The Ohio State men’s basketball team cruised to an 85-63 victory Sunday over Minnesota, but there was more to celebrate at the Schottenstein Center than the series of alley-oops the Buckeyes threw down in the blowout win.
Only once has OSU captured the NCAA Tournament title, and that team was recognized Sunday on the 50th anniversary of the Buckeyes’ 1960 championship squad.
The team gathered at center court during halftime, and Bob Knight, who coached at Army, Indiana and Texas Tech after his collegiate days, spoke to the crowd.
Knight described how the OSU basketball program had “great architecture,” starting with a premier coaching staff.
Coach Fred Taylor, who died in 2002, was honored with a banner that now hangs from the arena’s rafters.
Among the players recognized were two-time National Player of the Year Jerry Lucas and two-time All-Big Ten selection John Havlicek.
Knight reminisced about the talent that the 1960 squad sent out on the floor each night.
“During a lull in a game that we were doing, [commentator] Brent Musberger said to me, ‘If you had to pick one guy to take the most important shot, who would it be?'” Knight said. “I said it would be Havlicek. I saw him do that his entire career.”
At 16-6, the current Buckeyes’ prospects of repeating history don’t appear to be favorable. But Knight said he is impressed by what he’s seen from the team, especially junior guard Evan Turner.
“I told Turner, ‘You have to promise me you won’t try and dunk the ball anymore,'” Knight said. “I said, ‘When you dunk it, just lay it up there and push it down through.’ He tried a little bit of a Broadway dunk and that could have really crippled this team because he’s a hell of a player.”
