By: Paul Daugherty (Cincinnati.com) -- Our accident of geography leaves us shooting airballs Friday night. The Ohio State University is playing Big Blue in the Sweet 16. How are we supposed to act? When you’re squarely atop the Mason-Dixon Line, are you Mason or Dixon? Rooting against both is entirely counter-productive, though likely to occur in bars all over town. The calculus of Who You Hate More comes into play, certainly, and I’m guessing that nod would go ... Read More

From Beacon Journal via Ohio.com -- Wednesday was the first workout of spring practice for the University of Akron football team, but a hot topic of conversation was about an event six months away. On Sept. 3, the Zips will open their 2011 season against Ohio State at Ohio Stadium in Columbus. That game normally would not be in the national spotlight, but it will be now because the Buckeyes will be without coach Jim Tressel and six players who will ... Read More

By Michael Hiestand (USAToday.com) -- Ex-players turned analysts on college hoops used to be college stars themselves. Meaning, they have alma maters and face questions about whether they're objective about them on-air. But with NCAA men's tournament top-seed Ohio State, CBS lead analyst Clark Kellogg isn't just an ex-Buckeye star still living in Columbus — he's on the school's board of trustees. He has to sound objective on-air, and says he hears from fans at home that he should pull more ... Read More

By: Eric Ball (BleacherReport.com) -- Jared Sullinger has chance to be a one-and-done champion for the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Naismith finalist is on the right track to be the top pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. What a ride it has been for the best freshman since Kevin Durant. Sullinger has been everything the Buckeyes could have hoped for and more this season. He scores 17 points a game by a combination of savvy low-post moves and a ... Read More

By: Brett Dawson (Courier-Journal.com) -- LEXINGTON, Ky. — You throw a freshman into the fire — even a 6-foot-9, 280-pound All-America candidate such as Ohio State's Jared Sullinger — and you can't know exactly what to expect. And so, as good as Buckeyes basketball coach Thad Matta knew his freshman class was at the start of this season, it took a flight to Florida (and a throttling of the Gators in Gainesville) for him to know exactly what ... Read More

By Andy Hutchins (SBNation.com) -- Ohio State vs. Kentucky: it's the premier showdown of the Sweet 16 and could be the best game of the 2011 NCAA Tournament bracket so far. But what should we expect when the Jared Sullinger-led Buckeyes meet Brandon Knight and the Wildcats? We'll find out at 9:45 p.m. Friday from Newark, according to the 2011 NCAA Tournament schedule, and Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg will have the call on CBS. Ohio State's looking more and more like ... Read More

By: Doug Mead (BleacherReport.com) -- The Ohio State Buckeyes have had a relatively easy road thus far in the 2011 NCAA tournament. With easy double-digit victories over UTSA and George Mason, the Buckeyes have barely broken out in a sweat thus far, and their impressive first weekend has made them the prohibitive favorites according to many pundits. Take this past Sunday’s game, for example. Ohio State looked lethargic in the early going, as George Mason jumped out to an ... Read More

By John Kampf (News-Herald.com) -- Jared Sullinger was named a first team All-American by the Sporting News on Tuesday. The 6-foot-9, 280-pound forward from Ohio State was also named the freshman of the year by the publication. "It's very exciting," said OSU coach Thad Matta. "I'm happy for Jared. The job he's done this year has been tremendous." Sullinger heads into Friday's East Regional semifinal against Kentucky averaging 17.2 points, 10.1 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. He is shooting 53.5 percent ... Read More

By: Aaron Smith (KYKernel.com) -- While John Calipari is widely regarded as the primary proponent of the one-and-done player, he’s not alone. Ohio State head coach Thad Matta is right there with him. Freshmen Greg Oden and Mike Conley led the Buckeyes to the national title game in 2006-07. This year’s version, ranked No. 1 in the country, has three freshmen (Jared Sullinger, Aaron Craft and Deshaun Thomas) playing essential parts. “I can relate to the job he’s gone through,” Matta ... Read More

BY: AP via MiamiHerald.com -- Imagine how good the current Buckeyes might be if Evan Turner, the consensus national player of the year and the No. 2 pick in the NBA draft, had come back for his senior season. "There's not a lot of programs that have been hit with the early departures like we have," Matta said. "But that's part of it. I'm not making excuses, I'm OK with it." The ever-upbeat Matta does not countenance prima donnas or ... Read More

By Adam Rittenberg (ESPN.com) -- Former Ohio State coach Earle Bruce didn't soften the blow when asked what the absences of Buckeyes boss Jim Tressel and five players could do to the 2011 season. "This could be something you might not recover from this season as a team," Bruce told The Columbus Dispatch. "You're talking about a lot of things happening -- taking away the head coach and five great football players for the first five games." Bruce called Tressel's ... Read More

From: BizJournals.com -- More than half of Dayton Business Journal readers think The Ohio State University will win the men’s NCAA basketball tournament. In a recent online poll, 54 percent picked the Buckeyes to bring home their first national title in 50 years. While Ohio State has dominated opponents in its first two games, the 10 percent of poll respondents who picked Notre Dame University (6 percent) and University of Pittsburgh (4 percent) were way off base as those teams lost in ... Read More

By Gregg Doyel (CBSSports.com) -- Jim Tressel got Bruce Pearl fired. No one at Tennessee would ever say it, but I don't care about that. Tennessee is the same place that said Pearl would weather this storm and remain as coach. The storm came. Pearl got washed away. So now I don't believe a word Tennessee says -- and I won't ... Read More

By Zac Jackson (FOXSportsOhio.com) -- he reigning First Family of Ohio basketball has a dilemma on its hands this weekend. The good kind of dilemma, but a dilemma nonetheless. Jared Sullinger and the Ohio State Buckeyes play at approximately 9:45 Friday night in the NCAA regional semifinals in Newark, N.J. Back home in Columbus, Northland High School is set to play a Div. I state semifinal at Ohio State's Value City Arena at 8:30. James "Satch" Sullinger, Jared's father, is ... Read More

By Erik Matuszewski (Bloomberg.com) -- Ohio State University has shown why it was the favorite of oddsmakers entering college basketball’s national men’s tournament, steamrolling its first two opponents by a combined 61 points. The Buckeyes had their largest margin of victory in 27 tournament appearances yesterday, when they routed George Mason University 98-66. Next up for Ohio State is the University of Kentucky in the East Regional semifinals in Newark, New Jersey, on March 25. “It’s kind of hard to guard this basketball team with ... Read More

By Justice B. Hill (MSNBC.com) -- CLEVELAND - David Lighty came home Sunday. He came back to play in front of his mother, in front of his grandmother, in front of other family members, in front of friends and in front of people who had seen him play at Quicken Loans Arena before -- men and women who had watched Lighty play on this floor back in his high-school days. But none of them had seen David Lighty, a fifth-year senior for Ohio ... Read More

By Chris Biderman (TheLantern.com) -- It started out physical, but the bumped and bruised Buckeyes prevailed against Georgia Tech on Monday night, despite tying their season high in turnovers. By winning, 67-60, the No. 4 seed Ohio State women's basketball team will advance to the Sweet 16 in Dayton, Ohio, after topping the fifth-seeded Yellow Jackets in a hard-fought win in front of St. John Arena's vivacious crowd. OSU now has won 11 straight games. But en route to the ... Read More