Thursday, March 22, 2012
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Ohio head coach John Groce embraces guard Walter Offutt (3) after the Bobcats’ 65-60 win over Michigan in Round 2 of the men’s NCAA basketball tournament in Nashville, Tenn. The Bobcats, who have become the tournament’s latest mid-major darlings, knocked off South Florida in Round 3 to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1964. They face North Carolina on Friday.
Ohio University team and fans embrace role of NCAA tournament bracket buster
Associated Press
ATHENS
Walter Luckett arrived in the ’70s, made a magazine cover and created a stir, but left without getting the Bobcats very far.
Gary Trent morphed into the “Shaq of the MAC” in the ’90s, taking the program to national heights that didn’t translate at tournament time.
Ohio University went 48 years looking for more than one shining moment in the NCAA tournament, going through seven coaches and a handful of stars without advancing past that opening weekend. It’s finally changed for the school nestled in the hills of southeast Ohio.
The Bobcats have become the tournament’s latest mid-major darlings, knocking off Michigan and South Florida to reach the round of 16 for the first time since 1964. They’ll play North Carolina on Friday in St. Louis.
The long wait has made it sweet indeed.
“It’s very warming,” Trent said from Minneapolis, where he’s an elementary school intervention specialist. “It’s so great to see them advance. There’s only 16 teams playing in the country, and Ohio U. happens to be one of them.”
Even though the school was on spring break, the students still around campus jammed Court Street after the 13th-seeded Bobcats ousted Michigan in their opening game. Then, the Mid-American Conference tournament champions topped the Big East’s best defensive team for another celebration that got more than just the town talking.
“This has been unreal,” said Walter Offutt, a junior guard. “Let’s continue the run.”
Ohio had a chance to reach the Sweet 16 in 2010 when it beat Georgetown 97-83 in its opening game, then played poorly in an 83-68 loss to Tennessee.
Coach John Groce, who helped Thad Matta take teams to the tournament as an assistant at Butler, Xavier and Ohio State, changed his between-game approach this time to limit the distractions. He took away their cell phones and limited their internet access between games.
“It wasn’t punishment,” Groce said. “They did have a couple of hours after they got back to return some of their text messages and emails and tweets and Facebook and MySpace and email, whatever else they do. So we gave them time to do that.
“Then we grabbed the phones, and not one guy — that’s how I knew this team was really locked in — not one single guy complained.”
Groce is getting much credit for the long-awaited breakthrough.
“The biggest thing for him — and he’s done a great job of it — is getting his team to play at the right time,” Ohio State’s Matta said.
Ohio expected great things when Luckett, one of the nation’s top prep scorers, picked Athens. He was featured on the cover of the Nov. 27, 1972 cover of Sports Illustrated for a feature story on freshmen, shown dribbling with his left hand at midcourt at The Convo.
In the SI story, Luckett noted that Ohio State got more attention back then, but that could change.
“I’ll be followed here,” Luckett said. “I’ll be known. I hope I can take the school with me.”
It took a lot longer for the Bobcats to arrive.