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Ohio State Buckeyes (2001: 20-11)

The following team preview is provided by Blue Ribbon. For the nation's most comprehensive look at this and all Division I teams, be sure to order the 2001-02 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, on sale now at 1-800-775-2518.

Whatever prediction you're thinking about making for Ohio State's season, you might want to reconsider. The Buckeyes aren't exactly known for fulfilling prophecies.

Three years ago, OSU was coming off an 8-22 season and seemed a logical pick to remain at or near the cellar of the Big Ten. Despite the addition of highly touted transfer point guard Scoonie Penn from Boston College, no one in their right mind would have guessed the Buckeyes would improve by 19 wins and play in the 1999 Final Four.

Last season, OSU seemed hardly in condition to compete for a second straight Big Ten title, having just lost stars Penn and Michael Redd and key starter George Reese. But the Bucks again defied expectations, going 11-5 in the conference and returning to the NCAA Tournament despite the presence of three first-year starters.

They beat four of the last five ranked opponents they faced. Even a first round NCAA upset at the hands of 12th seeded Utah State hardly seemed to damper things.

This year, the Bucks could fly under the radar yet again. For a second straight year, the focal point of the team has moved on, this time in the form of All-Big Ten center Ken Johnson, but 80 percent of last year's scoring returns.

It's doubtful anyone in Columbus foresees this team rolling over without Johnson. If anything, fans have come to expect a Jim O'Brien -coached team to defy expectations. The Scarlet and Gray faithful may have just run their football coach out of town, but they've got no complaints about the man in charge in hoops.

The Bucks had an opportunity to play together and develop some post players, during a 16-day trip through Europe that wrapped up Sept. 4. The seven-game swing through Switzerland, France, Belgium and The Netherlands, along with the practices in Columbus leading up to it, allowed an already veteran-intensive club to gain even more experience together.

The last time O'Brien took a club overseas was at Boston College in 1994. That year's team, led by stars Howard Eisley and Bill Curley, would end up making a surprise run to the Elite Eight.

OSU fans hope it's an indication of things to come.

Backcourt

While sharing the point guard duties with Brent Darby, senior Brian Brown (6-4, 200 lbs.) emerged last season as OSU's top scorer after two seasons in the shadows of Penn and Redd

In fact, his 449 points exceeded the combined total of his first two seasons (415).

Brown reached double figure scoring in 27 of 31 games. In his top performance of the year, he registered a career-high 25 points in leading the Buckeyes to a 64-55 upset of Michigan State. He led the team in scoring on 14 other occasions. Brown will enter 2001-02 in his second season as team captain and the undisputed first option on offense.

Darby (6-1, 195 lbs.) will move to shooting guard this season.

After playing sparingly as a freshman, Darby, now a juior, was one of four regular guards who rotated among three positions last season, starting 16 games. He shared point-guard duties with Brown, but like Brown is more of a scorer.

His inconsistent play also had him scuttling in and out of the lineup. Darby started the season among the first five, then played behind Sean Connolly for three games in December, returned for 11 more, returned to the bench for 12 more, then started the last game of the season.

Frontcourt

In O'Brien's three-guard set, Brown and Darby share point-guard duties and rotate into the shooting guard spot with Sean Connolly. Senior Boban Savovic, (6-5, 240 lbs.) then, is the "big" guard, usually matched up with the opponent's small forward defensively, where he shut down several capable scorers last season.

He's able to get some rebounds for a guard, and he's also capable of bringing the ball up the floor and setting up teammates. And he's become one of the team's main leaders.

He's joined in the frontcourt by sophomore Zach Williams and senior Will Dudley.

Wiliams (6-7, 230 lbs.) was a pleasant surprise as a freshman, stepping in for the departed George Reese and starting all 31 games. Although he shot above 50 percent from the floor, he'll never be the caliber shooter Reese was. But he shows obvious rebounding ability and can earn his points under the basket.

A Brooklyn, N.Y., native, Williams is a product of two prolific hoops programs, Christ the King High School and the Riverside Church AAU team, playing alongside ex-St. John's star Omar Cook on both. With so many hot-shooting guards and the presence of Johnson inside, Williams wasn't asked to score much last year. That may or may not change after Johnson's departure. But he will need to become more of a defensive presence in the veteran center's absence.

Dudley (6-8, 230 lbs.) is another Brooklyn native. His elevation to starting center was delayed by a year when Johnson was granted his extra season of eligibility. And even now, he will be pushed by 7-2 Velmir Radinovic to keep the job.

He is easy to overlook considering his extremely quiet nature -- he's rarely likely to run his mouth, on the court or in the locker room.

But Dudley has shown flashes of what he can do in Johnson's place, stepping up with eight points in 26 minutes when Johnson was in foul trouble against Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament. Against Purdue, he grabbed a rebound off high school teammate Brown's miss and made a last-second game winner.

Dudley has improved every season since arriving in 1998, having played only 96 minutes in a freshman year that ended with Jan. 21 foot surgery. His minutes and stats have improved every year, though nowhere near a starter's production.

Bottom line

Last year, we guessed, would be a transition year for the Buckeyes. We've changed our mind; it's this year.

Not that the Buckeyes are going to fall apart without Johnson. Hardly. Brown is a legitimate star, and Connolly, Darby and Savovic make for a deadly perimeter game. A return to the NCAAs and a run at the top of the Big Ten is to be expected.

But this is also a roster whose potential has a clear ceiling. Playing with an ever-changing guard lineup and no proven big man can get O'Brien only so far. They will excel against teams similar in style but may get overwhelmed if an opponent has more than one capable post player. Williams is too small to play power forward and Dudley is too small to play center. Radinovic is certainly tall but just not ready.

O'Brien has built a program that should maintain its current level of success for years to come. Therefore, we should no longer act surprised when, come March, we hear Ohio State's name being called on Selection Sunday.