Buckeyes advance to National Championshiop Game!

Today was by far the biggest win for the Ohio State Men's Basketball program in my lifetime. For the first time since 1962 the Buckeyes will play for the national title. To get there, they had to defeat a fine Hoya team from Georgetown University, and it was quite a battle. Greg Oden quickly racked up 2 fouls in the first 3 minutes, and as a result sat out the rest of the first half. However, the rest of the team played very well without him, and took a 27-23 lead into halftime. In the second half the momentum of the game went back and forth like crazy. Georgetown would come back and take a lead for a bit, then OSU would take it back, then G'town would tie it, then OSU would extend another lead, then G'town would come back and make it close. This kept going on until the last few minutes when the Buckeyes took control and held on to it. In the final minute Ohio State hit the free throws it needed to and the final score ended up being 67-60. Mike Conley lead the team with 15 points and had 6 assists. Oden scored 13, all in the second half, and grabbed 9 boards. In fact all 9 buckeyes who played in the game scored. Butler had 10, Harris and Lewis each had 9, Lighty had 5, and Hunter, Cook, and Terwilliger each had 2. All in all it was a great team effort that resulted in this huge win. The Buckeyes are now 35-3 and will play the winner of UCLA/Florida in the NCAA National Championship Game on Monday night.

Also today, the Cavaliers beat Chicago 112-108 in overtime. LeBron had 39 points and Houghes and Pavlovic each scored 21. Cleveland was down 108-104 late in OT, but James would lead a 8-0 run to finish the game and improve the Cavs record to 44-29.

Cavs get it done in Indianapolis

The Cavaliers were in Indianapolis to play the Indiana Pacers tonight and came away with a 105-94 win. As usual, LeBron James lead the team in scoring....he had 26 on the night along with 6 assists and 7 boards. The big man, Z, had a great game scoring 23 with 4 rebounds and Eric Snow had 14 points, Sasha Pavlovic had 13, and Drew Gooden had 12. The Cavs decided to take the ball to the hoop in this game and did so very frequently, resulting in a 52% day shooting from the field. Cleveland finished the season series with Indiana, having won 3 of the 4 games. This was the first of a 5 game road trip for the Cavs, who are now 43-28, and they will be in New York to play the Knicks tomorrow.

Final Four!

For the tenth time in school history, the Ohio State Men's Basketball team is heading to the Final Four. On Saturday the #1 seed Buckeyes took on the #2 seed Memphis Tigers in the South Regional Final of the NCAA Tournament. It was a hard fought game and was close until the final minutes, when OSU went on a run of hitting 16 straight free throws to put away UM, 92-76. Senior Ron Lewis again was outstanding, scoring 22 points including 2 threes and 10 free throws as well as 6 rebounds. Mike Conley tossed in 19 points and Oden scored 17 of his own and grabbed 9 boards and blocked a shot. Butler stepped it up and scored 12 including a couple of threes and Lighty and Cook played a big role coming off the bench scoring 7 and 9 points respectively. This win places the Buckeyes in the Final Four in Atlanta where they will play either UNC or Georgetown for a chance to play in the national championship game. OSU is now 34-3 on the year.

This is truly an awesome thing for me...because the last time the Bucks were in the Final Four I was in the 5th grade and I really don't remember it that well.

Back from Florida

I just returned today from spending 5 days in Florida for spring break. Quite a bit happened while I was gone, most importantly, the sweet sixteen round of the NCAA Tournament. The Ohio State Buckeyes faced the Tennessee Volunteers on Thursday in game I never got to see. When I first got an Internet update of the score it was 34-18 with Tennessee leading, and I began to feel that all was lost. However, the Bucks would come out in the second half and win the game on the strength of the largest come back in NCAA Tournament history for games played in the sweet sixteen of later. OSU trailed 49-29 right before halftime, and won the game 85-84 in regulation. Ron Lewis lead the team with 25 and Conley had 17. These two were the driving force behind the effort and comeback. Oden had a very sub-par game, due to foul trouble. He only had 9 points and 3 rebounds.....but still had 4 blocks, one of which sent Tennessee's last hope shot to the floor. Another key factor in the win was that the bench players Hunter, Cook, Lighty and Terwilliger all stepped up to fill Oden's vacancy by putting up 20 points all together. #1 seed OSU will play #2 seed Memphis in the South Regional final today to see who goes to the final 4.

The Cavs played 3 games while I was gone. They lost to Charlotte and Dallas on Tuesday and Wednesday and then beat New York last night. They are now 42-27 and trail Detroit by 1.5 games in both the division and conference.

Lewis saves the day....and the season

Let's get right to it. Today Ohio State played like shit....but still found a way to win. The #9 seed Musketeers of Xavier gave it all they had...and came extremely close to knocking off the #1 seed Buckeyes in NCAA Tournament second round play in Lexington, Kentucky. At halftime OSU held a 4 point lead and I thought that they would step it up and put the game away in the second half....but it was not to be. The Musketeers were dropping 3's like crazy and simply out playing the Buckeyes. With 3 minutes to play in the game Xavier had a 59-50 lead..and I thought all was lost. But the Bucks came storming back with a fury unseen until that point in the game. With less than 20 second to go OSU was down 61-59 and had a chance to take the lead or tie, but a 3 pointer by Butler was no good and the follow-up attempt by Lighty missed as well. There was a mad scrum for the rebounds during all of this with no fouls called...until an XU player came up with the ball and Greg Oden fouled him with 9.3 left in the game. That was Oden's 5th foul and it sent Xavier's Justin Cage to the line with a chance to put the game away by making free throws. He made the first one, making it a 3 point game. Now for the second....it went up and rimmed out...Conley grabbed the rebound and the race to beat the clock was on. With about 4 seconds to go Ron Lewis received the ball and put up a 3 point shot......and hit it. Overtime. In the extra session, the Oden-less Bucks turned to Conley who outscored Xavier by himself, scoring 11 of OSU's 16 overtime points....with Xavier only scoring 9. The final score ended up being OSU 78 XU 71. Ron Lewis led the Bucks in scoring with 27 points, including 4 crucial threes as well as 8 rebounds. Mike Conley finished with 21 points and Greg Oden had 14 points and 12 rebounds. Jamar Butler also had a good game, hitting 3 threes and scoring 13 points total. Ohio State is now 32-3 on the year and will face the winner of Tennessee/Virginia in the sweet sixteen in San Antonio, Texas next week. They will definitely need to step it up if they want to win another game. Today was pathetic, well, until the end.

For the Cavs, another win was also in order. The hated Carlos Boozer mad his first trip back to Cleveland since leaving the Cavs to play for Utah. Despite being constantly booed he actually played a decent game, putting up 19 points as well as grabbing 14 rebounds. But late in the game, with Utah down 79-73...he missed two key free throws, to the enjoyment of the crowd, which helped secure the 82-73 win by the Cavs. LeBron James scored 24 points, with 10 of them coming all at once as part of a key 12-0 run by the Cavs in the 4th quarter.....and he also grabbed a season high 17 rebounds. Sasha Pavlovic was again outstanding with 21 points and Drew Gooden tossed in 14 points of his own as well as having 12 rebounds. It was the 8th straight win for Cleveland, who are now 41-25.

OSU wins in first round....easily

CCSU just never really had a chance. Jamar Butler was on fire from behind the 3 point line, and Greg Oden dominated the inside as #1 seed Ohio State rolled past #16 seed Central Connecticut State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday. The Buckeyes, who shot 55% from 3 point land, won the game by a score of of 78-57 and will play Xavier in the second round on Saturday in Lexington, Kentucky. Butler went 5-6 from 3 point range, scoring 17 points as well dishing out 5 assists. Oden lead the Buckeyes in scoring with 19, as well as in rebounds with 10. Ron Lewis had 3 threes as part of his 13 points and Daequan Cook knocked down 2 threes and had a total of 9 points. The OSU/Xavier showdown is a big deal in Ohio because Xavier has always wanted a shot at OSU. There is also another factor that the media will definitely hype to an annoying extent....and is the fact that current Ohio State coach Thad Matta was the former coach of Xavier, and that just 3 years ago he led the Musketeers to the elite 8, and that the freshmen from that 2004 team are now seniors at Xavier...and will be playing against their former coach. It should be a great game.
Thursday's win improves the Buckeyes record to 31-3.

In spring training news, the Indians beat Tampa Bay 5-0.

LeBron-less Cavs still able to blow out Sacramento

LeBron James missed Tuesday night's game in Cleveland against the Kings, but it didn't matter. The Cavs destroyed Sacramento 124-100, and made it look easy. All 5 starters scored in double figures. Sasha Pavlovic was on fire, scoring 25 points including 3 threes and going 6-6 from the free throw line. Larry Houghes also had a great game, with 25 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists. Ilgauskas and Gooden each had 10 rebounds, with Z scoring 19 and Drew scoring 10. Also, Ira Newble had his first start of the year and was very productive, scoring 12 points (9 of them from 3 point shots) and grabbing 7 boards. This is Cleveland's 6th straight win and it improves their record to 39-25.

Big Ten Tournament Champions!

The Ohio State Buckeyes are champions of the Big Ten. Period. They have now won both the regular season and tournament titles. To win the title, the Buckeyes had to get past the Wisconsin Badgers, who are the only Big Ten Team to beat OSU this year, as well as the team OSU had to beat (49-48) to clinch the regular sason title on Feb. 25th. The game was low scoring and defensive at first, with the halftime score being 26-20 in favor of OSU. Then in the second half the Buckeyes took control. There were a few times where the Badgers were able to close the gap to 4, but eventually the Bucks proved to be too much for Wisconsin. The final score was 66-49, but it could have been much worse, given that OSU squandered numerous prime scoring opportunities. Greg Oden was not quite as productive as yesterday, but still managed to score 12 points, grab 10 rebounds, block 4 shots and have a few put-back slam dunks. Mike Conley was the player of the game, with his 18 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists....he pretty much controlled the flow of the game. Ron Lewis was also outstanding, hitting a couple of big 3's and scoring 17 points. Ohio State has now been confirmed as the #1 seed in the South Regional Bracket and will play #16 seed Central Connecticut State in the first round on Thursday in Lexington, Kentucky.

The Cavs also won today, beating the Indiana Pacers 99-88 at home. LeBron James had 26 points and 7 rebounds, Larry Houghes had 23 points and 7 assists and Drew Gooden added 19 points and 8 boards. This was the Cavaliers 5th straight win, improving their record to 38-25.

Also, the Indians beat the Yankees 4-3 today in spring training play. Fausto Carmona had 3 scoreless innings pitched and David Delucci (new to the Tribe this year) had a solo home run.

OSU to play Big Ten title game....Cavs pull one out

Ohio State beat Purdue today 63-52 in the semifinal round of the Big Ten Tournament. Greg Oden simply dominated. He had 17 points, and a record 19 rebounds (9 offensive)...as well as the usual 4 blocks. The biggest play he had was when he turned an offensive rebound into a massive dunk that broke the Boilermakers' spirit late in the game. Ron Lewis also had a good day with 13 points, including a 3 in the second half that gave the Buckeyes a 5 point lead (then the biggest of the game) and marked the beginning of the end for Purdue. Mike Conley had 11 points and 6 rebounds, Ivan Harris stepped up to score 10, and Jamar Butler had 7 points and 4 assists. The Buckeyes will play the Wisconsin Badgers tomorrow for the Big Ten Tournament Championship, though the game will have almost no impact on whether or not OSU takes a #1 seed in the NCAA tourney....it's pretty much a lock.

As for the Cavaliers, they found themselves down 89-81 late in the 4th quarter in Milwaukee tonight, but managed to come through. Anderson Varejao put the Cavs up by two with ten seconds to go, and after former Buckeye Mike Redd's tying attempt for Milwaukee fell short the Cavaliers were able to claim a 94-92 victory over the Bucks. Lebron scored 32 points with 9 assists and 8 rebounds, and Donyell Marshal had 19 points and hit 5 crucial threes. The Cavs had started the 4th quarter down by 12. Cleveland is now 37-25 and still 2 games back of Detroit.

It's 3:45 pm...and Michigan still sucks

Whether it's in Columbus, in Ann Arbor, or on a neutral court....it doesn't really make a difference....because in each case the Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team will beat Michigan. OSU proved that this year and is now 3-0 vs UM this season, as well as 6-0 vs UM since coach Thad Matta took over. Today was the first game of the Big Ten Tournament's quarterfinal round, and Ohio State put the final nail in Michigan's coffin by beating the Wolverines 72-62. For the Buckeyes, the win means a spot in the Big Ten semi finals vs Purdue, as well as basically a lock to be a #1 seed in the NCAA tourney. As for Michigan....well let's say their fate begins with an N, ends with a T, and has an I in the middle. Greg Oden was a dominant force today, scoring 22 points as well as grabbing 8 rebounds and blocking 4 shots. Ron Lewis went 5-8 from the floor and added 4 free throws to score 16, and Mike Conley contributed 13 points and 6 assists. The Buckeyes have now won their school record 28th game of the season, and at 28-3 are ranked #1 in both polls.

In spring training news, the Indians defeated the Reds today in Sarasota, FL. Grady Sizemore hit a two run homer in the 5th, and the final score was 7-3.

Two Overtime Wins

Tonight I spent 7 hours doing a paper that's due in about 9 hours from now. My procrastination prevented me from being able to see any of these games today, but here's what went down while I was typing away. The Cleveland Cavaliers invaded the Palace of Auburn Hills, Michigan to play the Eastern Conference leading Detroit Pistons. Lebron James was unstoppable, putting up 41 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists. He was constantly driving the lane and scoring, and with the game tied with .09 seconds to go, he hit a three point shot at the buzzer.....but it would be reviewed and waved off. In overtime the Cavs put the Pistons away, and won the game 101-97. Drew Goden was the second highest scorer for Cleveland with 22, Z had 14 and Houghes had 12. It was a huge win, putting the Cavs just 2 games back of Detroit for both the division and conference lead, with a record of 36-25.

For the Columbus Blue Jackets, overtime would also be needed. They were playing host to the LA Kings tonight and at the start of the 3rd period were down 2-1. But David Vyborny would take over and be the hero of the game. He scored to tie the game in the 3rd period, and then again on a power play with 21.4 seconds to go in OT to win it. The 3-2 win gave Columbus their 3rd straight win, and an overall record of 27-33-7. The Jackets are now 22-20-5 since the hiring of coach Ken Hichcock.

And in Tribe news, Cleveland beat Tampa Bay 10-2 today in Grapefruit League play.

Ohio State dashes Michigan's tourney hopes

The Big Ten Champion Ohio State Buckeyes finished off their regular season today in Ann Arbor. Something else they finished off: any hope of Michigan making the NCAA tournament (barring some miraculous event in which UM wins the B10 tourney). Before the game the stage seemed set for an upset. The reason for this was that the game was @ Michigan, the Bucks had already clinched the Big Ten title, UM desperately needed a win, and it was UM's senior day. As the game progressed, this idea of the upset happening grew much more realistic, as the Wolverines were playing with a great effort and held a 3 point lead at the half. The second half wasn't much different, as the Buckeyes failed to covert on key opportunities, thus keeping UM in the lead. With 3:54 left UM opened up a 6 point lead at 61-55, and I thought all was lost. However, those would be the last points Michigan would score in the game. Ohio State would go on a 10-0 run to finish the game and win 65-61. Some key points in Michigan' late game demise were: a botched wide open dunk opportunity, a missed front end of a one-and-one that could have potentially tied the game, costly turnovers, and of course....excellent play by OSU to turn all of these mistakes into fast break points. I was literally laughing at UM in the closing seconds and it almost looks like Oden was as well (in the picture), it was so pathetic. Oden and Lewis each had 16 points and Conley had 11. The Buckeyes are now 27-3, and will play their next game in Chicago in the Big Ten Tournament....against the winner of the Michigan/Minnesota game.

Now for some Cavaliers news. The Cavs defeated the Toronto Raptors 120-97 tonight. This game was not on TV in Columbus, so I didn't get to see it. But anyway, Lebron had 36 points and Larry Houghes had 27. It was a solid win at home and it improves the Cavs record to 34-25.

Also tonight, the Blue Jackets defeated Phoenix 4-3. It was their second straight road win in as many days, and their 12th road win this season, a franchise record. Rick nash had 2 goals and goalie Brian Boucher got his first win in a Columbus uniform. They are now 26-33-7.

Baseball!

Today was the first spring training game for the Cleveland Indians. They opened Grapefruit League play at home in Winter Haven against the Houston Astros, and beat them 13-2. The Tribe had 16 hits and scored in 6 of the 8 innings they batted in. Victor Martinez had 3 of those hits, including a 3 run home run in the 3rd. Jake Westbrook started the game and only pitched two innings, which was enough to earn the win.

It's nice to have baseball back, and I can't wait for the season opener.