Men's Basketball
The-Ozone Note and Quotebook
By John Porentas

O-H!: Cutting down the nets after a championship is always a great moment in a basketball season. The Buckeyes did just that in Chicago after their win over Wisconsin, a win that pretty much settled any debate as to who the big dog was in the Big Ten this season. The net-cutting scene was one of joy, and it was also one that allowed OSU freshman center Greg Oden show off skill he hadn't yet revealed, cheerleading.

After cutting his share of the net, Oden stayed on the ladder, faced the Buckeye crowd, and screamed O-H at the top of his lungs to the crowd of scarlet and gray fans who stayed for the post-game festivities. Needless to say, Oden got a rousing I-O back from the crowd. Oden smiled when reminded of the incident after the game.

"I definitely did not think of that. Brandon Miller thought of it. They said it would be great to get the fans into it, but I'll take all the credit for it," Oden said with a big grin after the game in the OSU locker room.

"I did enjoy it," said Oden of getting the response from the fans, "getting the fans into it," said Oden, who then trotted out some of the deadpan humor he is becoming known for in his post-game interviews.

"I know they were just waiting because they didn't want to get into all the traffic. I would have stayed there too," he deadpanned before breaking into a grin.

Oden was pretty much all smiles after the game, but was not thrilled with the post-game schedule. OSU was required to go to a room in the United Center as a team to watch the bracket announcements on CBS. Oden didn't mind the watching so much, but the Buckeyes were required to go to the room before hitting the showers, and then had to wait the entire duration of the show as theirs was the last bracket announced.

"We could have took a shower, because we had to wait until we saw our name. I was ready to go to sleep. They could have told us that we were going to be last (to be announced)," Oden said.

Getting the Message. OSU Head Coach Thad Matta has preached defense all season to his young team, and in the Wisconsin game all that preaching paid off. His young team have become true believers that defense will take them a long way. Across the board, the Buckeyes have drunk the "defense wins games" Kool Aid, though it was a tough sell for a while for Matta.

"Now we do, yeah. Earlier we weren't into it as much," said forward Othello Hunter.

"Across the board," said Hunter in describing how many Buckeyes have bought into the concept now.

"That's what we've got to base our wins on, playing great defense," agreed freshman guard Daequan Cook.

"It isn't just offense, but we've got to stop the other team.

"You start to realize that you might have a bad offensive day but if you stop the other team you can beat them," Cook said.

The Depth of it All: OSU has played nine players consistently all season, and that rotation paid off handsomely for the Buckeyes in the Big Ten tournament. OSU was fresher than the Badgers in the late going and pulled away for the win. Every Buckeye who played contributed in some way, including junior forward/center Matt Terwilliger who drilled a three-pointer in the game. Terwilliger wasn't yet ready to call himself Mr. Automatic from three despite his success against the Badgers.

"I don't know about automatic, but they're getting better," said Terwilliger of his long-range shot.

While he isn't ready to call his shot automatic, he was sure of the one he let go of against the Badgers the moment it left his hand.

"Sometimes you have that feeling. I was 99 percent sure that one was going in," said Terwilliger.

Terwilliger, as well as the rest of OSU's bench, had a strong performance against Wisconsin, particularly in the first half when Oden played just six minutes but the Buckeyes were still able to lead at the half.

"We've had the same bench the whole year. I think we're all kind of getting on the same page at the right time now," said Terwilliger.

"No question," agreed Daequan Cook who also comes off the bench for the Buckeyes.

"You have players on the bench like me, Othello, Dave, Twig that are capable of coming in and playing the same roles as the starters. Like Coach Matta said at the beginning of the year, he has nine starters, so we just come in and fill our roles," Cook said.

Matta is extremely happy with the way his bench has developed this year.

"I think we're doing some things very well right now. I think we're getting better," said Matta.

"The thing I'm most excited about and I think one of the biggest differences today was our bench. One of the things we dwelled on last night in the team meeting was how many minutes their guys were playing to how many minutes we had played in two games," Matta said.

That all worked out pretty well for the Buckeyes, and not so good for the Badgers, especially when the quicker tempo the Buckeyes were able to establish took its toll on the Badgers.

"We took advantage of that. They had some problems going up and down with us," said Cook.

Uncharted Ground: The Buckeyes have set several milestones this season, but one that was set in the Wisconsin game that doesn't appear in the record book is a little "heart to heart" Matta had with Greg Oden during the Wisconsin game.

"I didn't think he was playing as hard as he could play and really challenged him like I haven't done before," said Matta.

"He responded, which was good, and I'll put that in my memory bank for when we play on Thursday."

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