THE BROO VIEW with Ken Broo

Rare is the team that can win a championship without struggling along the way. And such is the case in this NCAA Tournament with the Ohio State Buckyes. They entered the tourney the number one team in the USA and one of four number one seeds. Saturday, it almost came to a crashing halt.

Here they were, down nine to ninth seed Xavier, an upstart school from Cincinnati. Three minutes remained….when the Buckeyes got a wake up call. First, a three point shot by Jamar Butler…and then, Mike Conley Junior stole Xavier’s inbound pass.

Xavier would lead by three with nine seconds to play. But senior Justin Cage, playing the game of his life with 25-points on eight of eight shooting from the field…missed the back end of a 1-and-1. OSU got the rebound….actually, Conley did…and without calling time out streaked to forecourt where he found Ron Lewis. Lewis was playing the game of his life, 24 points…but three more were to come….with only two seconds to play.

That tied the game. But for all intents and purposes, Xavier was sunk. Zapped. Lewis could see it in their eyes.

In overtime, Xavier took a quick two point lead….but then Conley ripped off seven straight points. And Ohio State survived and moved on. Their coach, Thad Matta, left Xavier in a lurch three summers ago to take the Ohio State job. He knew, at the end of regulation, his team could be drained from having to play catch up the entire second half…or…Xavier could be stunned from being caught. I asked Matta how he kept his team from falling down the drain.
For his answers, head onto over to my web site www.kenbroo.com and click on the "Podcasts & More" section. Check out my latest "Broo View Podcast" for comments from Matta and OSU stars Mike Conley, Jr. and Ron Lewis.

Other observations from opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament? Stanford, Illinois and Arkansas proved their critics were right. Fast exits in lopsided losses showed none of the three belonged in this tournament.

Butler’s win over Maryland in the round of 32 has a lot of people thinking the Bulldogs are back to where they were in December.

And the easiest upset from the opening round to pick turned out to be Winthrop over Notre Dame. Just about every expert had that one.

My two champions from my two brackets remain Kansas and Memphis. We’ll see.