Boston College’s Losses Are Now Ohio State’s Big Gains

Search historic St. John Arena, still standing but shelved this season in favor of Value City Arena, part of the new $110-million multipurpose Schottenstein Center. Check with whatever senior sousaphone player from Akron got to dot the “i” in Ohio at the Horseshoe on a crisp Saturday afternoon in the fall. Walk along Woody Hayes Drive, back and forth for hours, until you are ready to take a swing at someone.

And it still won’t matter. The answers to understanding the second-greatest comeback in the state--hey, John Glenn got back into space, after all--will not be found anywhere in Columbus. Look to the East.

To Boston.

The great success, the they-can’t-believe-it-themselves turnaround of the Ohio State Buckeyes, is decidedly Auerbach. Jim O’Brien bolts after 11 years at Boston College over an admissions-policy controversy, in two seasons takes Ohio State from 8-22 to 23-8 in the 1998-99 regular season, is named Big Ten Conference coach of the year and becomes a candidate for the same award nationally.

Scoonie Penn, a starting guard at Boston College, follows him, sits out last season as a transfer and stands up at the start of this one to proclaim to teammates they will be in the NCAA tournament. Then he is named the Big Ten player of the year in a media vote.

Refusing to settle for making 1998-99 an impressive start on the future, the Back Bays, er, Buckeyes continue on to a 25-8 record with blowouts of Murray State and Detroit Mercy in the opening rounds of the tournament and a spot in the Sweet 16 in Knoxville, Tenn., for the South Regional, playing Auburn tonight..

“As a famous cartoonist would say, ‘Who woulda thunk it?’ ” said Shamar Herron, a reserve forward. “I never would have thought a turnaround of this magnitude would have happened. But it has.”

It’s not only because of the imports, of course. Six of the eight players who averaged at least 14 minutes on a team ranked No. 15 in the Associated Press’ final regular-season poll are from Ohio or neighboring Michigan, everyone except Penn (Salem, Mass.) and backup guard Brian Brown (Brooklyn, N.Y.).

It was that depth that allowed O’Brien to have the Buckeyes play faster on offense and more aggressively on defense, knowing he would have fresh legs at the ready. Columbus native Michael Redd, much more than a complement to Penn in the backcourt, scored 1,000 points faster than any Ohio State player except Jerry Lucas, putting him ahead of Herb Williams, Jim Jackson and John Havlicek. Ken Johnson, the 6-11 junior center from Detroit, was No. 2 in the Big Ten in blocked shots.

“I think sometimes if you win all the time, you kind of take this stuff for granted,” O’Brien said. “I’m sure that there are a few teams in the tournament right now that it’s not that big a deal for them to be in the Sweet 16. It’s just like, this is what they want to do, they’re thinking about the national championship. We’re not at that point.

“Where we were a year ago, us getting to this stage is terrific. I think you appreciate this a little bit more when you haven’t had the chance to experience the good things.”

The Buckeyes hadn’t known such times since the early 1990s, when Randy Ayers coached them to back-to-back conference titles and, as the top-seeded team in the Midwest in 1992, reached the round of eight in Lexington, Ky., against Michigan. Ohio State had already beaten the Wolverines twice by double figures in Big Ten play, but the Fab Five won in overtime. Soon after, Jackson turned pro.

Nothing had been the same since. The only postseason appearance was the National Invitation Tournament in ’93. In 1997, the Buckeyes lost their final six games and finished 10-17. Amid plummeting attendance and moral, Ayers was fired.

O’Brien, meanwhile, was working in relative obscurity at Boston College, back at his alma mater after four years at St. Bonaventure. There was the upset of North Carolina, No. 1-seeded in the East Regional, in the second round in 1994, but the Eagles still were only 168-166 in his 11 years and won more than 20 games only twice.

The breakup was ugly. Boston College tightened its admissions standards in the fall of 1996 and, even though both met the NCAA standards, the applications of hometown recruits Jonathan DePina and Elton Tyler were denied. DePina (Massachusetts) and Tyler (Miami) went elsewhere and, in apparent protest, so did several players who had gotten in. Michael Bradley went to Kentucky and Adam Allenspach to Clemson, two juniors reneged on oral commitments, and high school coaches in Boston vowed to cut the Eagles off in recruiting.

O’Brien, previously happy at Boston College, figured he had to get out. When Ohio State called, he wondered what was so great about it. When he looked into Ohio State, he realized he wouldn’t have to do a massive selling job to keep recruits at home. That’s what was so great.

He went to Ohio State, to be followed by Penn. Boston College went from 22-9 under O’Brien to 6-21 this season.

“We don’t even talk about it,” Penn said. “When it was over, things were said, but as far as that whole BC situation goes, it’s in the past and it doesn’t even come up.”

Said O’Brien, when it did come up last week: “You get into a whole ‘nother can of worms with that. I just think it would probably be simpler to say that to go from where we were a year ago to where we are now is terrific, and we have to be very happy with that.

And there’s no personal satisfaction?

“No, not really,” he said. “I’m just really happy that I’m able to have a good group of guys, that we’re able win some games, and maybe start to get this program back from where it had been the last couple years.”

No personal satisfaction?

“I think it means a lot to him,” Penn said. “Not even that [anti-Boston College] aspect, because he’s not a selfish guy like that. I think he likes it more because he sees us, as players, having a good time and winning ballgames.”

The way they’re doing at Ohio State. Again.