The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary » Tom Izzo

Ohio State Advances to Championship Game, Defeats MSU 61-58

Eric — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 22:26:41 +0000

The Buckeyes and Spartans faced off in a rubber match in the semi-finals of the Big Ten Tournament to decide who would face Wisconsin for the Championship. Ohio State pulled away at the end to win 61-58 after a hard fought battle for both teams. Aaron Craft led all scorers with 20 points, and was joined by DeShaun Thomas’s 16 in leading the Buckeyes. Michigan State responded with Derrick Nix (17), Keith Appling (16), and Adreian Payne (12) all scoring in double figures.

Despite starting their previous games sluggishly, both Michigan State and Ohio State came out attacking on defense in this one. Early on, it clearly favored the Spartans, as OSU struggled to find clean looks inside, and DeShaun Thomas couldn’t find his shot from the outside. Eventually, the Bucks began to open it up down low with some great play from Craft and Evan Ravenel. That freed up … [Read More]

BBN B1G Tournament LiveBlog: Michigan State

Eric — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 19:30:40 +0000

OSU and MSU are meeting up for the rubber match in the B1G Tournament Semifinals today. This is also a rematch of sorts of last year’s B1G Tournament Championship game that ended up going MSU’s way – the only B1G tournament loss OSU has suffered since before the 2010 season.

Join us and The Buckeye Blog, Buckeye Empire, Men of the Scarlet and Gray, and Buckeye Ninja as we cheer on the Buckeyes in tournament time!

Today’s game is scheduled for 4:10 PM EST on CBS. The LiveBlog is scheduled to start 15 minutes before tip.

Go Bucks!

Ohio State vs Michigan State – Big Ten Tournament… [Read More]

Breakdownability, BTT Edition: OSU vs MSU

Ken — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:32:46 +0000

School: Michigan State University

Location: East Lansing, MI

Founded: 1855

Student Population: 47,954 total, 36,675 undergrad

School Type: Public

Stadium: Breslin Center

Seating: 16,000

Opened: 1989

Head Coach: Tom Izzo

Experience: 18th year

I’m not going to spend copious time and effort previewing this game. The 10th ranked Buckeyes (23-7, 13-5) and the 8th ranked Spartans (24-7, 13-5) will meet in the Conference semifinal, after splitting their two regular season games. More recently, OSU downed MSU 68-60; here’s the preview to that game, and here’s the recap. I link to that game because Ohio State won, and I’m sure we’d like to see that happen on Saturday.

Nonetheless, here we are, March, Tom Izzo’s time of year. Ohio State can expect to run into the usual stout defense and brutal rebounding. Other than the 13-point loss to Minnesota, MSU’s other six losses have been by 8 points or less. The … [Read More]

Ohio State Upends Spartans 68-60 In Columbus

Eric — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 23:22:27 +0000

The Spartans and Buckeyes played yet another late season game for the ages. Despite not coming down to a last second shot, the Buckeyes still needed to hold on late to secure the 68-60 victory. Aaron Craft put down 21 points and 6 assists, DeShaun Thomas dropped 13 points and 6 rebounds, and Evan Ravenel added ten points of his own. Michigan State freshman Gary Harris led the way for the Spartans with 14 points and 5 rebounds, and was joined in double figures by Adreian Payne and Derrick Nix who both scored 12.

Not surprisingly, the first half was a fast paced affair for both squads. Despite Michigan State’s excellent shooting percentage for the half – just shy of 50% – they weren’t able to open a big lead on the Buckeyes due to turnovers and solid defensive play from the Scarlet and Gray. It all began to unravel … [Read More]

BBN Basketball LiveBlog: Michigan State

Eric — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 18:00:54 +0000

The Buckeyes are coming off an impressive home win over the Minnesota Golden Gophers. The question remains, though, if it’s enough to carry them to victory today against the much more game Michigan State Spartans.

Join us and The Buckeye Blog, Buckeye Empire, Men of the Scarlet and Gray, and Buckeye Ninja as we help our good friend Bo Ryan learn to Deal With It.

Today’s game is scheduled for 4 PM EST on CBS (oh joy…). The LiveBlog is scheduled to start 15 minutes before tip.

Go Bucks!

Ohio State vs Michigan State – Shootyhoops live chat… [Read More]

Breakdownability: OSU-MSU II

Ken — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 23:37:16 +0000

School: Michigan State University

Location: East Lansing, MI

Founded: 1855

Student Population: 47,954 total, 36,675 undergrad

School Type: Public

Stadium: Breslin Center

Seating: 16,000

Opened: 1989

Head Coach: Tom Izzo

Experience: 18th year

Before We Get Started

Michigan State comes into this game, despite the tough loss to Indiana on Tuesday, on a bit of an Izzo Roll. In 2013, the Spartans are 11-2, with both losses coming against a higher ranked Indiana team; no shame there.

I had an email exchange with my MSU friend this week; he mentioned that he was on a bit disappointed in the Indiana outcome, but the game watch hard for him to watch. [Ed. Note: Please, don't tell me about games that are 'hard to watch']. His point is taken. He was annoyed by what he felt was MSU’s lapses in focus, particularly on inbound plays. So, we can probably expect a … [Read More]

Top 25: The Week in Review & The Week Ahead

Gary Russell II — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 16:13:36 +0000

The revolving door that is known as the Top 25 continued to revolve this week. 4 of the 5 Top 5 teams all loss, including Kansas who has now lost three in a row. In addition to the top 5 teams laying an egg, 14 of the 25 teams lost at least one game this week, with 5 of them not even picking up a single win. All was not bad though in the Top 25 world. There were several great games and several overtime games, including a stunning 5 overtime in the Big East. The Miami Hurricanes continued to come on like gang-busters and very well could be in the Top 5 when all is said is done with the polls this week. This week doesn’t look like it will let us down as there are quite a few Top 25 matchups and tough games against un-ranked opponents. Only … [Read More]

Top 25: The Week in Review & The Week Ahead

Gary Russell II — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 17:08:37 +0000

Another amazing week of college basketball is in the books and the season just keeps getting crazier. There were a total of 18 losses among the Top 25 teams. Some teams lost multiple times this week and there were some stunning upsets. The Miami Hurricanes absolutely embarrassed top ranked Duke 90-63, VCU spent a couple of weeks in the rankings only to lose both of their games week, and Syracuse and Louisville both lost to unranked opponents. All of this and we haven’t even talked about Louisville losing three in a row and Minnesota losing 4 consecutive games. Although nothing is certain in college basketball this year, one thing is for certain…….if it’s this crazy now, just wait to see what March Madness brings. Let’s breakdown this past week and look ahead to the future.

Here’s a look at the Top 25 Week Ahead and Week in Review

1. Duke … [Read More]