Gardner Webb at Ohio State

Ohio State is expected to make the Final Four, and to be one of a handful of teams that cuts down the nets. Sometimes these teams have difficulty in the first round, against a no-name opponent. All the pieces are in place to make that run. The one bothersome thing from this team is they seem to go in lapses offensively, and if the opponent isn't a familiar name they may experience some of that here. Howie Dickenman is no stranger to the NCAA tournament, as he was an assistant under Jim Calhoun at UConn. His teams are tough, disciplined, and play with energy. This will be his third trip to the dance with Central. They do have three scorers in Mojica, Blackwell, and Nwadike. Central was horrible at the beginning of the year, and suddenly the light went on, and went on to finish with 17 wins in their last 18 games. Ohio St. has played 15 games now to close the season with the biggest winning margin 21 points. They don't seem to be the kind of team that really goes out to lay a team out. Central won't win this one, but they will certainly fight hard enough to keep this respectful.