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BEXLEY, Ohio – Jared Sullinger scored a solid 3-point as part of a big first half in the opening match of The Scarlet & Gray's Basketball Tournament on Saturday, and the small University gym went crazy.
A child wearing a Buckeye beanie and an Aaron Craft jersey, who could not be older than two years old the last time Sullinger or Craft played in front of a crowd of Ohio, rose up and imitated by firing a shooting round on his left arm in celebration. At the other end of the gym, a section of OSU students and current players like CJ Jackson, Micah Potter, Kaleb and Andre Wesson and rookie Luther Muhammad jumped and screamed [19659002] Courtside, Clark Kellogg and Michael Redd applauded. In a VIP box over the pitch, Thad Matta saw one of the best players he's ever done doing what he's done so many times during his college career – he began a basketball feast in the Ohio State
Sullinger said after Scarlet and Gray beat the West Virginia Wildcats 99-68 to advance to the second round of the $ 2 million win-win tournament dollars.
The OSU star team – Sullinger, Craft, Lighty David, Jon Diebler, Byron Mullens and others – has reached the last four of this tournament. ;last year. Mullens is a new addition, as is the former state guard of Penn Talor Battle. When you try to earn that kind of money, crossing the lines to get a player from another Big Ten program is a fair game so this player can help you. Battle, who scored 16 points and managed four 3s, Saturday, can do it
If this team does not come back to the last four – honestly, if it does not win everything – consider this a surprise. "I did not think there was a more talented team than we did last year, but we have to play the games," coach and former Buckeye goalkeeper Scoonie Penn. I said. "We have new additions, and we remain talented, but talent does not win any game. You need basketball players who know how to play the game, high IQ guys, and that's what we have., then you have a chance at something special. "
Saturday's victory, however, was largely about talent. And the man, it was fun.
This is exactly what the organizers wanted when they decided to play Midwest Regional just outside Columbus. Rowdy. It was a two hour basketball celebration of the Ohio State that should resume when Scarlet & Gray will play a Texas Tech Alumni team Sunday at 2 pm. in the second round (tickets here)
The timing of all this makes Matta's stars and the current program under new coach Chris Holtmann synchronize in an interesting way.
A $ 2 million race last year, after a failed pair attempts to team up for previous TBTs, the moment could not have been more weird. When Scarlet & Gray announced that it was last year, Matta was about a month away from being fired. Change was needed, the program was headed in the wrong direction, but at the same time most of its best players from a win-time era would be on ESPN playing in a tournament that is gaining popularity every year since its creation.
Scarlet and Gray continued to win, and those who paid attention to this team and the program in Columbus were reminded how good it was.
Now, after an unexpected first year under Holtmann, Scarlet & Gray is exciting people once again at a time when the program appears to be on the rise – piling up big recruitment wins in addition to the surprising race that's going on. he's coming to have. The program has felt a little dead in the water a year ago. Now, there is momentum for his past, his present, and his future.
"Our program has taken a hit in the last two years, but when you have a bunch of people looking to resurrect it and bring it back – it's not just the guys who are in the program right now, that's it. we were part of the program and we will always be part of it, "said Penn. Look, there is obviously no correlation between this team of Scarlet & Gray running a race and the Ohio State basketball program that succeeds under Holtmann. These are separate entities, one that should be dominant in this tournament and the other with real issues coming into the second year of what remains a bit of a rebuild.
But you could not help but feel the good Saturday, and how the emotion of the fans caused by the nostalgia for what some of these Matta teams have accomplished is starting to come back when these fans are thinking about the current program.
Holtmann and his team were not there on Saturday. They are on the path of recruitment. But the current players were there. Holtmann's wife, Lori, and their daughter were in the stands. When Matta came down to do an interview with ESPN before the third quarter, they all took part in a standing ovation for the program's most rewarded coach.
He recalled that the OSU basketball is in a new era with new leadership, everything is still very connected.
So enjoy the party. It looks like this one could end with a lot of money for these old Buckeyes, and maybe these good vibrations will continue in November and the second year of Holtmann.
At the very least, it should be fun to be a basketball fan again from the Ohio State.
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