Buckeyes Push Boilermakers Out Of Tournament, Advance To Next Round

Sullinger led the Buckeyes to an 88-71 win

Jared Sullinger still relishes carrying the load. Sullinger had a season-high 30 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to help No. 7 Ohio State beat Purdue 88-71 on Friday night in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals.

Sullinger defers more often than he did last season, sharing the spotlight with Deshaun Thomas and William Buford. This time, it was his show.

Thomas had 22 points and seven rebounds and Buford scored nine of his 11 points in the second half for the third-seeded Buckeyes (26-6). Ohio State shot 61 percent to post its second-best scoring output of the season and outrebounded Purdue 39-28.

The Buckeyes will play No. 10 Michigan on Saturday. The Wolverines defeated Minnesota 73-69 in overtime in an earlier quarterfinal.

D.J. Byrd scored 20 points and Terone Johnson added 15 for the Boilermakers (21-12). Robbie Hummel, Purdue's top scorer, finished with six points on 2-for-8 shooting.

The Boilermakers made 12 of 26 from 3-point range but were overwhelmed by Ohio State's size and athleticism in the paint.

Purdue missed its first five shots to fall behind 7-0, and the deficit increased to 19-11 before the Boilermakers rallied. Byrd hit 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to cut Ohio State's lead to 33-30.

Hummel stuffed Sullinger's shot on one end and Anthony Johnson made a 3-pointer on the other end to trim Ohio State's lead to 35-33. Sullinger's 3-pointer with 34 seconds left in the first half gave the Buckeyes a 40-36 lead at the break.

B1G Tournament Basketball Preview: Ohio State vs. Purdue

Can Buford stay hot?

A preseason favorite to win the Big Ten regular-season title outright, Ohio State instead settled for a share of the championship.

The seventh-ranked and No. 3 seed Buckeyes begin their quest for a third straight Big Ten tournament title Friday night when they face sixth-seeded Purdue in a quarterfinal matchup in Indianapolis.

After losing three games in February, Ohio State (25-6) rebounded to win its final two and earn a share of the Big Ten title along with Michigan State and Michigan.

William Buford hit a shot from the top of the key with 1 second left to give the Buckeyes a 72-70 win over the Spartans on Sunday. Buford finished with 25 points while Jared Sullinger had 14 points and 10 rebounds.

After putting up inconsistent numbers in mid-February, Sullinger closed the season with consecutive double-doubles, averaging 18.0 points and 14.0 rebounds. He had 11 offensive boards in a 75-73 win at Northwestern on Feb. 29.

The 6-foot-9 sophomore led the Buckeyes to their second consecutive Big Ten tournament title last season, averaging 16.3 points and 14.0 rebounds in wins over Northwestern, Michigan and Penn State.

Friday's Buckeye Bits

Good Friday Morning! Time for another chocolate-coated bundle of Buckeye Bits! Don't worry, people with allergies: The following tasty nuggets of news do NOT contain real peanut butter.

9:00 tonight. That's when the B1G tourney starts for Matta's men. The Bucks will tilt against the Boilermakers, who crushed the hopes of the Cornhuskers, 79-61.

It'll basically be a home game for Purdue, from just up the unbelievably boring I-65 in West Lafayette. Expect a hostile, nerdy crowd.

Appearances are everything. Tim May wrote today in the Dispatch about OSU's new coach-car deal. Basically, coaches throughout the athletic department will no longer be getting courtesy cars from local dealers; rather, they will each get a $600 monthly stipend to purchase or lease a car. It's all part of the department's plan to minimize appearances of impropriety.

Luke Fickell: Is He Done?

I do get to stay, right guys? Right? Guys?

Honest to goodness I don’t know where to start with this team. Even though I don’t know where to start I do know who to blame. Unfortunately the blame lies within the coaching staff and their decisions. Personally, I have no problems with Luke Fickell, he is a home grown Buckeye who loves this school like no other. He wants to succeed, he wants to be a winner, but he just is not ready. This is not his fault, it is not the fault of the players he has, it is the fault of the man who caused this mess. No, I am not talking about Pryor, I am not even talking about Jim Bollman. I am talking about Jim Tressel. 

We don’t know if Tressel had the plan to groom Fickell for the job, and steadily promote him over the next few years. Was he the heir apparent? God only knows. Jim Tressel resigned in disgrace (thankfully, his disgrace is nowhere in the same galaxy as the former coach of Penn State’s disgrace), and with Darell Hazel gone, Luke Fickell got thrust into the position of head coach. 

What Went Right/Wrong: Purdue

Miller fought hard all game

While Ohio State has knocked themselves out of a chance to get into the Big Ten Championship Game, there is still an opportunity to build on these last games. This season could very well end in 6-6, or it could end in 8-4. It's a huge difference not only towards the attitude of the team, but for momentum into next year.

When Braxton Miller rolled to his right on 4th and 3 from the Purdue 13, and then saw Jordan Hall with a step on his man on the opposite side of the field, he threw it up. Very similar to the Wisconsin game, it seemed as if the ball hung up in the air for hours, finally floating into the outstretched hands of Hall. We know that the next play was awful, but there were other key points and factors throughout the game that resulted in the Buckeye loss. Let's take a look at what went right and wrong for Ohio State on Saturday.

Recap: Ohio State 23, Purdue 26

Hall made some big plays

If you thought that Ohio State (6-4, 3-3) would come out fast and looking ready to go for a November to remember, you weren't the only one. Sadly, it looked as if they didn't make any progress from the close-shave against Indiana. The trip to Ross-Ade stadium again seems to give fits to Ohio State offenses, and the defense looked terrible in a 26-23 overtime loss to Purdue. The Boilermakers (5-5, 3-3) had just been coming off 2 straight losses - both in ugly fashion. First came Michigan who they lost to 36-14, and then traveled to Camp Randall where the Badgers took care of business in fashion 62-17.

Of course, those games meant nothing to Purdue. Look at their home record before this game: 4-1. Their only loss came to Notre Dame. They beat Illinois and a Minnesota team that has shown much improvement from the past couple of years. Add to the fact that the Buckeyes have some weird phobia of playing against the Boilermakers at Purdue, and that's a recipe for confidence and success for Danny Hope's squad, which is now one win away from bowl edibility. As for Ohio State, things have taken a turn for the worse since their monumental upset of then highly-ranked Wisconsin. After that game, Ohio State was just 1 game away from being in control of their own destiny on their way to a B1G CCG. All they had to worry about was winning out, but even with Braxton Miller's heroics again, this time with a 4th down roll-out that ended in a fantastic Jordan Hall catch,  the Buckeye defense couldn't come up with a stop in overtime.

Live Blog: #25 Ohio State vs. Purdue

A week after coming out slow and unprepared for the Indiana Hoosiers, Ohio State must travel to Purdue, to keep their B1G CCG dreams alive. Braxton Miller and the offense have to continue to improve, and the defense needs to up their game for this one. 

Join us at 11:45 AM EST for the Live Blog!

Preview: #25 Ohio State vs. Purdue

Will Miller air it out this weekend?

The Ohio State Buckeyes will march into West Lafayette this weekend for a Big Ten clash with the Purdue Boilermakers, who are looking to snap a two-game losing streak.

Ohio State has won three straight games, including last weekend's 34-20 victory over Indiana which gave the Buckeyes bowl eligibility. Ohio State has pulled into second place in the Big Ten Leaders Division, two games behind from Penn State with three games remaining on the slate. Following this weekend's road trip to Purdue, Ohio State will host Penn State and travel to Michigan to close out the season. Their hope is that Penn State will fall to either Nebraska this weekend, or Wisconsin in the Nittany Lion's last regular season game, which would leap Ohio State into the B1G CCG.

Since upsetting Illinois back on October 22nd, Purdue has lost two straight, including a convincing 62-17 pounding by Wisconsin last weekend in Madison. The loss only raised the stakes for the Boilermakers heading down the stretch, as Purdue must win two of its last three games to become bowl eligible, and has Ohio State, Iowa and Indiana in their way to make the postseason. Ohio State leads the all-time series with Purdue, 38-13-2.

Dark Days For Happy Valley

A legend is out

Update: Joe Paterno is out at Penn State, effective immediately.

The latest scandal to hit college football may be the king of all scandals. Penn St. is the latest university to deal with a public relations nightmare much like Oregon, Miami, Auburn and Ohio State dealt with over the past year. Unfortunately this scandal is hands down the most disturbing and outright disgusting story I have read in a long time. While those investigations involved illegal cash benefits, tattoos and recruiting agencies this story is about sexual assault and molestation with at-risk teenage boys. I will preface this article by saying that we are still dealing with allegations but if even half of what is alleged is true, I have no problem sending Jerry Sandusky away for the rest of his days.

Once the story broke I have to admit I was pleased that another university was taking the spotlight off of Ohio St. for awhile. I posted things on my Facebook and Twitter accounts such as “ESPN had better lead with this stroy for a month considering the attention they gave to Ohio St.” and “how does that little tattoo scandal look now?”. That was before I read the Grand Jury indictment and found out just how awful this case was. It was literally the most horrifying 23 pages I have read in a long time.

Buckeye Defense

Howard came up big

Where to start? The Buckeyes defense is an enigma wrapped in a puzzle, within a Rubik’s Cube. I just don’t know what to say. We are young, we have athletes, we are young, we are fast, oh yeah by the way we are young. Obviously, I see being young as a major problem for our defense. We replaced at least 8 starters or contributors from last season’s dominating D. It is not like we replaced scrubs, we lost the likes of Cam Heyward, Brian Rolle, and Chimdi Chekwa to name three. These three players are not easily replaceable, but this is OSU and we don’t rebuild we reload. Now we have reloaded, but not with experience, and this is showing.

In almost every game our D has come out ready to play and they have hit and hit hard, but as games have progressed, the have also hit the wall. I have witnessed our defense miss tackles, get beat, and obviously look tired. This was painfully obvious in our loss at Nebraska. For over three quarters we dominated, Nebraska could not run, they could not throw, they couldn't do anything. Then all of a sudden Braxton Miller gets hurt and our defense stops playing and Nebraska scores 21 unanswered, and boom we lose. However, then comes Illinois and our D plays a great game and shuts down the Illini. Wisconsin comes next, and look at our D again. For 3 plus quarters we shut down the Badgers (for all intense purposes we shut down the powerful Badger run for the entire game, holding them to under 100 yards rushing), but late in the 4^th quarter Wisconsin began to move the ball through the air and boom, we were losing again, but this time Braxton Miller and Devin Smith’s heroics saved us. Now we have the Indiana game.

2011 Big Ten Tournament Preview

With the first round of the Big Ten Tournament finished in Indianapolis, eight teams are left vying for the championship and automatic berth into the Big Dance.  Ohio State, Purdue and Wisconsin are locks to make the tournament, while Illinois is almost certainly in.  Joe Lunardi has Michigan in as an 11 seed, but they may need to beat the Illini to give them a chance to dance.  Michigan State scraped by Iowa in their first round game to enhance their bubble chances, while Penn State defeated Indiana in the nightcap to earn their place in the quarterfinals.  Despite defeating Minnesota in their first round matchup, Northwestern will likely need to win the championship to advance to the NCAA Tournament.



Jared Sullinger leads the Buckeyes into March



Ohio State is a lock for the NCAA Tournament and possibly a lock for a 1 seed going in to the Big Ten Tournament.  The Buckeyes will look to continue their hot shooting from the record-setting performance against Wisconsin into the postseason. 

Representing: Purdue

The blogger Travis, from Hammer and Rails, was nice enough to give us his thoughts on the Boilermaker's season thus far, and the game today.


1. Right now, how do you feel about where the Boilermakers are as a team?

I feel pretty good. This team took a terrible situation into the bye week (no offense, loss to a MAC school) and has turned things around. The Northwestern win is a good one. It was our first win over a ranked team on the road in seven years. Beating Minnesota wasn't much, but we at least made sure there was no doubt and overcame a very subdued crowd since the Robbie Hummel news was spreading at the time. We're at least moving in a positive direction. 

2. Guys like Kerrigan gave Ohio State problems last year, but who is the one person the whole team always builds around?

Offensively Rob Henry has done a good job of shifting our  focus on the fly to a read option team. He has a lot of poise as a redshirt freshman with only two starts under his belt. Should Robert Marve return next year Henry may give him a run for the starting job again. 

Defensively Kawann Short is a very underrated defensive tackle. A former basketball player and teammate in high school of E'Twaun Moore, he has mad hops for a defensive linesmen. this plays intot he pass defense as he leads the team in passes batted down and even has a blocked field goal. he's excellent against the run too. 

3. What has to happen for Ohio State to beat Purdue, and vice versa?

Ohio State is the better team, so they must simply exert their will and keep the defensive line away from Pryor. Purdue needs to get after Pryor and force him into bad decisions like last year. Kerrigan owns him. Pryor knows it too. If Kerrigan dominates as he has the past two seasons we have a chance. 

4. On a scale of 1-10, how mad are you that Kent State dropped Purdue from their schedule next year, to replace you with Alabama?

It's frustrating because I really don't want to fill that spot with another 1-AA team, but we may not have a choice. We have a much tougher conference slate next year, so we need to make sure there are three wins out of the non-conference schedule to assure a bowl bid. Now we might have to accept a second non-conference road game in addition to a trip to Rice. 

5. How will Purdue finish the season? (W/L, Bowl game?)

I am looking at 6-6 and a bowl game. I would take that given the injury situation because it would be an improvement over last year. I just want to beat Illinois and Indiana that rest of the way. Anything else is gravy. Of course, we are in first place in the Big Ten. A win this week will start some dreams of Pasadena. 

Circle the Wagons: Digging Deeper into the Upset

Seriously.

After waking up from my Miller Lite induced coma on Sunday, I employed a technique that I often use after a devastating Buckeye loss… a complete sports media blackout. While watching the Browns tank another game I was careful not to read anything on ESPN, check out any Buckeye blogs or read a newspaper (as archaic as that might be these days). This is how I chose to deal with the pain that our beloved Ohio St. Buckeyes had inflicted on me the previous night. Maybe it is childish or immature but it works for me. I am not a glutton for punishment and had no interest in watching the national pundits rake the Buckeyes over the coals with their back and forth “I told you so” banter.

As my ITS colleague Danny so eloquently put it on Sunday, there are three types of college football fans out there and I fall into two of those categories. On Saturday night/Sunday you can throw me into the “Armageddonist” type of fan. I was inconsolable. I wanted blood and would have been happy if every coach had been fired immediately following the game. I was convinced that the Buckeyes’ free fall out of the top 25 was a foregone conclusion. Thank god decisions aren’t made in the heat of the moment or that I have any say whatsoever in the OSU football program.

Additionally, special thanks to my wife for keeping her distance and letting me cool off. Taking the trash out or gathering laundry would have been a task met with an undeserved tongue lashing. Monday morning arrived and cooler heads had prevailed. My blood pressure had dropped, my hangover subsided and I began to think rationally about the beat down in Badgerland. Finally, I had arrived in the “Level Headed fan” zone which is where I like to think I reside most of the season. The Buckeyes did not deserve to win that game and the Badgers did… period.

Who you got?: #10 Ohio State vs. Purdue

After the shocking upset to Wisconsin, the Buckeyes are headed back home with their tail between their legs. Now they have to come out and prove it was just a fluke, to try and get back to the status of best Big Ten team.

Ian: 28-17, Ohio State - Closer than what Buckeye fans what/need, but Tressel gets it done on the ground. I have a feeling Pryor will throw at least 1 pick this game.

SBB: No Pick

Brady: 38-10, Ohio State - Ohio St. should rebound from last week's disaster in Madison.  Pryor will open it up against a suspect Purdue secondary and Boom Herron should have plenty of opportunities to tote the rock.  Ohio St. wins this one by halftime. 

Danny: 35-10 Ohio State - The Boilermakers run an offense nothing like Wisconsin's.  Fear not, Buckeye fans, this time Purdue takes a beating like it is supposed to.  I may not be heard from again if they don't, so please Buckeyes, get it done.