Postgame Notes From No. 1 Florida vs. No. 1 Ohio State – Ohio State Buckeyes
4/3/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
April 3, 2007
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National Championship Game
Georgia Dome – Atlanta
Att. – 51,458 Ohio State completed the 2006-07 season with arecord of 35-4. The 35 wins extend the program’s single-seasonrecord for victories. The previous mark of 27 had been shared bythe 1961 and 1991 teams. The Buckeyes had won 22 games in a rowbefore its loss to Florida Monday. The school record of 32 was setby the 1960 (five wins to close out the season) and 1961 teams (27wins to start the season before losing to Cincinnati in thenational championship game). The 22-game win streak equals OhioState’s 22-game run in the 1961-62 season, when the Buckeyes alsodropped the national final to Cincinnati. The streak began with a68-66 win over Tennessee Jan. 13 in Columbus. Ohio State made itsfifth appearance in the national championship game Monday and firstsince losing, 71-59, to Cincinnati in the 1962 title contest. TheBuckeyes are 1-4 all-time in the NCAA final. The Buckeyes have madenine Final Four appearances. Ohio State is 5-4 in the series withFlorida and 27-24 vs. current members of the SoutheasternConference. The Buckeyes downed Tennessee twice in 2006-07. OhioState is 8-1 vs. SEC teams in NCAA tournament play. Freshmen MikeConley Jr. and Greg Oden appeared in their fourth consecutivechampionship game Monday. The pair led Lawrence North High Schoolin Indianapolis to three consecutive Indiana state championshipgames. Conley and Oden were named to the 2007 All-Tournament teamafter the game Monday. The Buckeyes now are 37-19 in NCAAtournament games and 10-3 as a No. 1 seed. Ohio State has appearedin 20 NCAA Tournaments since 1939. Ohio State has committed justseven turnovers Monday, including just one in the second half. TheBuckeyes had eight turnovers or less in each of its last fourgames. Ohio State now is 60-5 overall when ranked No. 1 in thepolls. The Buckeyes trailed a 40-29 at halftime Monday. With theloss, the Buckeyes are 3-3 when they trailed at the half. ThadMatta’s record with the Buckeyes now stands at 81-22 in threeseasons in Columbus. His overall record in seven seasons is 183-53.Matta has taken all six of his eligible teams to the NCAAtournament. His record in the tourney now stands at 12-6. Ron Lewishas scored 129 career points in NCAA tournament play, including 108points in the six games this year. His NCAA tournament scoringtotal is the sixth-most in Ohio State history. Jerry Lucas(1960-62) owns the record with 266 points. He is followed by JohnHavlicek (156/1960-62), Michael Redd (133/1999-2000), Scoonie Penn(123/1999-2000) and Jim Jackson (121/1990-92). In the NCAAtournament, Lewis was 28-30 from the charity stripe. With 20 pointsMonday, Conley has posted double digits in 11 of his last 12 games.It was his third game of the season with at least 20 points andsecond in the tournament. Conley tallied six assists for the 22ndtime this season. Ohio State is 19-3 in those games. Conley ownsthe Ohio State single-season records for both steals (84) andassists (238). He finished with a game-high four steals Monday.
Conley is the 15th player in Big Ten history to record at least 350 points, 150 assists, 100 rebounds and 50 steals. Scoonie Penn (1998-99) is the only other Ohio State player to do so.
Oden’s 25 points Monday served as the second-most in hiscareer. He had 29 points vs. Iowa Jan. 20. Oden had five 20-pointgames this season. He went 10-15 Monday and shot 16-26 in thetwo-games of the Final Four Oden made 36 of his 52 FG attempts inthe 2007 tournament. He had four blocked shots Monday and now has105 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 held a 48-22 advantagein points in the paint Monday. With four 3-pointers vs. Florida,the Buckeyes added to their school single-season record for made 3s(287). Their 794 attempts is also an OSU record. Ohio State playedits first game in April.
2007 NCAA MEN’S FINAL FOUR CHAMPIONSHIP GAME NOTES
April 2, 2007 ~ Atlanta Ga. ~ Georgia Dome
Ohio State Team Notes
Ohio State finishes the season with a 35-4 overall record. Thisis an all-time school record by nine victories. The previous recordwas 27 wins set in 1961 and 1991. Ohio State ends the season withthe same amount of victories as Florida. The 35 wins are tied forsixth most in NCAA history. The 35 wins are also the most by anyteam and by any Big Ten team since 2004-05 when Illinois had 37.The Buckeyes saw their 22-game winning streak end with tonight’sloss to Florida in the NCAA championship game. It ties for thesecond longest winning streak in Ohio State history. The 1961-62team won its first 22 games of the season before suffering a lossto Wisconsin in the 23rd game of the year. The school record forconsecutive wins is 32 in a row set between the 1959-60 and 1960-61seasons. Cincinnati ended that winning streak with an overtimevictory in the 1961 NCAA Championship game. So two of the top threelongest winning streaks in Ohio State history were ended in NCAAChampionship games. Thad Matta took the Buckeyes to a 5-1 record inthe NCAA Tournament this year and he is now 6-2 in his Ohio Statecareer in the tournament. He is already tied for second in OhioState coaching history in NCAA victories. Fred Taylor is the leaderwith 14 wins (14-4 record), but Matta already has the same amountof NCAA Tournament wins as Harold Olsen (6-4), Randy Ayers (6-3),and Jim O’Brien (6-4). Ohio State finishes this tournament witheight Final Four wins in its history. The Buckeyes will enter nextyear ranked seventh in Final Four victories. They are just one winbehind Kansas, who has nine. UCLA has the record with 25. OhioState is now 1-4 all time in national championship games. The onlyvictory took place in the 1960 National Championship. The Buckeyeslost in the finals of 1939, 1961, 1962 and tonight’s game. Floridawon this evening’s championship game after having defeated theBuckeyes by 26 points during the regular season. It was just thesecond time in the last seven opportunities (covering 31 years)that a team defeated an opponent during the regular season, thendefeated that team in the NCAA Finals. Duke had been the last teamto do it in 1992 when it beat Michigan in the regular season, thendefeated the Wolverines in the NCAA Championship.
NCAA Championship Games Rematches of Regular Season Meetings (Since 1958)
| Year | Champion | Opponent | Regular Season Meetings |
| 1968-69 | UCLA | Purdue | UCLA, 94-82 |
| 1973-74 | NC State | UCLA | UCLA, 84-66 |
| 1975-76 | Indiana | Michigan | Indiana, 80-74, 72-67 |
| 1980-81 | Indiana | N. Carolina | UNC, 65-56 |
| 1984-85 | Villanova | Georgetown | Georgetown, 52-50, 57-50 |
| 1987-88 | Kansas | Oklahoma | Oklahoma, 73-65, 95-87 |
| 1991-92 | Duke | Michigan | Duke, 88-85 |
| 1992-93 | N. Carolina | Michigan | Michigan, 79-78 |
| 2003-04 | UCONN | Georgia Tech | Georgia Tech, 77-61 |
| 2006-07 | Florida | Ohio State | Florida, 86-60 |
Three-point shooting defense was a problem for Ohio Statethroughout the tournament and that was again the case tonight. Inits six NCAA Tournament games, Ohio State opponents made 61-141three-point shots for a .433 figure. Three-point shootingdifferential was the big stat tonight as Florida made 10-18 for.556 and Ohio State made just 4-23 for .174 third lowest in NCAAhistory for a championship game. Tonight’s three-point shooting byOhio State was the low three-point percentage in a championshipgame since Michigan was 1-11 against Duke in 1992. That was also agame that clinched a second straight national championship for ateam, in that case the Duke Blue Devils. Ohio State was just 8-37on three-point shots in the two games in Atlanta for .216. TheGators made 9-18 three-point shots in the first meeting between thetwo teams, so Florida was 19-36 on three-point shots against theBuckeyes in the two games combined.
Ohio State Player Notes
Ohio State freshman center Greg Oden finished the game with 25points and 12 rebounds. It was the first time any player had atleast 25 points and 12 rebounds in a championship game since EdO’Bannon had 30 points and 17 rebounds in UCLA’s victory overArkansas in 1995. Oden’s performance might have been the best by afreshman center since 1986 when Pervis Ellison had 25 points and 11rebounds for Louisville against Duke in a Louisville championshipvictory. For Oden it was his second highest scoring game of theyear. He had a season high of 29 against Iowa on January 20. Odenalso had four blocked shots to tie for the second most in achampionship game. Joakim Noah of Florida has the record with sixagainst UCLA last year. Ohio State had two members of theAll-Tournament team in Greg Oden and Mike Conley, Jr. Both arefreshmen. It marks the first time since the 2003 tournament thattwo freshmen from the same team made the All-Tournament team. Thatyear, Syracuse had freshmen Carmelo Anthony and Gerry McNamara onthe All-Tournament team. Both Oden and Conley scored at least 20points in tonight’s game. It was the first time a team had a pairof 20-point scorers in a championship game since Emeka Okafor had24 and Ben Gordon had 21 for UCONN in the Huskies win over GeorgiaTech in 2004. The last time the losing team had a pair of 20-pointscorers in a championship game was in 1978 when Mike Gminski had20, Jim Spanarkel had 21 and Gene Banks had 22 for Duke in a 94-88loss to Kentucky. It was just the fourth time in championship gamehistory that the losing team had at least two 20-point scorers andlost the game. Ohio State had just seven turnovers in tonight’sgame, its fourth straight game with seven of less to end theseason. It tied for the second lowest single game turnover totalfor the Buckeyes this year. Ohio State entered tonight’s game witha +6.0 rebound margin for the first five games of the NCAATournament but they were beaten on the boards tonight by 10, 38-28.Florida came into this week fourth in the nation in rebound marginso they faced a strong challenge in that area this evening. TheGators had a 43-28 advantage in rebounding in the first game.
Ohio State was beaten on the boards by double digits in just four games all year, but two of the times took place against Florida.
