The Ohio State Buckeyes are live on the radio for the NCAA Tournament and the game against Dayton gives OSU the chance to win the Battle of Ohio and the game starts up at 12:15 pm ET from Buffalo and will be a tough test on both sides as Aaron Craft tries to lead his team as a six seed past a number 11 seed in the second round.
The NCAA continues to call this the second round for reasons no one in the entire world can comprehend and the Buckeyes will be looking to get off to a fast start and their defense will be a huge factor in the game on Thursday. Dayton comes into the game as a solid offensive team and while they score more than the Buckeyes, Ohio State has a fantastic defense led by Aaron Craft and chances are he will have a steal or two after pulling his team close with Michigan and they ended up losing to the Wolverines again this season and it was in the Big Ten conference tournament.
Michigan and Michigan State faced off there and the Spartans won out and now the Buckeyes will look to get ahead in the tournament past their rivals and Michigan has a tough way, as they are on the same side of the bracket as Duke, Louisville and Wichita State. Ohio State plays Dayton and they will play against the winner of Syracuse and Western Michigan and that comes in the south bracket. The Florida Gators are the top team on that side of the bracket and it comes after they won the SEC tournament against Kentucky and they completed an undefeated season in the conference and like Virginia, they won the regular season and the tournament titles.
The south bracket has a tough road for everyone, as Kansas is the number two seed ahead of the Orange, while UCLA is the number four seed and they showed they can be a formidable team after defeating the Arizona Wildcats and that was in the Pac-12 championship game. Florida plays against Albany and the bracket also has a scary team in VCU and they know what it takes to get to the Final Four and they have experience as well and so does Stanford.
OSU had some struggles in the Big Ten this season and they lost four games in a row at one point and while they won over Michigan State, they lost both times to Michigan and now they will try to make a nice run in the tournament. The team has a tough first game and while they hoped for a higher seed, this could be the perfect situation for the team as they try to surprise some people and they come into the game with a top defense and they ranked 12th in the nation during the season while allowing less than 60 points per game and that will be key against a solid Dayton team on Thursday.
Check here for the radio stream for the Dayton and Ohio State game.