LITTLE ROCK — Last we heard from Ohio State, the Buckeyes were sneaking out of New Orleans with the Sugar Bowl trophy.
It was won by the sweat of their brow with five players who shouldn’t have been eligible to play and a coach who was talking out of both sides of his mouth.
Despite allegations that the players had traded OSU football jerseys and other team awards for tattoos, and allegedly for illegal stuff you smoke, the NCAA allowed them to play with pressure from both the Sugar Bowl and ESPN.
Jim Tressel, who knew about the problems and didn’t report them, was eventually fired and the players became anonymous.
Last season, the Buckeyes stumbled through a 6-7 season and tied with Northwestern for the eighth-best Big Ten Conference record at 3-5. The interim coach was not retained.
Ohio State officials closed the book on the scandal by announcing they had hired Urban Meyer, who resigned at Florida a year earlier to spend more time with his family.
A year with his family must have been enough for Meyer, and it allowed OSU to save millions from listening to his boring, monotonous football analysis on TV.
Now comes Buckeyes basketball, and most of Ohio is dreaming about being in New Orleans when OSU plays Kansas in the NCAA Final Four.
A short sidebar, just in case you have never been there: Ohio is a beautiful little state with people who are as much heartlanders as those in Kansas City.
The road from Columbus to New Orleans might have begun last spring, when then freshman Jared Sullinger opted to return for another year of college basketball.
It would be ridiculous to think that his return gave them a first-class ticket. Ohio State is a team of players, not just one. Plus, point guard Aaron Craft was a sophomore who had been the sixth man but hadn’t started a game.
All five starters have averaged more than 10 points a game during the NCAA Tournament.
Sullinger is good, maybe great, and most likely an NBA lottery pick this summer, but every player knows his role and plays it well.
They finished the Big Ten regular season in a three-way tie for first, so anyone thinking they were a lock for the Final Four as far back as last spring would have been taking a bungee jump.
In February, they dropped three of five, losing at home to Michigan State and Wisconsin as well as at Michigan.
They rebounded and closed the regular season by beating Michigan State in East Lansing, 72-70, but a week later lost to the Spartans in the final of the Big Ten Tournament.
In NCAA play, they beat Loyola-Maryland 78-59, Gonzaga 73-66, Cincinnati 81-66 and then topped No. 1 seed Syracuse 77-70.
If there is a go-to guy on this team, a guy who tries to stay under the radar, it is Coach Thad Matta, 44, who began his career at Butler. After one season he jumped to Xavier, and after his third season there, when he led the Musketeers to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight, he jumped to Ohio State.
In 12 seasons as a head coach, he’s never had a losing season, never won fewer than 20 games and has been to 10 NCAA Tournaments and one NIT.
He’s gone from being a Cornjerker at Hoopeston-East Lynn (Ill.) High School to coaching on the biggest stage in college basketball.
So maybe, if Ohio State should have been written in for this Final Four last spring, it had more to do with the coach than the player.
Successful programs always do it that way, especially honest ones.
Sports, Pages 21 on 03/28/2012