU locker room Lauderdale said he had heard from older players that an NCAA loss was incomprehensible, but didn't truly understand what those older players were trying to tell him. Now that the experience of that loss was on him, the reality of it was hitting him in the face like a sledge hammer.

"People talk about it not being real, not realizing that it's over, having that feeling that it's over. I experienced that tonight," Lauderdale said.

A season of hard work and accomplishment had just ended short of its goal, and the Buckeyes, young men in their teens and early twenties, sat in their locker room suffering. Reporters with their cameras and digital recorders were in there with them, a place that would usually be a safe haven in a difficult moment like this, and that was surely hard for the young men being questioned, yet they did the best they could to be magnanimous, to offer congratulations to the victors, and to answer questions with dignity. Despite the obvious pain they accomplished that.

In that same time space, the message boards were rolling. Most of the messages were demanding to know what went wrong and were indictments of the lack of skill or effort or heart of the players, their coach, their team. No one wanted to talk about what this team had done. They just wanted to know who to blame for this loss. There was real incrimination, real venom.

There is real irony in all that. The people who were hurting the most, the ones who put it on the line and were actually out there on the floor trying to accomplish something, were once again acting like winners in handling a difficult situation as best they could. Those who watched from their living rooms were incriminating them for their effort on the court to do just that.

As the 30-minute post-game open locker room wound down Lauderdale was asked the umpeenth time to describe what happened and how he felt. He didn't rail, but he also didn't answer quickly. He finally took in a deep breath and let out a very audible sigh.

"You can't say anything," he said with a pained look on his face. "You can't say anything," he repeated.

"It's very hard, but you have to move on, you have to keep your heads up."

Wise words from one so young and dealing with pain and disappointment that was on display for an entire nation to see.

To these eyes, there was a lesson in that locker room. These young men were dealing with a huge disappointment, yet did it with strength and character.

"We had a great run but I wanted to win a national championship, so it's kind of disappointing losing tonight like that," said Jeremie Simmons, "but I want to give a shout out to Tennessee, they played a great game.

I for one want to remember that comment and that attitude, not the ones that I saw on several message boards condemning these players for having put their hearts on the line and coming up just a little bit short. This was an Ohio State team that accomplished much, far more than was expected when the season began. Yes, sports is about winning, but sometimes the winning is not always done on the field or on the court. It is done after the clock expires. Maybe I am maudlin, but the Buckeyes I saw after the game exemplified that. They handled their disappointment like winners, not whiners. It's how I will remember this team.

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