Buckeyes are Champs!

...of the NIT.

OK so it's a consolation prize. But this was a great thing for OSU -- much better than to go to the NCAA and lose in the 1st round. Of course if they had played like this all year they would have made the tourney, been a decent seed, and had a shot at a few wins.

Still, OSU won something like 6 of its last 7 games, running roughshod through the NIT, capping it off with a great win against UMASS, a team that the experts said would run rings around the slow footed OSU.

Uh, no.

UMASS is fast and can score in bunches, but OSU ran with them step for step, accepted the breakneck pace and beat the Minutemen at their own game and by the time the horn sounded it was UMASS that was spent -- cooked -- tired and OSU was still standing.

The question now is Koufos. The 7'1 freshman with legit 3-point range who after February started to play like the offensive machine we OSU fans (selfishly) expected from the get go. Koufos is a matchup nightmare and will prolly go in round 1 of the draft, so keeping him around will be a huge part of the 2008-9 team.

Man..can OSU lose two star freshmen centers back to back? Say it ain't so.