Bubble Burst?

March 02 2008 12:03 PM -- Filed in: Basketball

Ohio State's 71-57 loss at Minnesota yesterday most likely dashed their hopes of making the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season. In case you missed it here are the, er, highlights. (ESPN's lame video site will not allow me to embed the video and you probably do not want to see it anyway.)

Do the Buckeyes have any chance of getting an at-large bid? Joe Lunardi does not think so. He has not said as much, but as of last Friday the czar of bracket prognostication already had the Buckeyes on the outside looking in.

LastFourOut

After being outscored by 13 points in the second half yesterday their stock certainly did not increase. Was it a death knell? This coming week offers both salvation and gloom. The Buckeyes have two difficult home games remaining: March 4th v. Purdue (23-6, 14-2) and March 9th v. Michigan State (22-6, 10-5). Ohio State has to win those two games and may even have to do some damage in the Big Ten tournament to erase the memory of yesterday from the Selection Committee's mind. But a couple of nice victories over Top 20 teams and an opening round win in the conference tournament would be nice momentum for a team that has stumbled badly down the stretch.

Coming to an Arena Near You: If you are having football withdrawal and you just watched the Buckeyes crumble in Minnesota, there may be minor (league) help on the way. The Arena League now features nine former Ohio State players.

This was opening weekend for the Arena League and two former OSU quarterbacks led their teams into action. Steve Bellisari was 20-of-38 for 210 yards and three scores, before leaving the game with an injury in the second half. Joe Germaine was 19-of-31 for 236 yards, 5 touchdowns and 1 interception. Neither the Utah Blaze or New Orleans VooDoo are coming to town but you can catch the Destroyers along with others at Nationwide Arena the season.