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CENTER OF MADNESS
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Gonzaga’s Elias Harris, left, has the ball batted away by Ohio State’s Lenzelle Smith during the second half of Saturday’s NCAA tournament game. The Buckeyes are one of four teams from Ohio in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA men’s tournament.
— NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT —
By Doug Lesmerises
Cleveland Plain Dealer
COLUMBUS
On the way to the Sweet 16, March Madness has been swept up by the Ohio Four.
The state is high in the middle, at the peak of the sport, and round on both ends because we’re talking basketball, not football.
For the first time, one state has four teams among the last 16 standing in the NCAA tournament, with Ohio State, Cincinnati, Xavier and Ohio University giving the state 25 percent of the teams still alive for the national championship.
Not bad, considering Ohio has 13 of the 345 schools in the nation that play in Division I — or 3.8 percent.
Everyone knew Ohio would be a battleground state in 2012, but it figured to be in November for the presidential election, not in March on the basketball court.
States such as California, Kentucky, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas have sent three teams to the Sweet 16 before, but it took a perfect 8-0 start to the tournament from the Buckeyes and three other teams from the Buckeye State to make history happen.
Since the tournament expanded in 1985, Ohio placed two teams in the Sweet 16 just three times previously, in 1992, 1999 and 2010.
On 12 occasions, the state was shut out of the Sweet 16.
Now Ohio will be chasing its first national title since Cincinnati beat Ohio State in consecutive championship games in 1961 and 1962.
Since then, 17 states and Washington, D.C., have seen teams claim titles, while Ohio is 0-3 in the national title game.
Cincinnati lost in 1963, Dayton in 1967 and Ohio State (officially) in 2007.
Oddsmakers have made Ohio State the second favorite to win it all, behind overall No. 1 seed Kentucky, but regardless of what happens next, the stories of the tournament run through Ohio for the next three days.
No. 2 seed Ohio State and No. 6 Cincinnati meet in Boston in an East Region semifinal on Thursday at 9:45 p.m., the teams’ first tournament meeting since those championships and just the second overall in the last 50 years.
Ohio State won a neutral site regular-season matchup in Indianapolis in 2006, when the Buckeyes made it pretty clear they weren’t interested in playing the Bearcats on a regular basis.
“Nah. The Xavier-Cincinnati game is probably good,” OSU coach Thad Matta said then.
Xavier, the 10th seed in the South Region, plays No. 3 Baylor in Atlanta at 7:15 p.m. on Friday.
The Musketeers and Bearcats are bitter rivals that engaged in a bench-clearing brawl in December, yet both regrouped to make it this far.
That Xavier game will be called by Clark Kellogg, the former Ohio State star and current CBS analyst. His son, Nick, is a sophomore at Ohio, averaging 24 minutes and nine points per game. Clark Kellogg told USA Today he would never ask to call his son’s games, but he would do them if assigned.
Seeded 13th in the Midwest Region, Ohio will face No. 1 North Carolina in St. Louis at 7:47 p.m. on Friday.
The Bobcats have advanced deeper into the tournament than any MAC team since Kent State went to a regional final in 2002. Ohio is coached by John Groce, a former assistant under Matta at both Ohio State and Xavier. Ohio State assistant Jeff Boals is a former player and two-year captain for the Bobcats.
“It’s super for Ohio basketball,” Ohio State legend Jerry Lucas, who played in three straight national title games, winning in 1960 then losing those two battles to Cincinnati, told the Associated Press. “This whole region has traditionally had great basketball. To see Ohio be the first to have four in the Sweet 16 — that’s great.”
The NCAA tournament started last Tuesday and Wednesday with the first four games in Dayton, an event that drew President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron. It might end with the state chasing a title.
For now, the tournament’s middle belongs to Ohio.