Men's Basketball
Buckeye Claim Outright Big Ten Championship in Thriller in Columbus
By John Porentas

A season-long quest to mesh a talented group of newcomers with returning veterans came together just in time.

OSU seniors Ivan Harris and Ron Lewis and newcomers Mike Conley and Greg Oden made the plays that allowed No. 1/2 Ohio State (26-3, 14-1 Big Ten) to defeat No. 1/2 Wisconsin (26-4, 12-3 Big Ten) by a final of 49-48. The win enabled the Buckeyes to claim a second-straight outright Big Ten regular-season championship, conclude an unbeaten home season and avenge one of their three earlier-season losses.

The game itself at times looked more like a Big Ten football game that a high-caliber basketball game. The physical play led to less-than stellar shooting by both teams and turned the game into a war of wills, a war eventually won by the Buckeyes.

Greg Oden Slams the Ball for Two Points Against Wisconsin
Photo by David Heasley for The Lantern

"You know they're going to be very physical," said OSU center Greg Oden who was the object of much of the physical play by the Badgers. "You just have to play through it and keep going and going and coming at them because eventually you're going to get a call and they're going to back down," Oden said.

Whatever the actual game lacked in artistry, however, it made up for in sheer drama.

In a game that both teams clearly wanted to win very badly it was Harris who stepped up and provided the Buckeyes with much-needed offensive punch in a game when the punches were as likely to be physical ones as ones that are delivered by putting a ball through a hoop.

Harris, a senior who has been erratic offensively this season, scored a game-high 13 points with three three-point field goals and a pair of two-pointers and also played steady defense that helped limit Wisconsin's forwards to just six-of-24 shooting from the field, including just five-of-15 by Badger star Alando Tucker. Harris scored eight of his points in the first half, a half in which OSU scored a total of just 25.

Oden was not as effective offensively scoring just 11 points and was also guilty of five big turnovers, but defensively, he was an absolute brute. Oden was credited with four blocked shots in the game and controlled the paint defensively to such an extent that Wisconsin's scorers were reluctant to take the ball close to the hoop. The result was a miserable shooting performance for the Badgers who hit just 35.5 per cent from the field.

"It's tough to get to the free throw line with Oden in there," said Wisconsin Head coach Bo Ryan.

"It also made us force some shots that we probably shouldn't have taken.

"Blocked shots are one statistic, but the other one is watch what happens to shooting percentages with a guy like him," said Ryan.

The first half was a see-saw affair in which each team had its moment and looked like it was on the verge of taking control. The Badgers led by six at the 9:37 mark when Greg Stiemsma hit a jump shot to put his team up 15-9. A jump hook by Oden, however, ended Wisconsin's 7-0 run and started the Buckeyes on a 10-0 run of their own to turn the six point deficit into a four point OSU lead.

The Buckeyes maintained that lead and eventually extended it to six at 25-19 when forward Othello Hunter hit a jump shot at the 1:59 mark, but the Badgers scored the last three points of the half to trail by just three at the intermission.

The second half was a lot more of the same.

Neither team could get into an offensive rhythm in the second half and with just 2:47 left in the game the score was tied at 46-46 and still very much anyone's ball game.

Enter freshman Mike Conley and senior Ron Lewis.

OSU Head Coach Thad Matta Cuts Down the Nets After OSU's win Over Wisconsin
Photo by David Heasley for The Lantern

The Badgers took a one point lead when Tucker scored on a layup with 55 seconds remaining on the clock and looked like they were in control of the game when Jason Chappell blocked a shot by Lewis and Jason Bohannon came up with the loose ball for the Badgers to give Wisconsin the ball and the lead with just 31 seconds remaining.

OSU was in the position of needing to foul to regain possession but had committed just two fouls in the half making it necessary for them to four four times before putting the Badgers on the line. That process took 11 seconds off the clock.

Conley finally got the seventh foul committed on Wisconsin's best free throw shooter Kammron Taylor. Taylor, a 78.6 per cent free throw shooter, missed the front end of the one-and-one to give the Buckeyes life when Oden rebounded the miss to give OSU possession trailing 48-47 with 20 seconds remaining.

OSU advanced the ball to midcourt and called a timeout with 16 seconds remaining to set up a final play. The ball got into the hands of Conley who managed to get into the lane and get up a four-foot floater that used at least three parts of the rim before falling through to put OSU up 49-48 with 4.3 seconds remaining. The Badgers called an immediate time out to get the clock stopped at 3.9.

"Knowing that if you have a point guard like Conley he's going to try and penetrate, and there was a little rub action in there," said Ryan of OSU's last offensive possession. "We just tried to make him take a tough shot. He made his. You have to give him credit," said Ryan.

"We drew up a play that they defended pretty well," said Conley. "Ivan read the matchup and sent the ball back to me. I was just trying to make a play.

"We were trying to isolate Greg down low and get a jump shooter coming off a screen. There were a couple of options," said Conley.

Conley said that during the timeout prior to his big play he felt good about his chances to score the game winner and told Oden so during that time out.

"I told him I knew I was going to make the shot," said Conley. "I had that feeling during the timeout that I was going to have the ball for some reason," Conley said.

Oden said he had no doubt that Conley would get the job done in the last few seconds.

"As we were walking out he said to me 'We're not losing this game,'" said Oden.

Following Conley's basket and Wisconsin's time out the Badgers huddled knowing they need one to tie and two to win, the Buckeyes knowing they needed a stop. Wisconsin inbounded the ball and got it upcourt and in the hands of Taylor who appeared to have a shot from around 10 feet away, but Lewis managed to block it to give the Buckeyes the hard-fought win.

"We were just switching and trying to not give them an open look," said Lewis of OSU's last defensive stand. "I didn't know I was going to block it until he put it up in my face."

"We got one of the options we wanted," said Ryan of his team's last shot who tried hard to lobby the officials for a foul call after the block.

"What would anybody do," said Ryan of his appeal on the play. "I've never seen anybody walk off the court in my life without at least making a face. What would you do? Who wouldn't think that they weren't fouled? I've never met anybody that thought there wasn't a foul there, unless it's the other team," said Ryan.

Lewis said he had no doubt that a foul would not be called on the block.

"They did a good job of officiating the game so I knew they weren't going to call a foul to end it," said Lewis.

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