Ohio State Will Not Be Cutting Down The Nets At The Final Four This Year
Ohio State earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament. They have been the best team in college basketball since the first game of the year, way back in November. They have a great nucleus of players, led by Jared Sullinger. They are a 7-2 favorite to win the tournament, according to the race and sports book at the Las Vegas Hilton.
Everyone is so high on Ohio State. Gary Parrish from CBSSports.com has them as No. 1 on the list of seven teams that he could see winning it all. He has them in the Final Four against San Diego State. He has them winning the national championship game over Kansas.
Pat Forde from ESPN.com says that Ohio State has "the best six-man rotation in college basketball." You would hard pressed to argue with that point, but if anyone of those six players gets into foul trouble or has an off-night shooting this team could be in trouble.
To be fair, Forde does mention potential problems that the Buckeyes could face in the tournament. "An injury or foul trouble could unspring everything," Forde wrote. "A team relying on a freshman point guard and freshman center...could wobble in the March crucible."
That's the biggest point of contention that I have with Ohio State. Yes, they are talented, but at the same time they are very young. In last year's tournament Kentucky had all the talent in the world, but they were young and got bounced in the Elite Eight by West Virginia.
Another thing that concerns me is the schedule that this team has played. What's this teams signature win? They beat a good, not great, Florida team in the second game of the season. They beat Wisconsin, but as Penn State showed in the Big Ten tournament that's not the most impressive victory in the world. Look at the teams they beat in the conference tournament - Northwestern in overtime, Michigan and Penn State. That's not exactly a murderer's row of teams.
The third and final point of contention I have with Ohio State is their bracket. The selection committee did not do this team any favors with the other teams in their region. The two-, three- and four-seeds in their bracket are North Carolina, Syracuse and Kentucky. Going deeper George Mason, the eight-seed, is a good, dangerous team. Don't underestimate West Virginia at the five-seed either, they have a number of impressive wins this season including Louisville, Connecticut and Notre Dame.
Ohio State is a very good team. They won 32 games on the year and deserve to be a one-seed, but this team is not the best team in the tournament. They will be knocked out in the Sweet 16 by Kentucky, another young team that is playing really well right now and looks extremely dangerous
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