Postgame Notes From No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 2 Memphis – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/24/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 24, 2007
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Ohio State improved its record to 34-3 with the 92-76 win overMemphis. The 34 wins extend the school’s single-season schoolrecord for victories. The previous mark of 27 had been shared bythe 1961 and 1999 teams. The Buckeyes have now won 21 games in arow. The school record of 32 was set by the 1960 (five wins toclose out the season) and 1961 teams (27 wins to start the seasonbefore losing to Cincinnati in the national championship game). Thecurrent streak began with a 68-66 win over Tennessee on Jan. 13 inColumbus. Saturday was just the second meeting between the Buckeyesand Memphis. OSU won the first, 94-55 in December of 1959, OSU’snational championship year. Ohio State is now 12-3 all-time againstteams from Conference USA. The Buckeyes are going to the Final Fourfor the first time since 1968 and the ninth time overall. OhioState played in the first NCAA finals in 1939 and finished asrunners-up to Oregon. The Buckeyes have appeared in 11 regionalfinals and have advanced every time with the exceptions of 1971,when after upsetting No. 1 Marquette in the semifinals they lost toWestern Kentucky in the finals; and 1992 when after upending NorthCarolina in Lexington they lost to Michigan in overtime. ThadMatta’s record with the Buckeyes now stands at 80-21 in threeseasons in Columbus. His overall record in seven seasons is 182-52.This will be his first trip to the Final Four. Each of Matta’sseven teams have won at least 20 games. This is his first 30-winseason. He has averaged 26 wins a year. Matta has taken all six ofhis eligible teams to the NCAA tournament. His record in thetourney now stands at 11-5. Mike Conley Jr., a true freshman, ownsthe Ohio State single-season records for both steals (83) andassists (226). The Buckeyes are now 36-18 in NCAA tournament gamesand 9-2 as a No. 1 seed. Ohio State is now 59-4 overall when rankedNo. 1 in the polls. Conley is the 15th player in Big Ten history torecord at least 350 points, 150 assists, 100 rebounds and 50steals. Scoonie Penn (1998-99) is the only other Ohio State playerto do so. Ron Lewis is averaging 21.8 points in NCAA tournamentplay. He has made 27 of 52 field goal attempts, including 12 of 263-point shots and all 21 free throws. Freshman Greg Oden now has100 blocked shots on the season. He is just the second Ohio Stateplayer (first freshman) to block 100 shots in a season. KenJohnson, the Buckeyes’ career leader in that department with 444rejections, did it three times. Ohio State is now 22-1 this yearwhen scoring more than 70 points. With five 3-pointers vs. Memphis,the Buckeyes added to their school single-season record for made 3s(279 going). Their 757 attempts is also an OSU record. The 41first-half points scored by Ohio State against Memphis is thehighest OSU output since Feb. 18 at Minnesota, a span of 10 games.The 92 points by OSU is the second highest point total of theseason, surpassed only by 103 in the season opener against VMI.Ohio State’s NCAA tournament record for points in a game was set inthe regional semifinals of the 1960 event when the Buckeyes downedWestern Kentucky (3/11/60) 98-79.
2007 NCAA South Regional
Alamodome - San Antonio, Texas
All-Tournament Team
Mike Conley *, Ohio State
Ron Lewis, Ohio State
Greg Oden, Ohio State
Jeremy Hunt, Memphis
Chris Douglas-Roberts, Memphis
* Most Outstanding Player
Big Ten Conference Notes
Ohio State becomes the third Big Ten school in the last threeyears to compete in the Final Four. Illinois and Michigan Stateadvanced to the national semifinals in 2005. With Ohio Stateadvancing to the 2007 Final Four, the Big Ten has accumulated thethe most Final Four appearances with 39 (ACC – 38) and boasts thesecond-most national titles (10) in college basketball history. Theonly other conference to reach double-figures in nationalchampionships is the Pac-10 with 15 titles. Since the inception ofthe NCAA Tournament in 1939, the Big Ten has recorded the mostappearances of any conference in the Big Dance with 180 (ACC, 167)and has recorded the second-most NCAA Tournament victories with 289(ACC, 323). The Big Ten is the only conference since 2000 toadvance five different programs to the Final Four. The ACC and Big12 have each had four different schools reach the nationalsemifinals over that time span, followed by the Pac-10 (2), BigEast (2) and SEC (2). Michigan State leads the Big Ten with threeappearances (2000, 2001 and 2005) while Illinois (2005), Indiana(2002), Ohio State (2007) and Wisconsin (2000) have each earned aFinal Four spot in that time span.
