Men's Final Four: X Marks the Spot for Ohio State's William Buford

It's pretty much assured that when Ohio State takes on Kansas in Saturday night's NCAA semifinal contest that Jared Sullinger, Deshaun Thomas and even Lenzelle Smith Jr. will provide their usual offensive production. Offensive rebounds are what's become their usual during this run to the Final Four.

But the X-factor will likely be what kind of effort William Buford provides Ohio State with. Buford, the only senior in the Ohio State starting five, has become the Buckeyes' human enigma. At 6'6" and armed with a sometime silky shooting stroke, he's carved out a career that places near the top of Ohio State's all-time scoring list.

But he's also taken on the persona of "choker" in Buckeye Nation as he has fizzled when the lights are brightest and stakes are the highest. The big disappearance started last year when Buford bricked his way to a 2-of-16 shooting night against Kentucky.

Last season's postseason slump has continued this year with Buford connecting on just 13-of-44 shots for an icy 29 percent in the Buckeyes' four-game trek to their first Final Four since 2007.

Buford showed signs of coming out of the slump in the East Regional Final win over Syracuse when he scored 13 points, but a closer look at the box score revealed that he connected on just 3-of-12 from the field but chipped in with nine rebounds and was 6-of-8 from the foul line.

Buford's shooting woes are never far from his mind. He's just thankful his teammates have been able to pick up the slack during his struggles.

"My teammates, they always try to lift me up when I'm having bad games, but when we lose that's the worst part," Buford told the Associated Press this week.

So Ohio State is left to wonder which Buford, who averaged 14.4 points per game this year and 4.9 rebounds per contest, will take the floor on Saturday night—the one who went for 25 points in a regular season finale on the road against Michigan State in which he scored the game-winning basket or the one the who played in a fog in so many recent tournament games.

Ohio State Coach Thad Matta took a shot at Buford's critics.

"Just because somebody shoots a lay up in a warmup line of a JV game, that gives them an opinion on what you're trying to do," Matta said.

One thing that should aid Buford is that he's proven he can play well against Kansas. In the Buckeyes' 78-67 loss to the Jayhawks in December, he scored 21 points. Kansas coach Bill Self isn't going to take Buford for granted.

"People say (he's) erratic. Sometime that happens when you have guys that score the majority of their points outside the paint,' Self said. "But to me, over the course of his career he's been a model of consistency as far as scoring the ball and performing for Ohio State. He's the fourth-leading scorer in the history of the school, which is remarkable because they've had some hard-rockin' guys come through there."