Knight’s Rave Reviews Can’t Stop Ohio State

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. —  As always, you need only to watch Bobby Knight to properly gauge Indiana fortunes.

For instance, the Knight pregame performance as the No. 3-ranked Hoosiers readied for undefeated and No. 4-rated Ohio State:

Shake hands with Buckeye Coach Randy Ayers. . . . Hold a game program in front of Dick Vitale’s face as the ESPN commentator addressed a nation. . . . Happily pat the backs of referees.

The mood by game’s end:

Scream at forward Matt Nover for ill-advised jump hook (“WHY?” moaned Knight). . . . Scream at forward Calbert Cheaney for, well, who knows what. . . . Kick chair. . . . Bury head in hands.

Alas, nothing worked, including the Hoosiers, who lost to Ohio State, 93-85, before 17,318 at Assembly Hall.

Knight tried everything. He ranted and raved. He cajoled and soothed. But this was a game that belonged to the Buckeyes from start to finish. Ahead by 19 points at halftime, the Buckeyes withstood the predictable Hoosier rally and by doing so, tightened their grip on the Big Ten lead, to say nothing of improving their image as a budding powerhouse.

“The nation got a chance to see what Ohio State can do,” said guard Jamaal Brown, who scored a career-high 29 points for the Buckeyes. “We’re for real.”

This they are. Ohio State held the Hoosiers to a 29% field goal percentage in that first half. Cheaney, Indiana’s best player, had only two shots, both misses, in the first six minutes. The Hoosiers didn’t have an assist until the second half. And they didn’t a have a chance to win this game until 1:21 left to play, when Indiana cut the lead to three points.

Unimpressed, Ohio State quickly extended its margin to seven points and never glanced back.

If you’re looking for telltale signs of a program on the rise, remember these:

--The Buckeye victory at Assembly Hall was only the second in the last 19 years.

“Very sweet,” Brown said, “sweeter than candy. Only two teams came in here and did that and I’m just glad to be one of them.”

--Despite their 16-0 record, it was only the second win against a ranked team. Criticized for a patsy nonconference schedule, the Buckeyes may have proved that they truly belong among the country’s elite.

“Hey, it’s tough to come in here and win, just because there’s so much tradition,” said forward Chris Jent. “Indiana is the basketball state. When you think of Indiana, you think of basketball. You think of Bobby Knight.”

And when you mention Ohio State?

“Well, I think people have forgotten the great (Ohio State) teams of the past. But anyone who has any knowledge of basketball can’t look at us and say that we don’t have a good basketball team.”

You’ll get no argument from Knight, who watched the Buckeyes completely dominate his Hoosiers (16-2) in the early going.

“In the first half, Ohio State played about as well as anybody’s played us in the last couple of years,” he said. “At halftime, we told them that if we cut it to 10 with 10 minutes to play, we would have a chance to win. We really didn’t have a chance to win.”

Knight scanned the final statistics sheet. There it was--zero assists in the first 20 minutes.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever had a team play an entire half without an assist,” Knight said.

Ohio State could do little wrong. After a slow start, the Buckeyes began sinking shot after shot. If it wasn’t Brown, it was Jim Jackson (20 points), or Treg Lee (17) or Mark Baker (13). For the game, the Buckeyes made 62% of their shots from the field.

Meanwhile, Indiana struggled to find a scorer. Cheaney, usually as dependable as a farmer’s almanac, seemed nervous. Knight benched him to start the second half. Minutes later, Knight approached his star player.

“You want to play?” he said.

Cheaney nodded. Not long after that, the Hoosiers had whittled away at the Buckeye lead. At one point, Cheaney made five of nine Hoosier baskets to reduce the Ohio State margin three.

It didn’t matter. Ohio State refused to budge.

“Last year, we would have lost this game,” Baker said.

This year, they win--not easily, mind you, but convincingly.