Upsets open up a path for top-seeded Ohio State

Reporting from St. Louis — 

Ohio State has the luxury — or the burden — of being the only clear-cut favorite left in the Midwest Regional.

The teams seeded No. 1, No. 3 and No. 4 are gone.

“The team that survives is the team playing the best basketball,” Ohio State guard Jon Diebler said. “There were some upsets in our bracket, but that’s the tournament for you.”

The No. 2-seeded Buckeyes (29-7) face No. 6-seeded Tennessee (27-8) on Friday in a regional semifinal.

The path was paved for the Buckeyes after top-seeded Kansas’ surprising second-round loss to ninth-seeded Northern Iowa. Third-seeded Georgetown bowed out in a shocker to No. 14-seeded Ohio in the first round, and fourth-seeded Maryland was knocked out by fifth-seeded Michigan State in the second round.

The Buckeyes coasted past UC Santa Barbara despite an off game from Evan Turner and deflected a challenge from Georgia Tech in the second round.

Tennessee is trying to reach a regional final for the first time. But all teams are equal at this point, Coach Bruce Pearl said.

“I don’t think it’s any more special for Northern Iowa to be here than Tennessee or Ohio State or Michigan State,” he said. “We are all here. We all know what the prize is.”

Pearl said Ohio State presents “the biggest mismatch of any team in the tournament. Who guards Turner? Who guards [David] Lighty? … It’s pretty easy to say your center guards [Dallas] Lauderdale, but where do you go from there?”

Turner, who averages 20 points and 9.2 rebounds a game, is the toughest to contain.

Northern Iowa (30-4), which meets Michigan State (26-8) in the other semifinal, is among the remaining Cinderellas in the tournament. Until a late three-pointer against Kansas, few outside of Cedar Falls could pronounce any names on the Panthers roster. Now the Panthers might not even be the underdog.

Michigan State point guard Kalin Lucas is out because of a torn Achilles’ tendon. Delvon Roe is contending with a knee injury and Chris Allen with a foot injury. Allen played four minutes against Maryland.

Northern Iowa is led by 7-foot senior center Jordan Eglseder’s 12 points and 7.3 rebounds a game. And now Ali Farokhmanesh, who shoots 37.8% from the perimeter, is nearly a household name after making what was deemed an ill-advised three-pointer to help the Panthers beat Kansas.

“The fact we’re a nine seed, that’s probably why we’ve been given the Cinderella label,” Farokhmanesh said. “I guess we don’t look at ourselves as a Cinderella.”

sryan@tribune.com