Sunday, February 25, 2007

OSU/Wisconsin, live blogging

Ron Lewis rejects it! Buckeyes win! Buckeyes win!
That was an unbelievable finish to an incredible game, and it sets up the Buckeyes for tournament time!
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Conley does it. Now just play 3.8 seconds defense!!!!!!!
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WOW! The 6th-best FT shooter in the Big Ten misses from the line, and Ohio State has a chance to win with less than 20 seconds to play. Who do you give the ball to??? I say Conley.
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Ohio State has 52 seconds left, down 1. They NEED to get off a good shot with more than 40 to play, so they can get it back again today.
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Damn. How does a guy get that open in the lane against us? Wisconsin leads 48-47.
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1:05 to play and the Buckeyes cannot get a defensive rebound. Oden forces three Badgers to change their shots and can't get any help on the boards. We still lead 47-46.
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WOW! Great defense again as the shot clock winds down!
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47-46 Bucks
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2:46 left. Conley fed Oden and he did what he always does....slams it and picked up the foul! He did a great job recovering the ball off the floor. Chance to take the lead after the timeout!
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4:30 to play. Have you ever seen so many players leap out of bounds and save the ball?
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5:30 to play, I was just about to say we had weathered Wisky's run. Then they hit a three and Oden got called for a travel. The guy's head commits fouls AND he gets whistled for things no other player gets called for in the NCAA? Unbelieveable.
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7 minutes to play. Thank God I DVRd this game.
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Nice outside defense by Conley. Forced a bad shot, and Harris fired the Buckeyes back on top with a three. HELL of a game!
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10 minutes to play, Wisky is running. They're on an 11-2 run, and it all began after Greg Oden's head committed a foul on Greg "Cleveland" Stiemsma's elbow. The Badgers are lighting it up from the outside, so it's time to pressure more.
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OK, we're at halftime in this one. Ohio State leads Wisconsin 25-22.

It's been a battle the whole way, and Wisky is KILLING us on the boards. The numbers show us with a 17-11 deficit in rebounding, but it feels much worse than that. However, being the eternal optimist, I'll say this...if you told me we'd be down 17-11 in boards at halftime, I'd be terrified. I'd think we were losing by ten points. So to be up by 3 with this key stat, I'd say I feel good. Wisconsin is NOT going to out-rebound us at this pace all day long, so when we start improving there, we should pull away.

However, Wisky is only shooting 34.6% from the field, and one would also expect that to improve. Oden has been a force inside. Even when he's not blocking shots, he's forcing adjustments that Wisconsin is not handling well. So if the Badgers are going to improve their shooting, it's going to have to be from the outside. If they don't start hitting their 3s, they will be in trouble.

Historically speaking, the last time these two played, Wisky led by three at the half. They won by three. I'll take it happily if that trend continues.

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