Final Four: Kentucky, Louisville, Ohio State, Kansas

The Final Four is set. Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio State and Louisville won their Regionals and advance to next weekend's Final Four in New Orleans. Unlike 2010 and 2011, when mid-major "Cinderellas" Butler and Virginia Commonwealth shocked the world and advanced to the Final Four, the 2012 Final Four field is comprised entirely of the usual suspects.

Louisville competes in the Big East Conference, but geographically, the East Coast is entirely shut out. Three of the four teams come from schools within 100 miles of Cincinnati, Ohio. The fourth, Kansas, comes from the heart of the heartland. It's an entirely Midwestern and Mid South Final Four.

Syracuse was the top-seeded team in the Tournament, but Syracuse alumni who work in the national sports media (in other words, most of the national sports media) will have to content themselves by pulling for Louisville to defend the Big East's honor. Casual fans who've enjoyed rooting for Cinderella "Davids" (i.e., Butler) to knock off college basketball "blue blood" "Goliaths" (i.e., Duke and Connecticut) in the last two NCAA Championship games will be faced with the likelihood of watching "blue blood" Kentucky play "blue blood" Kansas for the right to hand yet another NCAA Championship banner in the rafters.

On a more personal level, Drive and Dish editors will be stuck at a wedding in south Georgia while Saturday's games are being played. But if we get the chance, we may try to hit Interstate 10 on Sunday morning and see if we can get to New Orleans by evening. If so, we'll be hanging around the Final Four for Monday's Championship game.

Road to First NCAA Tournament Berth Gets Tougher for Northwestern

Northwestern entered the 2011-2012 season with high hopes of earning its first ever trip to the NCAA Tournament. After tonight's nerve-wracking 75-73 loss to No. 10 Ohio State, Northwestern will likely once again find itself on the outside (of the Tournament field) looking in.

If ever there was such thing as a "must win" game, tonight's contest with Ohio State represented that for Northwestern. The Wildcats came into the game clinging precariously to the NCAA Tournament "bubble." When the game tipped off, they had a 17-11 overall record, with a 7-11 record in the rugged Big Ten. The main credential on Northwestern's NCAA Tournament resume was an impressive mid January win over then-No. 6 ranked Michigan State. But after that, the Northwestern resume was a bit thin: their only other "big" win was an early February win at Illinois.

That's why tonight's home finale against Ohio State was so big. With an upset over the No. 10 Buckeyes, Northwestern would have had two signature wins over opponents ranked in the top ten of the AP Top 25. Even with a win, Northwestern still probably would have needed to beat Iowa this weekend and win a game in the Big Ten Tournament to get into the NCAA Tournament. But a late-season upset win over Ohio State would have made Northwestern's case for receiving a bid to the NCAA Tournament considerably more credible.

That's also why Jared Sullinger's tie-breaking and game-winning turnaround bank shot with 3.1 seconds was so crushing. The Wildcats overcame a 13 point defecit late in the second half to tie the Buckeyes in the game's final seconds. Momentum was on the 'Cats' side and they were that close to taking the game into overtime (at home, no less -- overtime is usually kind to the home team); Sullinger's game-winner was dagger that probably ended whatever chance Northwestern had of making its first appearance at the "Big Dance."

However dispiriting tonight's loss may be for the Northwestern basketball program and its fans, a brief look back at the road that led Northwestern to the NCAA Tournament "bubble" provides some needed perspective. Overall, Northwestern basketball is a success story. The once-perpetually moribund Wildcat basketball program has slowly and quietly become a legitimate second-tier competitor in the Big Ten conference. Head coach Bill Carmody was originally hired away from Princeton in 2000 to install the famed "Princeton offense" at Northwestern, and thus, give the ever-undermanned Wildcats at least a fighting chance to a "hang" with their athletically superior Big Ten rivals. In recent years, however, Carmody has been able to attract significantly better players to the highly-selective Evanston, Ill., school. As a result, the Wildcats have gotten a lot better: they've made three straight N.I.T. appearances, and they put together back-to-back 20 win seasons in 2010 and 2011.

The one big thing they haven't done yet, though, is make it to the NCAA Tournament.

All the gradual improvement of the Carmody era has been great (however deliberate and plodding the Wildcats' style of basketball may be), but Northwestern basketball won't have officially turned the corner and won't officially be on the college basketball "map" until the Wildcats take the floor in the NCAA Tournament. Things, however, looked quite promising prior to the start of the 2011-2012 season: with what the "experts" expected to be a "weak" Big Ten (how wrong they were!); with the attendant expected "wide open" open Big Ten race; and with four returning starters coming into 2012 -- including leading scorer John Shurna -- 2012 was supposed to be the year.

Obviously, things didn't exactly work out as expected. The Big Ten turned out to be the strongest conference in Division I college basketball. Outside of Penn State and Nebraska, every Big Ten team has, at various points in the season, looked like a potential NCAA Tournament invitee. Northwestern had an easy non-conference schedule and subsequently raced out to a 10-2 non-conference record (which included wins against LSU, Seton Hall and Georgia Tech). But the rough-and-tumble Big Ten brought the Wildcats back to Earth a bit, and despite the aforementioned impressive wins over then-No. 6 ranked Michigan State and at Illinois, Northwestern limped into tonight's home finale against Ohio State with a 7-9 conference record and in desperate need of a win to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive.

They're now 17-12 overall, 7-10 in the Big Ten. And barring some "bat out of Hell" run in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament, Jared Sullinger's game winning shot likely relegated them to their fourth consecutive N.I.T.

(Photo: Jared Sullinger game-winning shot, courtesy of Lake the Posts).

Ohio State Finishes Regular Season Ranked Atop AP Top 25

The men's college basketball regular season concluded this weekend. The Final AP Top 25 rankings for the regular season were released today. Ohio State finished the regular season by retaking the No. 1 ranking. The Buckeyes now head into this week's Big Ten tournament with a figurative target on their backs. Somehow however, we don't expect that to be a problem for Coach Thad Matta's team. We'd be surprised if they don't take home the Big Ten tournament title.

Kansas is ranked No. 2. Pittsburgh, Notre Dame and Duke round out the top five.

Drive and Dish doesn't expect to see many huge upsets involving top 10 teams in the conference tournaments this week, but we wouldn't be terribly surprised if a highly-seeded team or two gets upset in the Big East Tournament. Pitt and Notre Dame are the obvious favorites, but teams like Louisville, Connecticut, St. John's and West Virginia could be dangerous.

Ohio State is easily the class of the Big Ten. Purdue might be able to give them a scare in the Big Ten tournament, but OSU is the clear favorite.

Kansas is the obvious favorite in the Big 12 tournament. But Texas and Kansas State have the horses to deny Coach Bill Self's Jayhawks access to their presumed throne. It should be noted, however, that Drive and Dish always advises against picking Texas in the post season. We've said it again and again over the years, but Coach Rick Barnes' teams just aren't put together to win championships, despite their ever-impressive scores on the proverbial "eye test."

Finally, we expect North Carolina to beat Duke in the ACC tournament final. North Carolina is a young team that's surging at the right time. They enter the conference tournament with perhaps more momentum than any other team in the country. Although they struggled quite a bit early in the season, Coach Roy Williams' Tar Heels should be seen as a strong Final Four contender again this year.

AP Top 25
RK	TEAM	RECORD	PTS
1	Ohio State (52)	29-2	1,612
2	Kansas (13)	29-2	1,569
3	Pittsburgh	27-4	1,493
4	Notre Dame	25-5	1,416
5	Duke	27-4	1,265
6	North Carolina	24-6	1,209
7	San Diego State	29-2	1,197
8	Brigham Young	28-3	1,187
9	Purdue	25-6	1,108
10	Texas	25-6	1,081
11	Syracuse	25-6	984
12	Florida	24-6	931
13	Wisconsin	23-7	870
14	Louisville	23-8	794
15	Kentucky	22-8	639
16	Arizona	25-6	562
17	St. John's	20-10	462
18	Xavier	24-6	437
19	Kansas State	22-9	345
20	West Virginia	20-10	294
21	Connecticut	21-9	281
22	Georgetown	21-9	244
23	Utah State	28-3	234
24	Temple	24-6	209
25	Cincinnati	24-7	202

• Others receiving votes: Texas A&M 177, Vanderbilt 101, Villanova 64, UCLA 40, UNLV 29, Missouri 22, George Mason 12, Old Dominion 11, Alabama 10, Belmont 9, Butler 9, Gonzaga 6, Saint Mary's 4, Virginia Commonwealth 3, UAB 2, Harvard 1

• Dropped from rankings: Villanova 19, Vanderbilt 21, Missouri 22, Texas A&M 24

Last Remaining Undefeated Team Falls: Wisconsin Upends Ohio State's Hopes For Perfect Season

(Reuters photo: Wisconsin's Jordan Taylor [Left] and Jon Leuer [Right] celebrate their win over No. 1 Ohio State).



No. 1 ranked Ohio State was undefeated when they entered the Kohl Center in Madison, WI, for their Saturday afternoon game against No. 13 Wisconsin. But the Buckeyes exited the Kohl Center with their hopes of an undefeated season dashed after they were upset by Wisconsin 71-67. Wisconsin junior point guard Jordan Taylor scored 21 of his 27 points and dished out 4 assists in the final 13 minutes of the game, as he and the Badgers overcome a 15 point Ohio State lead en route to victory.

Ohio State will drop from No. 1 when the new AP Top 25 is released on Monday. Current No. 2 Kansas will, undoubtedly, overtake the No. 1 position. But Ohio State will be just fine. No one really expected them to finish the season with an undefeated record. As Drive and Dish opined when the previously undefeated and No. 1 ranked Duke Blue Devils lost their first game of the season in January, nobody goes undefeated in college basketball today. Bob Knight's 1976 Indiana Hoosiers delivered the last undefeated season in men's college basketball. In the ensuing 35 years, nobody else has finished the season with an unblemished record. And it's extremely unlikely that anybody will do so anytime soon, if ever.

The loss will have no bearing on Ohio State's prospects for earning a trip to the 2011 Final Four and a shot at the 2011 National Championship. They still must be considered legitimate contenders for both honors. However, it bears mention that teams which rely heavily on freshmen rarely win Championships--especially teams that start a freshman at point guard. And despite the leadership of talented upperclassmen David Lighty, William Buford and Jon Diebler, coach Thad Matta's Buckeyes are led freshman superstar center Jared Sullinger and start freshman Aaron Craft at point guard.

Drive and Dish considers the 2011 Ohio State Buckeyes to be the most talented, best balanced team in college basketball. But they face an uphill battle in their quest to reach the Final Four, if for no other reason than their heavy reliance on freshmen at the key positions of center and point guard. Jared Sullinger might be the best player in the college game, but he's still a freshman (despite the fact that he doesn't play like one). At some point in the NCAA Tournament, his inexperience--as well as the inexperience of freshman point guard Craft--is likely to catch up with the Buckeyes.

So who do we expect to win the 2011 National Championship? It's still too early to answer that question, or to even identify a short-list of likely teams. It's been one of those rare seasons in college basketball in which no team has distinguished itself as a favorite. Defending National Champion Duke still probably has to be considered the team to beat, despite the fact that the Blue Devils have lost several key players from their 2010 Championship team. But there's lots of room for an upstart to take the college basketball world by storm. Can Ohio State be that team? Possibly, but Buckeye fans shouldn't hold their collective breath waiting for that to happen. No freshman has taken his team to an NCAA men's basketball title since Carmello Anthony directed Syracuse to the 2003 Championship. And Anthony was a noteworthy exception to an otherwise near-ironclad rule: prior to 2003, Louisville's Purvis Ellison had been the last freshman to lead his team to a National Championship (1986). Michael Jordan famously hit the game-winning shot as a freshman for North Carolina in the 1982 National Championship game, but the young Jordan was far from the leader of his team--upperclassmen James Worthy, Sam Perkins and Matt Daugherty led the '82 Tar Heels.

Ohio State is very talented and should be considered extremely dangerous with regard to their potential for making a run deep into the NCAA Tournament. But the odds are still against them cutting down the nets in April.

Illinois: On the Bubble Again

(Photo: Indiana players celebrate Thursday's upset win over No. 20 Illinois: Darron Cummings, Champaign [IL] News-Gazette)


It's become a familiar refrain here at Drive and Dish, but we gave serious consideration to using this blog to predict an Indiana upset over No. 20 Illinois yesterday. Unfortunately, yesterday's beginning-to-end, tightly-packed schedule didn't permit us the time required to write a coherent, quality blog post. But we thought that last night's game looked to be an obvious "trap game" for the always mercurial Fighting Illini: Illinois was coming off a hard-fought, nail-biting, nationally-televised home loss to to No. 1 Ohio State and was expected to make amends by rolling over an injury-riddled, last-place opponent on the road.

As long as the sun comes up in the east, Bruce Weber's Illini can be expected to follow up a heart-breaking loss in which they "choke" at the end of a nationally-televised "big game" against a highly ranked opponent (Illinois' usual "big game" result), with an unforeseen, almost laughable, quickie loss to a lower-regarded opponent. Such "let down" losses are usually the result of Illinois' players overlooking their supposedly "inferior" opponents, and accordingly, forgetting to "show up."

If you're a smart gambler, you always bet against Illinois.

And once again, it's too bad we didn't get the chance to make our prediction, because, true to form, No. 20 Illinois suffered a humiliating 52-49 road loss to struggling Indiana Thursday night in Bloomington, IN.

With the upset win, the Hoosiers notched their mere seventh Big Ten conference win -- and their first win over an opponent ranked in the AP Top 25 -- since Tom Crean became head coach of the once-great, but recently-moribund program three years ago. Making matters worse for Illinois was the fact that the depleted Hoosiers were without both of their starting guards, Verdell Jones and Maurice Creek.

Illinois' record now drops to 14-7 overall, and to an eye-opening 4-4 in Big Ten play. Indiana improved to a meager 11-10 overall, and 2-6 in the Big Ten. What makes Illinois' most recent letdown loss all the more galling for Illini fans is the fact that, once again, Illinois has failed to live up to lofty preseason expectations. Most analysts had expected the upperclassmen-laden Illini to compete for the 2011 Big Ten conference title and to be a major player in the NCAA Tournament in March. But now with the Big Ten title out of reach, Illinois finds itself in an all-too-familiar place -- sitting directly atop the NCAA Tournament bubble.

College basketball fans may remember that Illinois was widely expected to do big things last year. However, the 2009-2010 team spent the season with a figurative ball and chain affixed to an ankle after it sauntered its way into back-to-back embarrassing upset losses at the hands of Utah and Bradley in the 2009 Las Vegas Invitational Thanksgiving Tournament. Despite high preseason expectations, the 2010 Illini muddled their way through what turned out to be a challenging schedule, and limped into the final week of the season as one of the most high profile teams on the proverbial NCAA Tournament "bubble." Ultimately, the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee left Illinois out of the Tournament field, and the Illini ended their disappointing 2010 season with an ugly home loss to Dayton in the N.I.T.

This season was supposed to be different. Heading into the inaugural 2010-2011 tip-off, Illinois looked good on paper. First, they had the distinction of being the tallest team in college basketball. Their roster had two players who stood at least seven feet tall, and they had a returning starting front line that went 7'1", 6'9" and 6'9," respectively. Second, Illinois featured a promising coterie of experienced upperclassman, talented sophomores and highly-touted freshmen from the much-hyped 2010 Illini recruiting class. But perhaps most importantly, Illinois entered the season with the ace-in the-hole of being led by a standout senior point guard, Demetri McCamey. And that seemed to bode extremely well for the Illini, since point guards are the lifeblood of college basketball. Want to look like a genius when filling out your NCAA Tournament bracket? Pick teams that are led by tough, experienced, standout point guards. Your brackets will thank you.

Unfortunately for Illinois, all their size, talent (or purported talent) and experience hasn't been enough to turn their fortunes around from last year. First team All Big Ten senior point guard Demetri McCamey, senior power forward Mike Davis, senior center Mike Tisdale and senior forward Bill Cole have loads of experience, but they have yet to exhibit consistent toughness, intensity, competitiveness and determination to win. That amounts to a lack of leadership. And it shows in the results, as the Illini are quickly spiraling their way out of being in legitimate NCAA Tournament contention.

This past Saturday, llinois gave undefeated, No. 1 Ohio State all it could handle in the friendly confines (for the Illini--not so friendly for visiting teams) of Assembly Hall in Champaign, IL. But predictably, Ohio State's much-vaunted inside game, led by super freshman Jared Sullinger, wore the Illini down late in the game. And ultimately, the Illini came up short of pulling off an upset win over the No. 1 team in college basketball. That wouldn't have been a problem for Illinois if the Illini had come out of Bloomington, IN, with a "W" last night (as they were supposed to do). Close losses to good teams don't hurt you in the eyes of the Tournament Selection Committee when you've got a good record, you have plenty of impressive wins over good teams, you have a string of road wins, and you win the games that you're supposed to win. But close losses to good teams won't help you get you into the NCAA Tournament when you're bogged down with multiple embarrassing losses to bad teams, when you don't win games on the road (Illinois is currently 1-3 on the road), and when you fall to teams that you're supposed to beat.

Illinois was supposed to be good this year. But once again, they've failed to live up to expectations. And once again, they're in big trouble with regard to their prospects for making it in to the NCAA Tournament.

Ohio State Wins N.I.T.

One year removed from playing Florida for the National Championship, Ohio State beat UMass 92-85 to win the 2008 N.I.T.

The Buckeyes (24-13) struggled at times during the 2007-'08 season. Coach Thad Matta had to find a way to replace the production of the three freshman stars from the '07 team who left school early for the NBA Draft: center Greg Oden, point guard Mike Conley and guard Daquan Cook.

The result was an up and down season for the Buckeyes in '08. But they finished the season strong and headed into the Big Ten Tournament with a head of steam. However, despite their strong finish, Ohio State was left out of the NCAA Tournament.

So they accepted an invitation to the N.I.T.

And they made the most of that opportunity.

After winning last night's N.I.T. Championship, Head Coach Thad Matta said:

“We knew there were going to be growing pains as we went through the season, especially with the schedule we were going to play. To watch them come together and jell and play team basketball, I’m very, very proud of them and it’s very gratifying. I think it says a lot about our program and the job that these kids have done.”

Congratulations to Coach Matta and to Ohio State.

Buckin' On Up!

By Mark Buckets (Not Buck-eyes)

As my colleague has stated in a previous post, this blog is all about basketball, so we usually just talk about - guess what - basketball. Rarely do we delve into the world of college football.

But while studying online game film and scouring morning editions of newspapers across the nation, an HBO program documenting the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry that was beaming on my television caught my eye. So I turned off the projector and turned my attention to the tube.

As a Duke fan, I know a few things about integral rivalries.

However, there is nothing - I'll say it again - NOTHING like the Michigan-Ohio State game.

From Bo's arrival to Woody's upheaval, there isn't a rivalry in sports that matches the punch-by-punch storylines that "The Big Game" offers.

For a Duke supporter, this might come across as sacrilege. But not even the Duke - North Carolina rivalry in basketball can compare to Michigan - Ohio State football rivalry. I know, you may be thinking, "who forms an opinion on a rivalry based off of an HBO documentary?"

I am from the midwest, so I didn't need a documentary to educate me as to the importance of this game. Michigan - Ohio State is as big as it gets. Sure, a few folks in the state of Alabama might object to that, but there's a general understanding that this is must-see live theater. And even with the litany of intriguing storylineson the field, there are equally as many off of it.

This long-standing rivalry isn't simply all about the game.

It even extends to what past graduates have done in and out of the classroom.

Names of past graduates are eye-popping. From Mike Wallace of 60 minutes (U of M class of '39), to writer R.L. Stine (OSU class of '69), these two schools alumni bases boast some of America's most influential public figures (and I didn't even get around to mentioning Michigan alum and football great Gerald Ford, who - even some Ohio State fans will know - was the 38th president of the United States).

So, as you tune into ABC at high noon on Saturday (or as they call it now, ESPN on ABC), remember that this contest is more than just a game. It sounds cliche, but this rivalry lives up to that moniker.

And after all that build up, you're probably expecting a prediction.

Well, we usually don't make predictions around here, but ...

Bucks win 31-24

Sight Seen: Ohio State Fans in the Dumps

By Trashtalk Superstar

Although this blog is about basketball, and we rarely deviate from that format, sometimes other sports (or sports related) items demand our attention. #1 Ohio State's "humiliating" gridiron upset by supposedly "lowly" Illinois didn't elicit commentary from Drive and Dish's editorial staff. But something I encountered the day after OSU's loss did.

Falling into the "you can't make this stuff up" category, the above picture is of an Ohio State hat that I found after somebody threw it away at a Chicago area health club last night - one day after #1 OSU fell (at home, no less) to unranked and unheralded Illinois. Maybe you had to be there, but when I saw the discarded red hat with the gray "O" staring at me, I couldn't help but laugh. Since it was late and I was the only person in the gym, there was nobody there with whom I could share the moment. So I took pictures and posted them here.

Unfortunately, when I found the hat, it wasn't positioned quite as perfectly as it is in the pictures. So - admittedly - I had to do some digging in the garbage to better position the hat for the sake of photographic artistry. And, while today's round of tetanus shots and vaccinations were no picnic, I got some good shots of the discarded OSU hat that I now share with the world. It'll all be worth it if even one starving child is able to forget that he's too hungry to sleep tonight ... because he got a chuckle, or two, from the Ohio State fans' collective disgust.

EDIT: (4:50pm, 11/13/07)

When I referred to OSU's "humiliating" loss to "lowly" Illinois, I used quotation marks around "humiliating" and "lowly" to imply -- subtly -- that I disagreed with the conventional wisdom (i.e. national media coverage) about this Illinois team. I probably should have been more clear.

For the record, I thought that the Illini were underrated and under appreciated going into Saturday's game. And considering the fact that Illinois gave then #1 Ohio State all it could handle the week before they were to play Michigan last year, I thought that this year's talented but young Illinois team had a decent chance of pulling the upset in Columbus. Illinois is an exciting, legitimately good football team (although they're somewhat inconsistent-- due to their overall youth). But they don't get much respect from the national media.

And after listening to ESPN and Sporting News radio for about three hours Saturday night as I drove back to Chicago from Indianapolis, I had a fairly clear picture of how many in the national media (and an awful lot of college football fans--particularly those South of the Mason Dixon line) viewed the Illinois win: the Big Ten sucks and a fraudulent Ohio State team got "exposed" and "embarrassed" by hapless Illi-freakin'-nois and their equally hapless coach, the "Zooker" (how could Ohio State lose to the "Zooker," for God's sake?).

Hence my tongue-in-cheek reference to OSU being "humiliated" by "lowly" Illinois.

To be fair, Mark May and Lou Holtz (lisp and all) did give the Illini some love on ESPN. But the guys on ESPN radio (Freddie Coleman excluded) sure didn't do the same.

So, although my use of "lowly" to describe the Illini was intended as sarcasm, my use of "unheralded" is spot on. Illinois is unheralded because they don't get much respect nationally ... yet.

And Now: An Encore Presentation of Drive and Dish

With Greg Oden forgoing his college eligibility, the editorial staff at Drive and Dish (yeah, we work on Saturdays) has decided to exhume an archived Drive & Dish post that links to an Oden parody. The piece, which parodied Oden's student athlete status, ran in the Sports Pickle about one month ago. Drive and Dish thought the Sports Pickle piece was humorous, yet felt that it wasn't necessarily fair to Oden (and yes, we're fully aware of what a sham the concept of amateurism and the "student athlete" often is in revenue producing Division I sports). But with Greg Oden's career as a "student athlete" ending after only one year (and, yes, we agree with his decision to leave school - he'll be the first pick in the NBA draft), we think he's probably fair game.

By the way, in the picture above, Greg Oden is hanging on the rim - as he does whenever he dunks. How impressive!! The dude is seven feet tall and he can dunk!! Not only can he dunk, but he can dunk really hard!! Wow!! Who knew?

Hopefully, he'll be assessed with a technical foul if he tries that in the NBA. Hanging on the rim is, after all, illegal.

BTW: considering the way the "sports entertainment league" known as the NBA operates (the star system is in force -some animals are more equal than others), we won't be holding our breaths for those "hanging on the rim" technicals.

Ohio State, UCLA Reach Final Four

In January, Ohio State played Florida in college football's National Championship game. Florida upset #1 rated OSU. Will college basketball's national championship game also feature Ohio State and Florida? As of now, it still could happen.

With their victory over Memphis today, Ohio State earned a spot in the Final Four. The Buckeyes last Final Four appearance was in 1999.

Congratulations are in order for Ohio State. They deserve to be in the Final Four.

But I don't think that Ohio State will win the National Championship. Experience wins championships. Even though Mike Conley doesn't play like a freshman, he's still a freshman point guard. Greg Oden may look like he's forty years old, but he's also a freshman. Ohio State is a year away (if Oden stays).

By the way, Oden needs to stop hanging on the rim
(as he is doing in the picture to the right and in the picture under the update in the earlier Drive and Dish post "So Wrong, Yet So Right On").


Oh yeah, and if Greg Oden wasn't already geeked up enough for today's game, Memphis center Joey Dorsey provided him ( as well as Thad Matta and the entire OSU roster, to be sure) with some prime bulletin board material. Oden was limited by foul trouble for much of the game, yet still managed seventeen points and nine rebounds. Dorsey's statements were simply ridiculous. Joey Dorsey is not smart.


Update:

In Saturday's second game, UCLA earned its second straight trip to the Final Four by defeating Kansas. Sure, there's quite a bit to say about the game, but we know what our readers want. You can find game recaps anywhere. But, since our readers are predominantly male, we'll waste no time in posting pictures of UCLA's cheerleaders (plus Aaron Afflalo and Lorenzo Mata).


UCLA cheerleaders at Saturday's UCLA
victory over Kansas.

UCLA's Aaron Aflallo

So Wrong, Yet So Right On

If you are easily offended, read no further. The following parody borders on being offensive. It may be (or may not be) unfair to Greg Oden. But, although satirical in nature, it (sadly) paints a not altogether inaccurate picture of life at an NCAA basketball (applies to football as well) factory.

Oden lightens up practice session with humor


Update:

What do you want to bet that Thad Matta wasn't so jovial in his halftime speech? Whatever adjustments he and his staff made really worked. Ohio State overcame a 20 point deficit en route to a 1 point, nail-biter win. After poor first half showings against Xavier and Tennessee, maybe OSU should stop joking around (insert groan-it's deserved-and yeah, I know, the linked article is a parody).