David Briggs: Don't look now, but Ohio State, Michigan heading toward mega showdown
Feb. 12—These truly are unprecedented times, and not just because I'm writing a column about Ohio State and Michigan basketball before March.
There is also the latest AP college hoops poll.
Have you seen who's missing from it?
We haven't seen such a shortage of blue bloods since the end of the Red Scare.
As if the social order was flipped like an hourglass, everybody who is somebody could be a nobody come time to make the guest list for the spring formal (also known as the NCAA tournament).
Duke. Kansas. Kentucky. North Carolina. They're all unranked for the first time since 1961, as are the remainder of the 13 winningest programs in Division I history — a noble class that includes Indiana, Syracuse, and UCLA.
It's a shame, really (insert sad face).
Now, ask us if we care?
At least in this neck of the (hard) woods, the hoops remains just fine.
As the here-today-gone-next-semester NBA factories continue to fall off the face of the sport, third-ranked Michigan and No. 4 Ohio State have gone the other way, unexpectedly rising to the top in a year that appears there for the taking.
Here's how good the Wolverines are: They've been sidelined since Jan. 22 and not even the most ardent Ohio State fan — looking at you, Karl from Columbus on the car phone — has accused them of using their athletic department's two-week virus shutdown as cover to avoid playing.
And the Buckeyes? They just keep rolling, leading the country with five wins against teams currently in the AP Top 25, including four on the road.
Both teams are proof positive that experience is anything but a negative.
Actually, that's not quite true.
We already knew that.
Just when it seemed like the mega freshmen were taking over the game — Kentucky won the title with three one-and-done guys in 2012, then Duke did the same in 2015 — the years since have proven that's the exception to the rule.
More often than not, the teams that come of age together prevail when it counts.
And that's shaping up to be especially true in this on-the-fly year.
No. 1 Gonzaga and No. 2 Baylor are as seasoned as they are dominant, while the teams hottest in pursuit are those that needed the least acclimation when the pandemic sabotaged any semblance of a normal offseason.
Those that have been baked instead of microwaved.
Take Michigan, which was picked to finish sixth in the Big Ten, one spot ahead of Ohio State.
The Wolverines (13-1, 8-1 Big Ten) have plenty of talent, don't get us wrong. Senior forward Isaiah Livers and sophomore guard Franz Wagner could be selected in this year's NBA draft, and 7-foot-1 freshman Hunter Dickinson is an absolute force inside.
Yet the greatest strength of a well-coached team that counts five seniors among its top seven scorers is how well it plays together. Michigan is in the top 10 nationally in offensive and defensive efficiency.
Ohio State, too, is an example of the player development and buy-in that comes only with time.
The Buckeyes (16-4, 10-4) do not have a single player ranked among ESPN's top 100 NBA prospects. Nor does their roster strike fear on paper, with the team led by an undersized star forward (E.J. Liddell), a hit-or-miss playmaker shooting 36.8 percent from the field (Duane Washington), and a classically trained glue guy (Kyle Young).
But just as as 1 + 1 = 6 — hey, I went to a state school — the sum of their parts do not tell the story.
Like at Michigan, the pieces fit perfectly, thanks in part to the trial and error of time. Seven of the Buckeyes' top nine scorers are upperclassmen, and that's not counting their top scorer, Liddell, a sophomore who has played in 49 games.
All told, Chris Holtmann — who is in a two-man race with Juwan Howard for Big Ten coach of the year — somehow has an offensive juggernaut (fourth in efficiency) trending toward a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
"I think it helps," Holtmann said of the Buckeyes' experience. "Everybody knows that. I've mentioned the importance of building with guys that have been apart of our program that understand how we do things, the consistency. ... Age and maturity doesn't always equate. I'm a great example of that. But we've got a mature group. And that maturity has allowed us to play in different environments and have the necessary understanding of how to play and play your best."
That includes next Sunday when Michigan travels to Columbus.
Just unlike football, it should be a hell of a game.
First Published February 11, 2021, 2:51pm
