Sandwasher

The late start (tip was 10:19 PM tonight) has me totally WIDE awake in the wee hours.... So, as therapy, I thought I'd drop you all a line to send my best wishes. Those wishes are that, if you watched the game, your heart survived tonight's OSU Cardiac Stress Test! Watching the Buckeyes get behind by 20 points to a Tennessee team who just literally rained three-pointers on us in the first half. They couldn't do anything wrong, they couldn't miss. The Volunteers played like they were already all NBA stars and multi-millionaires.  And then to watch the Buckeyes -- with Greg Oden and Mike Conley on the bench in foul trouble, no less -- fight back and actually WIN that game to move on to the Elite Eight...! Wow! I think my heart is in pretty good shape, but I can't take too many of those! And afterward I was covered with goose bumps realizing what I had just witnessed. I'll bet those poor Tennessee fans won't get a wink of sleep tonight, tossing and turning ... thinking ... "HOW could we have LOST that game!?"

I am reminded of the remark of one of the Miami football players who told reporters after the 2002 National Championship Buckeyes converted a fourth down with 14 yards gain... "I thought to myself, what do we have to do to stop these guys? Are these Buckeyes some kind of a 'TEAM OF DESTINY'?"

Compared to any of the OSU BB games I've watched this season, this victory was truly a TEAM victory. With their best players, Conley and Oden, both on the bench, the other players whose names infrequently get mentioned – like Mike Terwilliger and James Lighty -- came through and made the most improbable comeback anyone has yet witnessed in this year's NCAA tournament. No contest. They were down 20 points at one point, 17 points at halftime....! You could tell the announcers had already written them off....

Well, now I've got that out of my system, perhaps I can sleep tonight....

Do the 2007 Buckeye Basketball players comprise a "Team of Destiny?" So far they do. Stay tuned. They play Memphis in the Elite Eight on Saturday at 4:00 PM. Tune in ... if your heart can stand it!

WOW. Go Bucks!

John Anderson