D'Angelo Russell Adds to Legendary Frosh Season with Sizzling NCAA Tourney Debut

The legend of D'Angelo Russell continues.

Facing the type of defensive pressure that could drive even a fifth-year senior insane, Russell handled VCU's "HAVOC" with relative ease, finishing his first career NCAA tournament game with 28 points in a 75-72 overtime win for the Buckeyes.

Even an elbow to the eyebrow that left him a bloody mess couldn't slow down the one-man wrecking crew.

But if you were surprised by how incredible the freshman looked on Thursday afternoon, you shouldn't have been.

It's exactly the type of thing he has been doing all season long. Matt Norlander of CBSSports.com raved on Twitter about how smooth Russell looks on the court:

Russell entered the tournament averaging 19.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.6 steals per game. In any normal season, he would have been named the Wayman Tisdale Freshman of the Year with room to spare. Instead, that honor went to Duke's Jahlil Okafor.

Might that have been the last bit of motivation he needed to fuel the best tournament run by a freshman since Carmelo Anthony led Syracuse to the 2003 national championship?

Once he got over what could have been some early jitters, Russell certainly appeared to be playing with a chip on his shoulder. He had just two points by the time Ohio State fell behind 25-15, but he scored 17 of the team's next 30 points, pacing the Buckeyes all the way back to a six-point lead.

And then, late at a critical moment in a close game, he went and busted out these ridiculous dribbling moves, as Rob Dauster captured on Vine:

He did miss the shot after that incredible display, but that play alone illustrates how difficult he was to contain.

What else is new, though, right? Russell has now scored in double figures in 32 consecutive games and is the only player on the roster averaging better than 10 points per contest. He has been Ohio State's heart and soul all season long, and you're crazy if you thought he would let his team go down without a fight.

As OSU coach Thad Matta told reporters after the game, "He's a winner. The kid loves to win. He's going to do whatever he can to win basketball games."

After all, we're talking about the kid who scored 25 points in the first half of a road win over Minnesota in early January.

This is the ballplayer who recorded 40 points, 20 rebounds and 16 assists over the course of consecutive games against ranked opponents in Indiana and Maryland.

Russell is the man who put up a triple-double against Rutgers.

Like a bunch of proud mamas and papas, we've watched Russell grow up before our eyes over the past four months. He was already great when he arrived, but now he's simply incredible and plenty capable of being the driving force behind a deep tournament run.

What's that you say? Ohio State has an impossible road ahead, starting with Saturday's game against Arizona?

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Well, you certainly don't have to go too far back in history to find a low-seeded team making a deep run on the back of an electrifying guard, because those sound a lot like the doubtful questions we asked last March about Shabazz Napier and No. 7-seed Connecticut before its round-of-32 showdown with Villanova. Does anyone remember how things turned out for those Huskies?

Look, we're not saying Ohio State is going to win the national championship. We're not even saying the Buckeyes should beat Arizona.

But this is March, and crazy things happen in March. Just take one look at your already-marred-by-a-dozen-losses bracket if you need a reminder. So is it really that crazy—given what he has already done on a regular basis this season—to think that Russell might be capable of single-handedly carrying this Ohio State team to at least one more win?

Russell currently ranks ninth in the KenPom.com Player of the Year standings. Despite being asked to take more than 30 percent of the shots while he is on the court, he has still been incredibly efficient, boasting an O-rating of 114.8 and hitting 42.0 percent of his three-point attempts.

To help put that O-rating into perspective to show how incredible he has been, it's the ninth-highest O-rating among players used on at least 28 percent of possessions. The next-best freshman on that list sits in 50th place.

He won't win the Naismith trophy. He most likely won't win the Wooden Award. But you won't find a player in the country who means more to his team's tournament dreams than Russell.

He has provided us with plenty of unforgettable moments already, and if he keeps playing like he did against VCU on Thursday, those dreams just might include a trip to the Final Four.

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.