Ohio State men’s basketball notebook | Joey Lane, seniors say goodbye after emotional loss
By
Adam Jardy
The Columbus Dispatch
Posted at 3:44 AM
TULSA, Okla. – The emotion of Ohio State’s 2018-19 men’s basketball season was sitting on a foldout chair in the corner of a cramped locker room inside the BOK Center.
Not even an hour earlier, the Buckeyes had bowed out of the NCAA Tournament with a 74-59 loss to Houston in the second round of the Midwest regional. Against a quicker, faster and ultimately better team, No. 11 seed Ohio State trailed for all but 5:25 of the game and spent the entire second half trailing by at least two possessions against No. 3 seed Houston.
It was a somber scene inside the locker room. And if there was anyone who could speak to what the program had been through, what the game meant and what the future looked like, it was the longest-tenured player on the roster: walk-on Joey Lane, the only four-year member of the roster.
Red-eyed with a face largely obscured by a towel he’s waved from the end of the bench for so long, Lane had just shared a final message to his fellow members of a group that billed itself as “Team 120.”
What did he tell them?
“I told these guys, these first two years that I was here I put my heart and soul into the team and the program and really didn’t get anything in return,” he told The Dispatch, his voice wavering. “When this new coaching staff came here and these guys came here, the past two years, I didn’t change anything from my end. The fact that they listened to me and respected me and encouraged me and let me be a leader and then seeing the success this team had, I’m without words for how awesome that made me feel and how special this group of guys is.
“The truth of the matter is no one expected us to be here, and the fact that we not only got to the NCAA Tournament and got a win, got an upset, it’s a pretty cool thing for this group.”
The Buckeyes were widely projected to miss the NCAA Tournament in Chris Holtmann’s second season. Billed as a rebuilding year, there wasn’t a lot of external belief that this team would have the pieces necessary to get back into March Madness, much less to win a game.
Yet, there they were Sunday night, battling against a Houston team with three losses on the season for a chance to return to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in six years. It ended on a night where the Buckeyes couldn’t penetrate against a suffocating Cougars defense and couldn’t come up with enough stops to give themselves a chance.
It ended with Lane on the floor for the final 21 seconds. With 15 seconds left on the clock, the senior fired up the final shot of the season, a three-pointer from the right wing with a defender in his face.
It rimmed out.
“I thought it was good, too,” he said of the shot. “I thought it was short, but when it was there I thought it was going to go in. Well, whatever: I made my first three and missed my last three. That’s kind of brutal, but it happens.”
That marked one final memory on the court for a senior who had played occasional meaningful regular-season minutes for the only season in his career. The chance to close out the season was meaningful for Lane for a number of reasons, but for one in particular.
“It kept me from crying a little longer, that’s for sure,” he said with a wry smile. “To play in the NCAA tournament is every kid’s dream. While it didn’t feel like I was playing in there because it was virtually over, it was really special. Special is the word I’d use for this group of guys, for my time here.”
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