OSUBasketballJunkie
Never Forget 31-0
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Its really disappointing that this group will not see the NCAAs. They have played extremely hard and they have some nice wins.
Slight inspires rout of Hoosiers
AP
Ohio State's Terence Dials is trapped by Indiana de- fenders D. J. White and Marshall Strickland dur- ing the first half Tuesday in Columbus.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Ohio State center Terence Dials said he saw Indiana players saying on TV that they had two difficult games left -- and Ohio State wasn't one of them.
The Buckeyes made the Hoosiers pay for that slight with a 57-44 win Tuesday.
"They kind of overlooked us ... Maybe they should go back and take some of that stuff back," Di- als said. "That got a lot of our guys riled up."
J.J. Sulling- er had 14 of his 17 points in the second half, Dials had 14 points and Jamar Butler added a career-high 13 for the Buckeyes (18-8, 7-5 Big Ten), who have won six of seven.
The Buckeyes took over fourth place in the conference.
While schools in similar straits are close to locking up NCAA berths, the Buckeyes are headed nowhere.
Ohio State President Kar- en Holbrook and outgoing athletics director Andy Geig- er announced in December that the Buckeyes would not play in the NCAA or NIT tournaments to head off stiffer penalties for violations which occurred under former coach Jim O'Brien. Thad Matta, who took over the Buckeyes after O'Brien was fired last summer, said he didn't get any joy out of making things harder for Indiana and other bubble teams. "I'm honestly more concerned with us," Matta said. "I don't like the fact that people talk now about the tournament and all that stuff. Hey, enjoy the game. Maybe I'm saying that because we can't compete in the tournament."
Its really disappointing that this group will not see the NCAAs. They have played extremely hard and they have some nice wins.