Gopher Basketball
| Game Info | |
| Opponent: | Ohio State Buckeyes |
| When: | 3:00 pm, February 24th, 2008 |
| Where: | Williams Arena – Minneapolis, MN |
| Television: | ESPN |
It’s senior day 2008 down at Williams on Saturday and the Gopher faithful will get their last chance to watch three players on the raised floor: career Gophers Dan “œSlee-vye” Coleman and Spencer Tollackson as well as mid-career transfer Lawrence McKenzie. Though their play has been inconsistent during the course of most of this season, I trust that there will be applause and cheers when they take the floor for the final time. I think I speak for many people when I say cheer or be silent, but don’t do anything stupid like booing these guys when they’re introduced. All season, as people (including yours truly) have become frustrated with various aspects of all three players’ games, I’ve wondered about their reception on Senior Day. I’m not implying anyone will boo, but I thought I’d give my take on it.
As always, please feel free to correct mistakes, add additional information you find interesting or post differing opinions by replying in the basketball forum.
Ohio State University, at a glance
- Ohio State is home to the “œBuckeye Bullet,” an electric car which set a world record for the fastest electric vehicle in the word on October 3, 2004 by going 271.737 mph. The car took its name from the nickname of former Olympic champion and Ohio State grad Jesse Owens.
- The school’s colors were originally chosen by three students prior to the first graduation ceremony at Ohio State in 1878. The committed first decided on orange and black, but changed their decision before filing the choice with the school after learning that they’d chosen the same colors as Princeton. They settled on the more familiar scarlet and gray.
- Ohio State’s marching band also goes by the acronym TBDBITL, or “œThe Best Damn Band in the Land.” Seriously.
- Notable OSU alums include: Ron O’Neal, star of the movie Superfly, Bruce Vilanch, musician Dwight Yoakam, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, and Urban Meyer, who’s Florida Gators embarrassed Ohio State in the national championship game in football two years ago.
A Brief History of Gopher/Buckeye basketball
The two schools played their first game on January 27, 1904. The Gophers went to Columbus and defeated the Buckeyes 31-18. The Buckeyes scored their first victory in the series almost 20 years later to the day, on January 28, 1924 by a score of 33-29. Though 20 years sounds like a long time, the only met twice between the two mentioned dates, with both games going to the Gophers.
Though they played sporadically in the early days of the series, in part because Ohio State hadn’t yet joined the conference, Minnesota and Ohio State have played 120 times, making Ohio State the 8th most played opponent in the history of Gopher basketball. The two teams have played at least once head-to-head every season since 1945-1946.
Ohio State is undeniably tied into two particularly memorable moments in Gopher history, the positive or negative nature of these moments not withstanding.
The first of these took place at Williams Arena on January 25, 1972. The two teams were playing a prototypical, old-fashioned Big 10 game, rife with physical play ““ though those that were there (I was still 11 years from being born) might be able to speak to the nature of the game more than I can from recorded accounts. Ohio State lead 50-44 with 36 seconds remaining in the second half when Ohio State center Luke Witte took a particularly hard foul on his way to the basket from Gopher Clyde Turner. While Witte lay on the floor, Minnesota’s Corky Taylor extended his hand to help Witte to his feet, but instead kneed him in the groin. The action set off a bench-clearing brawl that featured Ron Behagen coming off the Minnesota bench and kicking Witte in the head, and eventually left three Ohio State players in the hospital. Sports Illustrated called the incident “œthe most vicious attack in college basketball lore.”
Implications that race (Minnesota’s team being largely black, Ohio State’s largely white) and/or Gopher Head Coach Bill Musselman’s “œwinning is everything” attitude contributing to the altercation have been made over the years, though players, at least from the Minnesota side of the action, deny that race had anything to do with it. Witte and Taylor have since talked and Witte has forgiven those involved.
Largely stemming from this (as well as later discovered NCAA violations) Musselman was released following the season despite leading Minnesota to their first Big 10 championship in nearly 40 years.
The other moment that forever links these two basketball programs came in the wake of an equally dark day in Minnesota basketball history. Following a win against Wisconsin on January 23, 1986, the team’s third straight after losing their first three games in conference play, three Gopher players were alleged to have rape a woman in her dorm. In response, then-University President Kenneth Keller decided the team would forfeit the upcoming weekend’s game at Northwestern. Not only that, but Keller considered cancelling the remainder of the season, though he thought better of it and the Northwestern game would be the team’s only forfeit that season. I’m sure the reasons may have been more complex than this, but coach Jim Dutcher resigned over the lack of administrative support from him and his team. Assistant Jimmy Williams was promoted to coach the rest of the season, which would prove to be quite the task. Though eventually acquitted on the charges, the three Gophers players involved were dismissed from the team for violating team rules. Two additional players were also dismissed for violating team rules, and a sixth Gopher player had been ruled academically ineligible earlier in the season. For the second time (coincidentally, the first time being in 1971-1972) Minnesota basketball had a group dubbed the “œIron Five.” In this case the moniker was incredibly appropriate, as they were the only five players remaining on the Gopher roster. They were: Marc Wilson, John Shasky, Kelvin Smith, Ray Gaffney, and Tim Hanson. Williams convinced several football players to join the team and sit on the bench in case there was an emergency and the Gophers absolutely needed a fifth man. The first game following the forfeit was at the Barn on January 30, 1986 against Ohio State. Combined, the Iron Five played all but two minutes of the game and claimed a dramatic and emotional victory over the Buckeyes, 70-65. The Iron Five would repeat the performance 10 days later by defeating Iowa 65-60, running their record since the forfeit to 2-1. Unfortunately, the group was unable to continue these Herculean efforts, and would go on to lose their final eight Big 10 games.
The all-time series between Minnesota and Ohio State, if results are not altered for forfeited games is Ohio State 78-51. The official all-time series, with Clem’s games removed, is Ohio State 76-44.
Ohio State this season
Losing three players to the 1st round of the NBA draft is tough. After last year’s team made it all the way the National Championship game ““ which is Ohio State’s favorite place to lose ““ this year’s team sits solidly on the NCAA Tournament bubble by most people’s accounts.
Non-conference: The Buckeyes played a solid non-conference schedule with a mixture of cupcakes (see: Coppin State, Presbyterian, Maryland-Baltimore County) but also scheduled a couple of big games, playing Texas A&M, North Carolina, Syracuse and Florida, as well as heading to Indianapolis to play Butler and taking a break from the early portion of the Big 10 schedule to play at Tennessee. Ohio State went 9-4 overall in the non-conference, with the losses coming to A&M, UNC, Butler and Tennessee. While the game against the Volunteers was tight (74-69), the other three were double-digit losses, with A&M and Butler dropping the Buckeyes by an average of 21 points.
In-conference: Ohio State is currently sitting in 5th in the conference at 8-7, one game ahead of the Gophers. Ohio State’s conference season has gone similarly to the Gophers in many ways, as the Buckeyes have beat most of the teams they should and haven’t really upset any teams better than they are. Looking at the current standings, Ohio State is 0-5 against the four teams ahead of them, and is 8-2 against the five teams below them. Currently on a three game skid and with games remaining against Michigan State and Purdue following the upcoming game against the Gophers, the Buckeyes are one loss in Minneapolis away from possibly losing six straight to end the year.
First game versus Minnesota: A slow start in Columbus earlier this year more or less doomed the Gophers from the opening minutes. Three minutes after tip, the Buckeyes had already run up an 11-0 lead, which would stretch as far as 19-3 near the middle of the first half. The Gophers managed to get the deficit down to 10 by halftime, 35-25, but the Buckeyes never looked back from their early run. The Gophers closed the gap to three following a Jonathan Williams free throw with about 13 minutes remaining in the second half, but never got any closer than 44-41. A couple minutes later, with the score 46-42, the Buckeyes ran off eight straight points including two foul shots from Jamar Butler after Tubby Smith was called for a rare technical for arguing a travel called against Travis Busch ““ believe instead that Busch had been fouled by Jon Deibler. The run pushed the lead back to 12 and the Gophers were unable to get to within seven for the remainder of the game, eventually losing 76-60. Jamar Butler had a monster game, leading all scorers with 27. Minnesota was lead by “œSlee-vye” Coleman’s 14. Damien Johnson lead the Gophers in several statistical categories, including assists (5), steals (5), and blocks. The Gophers didn’t shoot well from the floor, hitting just 36.5%, including a woeful 6-for-22 from the three-point line, and per usual, sank only 57.1% of their free throws. The Gophers never had a lead, and the only time the game was tied was at 0-0. Let’s hope for better results this Saturday.
Ohio State is averaging 67.4 points per game this season, 7th in the Big 10. Defensively, the Buckeyes are allowing 60.4 per contest, which is 3rd in the Big 10 behind Iowa and Wisconsin.
The Buckeyes you should know
14 ““ Jamar Butler (Sr.) Guard ““ Lima, OH (Shawnee HS)
MPG 36.3 PPG 14.1 RPG 3.4 APG 6.3
-Jamar has been a tremendous free throw shooter this year. Currently, he leads the Big 10 in percentage, having hit 59-of-63, a whopping 93.7%. For his career, Jamar is 208-for-242, which is just shy of 86%. In the past two seasons, he’s missed just 12 free throws
-Jamar has struggled shooting the three over Ohio State’s last five games (1-4). He’s just 10-for-41 (24.4%) over that span
-Jamar plays a ton of minutes, perhaps more minutes than any single player the Gophers have faced this year. Jamar has played a full 40 minutes in 11 of Ohio State’s 28 games this season, including six of their last eight (the team is 3-5 over this span)
21 ““ Evan Turner (Fr.) Guard/Forward ““ Chicago, IL (St. Joseph’s HS)
MPG 25.7 PPG 8.3 RPG 4.1 APG 2.5
-Evan has had a solid freshman year, but has certainly shown growing pains in some games. This includes the team’s loss in Iowa City, where he shot just 2-for-9 and ended up fouling out
-Evan also has committed more turnovers than assists this season
-Evan has shot just 22.2% from three-point range over the last eight games, hitting 4-of-18
23 ““ David Lighty (So.) Guard/Forward ““ Cleveland, OH (Villa Angela ““ St. Joseph HS)
MPG 31.2 PPG 8.5 RPG 3.7 APG 2.3
-David has had an up-and-down season at the free throw line this year. Despite some games where he’s shot perfectly, on the season he’s 35-for-60 (58.3%)
-David is a career 29.5% three-point shooter, 33-for-112
-David really struggled earlier this season at Purdue, shooting 2-for-12 from the field, committing more turnovers than assists, and eventually fouling out after 35 minutes
31 ““ Kosta Koufos (Fr.) Forward/Center ““ Canton, OH (GlenOak HS)
MPG 27.0 PPG 13.9 RPG 7.1 APG 0.5
-Kosta has scored 10+ points in 11 straight games, including 21 points in the Buckeyes’ three-point loss to Indiana earlier this week. The 21 was the most points he’s scored in over two months, since he put up the same total against Presbyterian on December 15
-Kosta is a big man with a willingness to shoot threes. This season, he’s 16-for-51 (31.4%) shooting from outside
-Some have criticized Kosta’s game for being a bit soft. Regardless, he’s grabbing a healthy amount of rebounds, and has been blocking shots, averaging 1.9/game and having at least one in all but three games this season
-Kosta says, after graduation, he either plans to work in the business world or play professionally. The funny part of that statement, to me, is a 7-footer in the current climate of college basketball making any plans for “œafter graduation”
33 ““ Jon Diebler (Fr.) Guard ““ Upper Sandusky, OH (Upper Sandusky HS)
MPG 23.0 PPG 6.6 RPG 2.3 APG 1.1
-Jon is a streaky outside shooter, with a less than impressive season total of 42-for-143 (29.4%). He’s gone into deep funks at several times this season, including: 2-for-24 to begin his career (first five games), 0-for-7 (two games during non-conference), and 2-for-28 during an eight-game stretch in Big 10 play
-Jon needs to figure out the three-point shot to be successful, as he lives outside the arc. This season, he’s taken 143 of his 178 shots from the floor from outside, 80% of his total
-Jon has almost as many made free throws (32) as he has attempted two-point field goals (35)
-Jon beat out his current teammate Kosta Koufos last year for Ohio’s Mr. Basketball award
-Jon’s brother, Jake Diebler, plays basketball at Valparaiso
-Jon once scored 77 points in a high school game, 27 of those points coming from the free throw line
42 ““ Matt Terwilliger (Sr.) Forward/Center ““ Troy, OH (Troy HS)
MPG 15.5 PPG 3.2 RPG 2.6 APG 0.5
-Matt has not shot three-pointers well this season, hitting just 12-of-41 (29.3%). Despite not shooting well from outside, he’s still taken more than half his shots from there
-Matt has not made multiple field goals in a game in a month (last did on January 29 against Penn State). In the time since, he’s accomplished the bizarre feat of having exactly one made field goal in every game, a streak now at seven
-According to Ohio State’s website, Matt would most like to eat dinner with Jesus and Michael Jordan
-Matt’s father, John, is in the Northern Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame for his football accomplishments
45 ““ Othello Hunter (Sr.) Forward ““ Winston-Salem, NC (R.J. Reynolds HS)
MPG 26.7 PPG 9.5 RPG 6.4 APG 0.9
-Othello is 31-for-55 this year from the free throw line (56.4%)
-Othello has fouled out of two games this year, at Purdue and at Michigan
-In case you missed it above, Othello went to a high school named after R.J. Reynolds, social pariah and tobacco baron
-Othello transferred to Ohio State after playing two seasons of Juco ball at Hillsborough Community College
-Othello’s given name is Tegba Othello Hunter, Jr.
Talk about the Gopher – Ohio State matchup on Tubby’s Barn message board.