Rested Buckeyes head to Big Ten tourney as top seed

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

There are lots of players who don’t like conference tournaments. Ohio State’s Evan Turner isn’t one of them.

Turner loves it that the games come as if they’re on a conveyor belt, that coaches don’t have time to devise intricate defensive plans and that players can let their natural instincts flow.

The games at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis are like playground pickup games with capacity crowds.

“It’s a great atmosphere. It’s a showcase,” said Turner, recently selected as the conference’s player of the year. “You see Big Ten basketball at its best because they’re not typical Big Ten games. Coaches don’t have time to prepare for it, because you have to go back each day, [so] you’re just playing basketball. You have a lot of high-scoring games and it’s fun.”

The fifth-ranked Buckeyes, winners of 13 of their last 15 games, try to back up their top seeding in the tournament when they play in the quarterfinals Friday. The Big Ten co-champions (with Purdue and Michigan State) will meet the winner of Thursday’s first-round game between eighth-seeded Michigan and ninth-seeded Iowa.

Team captain David Lighty was unable to play in last year’s Big Ten tournament, missing all but the first few games of the season after breaking a bone in his foot. He’s looking forward to this year’s tournament more than anyone else on the Ohio State roster.

“It’s kind of like a high school mode. You’re going to play a team on Friday and they play Thursday so you go over there with your jacket on, with your teammates, and you watch them. You sit in the stands and get booed by their fans,” Lighty said with a laugh. “And I haven’t played there in a while. This tournament’s going to be kind of fun for me.”

The Buckeyes (24-7) have won seven of their last 10 games in the conference tournament, taking their only Big Ten tournament title in 2007. They’ve lost in the championship game three other times, including last season’s 65-61 setback to Purdue.

Coach Thad Matta has gone with just five players for the most part down the stretch. They have benefited by having nine days off between clinching their share of the title with a 73-57 win over Illinois on March 2 and their Big Ten tournament debut.

The Buckeyes feel rejuvenated, despite a long and arduous season.

“As I planned practice last night, I looked at my watch and, I’m like, my gosh, it’s March 10,” Matta said. “And I did the math of October, November, December, January, February, March. It’s amazing. But it doesn’t feel that way to me at all.”

It has already been a banner season. Besides capturing a piece of their third Big Ten regular-season crown in the last five years, Turner was selected as the Big Ten’s player of the year and Matta was picked as the top coach.

“That’s really cool, definitely just being recognized. I’m really grateful that I have those honors,” said Turner, listed on almost every All-America team.

Matta has been tabbed as the Big Ten’s coach of the year each of the three times his teams have won the regular-season crown.

“I really believe this, that’s the players,” he said. “I don’t score, I don’t rebound, I don’t get stops — the guys earn coaches those awards.”