After a long, long last, it is finally a Buckeyes Tournament Gameday as Ohio State begins the Tournament against TCU.
It has been 1,460 days since the Ohio State Buckeyes played in the NCAA Tournament.
That day, they took on the Villanova Wildcats in the second round of the NCAA Tournament after beating Loyola of Chicago in the first round. It didn't go so well for the Buckeyes in the Round of 32 against the No. 2 seed as the Wildcats disposed of the Buckeyes 71-61.
Then, the drought began.
Ohio State's program took a bit of a nose-dive into mediocrity, and they have been unable to get their head above water since then. Three straight seasons of .500 basketball led to this year.
With two weeks to go, the Buckeyes were on the outside looking in for just making the tournament. Earlier in the season, Athletic Director Ross Bjork publicly challenged Jake Diebler and the Buckeyes to basically get it together. He said that he expects not only to make the tournament but to make a deep run.
The vibes were very bad around the program, but the team didn't let it affect them. They had a huge upset win over No. 25 Wisconsin and then had a very hard-fought loss to Michigan State. This piqued everyone's interest.
Then, they got completely blown out by Iowa, which looked like the nail in the coffin.
Ohio State didn't let it end their season. They responded in a must-win game with a huge win over No. 8 Purdue, they blew out Penn State, and took care of Indiana to close their season.
Many thought that was enough to get them into the tournament, but they didn't stop there. They took down Iowa in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament and took top-seeded Michigan to the brink.
They fought their tails off, and because of it, they secured a spot in the tournament as an eight seed.
They were set up with an opening tournament tip-off against the TCU Horned Frogs to get all of March Madness underway.
TCU is very similar to the Buckeyes on paper. Both teams have good wins, and both teams have horrible losses. Both teams play good defense and are led by a very solid player. Both teams have similar records, and both finished in the middle of the pack in their conference.
The first round of the tournament is always so special. Making the tournament is an incredible accomplishment, and getting out of the first round is the mission.
The Buckeyes start their journey at 12:15, and the entire tournament gets underway.
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