Men's Basketball
Buckeyes Advance to Big Ten Tournament Final with 63-52 Win over Purdue
By John Porentas

The basketball Buckeyes have become a real problem for the rest of the Big Ten.

The latest to wrestle with the problem of how to slow down the Buckeyes in the hopes of beating them was Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter.

Painter elected to try to pressure OSU's guards on the perimeter in the hopes of making it difficult for them to get the ball to Greg Oden and in the hopes of causing a few turnovers. Painter admitted, however, that the tactic was a long shot.

"Theirs are the only guards we haven't been able to effect this season," said Painter, "but we wanted to see if we could protect our interior defense. It isn't very good, but so we thought we would try to keep the ball from going down low," Painter said.

Purdue's pressure didn't produce turnovers. OSU (29-3) had just eight in the game, but it may have contributed to a less-than stellar shooting performance by OSU's guards. Mike Conley, Ron Lewis, Jamar Butler and Daequan Cook combined to go nine-of-35 from the floor (25.71 percent), and that on the surface would sound like a bad thing for the Buckeyes and a good things for the Boilermakers (21-11). It turned out to be just the opposite.

The Buckeyes were able to rebound 21 of those misses and turn them into 22 second-chance points. Nine of those offensive rebounds were grabbed by Greg Oden who ended the day with 19 rebounds. That number was a career high for Oden and also set a new Big Ten single-game tournament record. OSU's rebound total of 49 was the second-most in Big Ten tournament history, just two off the record of 51 set by Illinois in a victory over Indiana in 1999. Oden also scored a team-high 19 points, many of them coming on tip ins after OSU misses.

Ironically, Oden's big day was directly related to Purdue's pressure on the perimeter. With the Boilers playing up, Conley, Lewis and Butler were able to blow by defenders and get into the paint. That left up to Purdue center Carl Landry to defend them, and when he did, that left a clear lane for Oden to the glass.

"If a guy is going to make a layup he (Landry) has to get over and try to take a charge or contest it," said Painter. "We tried to contain the dribble but because we know if he has to help often, it's going to lead to a tip dunk if he misses."

And with the Purdue guards playing up on the Buckeye guards, that's exactly what happened. Even when the guards missed, the Buckeyes scored when Oden was there to clean up. The only real problem the Buckeyes had to solve was how to stop the Boilers, and when the finally got that done, the game was over.

Purdue was able to keep pace and actually led by three at 43-40, but the Buckeyes turned up the defensive pressure to go on a 20-4 run and put the game out of reach.

"We got to where we were challenging shots," said OSU Head Coach Thad Matta.

"We were making it hard for them to see the basket, Ron Lewis getting out and using his length, I think that was probably the biggest difference. It allowed you to get out and get a couple easy ones and get to the free throw line through transition," Matta said.

With the win the Buckeyes advance to the tournament final against Wisconsin. The Badgers defeated Illinois by a final of 53-41 in the other semi-final game of the tournament.

Photo Coverage

Box Score

Tournament Bracket

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