Ohio State faced two big questions as it set out to defend its Big Ten co-championship this season.
The first: Who would replace Scoonie Penn, the gritty little point guard who led the team to the 1999 Final Four?
The second: Who would replace Michael Redd as the go-to guy? Michael Redd, who always wanted to take the last shot, as well as the first, left early for the NBA.
But three weeks into the Big Ten winter, a more troubling question confronted the Buckeyes: Would they ever win another game?
After a stultifying 57-42 loss to Wisconsin Jan. 24, the Buckeyes stood 12-7 overall and 3-4 in the Big Ten.
And their next game was at home against Michigan State, which had whipped the Buckeyes by 15 only a week earlier.
“We easily could have gotten embarrassed at home by Michigan State with where our psyche was at that point,” coach Jim O’Brien said.
But the Buckeyes surprised then-No. 3 Michigan State 64-55, and then followed up with victories in three of their next four, including a 69-68 win at No. 14 Iowa and a 63-58 victory over the 16th-ranked Badgers in Columbus.
“Once you get one, you can talk in terms of why can’t we do this again, and then it becomes habit forming,” O’Brien said.
After relying heavily on their backcourt for the last two years, the Buckeyes seem to have found a way to mesh all five men on the court.
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Their offense has been boosted by guard Brian Brown, who ranks eighth in Big Ten scoring at 15.7 points per game and eighth in assists at 3.57 per game.
At 16-8, 7-5 in the Big Ten, Ohio State is close to clinching an NCAA tournament berth. But O’Brien has warned his players not to relax down the stretch.
“Under no circumstances are we out of the woods,” O’Brien said. “We still have a long way to go. We certainly not good enough to think we’re something special and we’ve arrived.”
Indiana in flux? After listening to daily speculation about Indiana’s search for a permanent successor to Bob Knight, Hoosier interim coach Mike Davis wasn’t thrilled when his two best players, Jared Jeffries and Kirk Haston, told the Indianapolis Star they were mulling the possibility of turning pro after this season.
But Davis understands that Jeffries, a freshman, and Haston, a redshirt junior, may be uncertain over their futures.
“It’s been no different than me thinking, `Where will I be next year?'” Davis said. “Those thoughts cross your mind.
“Kirk and Jared know that we have something special going on here at Indiana and that this could be an outstanding basketball team next year. But if they want to weigh their options, that’s up to them.
“They have family members who are very intelligent and they’ll give the right advice on the whole deal.”
Davis said he hopes Jeffries will listen to his father, Tom, who told the Star he doesn’t believe his son is ready for the NBA.
“It’s really important for [Jeffries] to get stronger,” Davis said. “He’s a really talented player. At 6-10 he can do a lot of things. But strength is a main concern.
“He’s having an outstanding season for a freshman, and there’s a lot of room for improvement for him.”
Free throws: Wisconsin’s Mark Vershaw, a senior from East Peoria, last weekend became the 26th Badger to score 1,000 career points. Vershaw’s points-per-game average rose from 5.3 as a freshman to 7.2 as a sophomore to 11.8 last year.
This year the 6-9 Vershaw has dropped off to 8.9 points per game, but he’s one of the team’s better passers, dishing out 2.7 assists per game.
“He’s kind of a post body but kind of a guard mentality,” Wisconsin coach Brad Soderberg said. “His production over his career has been very steady.”