Basketball, Wisconsin, and the Birth of the Buckeye "Nuthouse"

The Ohio State University is not, has never been, and will never be a basketball school. It's not that the school doesn't have a rich basketball history; the BasketBucks have won a national championship (1960), finished runners-up four times (1939, 1961, 1962, 2007), and made the Final Four an additional five times (including one vacated appearance). But Ohio State basketball isn't a top-5 elite level program like the football team is, and so it's had to be content chugging along in the shadow of Ohio Stadium.

The turn of the century was a particularly bleak era for the basketball Buckeyes. The team's 1999 Final Four run had been wiped out because of illegal benefits paid to player Boban Savovic, leaving the team without an official NCAA Tournament appearance since 1992's Elite Eight loss to Michigan. After Tressel's football team defeated Miami for the 2002 national title, it looked like basketball would forever be an afterthought at Ohio State.

Nowhere was this more visible than in the atmospheres within Ohio Stadium and Value City Arena. Down on the east bank of the Oletangy, the roar of the crowd on Saturday afternoons could be heard for miles around, shaking the composure of opposing QBs as they fruitlessly tried to direct their offenses. The Best Damn Band in the Land and Block O worked tirelessly in conjunction to whip 105,000 strong into a constant frenzy. Meanwhile, across the river, the Schottenstein Center, America's latest soulless pro arena clone, hosted the day's tepid half-capacity crowd as they reclined on their hands and watched the Buckeye cagers stumble through another mediocre campaign. The band's valiant attempts to rally the crowd were only with the echoes of their voices off the wall as the fans slept on and the "Buckeye Nuthouse" student section looked on in puzzlement.

I arrived on campus at the same time as the man who set in motion a change for the better, head coach Thad Matta. Though the Buckeyes were ineligible for the tournament during his first season because of self-imposed sanctions, Matta led the team to a respectable 20-win season and a home finale victory over the #1 and previously undefeated Illinois Fighting Illini. Then they won a B1G title the following season, and worked up to a #1 ranking of their own in 2007. But while the success was there, the excitement still lagged. The Athletic Band used to have a policy that required members to perform for a certain schedule of events, but allowed them to attend and perform at any additional basketball or hockey games they wanted. Even so, few members took advantage of this policy, even to see the #1 ranked men's basketball team play without having to buy a ticket. The crowd exhibited no coherence: the band and the Nuthouse would start competing cheers, with neither knowing what the other was doing, while the regular attendees paid little attention to either, taking their cues from the cheerleaders (the quietest of the three groups).

It took a visit from the hated Wisconsin Badgers to finally change the mood for the better. The #1/#2 ranked Badgers, one of only 3 teams to beat OSU in 2006-07, were in town to face the #2/#1 ranked Buckeyes, and the Schott was packed and rocking. Band members who normally spent time between songs in idle conversation were now glued to the action and attuned to the passions of the crowd. The Nuthouse was full of empty seats, but only because the filled-to-capacity student section refused to sit for even a minute. The rally towels placed on every seat pregame could've powered the scoreboard with all the attempted distractions the fans aimed at the Badgers. And most importantly, the disparate groups listened to and communicated with one another. The students finally figured out what the hell "Cheer 1" was and where the O, H, I, and O were supposed to go. The guy with the giant foam cowboy hat led the band in "Defense" and "Let's Go, Buckeyes" and even "Hey, Bucks, Come on Down" in flawless conjunction with the flow of the game action. And the cheerleaders took cues from and fed cheers to both. 40 minutes later, Michael Conley hit a beautiful teardrop jumper to lead Ohio State to a 49-48 win and their second consecutive outright B1G championship.

The culture of winning would remain, but the era of fan pride had just begun. By the time the next season started, the athletic department had designed a more exciting game introduction experience, although with the band's performance of "Across the Field" and "Buckeye Battle Cry" still providing the backbone from their new courtside seats. Today, the Nuthouse is as energetic and stimulating as any student section in the nation, including Ohio Stadium's beloved Block O. THE Ohio State University may still be a football school, but one visit from the Wisconsin Badgers closed the gap considerably between the school's two premier sports. Let's hope that a big win today can push the basketball experience even farther forward.

GO, OHIO! BEAT THE BADGERS!