Deja Vu: Unblemished No. 1 OSU Visits Wisconsin

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

We all know what happened the last time Ohio State took an undefeated and top-ranked team to Wisconsin.

It was just four months ago that the Buckeyes staggered home from Madison, battered, bruised and, most notably, beaten. OSU's singular loss last fall cost it a chance to compete for college football's national championship.

Fortunately, this is college basketball, where perfection is nice and all, but falling short of it neither deems a season a failure nor eliminates a team from championship contention.

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No-Spin Zone: A Loss Is Not Good For Any Team

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

The only people who say a loss would be helpful are those who aren't coaching or playing for the team with the perfect record.

Would you ever expect to hear Thad Matta or Jared Sullinger or David Lighty say they're hoping to lose a game or two?

Analysts — many of whom were once called journalists — love to dig beneath the surfaces of things, hoping to unearth a morsel of logic that maybe someone else hasn't turned into a column just yet. The hourglass runs quickly, as it's only a matter of moments before an online writer or an expert from the 24-hour cable network suggests the minority opinion. In the modern media culture that values news analysis over news, opinions are the cleavage and facts are merely the turtleneck. Translation? Guessing is welcome.

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Will Thin Bench Be OSU's Undoing ... Again?

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

A common refrain among college basketball observers this year has been some variation of "it's not often you lose the national Player of the Year and actually get better the next season."

Experts have been saying that the last eight weeks about Ohio State, which lost Evan Turner to the NBA after his junior season ended in a slightly surprising Sweet 16 loss to Tennessee in last year's NCAA Tournament.

But incoming freshman Jared Sullinger has been the best first-year player in America, and in the opinions of some, the best player in the country period. Exhibit A? Check the tape of his 27-point, 16-rebound effort in a nationally televised win at Illinois Saturday.

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Steady seniors like David Lighty and Jon Diebler have another year of experience under their belts, as do William Buford and Dallas Lauderdale. Freshmen Aaron Craft and Deshaun Thomas have been splendid additions as well.

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