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Rapid ascent

Men's hoops jumps into tie for second place

By VR Bryant

With back-to-back wins in the conference, the basketball Buckeyes have rebounded well from their terrible second half at West Virginia and have claimed a share of second place in the Big Ten, behind undefeated Michigan State. That's the good news.

More good news: the next three games on the schedule (vs. Penn State, vs. Iowa, at Indiana) have the Bucks up against teams with a combined five wins in the conference, all of which have overall records below .500. At 16-6 (6-3), it's difficult to see OSU any worse than 19-6 (9-3) after Feb. 10.

Might as well keep the sunshine shining. William Buford seems to be finding a little of the consistency he flashed back in December, David Lighty has been more involved in the offense of late, and Dallas Lauderdale - after a five-game stretch with just three total blocks - is swatting shots again at a solid clip (10 in his last three).

These contributions, along with the ever-steady, ever-ready, extra-terrestrial Evan Turner, seem to be enough to wallop the weaklings and challenge the big boys. Turner's averages over the last four games (18.3 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 6.8 apg) are nearly identical to those for the season (18.4 ppg, 9.5 rpg, 5.7 apg) - he seems to be settling in, and that's giving the rest of the team balance.

Now for the other shoe - had to drop sooner or later.

After those cushy next three games comes arguably the toughest stretch of the entire season, another series of three, which Ohio State would be lucky to lose only one of. It's hanging ominously on the horizon, just like that preposition in the last sentence.

At Illinois (14-8, 6-3), it will be the first look at Bruce Weber's Illini team of the season. To be fair, it's a team that's been feasting on the more downtrodden of the conference, one that barely edged a very mediocre Indiana squad ... at home. It should be a win for the Buckeyes, but road games are never easy.

Back in Columbus three days later, Purdue (18-3, 6-3) comes into town for a rematch that looks to be an absolute slugfest. Robbie Hummel will be gunning to get revenge for the loss in West Lafayette, and oh, by the way, he'll have JaJuan Johnson eating up the paint this time around.

After that brawl comes Ohio State's only game (thankfully) against the fifth-ranked (as of Sunday) Michigan State Spartans, and yes, it's in their house. They're not unbeatable, but they are undefeated despite two very close calls at Minnesota and Michigan.

So this tie for second that the Buckeyes find themselves in, while lovely, is a four-team logjam (Wisconsin is the fourth) that can, and likely will, blow up any day now. All four teams play league-leading MSU in the next two weeks, so we'll find out real quick who's for real.

But you know, maybe that's actually not bad news after all. If Ohio State can keep the rhythm they've found of late, it might be Turner and company on top of the heap when all's said and done.

Originally Published: February 3, 2010

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