OSU in field, with Xavier, CSU and Zips

Xavier is a No. 4 seed, while the Buckeyes are No. 8. Akron and Cleveland State picked up No. 13 seeds and tough draws.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ohio State won’t have to go far to play in the NCAA tournament, and that makes coach Thad Matta happy.

The Buckeyes are headed to Dayton — a little more than an hour from their Columbus campus — for their first-round game on Friday against Siena. If they win that one to move to the second round, they could face Louisville, the top team in the tournament.

“You look at the [seeds] 6 through 11, there’s not a lot of difference,” Matta said. “To be in Dayton, just an hour or so away from home — I love that fact. Three years ago we were there, and our fans did a tremendous job of supporting us.”

Ohio State was rewarded with an eighth seed on Sunday, shortly after it lost to Purdue 65-61 in the Big Ten championship game. The Buckeyes improved to 22-10 by making it to the title game.

Matta declined to look ahead to a matchup with Louisville.

“The one thing I’ve learned in all my NCAA tournaments is that the first game is tough, and the second game is even tougher,” he said with a laugh. “If we take care of our business, then we’ll get Louisville. And Louisville is a great basketball team.”

Siena got into the tournament by winning its second straight Metro Atlantic Athletic tournament title March 9, beating Niagara. It’s the fifth time Siena has made the tournament.

Matta said he had watched Siena in action this season.

“I know they knocked off Vanderbilt in the first round [of the NCAA tournament] last year,” Matta said. “Everybody’s back. I’ve gotten to see them on TV. Any teams in an 8 vs. 9 matchup, you know you’ve got teams that can play.”

Cleveland State

Cleveland State is back in the NCAA tournament against Wake Forest, which spent a week ranked as the top team in the country.

Cleveland State got a No. 13 seed and a first-round game against Wake Forest on Friday in Miami. Wake Forest reached the top of the national poll in January.

The Vikings knocked off Butler in the Horizon League title game to win their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1986.

Akron

Akron’s long-awaited return to the NCAA tournament will start on the West Coast.

The Zips got a No. 13 seed and were sent to Portland to make their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1986, when they were the Ohio Valley Conference champions. This time, Akron beat Buffalo to get the Mid-American Conference’s berth in the tournament.

The Zips will play Gonzaga, which got a No. 4 seed.

Xavier

A March fade didn’t cost Xavier too much.

After losing two of their last three games, the 19th-ranked Musketeers wondered how much they would be penalized in their seeding for the NCAA tournament. They had just finished polishing off plates of ribs at coach Sean Miller’s house when they got their answer.

Xavier didn’t fall far, if at all.

The three-time Atlantic 10 regular-season champions got a No. 4 seed and a first-round game against Portland State at Boise, Idaho. The Musketeers (25-7) were in line for such a high seed before they hit a bad stretch.

There was applause when the players realized they were still a No. 4.

“Granted, we haven’t had the best run,” junior forward Derrick Brown said. “But look at our non-conference [schedule] and how we played. We earned it.”

Xavier has become the model for how teams in lower-rated conferences can still get a high seed. The Musketeers were a No. 3 seed last season, when they reached the Elite Eight for the second time in the past five years. With the Atlantic 10 down, Xavier has improved its non-conference schedule to compensate.

This season, the Musketeers beat Missouri and Memphis at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, Auburn and Robert Morris at home, and Cincinnati, Virginia and LSU on the road, giving them one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country. They also lost to Butler at home.