Column: Buckeyes will be No. 1 for a reason

COLUMBUS, Ohio — By the time some read this today, Ohio State should be the No. 1 team in the nation.

And while the Buckeyes may not have played the toughest opponent or made the biggest statement this weekend, it’s a spot they deserve.

OK, duh.

On paper, the IU-Ohio State game didn’t stray far from expectations. The spread was set at 17, and the Buckeyes won by 21. College basketball stats guru Ken Pomeroy gave Ohio State a 96 percent chance of winning. In turn, OSU never allowed the Hoosiers a chance to win.

But it was also a game that Ohio State won unconventionally, which bodes well for the team heading into the most important parts of the season.

Freshman Big Ten Player of the Year candidate Jared Sullinger sat much of the 1st half with two fouls and played only 12 minutes — with little production — the entire game.

Enter fellow freshman DeShaun Thomas, the Fort Wayne-native who had scored in double-figures just once this Big Ten season. His 12-straight first half points, including consecutive 3-pointers, put the game away before the half was over. He finished with 22 points.

It was an atypical game — Ohio State coach Thad Matta said it was not like many games this season — but the Buckeyes found a way to win.

And the win means No. 1 in the nation. For now.

“What I always say is that we really want to be there in the end and put ourselves in that position,” Matta said.

And wins definitely aren’t taken for granted as March approaches.

In the larger college basketball picture, there is no dominant team. The No. 1 ranking has been a curse the last three weeks as the top team has lost the ensuing week.

This week it was Duke falling to unranked Virginia Tech.

Other elite teams, such as Pittsburgh and Texas, didn’t help their résumés with losses this weekend.

But there are teams picking up a bit of steam, and maybe Ohio State is one of those teams.

The Buckeyes took their lumps two weeks ago with two road losses, but they have returned with dominant wins against struggling Big Ten competition.

While it’s tough to label any win against Indiana as the reason for a team to get on track, the way it happened bodes well for the Buckeyes.

As for IU, in reality, it’s difficult to critique the Hoosiers on this game alone. Sure, there were things that didn’t go well for IU. It would’ve taken a perfect game to beat the Buckeyes, and a perfect game the Hoosiers did not bring to Value City Arena.

The Hoosiers haven’t won a road game since January of last year. The Buckeyes haven’t lost at home this year. The Buckeyes have one of the best starting lineups in the nation. The Hoosiers start five players that probably wouldn’t make Ohio State’s starting lineup.

“You have to be clicking on the offensive and defensive end to beat a team like this,” IU coach Tom Crean said. “When they started to get momentum, we couldn’t get it back.”

There’s been plenty of critiquing this season of this team — and there may very well be more before the season’s out — but Sunday’s game really can’t be the time for that.

Ohio State is playing for bigger things — Big Ten titles and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament — and it showed Sunday.