March Madness: Evan Turner, Ohio State Buckeyes Look For No. 1 Seed

With the Duke Blue Devils loss at Maryland and the upstart Kansas State Wildcats falling victim to a Kansas Jayhawk onslaught, the search for the final national No. 1 seed goes on.

Syracuse, Kansas, and Kentucky have already RSVP’d to the one-line party.

If we’re really looking for the best four teams in America, though, it would be tough to leave the Ohio State Buckeyes out of the conversation.

Disagree?

Let’s try a little experiment.

Take Kentucky, Syracuse, and Kansas.

Pretend these three teams were missing John Wall, Wes Johnson, and Sherron Collins respectively, for a monthlong stretch in conference play.

For argument sake, imagine that these powerhouses had to go on the road to face two top 15 teams and one bitter rival during this part of this hypothetical schedule.

It’s not hard to envision the three entrenched No. 1 seeds losing on the road to Butler, their conference’s version of Wisconsin, and a conference rival, just as the Buckeyes did after losing player of the year candidate Evan Turner.

I would argue that Evan Turner means more to his Buckeyes team than do Wall, Collins, and Johnson to their respective squads considering Turner’s eyepopping stats.

The junior small forward averages 20 points a game on 54 percent shooting, grabs nine rebounds, and hands out six assists per contest.

When Turner is at full strength, the Ohio State Buckeyes are one of the top four teams in college basketball and certainly would have a better record than 24-7.

Instead of sharing the Big Ten title, they would have won it outright.

I think that’s their No. 1 seed worthy, in light of the recent Kansas State, Duke, and Villanova losses.

More importantly, they pass the eyeball test.

My tape (TiVo) review tells me that Ohio State, irrespective of what seed they garner starting out, will make a deep run in the March Madness tournament because quite simply, they’re built for the March Madness format.

I’ve mentioned Turner.

His skillset is perfect for the big dance because he’s a player you can always lean on for instant offense.

As a true wing player, Turner is a nightmarish matchup for the popular three-guard offense prevalent in college basketball today. But Evan Turner is not the only weapon the Buckeyes have.

He’s complemented by athletes, shooters, and bigs.

William Buford is a 6'5' sophomore guard who’s the closest thing the Buckeyes have to a traditional point.

In actuality, the Buckeyes have three players averaging three or more assists per game, so they really don’t need one lead guard. If they need someone to create individually they use Turner.

But Buford brings ball handling, length, and athleticism in the backcourt as well as a credible shooting threat hitting 38 percent from deep on the year.

The other wing is explosive 6'5" junior forward David Lighty.

Lighty can put the ball on the deck and finish with tremendous athleticism but if you sag off him, he punishes using the perimeter game to he’s added to his repertoire (hitting on 39 percent from deep).

He’s averaging 2.7 assists per game for good measure.

The other guard, or at this point you have to call them non-posts, is 6'6" junior Jon Diebler.

Diebler is a three-point sniper averaging over 40 percent from beyond the arc on 222 three-point attempts. He plays so well off of the three, primary ball handlers that he rarely needs to force a tres ball.

His attempts are usually wide open catch and shoots.

The last piece to the puzzle is the USS Dallas. Center Dallas Lauderdale that is.

This 6'8', 260 pound interior man-mountain is emerging as a force in the paint averaging 2.2 blocks and shooting 77 percent from the field. If he continues to play well, the Buckeyes will be among the toughest outs in the tournament.

So, overall, take a look at this team.

Four 6'5" to 6'7"-plus athletes who can shoot backed by a 6'8" fly swatting left tackle, also give coach Thad Matta a variety of options defensively.

He can play a long, athletic zone similar to what Jim Boeheim’s Syracuse Orange squad is so successful with or he can elect to play straight man to man and switch most all screens like Bob Huggin’s West Virginia Mountaineers squad.

Or, he can do both every other possession and mind-blow opponents.

Offensively, Matta is blessed with the perfect combination of complementary players—even if his bench is short.

But short benches aren’t really a detriment in a television timeout intensive tournament game if you’re concerned with fatigue. Matta can always hide players in foul trouble with his zone if need be, as well.

Regardless of strategy, Matta is just happy to have Turner back on a team that may not get a  No. 1 seed, but will certainly play like one.

This article originally appeared on March To March

Follow Kevin Berger on Twitter: @MarchToMarch