Not What I Expected

For those of you who stayed awake for Monday's Ohio State/Coppin State showdown, you should be commended. The game featured little offense, no rebounding, lots of turnovers, and a crowd that never got into it in the first place. But a win is a win, even though at 47-39, some might have confused the final more with an Ohio State football game.

Jon Diebler started the game, missed some threes, and was a non-factor scoring zero. The Buckeyes failed to shoot over 50% at the line, and were out rebounded 32-22. The Buckeyes did get a nice contribution from guard Evan Turner with 13 points and three steals. But we need to look past the stats.

It appeared that the team matched the energy of the crowd, and no more. There wasn't just a lack of students in the audience, but there were more old women there with their sewing needles than students jumping around cheering for the team. There were times where it was obvious that the team could feed off some energy from the crowd, but the crowd failed to respond. And when the game was tied with eight minutes left, there were hundreds seen running for the exits. I know the Bucks didn't give them much to stay for, but if the Buckeyes would have lost this game, this would have been a dagger in the hopes of having a run at an at large bid in the tournament.

Speaking of bad crowds, the Blue Jackets set an all-time low for attendance Monday failing to reach 12,000 for the first time in club history. It really has me wondering what might happen if the team fails to make the playoffs this season. They lost 4-3 in overtime against the Ducks. Let's see what happens to attendance when football season is over before jumping to conclusions.