• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

Men's Basketball Buckeye Tidbits 2005-2006 Season

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sort by date Sort by votes
ohiostatebuckeyes.com

3/7/06

Matta Earns USBWA Award


Dials, Foster Earn District V recognition as well


COLUMBUS, Ohio - Thad Matta, Ohio State head men's basketball coach, was selected as the United States Basketball Writers Association District V Coach of the Year, the organization announced Tuesday.

Ohio State seniors Terence Dials and Je'Kel Foster also were selected to the All-District V Team. Student-athletes and coaches from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin are eligible in District V.

Matta was named earlier in the day as the 2006 Big Ten Coach of the Year.

Dials, a Youngstown, Ohio, native, was named 2006 Big Ten Player of the Year and to the All-Big Ten First Team. Foster (Natchez, Miss./Natchez) made the All-Big Ten second team (coaches) and was a third team honoree on the media ballot.

The Buckeyes (23-4) are the No. 1 seed in the 2006 Big Ten Tournament this week in Indianapolis. Ohio State, the outright Big Ten champions in regular-season play, open the conference tournament at noon Friday vs. either No. 8 seed Penn State or No. 9 seed Northwestern. The game will be televised nationally by ESPN.
USBWA 2005-06 MEN'S ALL-DISTRICT V TEAM

DISTRICT V (OH, IN, IL, MI, MN, WI)
Player of the Year

Dee Brown, IllinoisG6-0185Sr.Maywood, Ill.
All-District Team
Maurice Ager, Michigan StateG6-5202Sr.Detroit, Mich.
Shannon Brown, Michigan StateG6-4205Jr.Maywood, Ill.
Paul Davis, Michigan StateC6-11270Sr.Rochester, Mich.
Terence Dials, Ohio StateF/C6-9260Sr.Youngstown, Ohio
Je'Kel Foster, Ohio StateG6-3210Sr.Natchez, Miss.
Eric Hicks, CincinnatiF6-6245Sr.Greensboro, N.C.
Daniel Horton, MichiganG6-3205Sr.Cedar Hill, Texas
Steve Novak, MarquetteF6-10220Sr.Brown Deer, Wis.
Alando Tucker, WisconsinF6-5205Jr.Lockport, Ill.

Coach of the YearThad Matta, Ohio State
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
Dispatch

3/8/06

Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Ar0320900.gif
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
DDN

3/10/06

Buckeyes bidding for tourney title, NCAA No. 1 seed

By Doug Harris
Dayton Daily News

Ohio State will begin Big Ten tournament play today in Indianapolis with the goal of bringing home more than just another twinkling trophy to place beside the prize for its regular-season crown.

Coach Thad Matta said he believes his team would become worthy of the lone No. 1 seed in the NCAA tourney still up for grabs — Duke, UConn and Villanova are virtual locks — by sweeping three games in three days.

But while many bracketologists favor Memphis for the final slot, ESPN's Dick Vitale said the Buckeyes will get the nod as long as they survive their quarterfinal meeting with Penn State at noon today.

"I really believe Thad Matta and his kids, if they make it to at least the semifinals, will end up as a No. 1 seed," he said Tuesday in Dayton. "You can look at Memphis, but I give the edge to Ohio State (because) winning the regular-season title in the Big Ten shows you have durability."

But the Buckeyes may end up making a hasty exit unless they regain their shooting form.

They've made just 25 percent of their 3-point attempts in the past six games — including a season-worst 2-for-17 Sunday against Purdue — after connecting at a torrid 42.3 percent clip in their first 21 outings.

With their perimeter players getting few breathers, tired legs could be the culprit. But having already reduced practices to 90 minutes in recent weeks, Matta has no intention of trimming them any more.

"It's a fine line because you want to stay fresh," he said, "but you don't want to lose your competitive nature."

Contact Doug Harris at 225-2125.
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
NO. 9 OHIO STATE 76 | PURDUE 57
Crowning achievement
Men’s basketball joins OSU women, football as Big Ten champions
Monday, March 06, 2006
Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
20060306-Pc-D1-0500.jpg
</IMG> NEAL C . LAURON | DISPATCH PHOTOS Ohio State’s Je’Kel Foster relishes the moment during the Big Ten championship trophy presentation in Value City Arena.

If they didn’t see the games Saturday, they surely saw the results.
Duke lost at home in its final game of the regular season. So did Michigan State. So did Michigan.
"I found myself feeling bad for those guys, guys who have had such great careers, then they go and lose on Senior Day," Matt Sylvester said.
Just in case Sylvester was the only member of the Ohio State men’s basketball team on whom it dawned, coach Thad Matta made a point to mention it before the game against Purdue yesterday in Value City Arena.
"He just reminded us of how bad a feeling that must be," Sylvester said. "It really opened our eyes, like, ‘This is a game we have to get.’ "
The Buckeyes awakened slowly but eventually did get it, trophy and all. Four points ahead of the last-place Boilermakers at halftime, OSU started the second half with a 14-2 run. Then it was just a matter of time before the Buckeyes finished off a 76-57 victory and celebrated the program’s first undisputed Big Ten championship in 14 years.
"It was a good day to be a Buckeye," J.J. Sullinger said. "It was an even better day to be a senior."
The victory gives Ohio State Big Ten championships in men’s basketball, women’s basketball and football in the same school year — a conference first.
The seniors — Sullinger, Sylvester, Terence Dials and Je’Kel Foster — made their last game in Value City Arena an afternoon to remember for a sellout crowd, the fourth in a row at home for a team that captured the fans’ fancy by winning eight of their last nine Big Ten games to claim an improbable title.
Ninth-ranked Ohio State (23-4, 12-4), picked in preseason to finish in the middle of the conference, instead finished one game ahead of Illinois and Iowa and claimed the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament this week in Indianapolis. The Buckeyes play at noon Friday against the winner of a firstround game Thursday between Penn State and Northwestern.
"Being the champion of the No. 1 conference in the country (in the Rating Percentage Index) says a lot," Sullinger said. "We should take a lot of pride in that but also know we’ve got a lot more basketball to play and we can’t be content, can’t be satisfied."
Dials led the Buckeyes with 20 points, Sullinger had 16 points and eight rebounds, and Jamar Butler had 15 points and five assists.
Foster continued to struggle with his shot — 2 of 15 from the field, including 1 of 9 behind the three-point arc — but it didn’t matter. He had eight rebounds, five assists and five steals and established an energy level on defense that took the game from Purdue (9-18, 3-13) in the first five minutes of the second half.
"He didn’t shoot the ball well, but he probably played one of the best defensive games I’ve seen him play all year," Matta said. "That becomes contagious."
Purdue had five turnovers on its first seven possessions of the half and a 35-31 Ohio State lead became 49-33. The margin was not less than 12 points after that.
Gary Ware led the Boilermakers with 25 points.
Ohio State, which had clinched a share of the title by winning at Northwestern on Wednesday, won it outright for the first time since 1992 and for only the second time since 1971.
The Buckeyes’ last championship had been in 2002, when it finished in a four-way tie for first place. That was Dials’ freshman year. Since then, he has endured a stress fracture in his back, a losing season, the firing of former coach Jim O’Brien, and the pain of an NCAA investigation that resulted in the university banning the team from the NCAA Tournament last year, when it finished 20-12.
"It’s a joyous moment right now (considering) all the things not just myself but the program have been through," Dials said. "To be back on top of the Big Ten is a special moment."
[email protected]
Click to expand...

This only deals with the Big-10. I know I saw a graphic somewhere that showed UTah and BYu as the only others, but I'll damned if I can remember where.
 
Upvote 0
Dispatch

3/11/06

Now team knows its fate, and the relief feels really good

Saturday, March 11, 2006

BOB HUNTER


20060311-Pc-E1-0900.jpg
</IMG>


INDIANAPOLIS — It could be one of the great days in the basketball history of Ohio State.

Three years’ probation. Public reprimand and censure. A reduction in the number of basketball recruiting visits. Repayment of approximately $800,000 in tournament money.

Woo-hoo! Give me some skin, man. Release those balloons. Break out the champagne. Anybody got an air horn or some confetti? How high is high?

Uh, sorry, maybe that’s a little too much sarcasm. It just seems strange to see so much jubilation over so many penalties. Besides, this is one case where sarcasm might actually come disguised as truth.

Silly as I feel writing this, yesterday was a good day for the men’s basketball program. Maybe this is how OSU president Gordon Gee felt when he declared the Buckeyes’ 13-13 tie with Michigan in 1992 as "one of our greatest wins ever." You knew what he meant; it just seemed positively ludicrous.

So here we are, almost like watching a lawbreaker who thought he might have to spend five years in jail do back flips over a $10,000 fine and court costs. The NCAA slapped Ohio State with sanctions, but it was good news — check that, great news — for the men’s basketball program. It was better news than anything that can happen to the Buckeyes here at the Big Ten tournament, including hoisting the championship trophy Sunday.

The story isn’t the penalties, but that the dark cloud that has rained on OSU coach Thad Matta and his players for the past two years has finally moved on.

This beleaguered team, the one that defeated Penn State 63-56 yesterday in the tournament quarterfinals, the one ranked seventh nationally and the undisputed regular-season Big Ten champion, has been cleared to play in the NCAA Tournament next week. Next year’s team, and all subsequent law-abiding OSU teams, will be permitted to play in future tournaments.

Next year’s star-studded recruiting class, ranked among the top two by nearly every recruiting service, is now definitely committed to OSU, and so is Matta, or so he says.

"Today’s a great day for us because today is the first day in 18, 19 months where we actually know where we are," Matta said. "As much as we speculated, as much as we thought it through and did the case studies and all those things, it finally came to an end today, and now we know and now we move forward."

The Buckeyes have been moving forward at light speed in the two years Matta has been coach, but all of that might have ended abruptly if the punishments handed down by the NCAA had been more severe.

Had the Buckeyes been declared ineligible for the 2007 tournament, the recruits could have walked. And if the recruits had walked, Matta might have walked. Such a scenario might have sent the program spinning all the way back to the days of Harold Olsen.

But the program isn’t going backward. It isn’t even facing that way.

Yesterday, Matta nodded when he asked if he was "committed" to coaching OSU next year.

"That’s been the plan all along," he said. "The one thing I have to be careful about — and (OSU athletics director) Gene (Smith) and I just talked about it — contractually, I can’t say anything. But I can say this: In July of ’04, we came to Ohio State and we had a vision for this program, and this vision is to get Ohio State back, to build this into one of the greatest programs in college basketball."

An ironclad guarantee? Hardly. But it does bring out that checklist for another look: Greg Oden and the boys are on their way to Columbus.

Terence Dials and the men are on their way to the NCAA Tournament.

Matta isn’t on his way anywhere. How long has it been since the OSU basketball program has experienced a better day than this?

Bob Hunter is a sports columnist for The Dispatch.
[email protected]
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
Dispatch

3/11/06

Recruits relieved OSU didn’t receive postseason ban from NCAA

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH




INDIANAPOLIS — Relief was the emotion yesterday of those who would have been affected had the NCAA again banned the Ohio State men’s basketball program from the NCAA Tournament, either this year or next.

Greg Oden was relieved for more reasons than one.

"This means we can go on with interviews without having to answer that question about worrying about the sanctions," Oden, the 7-foot centerpiece of Ohio State’s 2006 recruiting class, told The Indianapolis Star hours after the announcement was made.

By not banning the Buckeyes from the 2007 NCAA Tournament, the NCAA infractions committee sealed Ohio State’s deal with Oden and the four other members of the "Thad Five" recruiting class: Mike Conley Jr., his high-school teammate from Indianapolis; Daequan Cook of Dayton Dunbar; David Lighty of Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph, and Othello Hunter of Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Fla.

When they signed binding letters of intent in November, coach Thad Matta gave them signed guarantees that each could be released from his commitment if the Buckeyes were banned from the tournament in 2007.

"I’m happy it’s over and they can move on without worrying about it," Oden said. "Hopefully, their postseason will be really great."

Oden and Conley play today in the Indiana highschool tournament across town from the Buckeyes, who face Indiana in a Big Ten tournament semifinal in Conseco Fieldhouse.

"It’s a huge relief," Conley told The Star. "A lot of pressure is off us.

Thinking about that has taken up a lot of time off the court. Now it feels good just to concentrate on the high-school tournament."

Dayton Dunbar assistant coach Al Powell, who also coaches Cook, Oden and Conley on an AAU team, said Cook was "ecstatic" about the decision.

"He’s glad the university can put everything behind it and that the recruits aren’t going to be punished. He can’t wait to get started.

"At one point, I think the kids were a little concerned. But all along, Daequan was pretty sure he was going to Ohio State whether there were any sanctions or not. We really didn’t have a Plan B."

Matta told his current team of the decision shortly before the Buckeyes played Penn State in a tournament quarterfinal.

"It was a great reaction, especially for our seniors because they’ve been working hard and working very hard in the locker room getting us ready for every game. It’s very good for them," junior Ron Lewis said.

"It means a lot to us and it means a lot to the future of the program. We have something to look forward to."

Sophomore Jamar Butler said "a lot of stress got taken away."

"You try to think positive, like nothing’s going to happen, but in the back of your mind you just never know what the NCAA’s going to come out with," Butler said. "I love the decision they made. Now we can just concentrate on playing."

Bill Rabinowitz contributed to this story.

[email protected]
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top