NCAA Tournament Second Round Recap - Ga Tech vs Ohio State

(2) Ohio State 75, (10) Georgia Tech 66

Where has this Georgia Tech (23-12, 7-9 ACC) team been all year?

Georgia Tech fans mush have wondered as much when watching the first half of Sunday's second-round NCAA Tournament game against Ohio State (28-7, 14-4 Big Ten).  The Yellow Jackets held the No. 2 Buckeyes to only 28 points, and Tech’s sometimes inept offense managed to work on occasion.  The first-half Jackets looked like the squad that Tech fans were expecting to see all season long.
 
The Yellow Jackets were expected to have a big campaign, due to having arguably more talent than any Georgia Tech team since the 2004 squad, featuring Jarrett Jack and Will Bynum, walked off the court after losing in the national championship game to Connecticut.  The coaches' and media polls had both voted the Jackets as a preseason top 25 team. A freshman super-recruit, 6’10” power forward Derrick Favors, came to Tech as one of the top recruits in the nation, joining a cast that already included standouts Gani Lawal and Iman Shumpert. 
 
The Yellow Jackets’ Sunday opponent, the Ohio State Buckeyes, also feature an extremely talented and extremely shallow lineup.  The Buckeyes essentially go six deep.  Here’s what you need to know about Ohio State: In a year when John Wall of Kentucky has mesmerized scouts and fans alike, Evan Turner is the favorite to win Player of the Year despite missing six games due to injury.  Ohio State went 3-3 during those games, and if Turner had played, Ohio State would have likely beaten Michigan and potentially beaten Butler and Wisconsin.  Win those games, or even two of the three, and Ohio State might have entered this tournament as a No. 1 seed. 

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Georgia Tech clearly set out to shut down Turner – no easy task, as the Big Ten Player of the Year finished with 24 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists.  The Jackets began the game with a stifling full-court press and slid into a 2-1-2 zone, which had the effect of forcing several early Buckeye mistakes.  Georgia Tech forced three turnovers in the first two minutes of the game, as Ohio State looked like it had no answer for the press.  However, after Ohio State was able to break the press a few times, the Jackets inexplicably abandoned the press and allowed Ohio State to set up its half-court offense. 
 
Nevertheless, the Jackets managed to lock down the Buckeyes’ offense in the first half, holding them to 28 first-half points, 16 of which came courtesy of Turner.  The rest of the offense never seemed to get comfortable attacking the zone, and most of the outside shots weren’t falling.  Unfortunately for Tech, Favors got into early foul trouble and spent much of the first half on the bench, which had the effect of slowing down Georgia Tech on the offensive end, and Ohio State led at the half, 28-26.
 
The second half was all Ohio State, though, as the other four Buckeyes on the floor managed to contribute on offense for the first time in the game.  Before the first officials’ timeout, Ohio State had raced out to a nine-point lead on an 11-point flurry of layups, dunks, and a David Lighty three-pointer.  For most of the second half, Georgia Tech was completely ineffectual on both ends of the court.  When OSU's Jon Diebler hit his fourth three-pointer of the half with just under five minutes to go in the game to put the Buckeyes up 65-50, the game appeared to be over.  However, Tech seemingly cloned its first-half self and forced three turnovers in the next three minutes, and the Jackets offense went on an 11-0 run to close the deficit to four on a Favors 3-point play with 1:47 remaining.  Ohio State scored 10 points down the stretch to close out the game, eight of those points coming on free throws, and the Buckeyes survived a scare in the final minutes to advance.

 
WHAT’S NEXT

In the Sweet 16, No. 2 seed Ohio State will play No. 6 seed Tennessee, who dispatched No. 14 seed Ohio University to advance to the round of 16.

By: John Cary
DFN Sports Guest Writer