The Buckeyes kicked off their 2012 tournament run with a sloppy 78-59 victory over the Loyola (MD) Greyhounds in Pittsburgh yesterday. Deshaun Thomas shined, scoring a career-high 31 points to go along with a game-high 12 rebounds, but the team committed 18 turnovers and went through long stretches of inefficiency on offense.

Ohio State coach Thad Matta was just happy to win, "Obviously this tournament is about advancing, and that's what we did tonight," Matta said. "I don't think we played at the level we need to. Our guys know that. Give Loyola a ton of credit for that. They came at us."

Still, the Greyhounds were severely undersized and had little chance of an upset with Jared Sullinger (12 points, 11 rebounds) and Thomas dominating the glass. The Buckeyes outrebounded Loyola 49-24 and collected 16 of those from the offensive glass -- which turned into 15 second chance points for Ohio State. The Buckeyes were also able to get to the line early and often, which helped overcome some early shooting struggles. But the star of the game was Thomas, who hit 13 of his 22 shots from a wide variety of ranges.

"Deshaun was excellent on the boards and also scoring the basketball. He pretty much carried this team,”  Sullinger said. “I don't think we would have won it without him."

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As the Susan Lucci of filling out NCAA tournament brackets, I decided that this year I’d take a different approach to my March Madness selections.

For the first time ever, I went to an expert for guidance. Not a college hoops beat writer or blogger or any of the unctuous talking heads from CBS or ESPN who have been proven wrong time and again, but a more approachable, less likely sage.

The frumpy receptionist who doesn’t know Mike Krzyzewski from Vladimir Putin but has somehow won your office pool three years running? Even better: my eight-year-old son, who has never watched a basketball game in his life.

If there’s one thing we’ve all learned over the years, it’s that the less you know about college basketball going into the tournament, the better off you’ll be in making your picks. And since this kid equates watching any kind of organized sport with having his toenails clipped, I figured he’s the equivalent of a tournament-bracket oracle.

I’ll warn you, some of his selections will be startling to anybody who’s ever heard of Dick Vitale. But since it’s been roughly 20 years since I was even in contention in a pool after the second round, who am I to question his logic?

We start with the play-in games. He picks Western Kentucky to beat Mississippi Valley State because Kentucky is warmer (than Ohio, presumably, not Mississippi). He goes with BYU because he likes the schools that just have letters as their name. And he favors South Florida over California “because it’s a really nice, warm place.”

And we’re off to the races.

In the first round alone, some would question his wisdom. His prediction of three No. 16 seeds winning, for example, is controversial, to be sure, but not that much sketchier than anything that’s ever left Seth Davis’ mouth.

In the South region, he picks Indiana to run the table and reach the Final Four because of the natural correlation between Tom Crean’s Hoosiers and adventuring archeologist Indiana Jones. Similarly, he gives UNLV a first-round nod after learning that they’re from Las Vegas, which is featured prominently in the movie Percy Jackson and the Olympians “and looks awesome.”

And unlike the rest of us, who make and re-make our picks and second-guess ourselves into oblivion, he sticks with his guns and never looks back. He selects Xavier over Notre Dame because of the “z” sound and the inherent coolness of the letter x. He’s confident Duke will hold off Lehigh because “a duke is someone you’d find in a castle.”

Take that, Clark Kellogg.

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Jared Sullinger dominated for the second consecutive day, this time scoring 22 points and six rebounds in a 77-55 rout of the No. 10 Michigan Wolverines. The victory gives Ohio State a chance to win its third consecutive Big Ten tournament title, but the Buckeyes will have to earn it against No. 8 Michigan State in the championship game Sunday afternoon.

Ohio State’s semifinals matchup hardly looked like a clash between two teams that shared the conference title. The Buckeyes dominated every step of the way -- building a 10 point lead in the first half that it never lost in the second. The Buckeyes shot 52% from the field and held Michigan to just 28% with 18 turnovers.

Michigan coach John Beilein had no choice but to give Ohio State credit, "I've seen some really good teams that have played some really good games," Beilein said. "That's as good of a game as I've ever seen a college team play."

Sullinger and Deshaun Thomas continued to do the most damage, combining to score 46 of Ohio State’s 77 points. They were a collective 19-29 from the field -- and with that kind of efficiency from the frontcourt -- it’s hard for shooting teams like Michigan to keep pace.

The Buckeyes’ were also flawless in the defense of standout point guard Tre Burke. Burke, who earned Freshman Player of the Year honors last week, was stifled by Craft all game. Burke scored just five points (10 under his season average) and didn’t hit his first shot from the field until the seven minute mark in the second half. That was a wild departure from the 30 points he scored in an overtime victory over Minnesota in the quarterfinals. Burke also had a career-high eight turnovers against just four assists.

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The Ohio State Buckeyes -- fueled by a 30 point, 12 rebound performance by Jared Sullinger -- rushed past a stubborn Purdue Boilermakers team in the Quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament for an 88-71 victory last night.

After Ohio State rushed out to an early 10 point lead, Purdue got hot from behind the arch (they hit 12 of 26 3-pointers) and kept pace with the Buckeyes until the closing minutes of the game. The Buckeyes were up 62-59 after Purdue’s D.J. Byrd hit a 3-pointer with seven and a half minutes left.

That’s when the Buckeyes put the Boilermakers away. After Byrd’s 3-pointer, Ohio State went on a 17-2 run in four minutes. The Buckeyes hit 7-9 shots from the field during that stretch and limited Purdue to just 1-7 shooting with a turnover during the run.

Sullinger and the rest of the Ohio State starters enjoyed the last two minutes of the game from the bench as the Buckeyes turned what was a close game into a comfortable victory.

The sophomore All-American talked about his 30-point performance after the game, "Honestly, not trying to toot my own horn, we played through me," Sullinger said. "I thought that was the biggest key to this game. Our guards found a way to find me in the post."

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With five seconds left on the clock and the game tied at 70, William Buford took the ball from Aaron Craft’s hands and curled toward the top of the perimeter. Time was ticking down as Buford looked for some space -- and with Ohio State’s chances for a share of the Big Ten regular season championship on the line -- the only senior on the team spotted up with a defender in his face and launched a high-arching shot toward the rim. That ball fell seamlessly through the net, not bothering to touch any part of the rim as Ohio State went on to beat the No. 5 Michigan State Spartans 72-70 in East Lansing.

"I was fortunate to knock down the big shot of the night to give us another Big Ten title," Buford said after the game.

This season’s conference championship is split three ways between Ohio State, Michigan State and Michigan -- giving Ohio State its third league title in as many years. Buford was instrumental in leading Ohio State, who trailed by as many as 15 points in the game, past Michigan State for the two point victory. “Willie B” got hot late and scored 19 of his 25 points in the second half, but it was his late jumper with one second left that became the biggest bucket of his collegiate career.

"I just came in [on the last play] with a different mindset," Buford said. "During that last play, I wasn't going to miss."

Ohio State’s chances for a Big Ten title seemed slim just seven days ago. Michigan State came into the week with a commanding two game lead over both Ohio State and Michigan. All the Spartans had to do was win either game between Indiana on the road or Sunday’s contest against the Buckeyes to claim the conference championship outright. The Spartans stumbled at Indiana, faltering late in a 15 point loss to the Hoosiers before heading home for senior day against the Buckeyes. Michigan State’s first loss at home was likely the most painful of the season for the Spartans.

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It was deja vu for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State had an eight point lead over the Northwestern Wildcats late in the second half last night, much like their nine point lead against Wisconsin that eventually eroded into nothing in a loss to the Badgers Sunday evening. The Wildcats were slowly chipping away at the deficit before Northwestern’s Alex Marcotulli drilled a deep 3-pointer that tied the game with seven seconds left.

On the road -- with the home crowd elated that their team was seconds away from forcing overtime against the No. 10 team in the country -- Ohio State’s mental toughness was put to the test.

Thad Matta drew up play that had Craft advancing the ball up court against Northwestern’s 1-3-1 full court press. Right before Craft hit midcourt, he lobbed a perfectly placed pass to Jared Sullinger on the low post. Sullinger turned, shot over his mismatched defender and kissed the ball off the glass to give Ohio State a two point lead with three second left. Northwestern’s John Shurna would go on to barely miss a half-court heave as the Buckeyes escaped Evanston with a 75-73 victory.

Craft and Sullinger talked about the final play, "It was just get the ball to Jared and let him make a play. That's how we drew it up and I'm glad we were able to execute."

"Craft told me he was going to throw it to me,” Sullinger said. “No ifs, ands or buts about it. He threw it to me and I made the shot."

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March Madness approaches...for many of us it’s the sporting event of the year at any level of competition. As of last year, every game is on live TV. No more “wrap-around” coverage, cutting to the most exciting game at any given time during the first two rounds. As long as you’re quick on the remote and the DVR....between CBS, TNT, TBS and the channel nobody knew existed a year ago...truTV, you can watch every bit of it...in all its mad glory.

I figure we're numbed by the outrageous dollar figures thrown around in the modern sports world, and the fact that the combined TV networks paid the NCAA $771 million to telecast the 2011 NCAA Tournament hasn’t registered yet.  An event that takes three weekends to play every winter is worth three quarters of a billion dollars to put on television...one time. The 14-year deal struck last year between the NCAA and the networks totals $10.8 billion. (That’s almost as much as will be wagered nationwide on the tournament in any given year)

But what do we care? When Ford tries to sell us an F-150, we’re switching to the game over on TNT. Besides, the schools love it. The athletic directors are all on board. Coaches especially are all in. John Calipari’s new contract at Kentucky calls for him to get a $700,000 bonus if he wins it all in any of his deal’s final three years. Many major college coaches have similar six-figure incentives to Dance Big.

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Pairing movie references or characters from classic literature with a sports storyline is an incredibly popular practice by today’s media. Whether it’s Dwight Howard or Cam Newton as Superman, Wade and Lebron as Batman and Robin or Jeremy Lin as some hybrid between Rudy and Jesus -- sports fans at large are always looking to link what they’re seeing on the court or playing field with something they’ve seen on the big screen.

I’m not exempt from this practice. I’m constantly looking to pair sports moments with movies I’ve seen. It’s a strange kind of therapy that helps me categorize and process the sports-pain I’m experiencing.

With Ohio State’s recent struggles on the basketball court -- I’ve been forced to find a Hollywood scene that fits the Buckeyes’ situation just right. Despite the obvious “Jekyll and Hyde” nature of William Buford’s game, I don’t think that’s an appropriate comparison for the teams overall flatness.

After a lot of thought, I finally settled on Jim Carrey’s scene from Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, when he’s trying to find the connection between Finkel and Einhorn. And if you’re wondering -- I didn’t show partiality in selecting this scene just because Jim Carrey is my second cousin.* It really fits, I promise.

* Yes, Jim Carrey is my second cousin. Telling that to the ladies was never as impressive as I thought it would be.

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Illinois came to Columbus on a bad night.

The Ohio State Buckeyes were coming off their fifth loss of the season, a 56-51 defeat to arch-rival Michigan on Saturday night. After being buried under 48 hours of relentless doubt and negativity, the Buckeyes took out all their frustrations in an 83-67 beat down of the Fighting Illini.

Deshaun Thomas scored 19 points, William Buford scored 17 and Aaron Craft added 11 as Ohio State bucked their recent shooting slump to shoot 65% against Illinois. The Buckeyes also made seven of their 13 3-pointers, and that efficiency on the perimeter allowed Ohio State to lead the game for all 40 minutes.

Ohio State coach Thad Matta talked about the Buckeyes’ hot shooting, “It was obviously good to see the ball go in early. I thought we got out and got some good shots and got the ball moving,” Matta said. “We were able to get some good shots off of our defense. It was delightful to see, trust me... We didn’t do anything magical; they just went down for us tonight.”

After struggling on offense in losses to Michigan and Michigan State, Matta wanted the Buckeyes to push the ball and look for easier buckets. In practices leading up to the Illinois game, Matta had his Buckeyes work on getting out in transition and it showed against the Illini. The Buckeyes tried out a new rotation that put speedy point guard Shannon Scott on the court with Aaron Craft at the same time. Although Scott turned the ball over a few times, his presence on the court seemed to give Ohio State a sense of urgency.

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After scoring a season-low 48 points in an embarrassing and rare home loss to Michigan State three days ago, the No. 6 Ohio State Buckeyes wanted to refocus and right the ship as they close in on the end of the regular season. The opportunity to do so came in the form of the Minnesota Golden Gophers Tuesday night and the Buckeyes were very ungracious guests. Powered by William Buford and Jared Sullinger, Ohio State bullied their way to a 78-68 road victory and a much-needed palate cleansing.

Buford led all scorers with 24 points (shooting 10-17 from the field) while adding eight rebounds and five assists. Sullinger connected on six of 11 shots on his way to 23 points while snagging eight rebounds. This -- just days after combining to shoot 7-27 against Michigan State -- was exactly what Ohio State needed to put the loss behind them.

Ohio State coach Thad Matta talked about Buford and Sullinger after the game, “I thought Jared played a very heady game. They tried to mix it up on him and to his credit he showed great patience and strength and made some big plays down there.” He later added, “It was good to see Will get back on track.”

Although Buford and Sullinger carried the load, the entire team played “within the system” and avoided the one-on-one situations that doomed them against the Spartans. Ohio State seemed focused from the beginning and played with an efficiency that translated well on the stat sheet. The Buckeyes shot 45% from the field and assisted on 15 of their 25 made field goals. The flow of the game allowed Matta to get his bench involved as 10 players saw action against the Gophers.

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