Buckeyes Weren’t Picturing All This : Basketball: Ohio State was supposed to be good, but 17-1 is better than anyone expected.

The scout, a member of a Big Ten coaching staff, capped his pen, slowly stored his charts and notations and then gazed blankly at the scoreboard. He had just watched Ohio State dissect another opponent as if it were a frog in biology class. The scout’s team was next on the schedule.

“Gawd, why do we have to play these guys?” he muttered.

And then he was gone, presumably to report that the once-beaten and third-ranked Buckeyes are better than anyone imagined and that includes the Buckeyes themselves, who had hoped for the best, but didn’t really expect to get it.

Now, from their vantage point high atop the conference standings, the Buckeyes easily can see the NCAA tournament and who knows, maybe a place at the Final Four in Indianapolis. By the looks of things, they have the team and the coach to get there.

“I don’t think anything is out of the question for this team,” Ohio State forward Chris Jent said. “Anything can happen.”

That might explain why Jent sometimes finds himself walking the halls of the 35-year-old St. John Arena, where poster-sized photographs of such Ohio State legends as John Havlicek and Jerry Lucas adorn the walls. The emotional Jent, who isn’t even from Ohio (he’s from New Jersey), lowers his voice when talking about the school’s basketball lore.

“This place is like a museum,” he said. “I think anyone would like to envision their pictures up here.”

Well, then, is there an Olan Mills representative in the house? After all, this season’s Buckeyes have a chance for a photo album’s worth of memories, what with a roster that includes 12 lettermen from a year ago, a 17-1 record that has everyone except UNLV jealous and a second-year coach, Randy Ayers, who is quickly gaining a reputation as a master recruiter and an accomplished courtside strategist.

In a little more than a season and a half, Ayers is already 34-14 at Ohio State. Even more telling is his record against the Grand Poobah himself, Indiana’s Bobby Knight, who remains the standard by which Big Ten success is measured. Ayers is 2-1 against Knight’s Hoosiers, having gained his most recent victory two weeks ago at IU’s Assembly Hall, an oversized gymnasium that allows the 17,357 fans to almost reach out and break an opponent’s spirit.

But these are the cooler-than-dry-ice Buckeyes. Twice, as the game wound down, Indiana cut the lead to three points. Twice the Buckeyes simply extended the margin, giving Ohio State only its second victory at Assembly Hall in 19 years. Even Knight was impressed.

“Ohio State has two things that any good team needs,” he said. “They’re athletic and tough-minded. Randy’s done a nice job with the team.”

Ayers didn’t know whether to says thanks or genuflect.

Since then, the Buckeyes have beaten Minnesota on the road, taken a week off and then traveled to East Lansing, where they stumbled against Michigan State, the preseason favorite for the Big Ten title and an early choice to win the NCAA tournament if UNLV faltered. No disgrace in that.

Now comes a three-game home stand, followed a week later by a rematch against Indiana, this time at Columbus.

Suddenly there is talk--premature, of course--of renewing the legacy created by the Buckeye teams of three decades ago. Led by Lucas and Havlicek (and aided occasionally by a crew-cut kid named Bob Knight), Ohio State won the 1960 NCAA championship and finished second in 1961 and 1962. After that, Buckeye successes were predictably less spectacular. There was a Final Four appearance in 1968, but nothing close since.

“There hasn’t been anything up there for a while,” said Jent, referring to those St. John walls again.

Ohio State officials might want to clear some room. They also might want to see if Ayers, only 34 and the youngest coach in the conference, needs anything--more towels in the locker room . . . comfortable courtside seats . . . a contract extension, perhaps? The guy is a keeper.

Ayers is Ohio State’s coach by accident. The Buckeyes first wanted Nolan Richardson of Arkansas, then Pete Gillen of Cincinnati Xavier or Jim Crews of Evansville. When those plans fell through, Athletic Director Jim Jones turned his attention to Ayers, a Buckeye assistant for the previous six seasons.

Ayers’ job interview was uneventful--not bad, just not stirring. More impressive might have been the unsolicited testimonials given by Buckeye players, several of whom lobbied openly with Jones to give Ayers the job.

Meanwhile, Ayers called Georgetown’s John Thompson and USC’s George Raveling for advice.

“I just wanted to hear how they dealt with certain things,” Ayers said.

And here’s what they told him: Stick with what you believe.

“I tried to get Randy to get a perspective of where he is now, where he wants to go and how does Ohio State fit into that,” said Raveling, who tried recruiting Ayers for Washington State 16 years ago. “I told him some of the questions he needed to ask, some of the things he needed to know in order to win, some of the things he needed to evaluate in making that decision. I would have advised him to take the job.”

Ayers, no dummy, did that very thing when Jones eventually came through with an offer.

“They went out on a limb to hire me,” Ayers said. “They took a big chance on me. (Jones) didn’t have to do it. I had no head coaching experience and they didn’t know a lot about me.”

Maybe they knew more than Ayers thought. After all, he had spent two years as a West Point assistant, partly because Knight put in a good word. From there, he worked his way up the Ohio State assistants’ ladder, first under Coach Eldon Miller and later under Miller’s replacement, Gary Williams.

It was Williams who hired him as a full-time assistant, putting him in charge of recruiting efforts and tutoring him on the finer points of the game. It was also Williams who, when he left to try to salvage Maryland’s program, recommended Ayers to the Buckeyes. Just in case that didn’t work out, Williams offered Ayers an assistant’s job at College Park.

No need. On July 3, 1989, Ohio State got its man. It also got a worrywart who says he can’t afford to relish a single accomplishment until, maybe, 1994. By then, if all goes well, he’ll have a reason to smile.

“We really haven’t won big yet,” said Ayers, whose April 16 birthday falls on the same day as his basketball hero’s, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Instead, Ayers frets about every little item. Uneasy with his fame, he makes it a point in almost every interview to credit Williams for the talent left him on the roster. And during the off-season, it isn’t uncommon for Ayers to pepper other coaches with questions about their teaching methods. UCLA’s Jim Harrick, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Georgia Tech’s Bobby Cremins all were interrogated by Ayers last summer.

Nor is it unusual for Ayers to constantly consult his trusty blue, three-ring binder, in which are details of OSU’s workouts past and present. Ayers also is known to spend hours in front of his office television, watching videotape after videotape of Buckeye games.

Here’s what he sees:

--A starting lineup that includes center Perry Carter, point guard Mark Baker, off guard Jamaal Brown and forwards Treg Lee and Jim Jackson.

Carter, at 6-8 and 235 chiseled pounds, isn’t the tallest center in the country, but he may be the hardest to budge. Quiet, but commanding, he is the team captain.

Baker directs the offense and has no peer in the conference at point guard, whereas Brown is capable of high production, as evidenced by his 29 points against Indiana.

Lee, helped by a soft-as-down early-season schedule, has emerged as a consistent rebounder and sometime scorer. Jackson, of course, is in a class by himself.

--A competent bench, led mainly by Jent, the former starter turned sixth man.

--A game plan almost always predicated on defense and rebounding.

But the centerpiece of Ayers’ team is Jackson, who averages about 18 points and five rebounds a game. The statistics don’t do his talent justice, though.

Last year, Ayers wasn’t convinced that a freshman could handle the pressures of the Big Ten.

“But Jimmy sort of changed our thinking,” he said.

Sort of? Jackson finished the season with a team-leading 16.1-point scoring average and was named the conference’s freshman of the year.

During the summer, Jackson traveled to the World Games tryouts and later starred at the Olympic Festival. At the Olympic Festival, Jackson warned Louisiana State super center Shaquille O’Neal, who was playing on an opposing team, “I’m going to keep taking it to you.”

He did, too. At one point, O’Neal, who wasn’t used to that kind of treatment, took the ball and shoved it in Jackson’s midsection. Jackson, unimpressed, kept driving the lane.

“Hey, you can’t let anybody intimidate you on the court,” Jackson said.

Jackson and Ayers enjoy a special relationship, special enough that Jackson pulled the cruelest of recruiting jokes on the Ohio State coach two years ago.

On the day he decided to attend Ohio State, Jackson called Ayers with the news.

“Coach, I made up my mind,” he said.

“And . . . ?” said an anxious Ayers.

“I’m going to Syracuse.”

“Syracuse?”

“No, I’m going to Georgetown.”

“What?”

“I’m just joking, Coach. I’m going to Ohio State.”

Jackson is a little like his coach, meaning he can’t go long without a basketball fix. Not long ago, when the Buckeyes had a rare day off from practice, Jackson visited the arena anyway. He didn’t quit until he had spent two hours working out by himself.

“You might say I’m a little gym rat,” he said.

Even before every workout, Jackson is usually the first player on the court.

But it was his summer spent in tryouts and the Olympic Festival that seemed to make the most difference in his game. Just ask Jent, whose job it is to guard him at practice.

“It’s a helpless feeling,” Jent said. “I have to come here every day in the summer, every day in the spring and fall and try to stop him. Sometimes you feel like you’ve done all you can and he still gets his points. He’s for real.”

The same goes for the Buckeyes, who can’t help but think the best is yet to come.

“I see those pictures (on the walls),” Jackson said. “I see Lucas and Havlicek. I even see Bobby Knight up there. The only way you get your picture up there is if you have a good team.”

Hey, Jim, here’s a tip: Say cheese.