Buckeyes and Hawkeyes Meet For Big Ten Tournament Championship – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/11/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 11, 2006
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Noting Big Ten Final Matchup vs. Iowa
Ohio State is 66-73 all-time vs. the Hawkeyes. The squads have met four times previously on neutral courts with Ohio State owning a 3-1 record in those games. The Buckeyes and Hawkeyes have faced one another three times previously in Big Ten tournament play. Iowa won the first meeting 75-66 in 2001. Ohio State defeated the Hawkeyes in the 2002 title game 81-64 and then eliminated Iowa in the first round, 66-64, in 2003.
Dials Leads OSU vs. Hawkeyes
Senior Terence Dials leads the veterans in games vs. the Hawkeyes. Dials averages 13.6 points in eight career games vs. the Hawkeyes. He also is the top Buckeye rebounder with an average of 5.3 boards in eight career games vs. Iowa. Junior Ron Lewis scored 19 points vs. the Hawkeyes in his only meeting earlier this year in Iowa City.
Ohio State Basketball Looks to Sweep
The Buckeye basketball programs are in position for a sweep of both the regular season and postseason tournament titles this season. Ohio State’s women’s team is both the regular season and tournament champion while the men’s team also won the outright regular season title. Head coaches Jim Foster and Thad Matta both were named coach of the year while players for both teams earned player of the year honors (Terence Dials and Jessica Davenport). Ohio State also is the first Big Ten school to claim Big Ten titles in football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball. Matta 45-16 as Ohio State Coach
Thad Matta has directed the Buckeyes to a record of 45-16 overall (.738) as head coach of the Buckeyes. He is 147-47 in six seasons as a collegiate head coach. He has never failed to reach 20 victories in a season and has guided the Buckeyes to the outright Big Ten regular season title in 2006. The league’s coach of the year this season is 15-6 during the months of February (10-4) and March (6-2) while at Ohio State. Matta has guided a team from three conferences to the final of the postseason conference tournament. He has won regular and postseason conference tournaments in the Midwestern Collegiate and Atlantic 10 conferences.
Noting the Indiana Game:
Ohio State split the two meetings with Indiana this season.Ohio State is 71-99 vs. the Hoosiers and 1-5 in neutral sitecontests vs. IU. No. 7 Ohio State is 17-12 vs. IU all-time whenranked in the Associated Press poll. The Buckeyes improved to 11-12all-time vs. Big Ten teams on neutral courts and to 10-7 in Big Tentournament games, including a 3-1 record in semifinal contests.Ohio State is 1-1 in Big Ten tournament title games. Ohio State,the No. 8 seed, fell to No. 2 seed Illinois in 2003 (72-59) afterdefeating No. 9 seed Iowa in 2002 (81-64) as the No. 2 seed. OhioState is 67-58 (.536) all-time in one-point games, which includes a13-8 (.619) record when playing on neutral courts. The last timeOhio State won a game by a single point was vs. No. 1 Illinois(65-64) March 6, 2005 in Columbus. The last time Ohio State won aone-point game on a neutral court was vs. Villanova (67-66) at theMaui Invitational Nov. 26, 2003. The Buckeyes have won the lastfive one-point games on neutral courts and six of the last seven.The Buckeyes enter the game with the Hawkeyes ranked No. 7nationally with a 25-4 record. Ohio State is 328-104 (.759)all-time when ranked by the Associated Press. The Buckeyes are200-52 (.794) when playing as a Top 10 team. Senior J.J. Sullingerrecorded his second double-double of the season and third of hiscareer in the win vs. the Hoosiers. Sullinger scored 19 points andgrabbed 13 rebounds vs. Indiana. Dials is No. 14 all-time in careerscoring at Ohio State. He has 1,518 for his career, 11 pointsbehind No. 13 Tony Campbell (1981-84) with 1,529. Dials’ careerrebounding total of 850 rates No. 6. Clark Kellogg (1980-82) isfifth with 872. Dials has appeared in 129 career games at OhioState with 94 starts. He is tied with No. 2 Brian Brown (1999-02)for career appearances. Jerry Francis (1986-89) is the careerleader with 133 games played. The 2005-06 Buckeyes have made 2463-pointers on the season, second most for a single season at OhioState. The current squad also is No. 2 all-time for single season3-pointers attempted with 652. The 2004-05 team is No. 1 in bothmade (259) and attempted (716) 3-pointers in a season. SophomoreJamar Butler handed out five assists in the win vs. the Hoosiers.Ohio State is 22-3 in the last two seasons when Butler dishes outfour or more helpers. The 25 wins for the Buckeyes this season arethe most since the 1991-92 Ohio State squad posted a 26-6 record.
