Huskies-Buckeyes Could Turn on Some Unguarded Moments

Everyone is on guard(s) here.

Ohio State’s guards vs. Connecticut’s guards; Duke’s guards against Michigan State’s.

You’d think there were no coaches, forwards or centers at the Final Four, only five backcourt scatbacks a side.

Guards no one can guard.

But here’s a theory in sizing up today’s first national semifinal matchup, between Ohio State (27-8) and Connecticut (32-2) at Tropicana Field:

The guards become a push. Ohio State’s scintillating backcourt of Scoonie Penn, Michael Redd and Brian Brown cancels out Connecticut’s trio of Khalid El-Amin, Ricky Moore and Richard Hamilton (a guard in the guise of a small forward).

Then what?

Then, it gets interesting.

Then, maybe it becomes psychological warfare between the coaching Jims, O’Brien of the Buckeyes and Calhoun of the Huskies.

Then, perhaps, it becomes a game to be won or lost in the paint and on the blocks.

First, though, an update on The Hex:

Calhoun is already working O’Brien. The men are longtime friends and coaching rivals going back to their Big East Conference days.

They were hired within weeks of each other in 1986, Calhoun at Connecticut and O’Brien at Boston College.

In 11 seasons at Boston College, O’Brien was 3-20 against Calhoun, losing the last 18 before O’Brien left for Ohio State two years ago.

Thursday night, Calhoun joined the three other Final Four coaches--O’Brien, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo--at a function.

O’Brien shared the story at Friday’s news conference.

“When he sees all of us,” O’Brien said of Calhoun, “he sees Tom and he says ‘Tom, it’s nice to see you. Mike, it’s nice to see you. Jim, it’s really nice to see you.’

“So, he’s probably feeling pretty good that he’s playing against our team.”

Does Calhoun have O’Brien’s number?

Calhoun actually says no, that the law of averages is against him.

“I think it’s like, 9,000-to-1 that you keep doing that,” he said of his winning streak over O’Brien.

If the coaching matchup is a push, then the game may well be decided inside by players with names anonymous to most.

In the post, it’s a matchup of 6-foot-11 centers, Ohio State’s Ken Johnson against Connecticut’s Jake Voskuhl.

Johnson has been the most underrated player in Ohio State’s tournament run. In the four wins--over Murray State, Detroit, Auburn and St. John’s--Johnson averaged eight points, 3.5 rebounds and 4.5 blocks.

He had 12 points and seven blocks in the South Regional championship win over St. John’s.

With Ohio State starting the 6-3 Brown at guard/forward, the Buckeyes are giving away size to Connecticut’s inside players, making Johnson all the more important.

“If Johnson plays like he did against St. John’s,” Calhoun said, “. . . I thought he was the entire key to the game.”

Voskuhl isn’t much of a scorer, but he is invaluable in other ways.

“Setting screens, being an anchor on defense, providing us muscle and size,” Calhoun said. “He’s that important to us. Every game he’s played well, we play well.”

The other key matchup is at power forward, where Connecticut’s 6-7 junior Kevin Freeman will probably draw Ohio State’s 6-5 Jason Singleton.

Freeman has been one of the Huskies’ hottest players of late and his team’s most dangerous inside scoring threat.

He averages 12.6 points and 7.3 rebounds and has shot 63.7% from the field in his last 14 games.

“We are very concerned about Kevin Freeman on the blocks,” O’Brien said, “because I think that’s where you can tend to spend so much time worried about Khalid and Hamilton that you forget about the abilities of some of the other guys.”

Freeman says he doesn’t mind being the forgotten man.

“That’s good for me,” Freeman said. “I sneak in and become the X-factor.”

Singleton, two inches shorter than Freeman, has been Ohio State’s best defender all season, the stopper against opposing guards, forwards and sometimes centers.

“It’s a tough matchup,” Freeman acknowledged. “I like to play big guys instead of smaller guys.”

Singleton’s problem: He has fouled out eight times.

Freeman’s problem: He is recovering from an ear infection and has been on antibiotics all week.

The bench: Both teams are in trouble if their centers go down. Connecticut backup Souleymane Wane has the size at 6-11, but the junior has scored only two points in 24 minutes in the tournament.

The Huskies have, however, received solid play from reserve Edmund Saunders, a 6-8 sophomore who averaged 8.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 19 minutes in four tournament games.

Ohio State has no player taller than 6-7 forward George Reese to spell Johnson.

If Johnson gets in foul trouble, or is ineffective against Voskuhl, Calhoun’s reign of hoops terror over O’Brien continues.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

How They Compare

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Conn OSU Record 32-2 27-8 vs. NCAA field-x 9-2 10-3 vs. Sweet 16-x 3-0 3-1 Home 14-2 14-1 Road 12-0 5-6 Neutral 6-0 8-1 Avg. Pts. 77.6 75.3 Opp. Avg. Pts. 61.0 64.9 Scoring Margin 16.6 10.4 Starters scoring 58.9 57.4 Bench scoring 18.7 17.9 FG Pct. .465 .471 Opp. FG Pct. .387 .402 3-Pt. FG Pct. .346 .360 Opp. 3-Pt. FG Pct. .287 .335 3-Pt. FG-Game 5.0 6.1 Opp. 3-Pt. FG-Game 4.5 6.7 FT Pct. .735 .614 Reb. Avg. 40.3 36.2 Opp. Reb. Avg. 33.1 34.2 Rebound Margin 7.2 2.0 Turnover Diff. 2.1 3.5 Ast. Avg. 15.6 13.8 Steals Avg. 8.1 8.3 Blocks Avg. 4.2 4.1

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x-excluding NCAA tournament games