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Did Dials go the full 40 against PSU??
Ohio State Buckeyes
STARTERS M FG FT TR A PF PTS
T.*Dials, F/C 39 4-11 5-9 10 1 1 13
Wow, just wow. Per espn.com
5) Who is your choice for Big Ten player of the year?
35.1%Alando Tucker (Wisconsin)
22.6%Dee Brown (Illinois)
14.8%Paul Davis (Michigan State)
13.3%Marco Killingsworth (Indiana)
8.3%Terence Dials (Ohio State)
2.4%Greg Brunner (Iowa)
2.2%Maurice Ager (Michigan State)
1.3%Shannon Brown (Michigan State)
Total Votes: 311,598
What do you expect? It's ESPN, the Worldwide Leader in Sports. All those guys up there are quality players, but Dials is probably overlooked because he is sometimes hidden in the Buckeyes' offense. He's a very underrated player. However, we all know that he has been more than valuable to us for the whole year. Without Terrence Dials, we wouldn't have won ten fucking games.
The fact Paul Davis was ahead of him is a joke, but I do believe Alando Tucker was deserving of the award as well.
Brian Bahr/Getty Images
Ohio State's 6-9, 260-pound center, Terence Dials (34), is no longer shy about throwing his weight around under the basket. He leads the team in points, rebounds and blocks
Belittling the Big Man: It Works for the Buckeyes
To motivate Terence Dials last season, the assistant coach Dan Peters of Ohio State referred to him by the nickname Tinkerbell. It was not a compliment for a large center on a basketball team to be compared to the elusive fairy represented by a point of light in "Peter Pan."
"It was a joke thing to let me know I've got to take the ball stronger to the hole," Dials said Tuesday in a telephone interview from Columbus, Ohio.
"There were times I was falling away from the basket and not being as physical as I should be. He either wanted me to score or get the foul. I kind of laughed it off, but I started to play a lot harder and better."
Certainly Dials has played hard and well this season; he was the player of the year in the Big Ten Conference as the Buckeyes won the regular-season title. Dials led them in points and rebounds (15.3 and 8.0).
Ohio State begins the N.C.A.A. tournament Friday against Davidson in Dayton, Ohio, seeded second in the Minneapolis Regional. Although it is often said that the tournament is a guard-driven quest, the big man in the middle can be crucial.
That was evident last spring as Sean May helped North Carolina win the championship. Both Dials and his Buckeyes were overlooked in preseason predictions but won the conference championship and finished second in the league's postseason tournament. Might people be underestimating them now?
"Most definitely," Dials said. "We were kind of thrown under the bus at the beginning of the season. It still seems like it's the same way now. We're 25-5 and people don't see us going too far. We're going to continue to prove them wrong."
Born in Detroit, Dials moved to Youngstown, Ohio, at age 7 and did not play basketball until the seventh grade. His progress was delayed in high school by a knee injury and in college by a back injury. His coaches also urged him to lose weight; he is now 6 feet 9 and 260 pounds.
Although known to scouts and coaches, Dials had a relatively low profile until recently among fans and the news media. But Thad Matta, the Ohio State coach, said he did not think Dials would catch anyone by surprise in the tournament.
"With television today, you're seen so many times, I think people have a pretty good feel for what he's going to do and how he's going to do it," Matta said. "The thing I love about Terence is he loves to play in big games, and these are going to be big games."
One of the big games in last weekend's conference tournament in Indianapolis pitted Dials against Marco Killingsworth of Indiana in the semifinals. Killingsworth is 6-8 and 268 pounds. Like Dials, he is also a senior, and their fierce individual match was a game within a game.
Dials outscored Killingsworth, 13-10, but Killingsworth had the edge in rebounds, 10-6. In the last few seconds, Killingsworth missed a left-handed hook over Dials, a shot that could have won the game. Ohio State prevailed, 52-51. Neither player fouled out, although the contact between them was intense, as was an early verbal exchange.
"Both of us are big and I was talking to him," Killingsworth said. "Most guys he plays against are skinnier than him. He goes through the same stuff I go through. But when we play against each other, we just bang, just fight each other."
Killingsworth missed 13 of his 18 field-goal attempts. Dials was asked whether he taunted Killingsworth to bait him into forcing unwise shots when Dials bumped him away from the basket.
"I blocked a few of his shots early on and kind of got in his head a little bit," Dials said. "We were jawing and it kind of snowballed. With a guy like that, you just want to make him respect you as a defender. I think I did that."
Other Big Ten big men discussed what it was like to play against Dials, who runs the floor fairly well and excels on offense and defense. Jamelle Cornley of Penn State said Dials "could tire you out" and that his foes had to be mentally tough.
Paul Davis of Michigan State said Dials was getting more recognition now because of his team's success. "When you win, people see you and your development," Davis said.
Peters, the Ohio State assistant coach who has helped spur Dials's development, said Dials had improved his defense. In addition, Peters said, Dials takes coaching well, studies film diligently and controls his emotions.
"He keeps his head and doesn't take things personally," Peters said.
Apparently, this also applies to unflattering nicknames.
"Last year, I used to say, 'Tinkerbell showed up today,' " Peters said. "I haven't used the term all this year."