Sweet Sixteen - Will The Third Time Be The Charm For The Buckeyes?

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The Sweet Sixteen has become a familiar feeling for the Ohio State Buckeyes as they opened up with wins over Loyola of Maryland and Gonzaga to move on to the second weekend for the third consecutive year.  As the number two seed in the East Region, the Buckeyes handled number 15 seeded Loyola 78-59.  Deshaun Thomas had a career-high 31 points and added 12 rebounds to lead the Buckeyes to a comfortable victory. 

Most Buckeye fans had to be concerned going into the Gonzaga game as they have built a reputation for upsetting far stronger opponents in the NCAA tournament.  Gonzaga did not disappoint as they played even with the Buckeyes from beginning to end.  Fortunately, Ohio State had a great shooting performance with standout efforts by Jared Sullinger (18 Points), Deshaun Thomas (18 points) and Aaron Craft (17 point)  Craft played brilliantly on both ends of the court adding 10 assists to his 17 points. 

The Buckeyes will now travel to Boston to play a familiar opponent, the Cincinnati Bearcats.  Familiar in that both schools are in Ohio.  Not familiar in that they never play against each other.  The last game between the Buckeyes and Bearcats was in December of 2006 when the Buckeyes won handily in Indianapolis as part of the Wooden Tradition.  Prior to 2006, you have to return to the glory days of Ohio college basketball when Oscar Robertson led the Bearcats to back to back National Championships beating Ohio State both years, 1961 and 1962. 

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Amazingly, this year's Sweet Sixteen has four Ohio schools including Xavier and Ohio along with Ohio State and Cincinnati.  The Bearcats two tournament wins have been impressive against two very good opponents, Texas and Florida State.  Cincinnati had a huge lead over Texas only to hang on to win in the last few minutes.  The Florida State game was much closer throughout with the Bearcats prevailing in the last minute. 

Common opponents for the teams this year were Wright State and Miami of Ohio.  Both the Bearcats and Buckeyes won each game.  Sweet Sixteen opponents for both squads have presented challenges with the Bearcats holding a 3-4 record versus Sweet Sixteen opponents and the Buckeyes holding a 3-5 record.  The Bearcats losses were to Syracuse, Marquette, Xavier and Louisville.  Ohio State losses coming against Michigan State, Wisconsin, Kansas and Indiana.

The winner of the Ohio State-Cincinnati game will face the winner of the Syracuse-Wisconsin game.  Both teams have split games with their conference opponents Wisconsin and Syracuse.   Ohio State and Cincinnati are scheduled to tip-off at 9:45 pm on Thursday, March 22.  Sure would be nice to see the "Big O" on the sidelines along with Buckeye great, Jerry Lucas.  Go Bucks!