North By Northwestern
It was so suspenseful, I’m pretty sure I saw Alfred Hitchcock stroll nonchalantly past the Buckeyes bench at one point. Â Ohio State’s second game against the Wildcats looked frighteningly like its first. Â First things first, hats off to Northwestern for controlling the tempo so masterfully. Â No one else has been able to do that consistently against us all year. Â This game was tight all the way through regulation and didn’t open up until overtime, and in the end we still only won 67-61, a score that could have easily been in favor of the other guys.
Michael Thompson came back down to earth after yesterday’s record-setting day, notching just 15 in this outing, equally due to John Shurna’s re-emergence, Aaron Craft’s relentless defense, and the slow-pace strategy the ‘Cats employed so effectively. Â On the winning side, Craft racked up 17 points, Jon Diebler went for 13 on an off day from outside (but the one he hit was huge in terms of momentum), and Sullinger added 20 almost entirely from the free throw line.
Angry Nerd
The turning point in this one was undoubtedly the technical foul committed by Luka Mirkovic about halfway through the overtime period. Â After fouling Sullinger under the basket, Mirkovic was visibly agitated and either threw his mouthpiece or mimed the action. Â Either way, the B1G isn’t fond of such displays. Â Mirkovic lucked out when Buford inexplicably missed both technical shots, but the wind was out of their sails anyway. Â Sully hit on both of his for the original foul and at that point, it became obvious that the best team in the nation was going to find a way to survive this scare.
The Buckeyes take on Michigan–fresh off a late comeback from 12 down against Illinois–tomorrow at 1:40 ET.
That game took a few years off my life. It was painful to watch. The missed shots, the over-the-top physicality and no-calls. It was ugly.
Hopefully they “got that out of their system.” Had this performance happened in a week from now I don’t know if I would have made it to the end.
Seriously, that was really closer than it needed to be. I was geared up to participate in some live blog commentary, and couldn’t bring myself to do that.
Hats off to NU for taking the air out of the ball (again)but we didn’t help things by clankking shots all afternoon.
I did admire Diebs’ game sense today; he was cold from 3-point range, then changed his play to attack the bascket. Hey, points are points..
Unfortunatly that is the kind of game NW play and they are brutal to watch with their slow down Princeton type basketball. It is boring and not fun to watch. The refs were horrific. The Buckeyes diddnt shoot well. They need to play better tomorrow as scUM will be pumped up for their shot at us.