The National Invitational Tournament is supposed to be the second biggest show in college basketball.
Apparently the memo failed to reach Ohio as a raucous crowd of 19,049 filled the Schottenstein Center to watch Ohio State defeat in-state rivals Dayton 74-63 for the right to play Mississippi Tuesday in the NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The Buckeyes (22-13) used a second half charge to clip the wings of the Flyers (23-11) after a slow start.
"We made the change to go small with about three minutes left in the first half," Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. "They kept driving to the baseline on our bigs, and it was tough for them to guard."
Freshman center Kosta Koufos, often the lone Buckeye big man on the floor, benefited from the four guard perimeter, finishing 9 of 11 from the field for 21 points.
Jamar Butler, Evan Turner and Jon Diebler combined for 30 second half points, boosting a first half which saw almost nine minutes pass before a Butler three opened scoring for OSU's talented guards.
Butler, alongside forwards Matt Terwilliger and Othello Hunter set foot on the Schottenstein Center court for the final time in Wednesday's victory.
"It was an emotional high knowing it's the last time I was going to play in this building," Butler said. "(I want to) thank the fans. They're the greatest fans in the world."
However for at least a few minutes, what sounded like a 60-40 crowd split was haunting the Buckeyes with turnovers by senior point guard Jamar Butler and sophomore David Lighty on consecutive possessions.
Flyers guard Brian Roberts finished his collegiate career with 20 points on 8-20 shooting.
"He'll go down as one of the greatest players of all time in the program's rich basketball history," Flyers coach Brian Gregory said. "He was in our first recruiting class here and those guys getting us to the postseason has got our program back on track. He's a great player and a great person."
OSU spent the majority of the first half chasing Dayton, who entered halftime with a 31-30 lead.
Matta spent the break letting his team know that a trip to New York would hinge solely on the young team's ability to understand how bad the Flyers wanted the win.
"I couldn't tell them before the game how important this was going to be to Dayton," Matta said. "They couldn't handle that."
So when the first half went the way of the Flyers, Matta made sure the message was clear.
"Here it is, this is a huge game for them. They kicked your tails," Matta said he told the team. "Once they saw it they were much better equipped."
OSU shot 15 of 25 from the field in the second half led by a 19-6 run to open the half that included two momentum shifting threes from the previously struggling hand of Diebler.
"We tell him to keep shooting," Terwilliger said. "There are days in practice he knocks them down and it keeps us going. We just keep telling him to shoot."
OSU made it to the finals of the NIT Season Tip-Off in November before falling to Texas A&M 70-47.
Though the Buckeyes harbored hopes of playing in the biggest tournament of all five months ago, the team is accepting of the current situation and realizes what remains on the line for the program next week in the Big Apple.
"Even though it's the NIT it's still a tournament," Butler said. "And we want to win this thing."
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