The Passion of College Basketball

With March madness right around the corner, hype undoubtedly fills the atmosphere for college basketball fans nationwide, as they gear up to watch their favorite team and get together with their buddies to fill out tournament brackets.

The spring weather is here and when we take a deep breath of air outside, we feel reverberated...relieved. The same feeling comes when the NFL or NBA playoffs come, when the NCAA football bowl games are on and definitely in that special time of the late month of March when 64 teams test their fate in the NCAA basketball tournament.

And as it has done in the many years of the tournament, passion controls the outcome of games with a little skill and great coaching...passion.

Thad Matta, head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes basketball team, is back at it again, as he brings his passion along with a young-yet-talented basketball team into the NCAA tournament, looking to take another crack at the world of college basketball.

Since taking the head coaching job he's done nothing but good, bringing in top-noch recruiting classes, leading the Bucks to a national championship in 2006, and winning the NIT tournament. Looking at the first opponent the Bucks will be facing (Siena) on Mar. 20, we could almost guarantee a Buckeye win, right?

Wrong!

The Buckeyes' defense will have their hands full in guarding 6'3" guard Kenny Hasbrouck (14.8 points per game), 6'6" guard/forward Edwin Ubiles (14.6 points per game), and 6'5" forward Alex Franklin (13.6 points per game).

The key to victory for the Buckeyes will be to lock down the duo of stud shooter Hasbrouck and slash and dash Ubiles. This matchup will require Evan Turner and Jon Diebler to both man up on the two of them (both of them very similar to the "man" they're guarding) and score more points.

An advantage Ohio State has over them is size. With Simmons and Diebler drawing attention behind the arc, the middle is bound to open up some time. The Bucks have to feed the ball inside to freshman stud (and former class mate of mine) 7'1" B.J. Mullens and 6'9" Dallas Lauderdale (who has a 7'5" wing span).

The tallest guy on the Siena team is 6'9" and has had foul trouble in the past. If he gets in foul trouble, the Saints will have a lot of problems inside the paint. I predict a Buckeye win with the score being 75-60.

If Ohio State does these thing they will move on to the 2nd round of the NCAA where they will most like play Louisville. Looking at this matchup, we could almost guarantee a Cardinal win right? Wrong!

Sure, the No. 1 seed Louisville squad had the speedsters in and 6'9" potential first-round draft pick Earl Clark (who dribbles like a point guard, drives to the basket with intensity and shoots as good as anyone) and Terrence Williams, with a complimenting 6'8" Samardo Samuels under the bucket.

But they're not unbeatable. What makes this team so dangerous is their depth of height. They've got 6'9" Clark, 6'8" Samuels, 6'10 Terrence Jennings, and 6'8" George Goode. This team is loaded with speed, size, and athleticism. Although I didn't jot down a Buckeye victory on my bracket, they could pull it off.

The first concern the Bucks should have is Earl Clark on offense. The guy will burn you in many different ways. There's not many people in the country who can man up on on him and lock him down.

I imagine Ohio State will come up with a double team scheme or two to slow him down. One attribute that Louisville has is great ball movement. Turnovers would be key in stopping such a team and slowing them down.

On offense, OSU needs spread the perimeter. They have the players capable of knocking down three-pointers...just not one like 6'9" 220 lbs Earl Clark. And in having good perimeter ball movement this does two things: (1) open up guys for threes and (2) leaves one-on-one basketball under the bucket.

If this is successful, the Bucks should play the No. 1 seed very closely, led by the passion of head coach Thad Matta.

God bless and GO BUCKS!!!