Bubble bursts for Ohio State; Buckeyes NIT-bound

Ohio State could be home for three more games.

COLUMBUS (AP) — A year after finishing second in the nation, the Ohio State Buckeyes weren’t even in the top 65.

Last year’s national runner-up, the Buckeyes were overlooked when the NCAA men’s tournament bracket was announced on Sunday night and had to settle for a National Invitation Tournament home game against UNC-Asheville on Tuesday night.

The Buckeyes weren’t the only Ohio team in the NIT. Dayton (21-10) hosts Cleveland State (21-12) on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in another first-round game.

Coach Thad Matta said the slight by the NCAA will likely serve as an educational tool for his young squad.

“One of the questions I asked them [the younger players] a month and a half ago was, do you make the NCAA tournament because you put an Ohio State uniform on?” Matta said on Sunday night. “They all kind of laughed. They know now that there’s a lot more that goes into it.”

Ohio State hoped that a 19-13 record, a decent RPI (49), two late wins over ranked opponents (Purdue, Michigan State), a 10-8 Big Ten record and a difficult schedule (ranked 13th toughest in the country) might be enough to get it into the tournament.

UNC-Asheville (23-9) made it to the Big South title game before losing.

“UNC-Asheville will be another difficult test,” said Matta, whose team has played a ranked opponent in five of its last six games. “We are fortunate to keep playing.”

Bulldogs coach Eddie Biedenbach said he and his players were excited to be in the NIT.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for our young men to play a team as rich in tradition as Ohio State,” he said.

Senior guard Bryan Smithson said, “We’re looking forward to playing a great team at Ohio State. It should be a great atmosphere.”

If Ohio State, which as a No. 1 seed could host as many as three games, wins its first-round game, it would play the winner of New Mexico at Cal.

Two wins by the Buckeyes could match them against Dayton or Cleveland State, which would need to beat the winner of Utah State at Illinois State to set up a showdown with Ohio State.

Cleveland State coach Gary Waters said his team was looking forward to playing at Dayton.

“This will be a pretty good matchup,” he said. “Dayton is a quality team who really started the year out strong before running into some problems late in the year.”

The Flyers won 14 of their first 15 games but lost nine of their final 16 after that.

The Buckeyes players were disconsolate after finding out they had been left out of the NCAA tournament field.

“We’re just as good as some of the other teams that were put in front of us in the [NCAA] tournament,” forward Matt Terwilliger said. “I think if we make a run here, we can prove that.”

Costly losses to a couple of bottom-dwellers in the Big Ten and a four-game losing skid undoubtedly hurt the Buckeyes’ chances of making it back into the tournament.

“They always say you get what you deserve and I think we did,” said senior point guard Jamar Butler. “The game at Iowa, the game at Michigan — and you can throw some others in there that we could have won but didn’t come ready to play — they came back to haunt us.”

A year ago, the Buckeyes lost to defending champion Florida — which also didn’t make the field this time around. It was the first time since 1980 that both finalists missed the NCAA field the following year.