Not much can match how horrible Texas A&M made Ohio State look last night during the Aggies’ 70-47 victory in the championship game of the NIT Season Tip-Off at Madison Square Garden.
The defeat had Buckeyes coach Thad Matta happy to be leaving the Big Apple.
“I’ve seen these games before and fortunately, I haven’t been a part of too many of them,” said Matta. “And tonight I was.”
The Aggies held the Buckeyes to 24 percent shooting and bullied them on the boards, 47-32. The game actually still was in doubt at halftime, when A&M led, 31-25.
Then the Buckeyes (3-1) opened the second half by missing 18 of their first 19 shots. No, they were not blindfolded.
“Our team was built for defense,” Texas A&M’s first-year coach, Mark Turgeon, said. “If you look at our team, we’re fast, we’re athletic. It was built for defense.,”
What makes A&M’s defensive prowess this season so impressive is that there are several good reasons the defense could have taken a Texas-size step back.
Acie Law, the No. 1 defensive guard in college basketball last season, is with the NBA’s Hawks. Former coach Mike Gillespie, one of the top young coaches in America who preaches defense and more defense, is at Kentucky.
Yet the Aggies (6-0), led by senior Joseph Jones (10 points, seven rebounds), the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, and sophomore Derrick Roland (15 points), are as tenacious as they were last season when Gillespie and Law led them to the Sweet 16.
Ohio State got 17 points from senior Jamar Butler and 10 from freshman Kosta Koufos. But without Butler’s 6-for-13 shooting, the Buckeyes would have gone 8-for-44 from the field.
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Syracuse shot down Washington in the consolation game, 91-85 behind 25 points from freshman Donte Green and 18 from Eric Devendorf. Green was named to the All-Tournament team along with Koufos, Butler, Jones and A&M frosh DeAndre Jordan.