Back when Mike Conley Jr. and Greg Oden were precocious high school teammates dominating the A.A.U. circuit, they were advertised as the ultimate package deal.
Coaches in gyms from Hackensack, N.J., to Las Vegas whispered to each other that Conley, a quick, elusive point guard; and Greg Oden, a dominant center, could walk onto a college campus as freshmen and lead a team to the Final Four.
But in a sport where summer hype rarely translates to March reality, Greg Oden and Conley justified their billing on Saturday. Behind Conley’s savvy and Oden’s daunting presence, top-seeded Ohio State defeated second-seeded Memphis, 92-76, in the South Regional final to advance to its first
Final Four since 1999.
“I think they’ve had a tremendous impact, probably unlike anybody’s ever had,” Ohio State Coach Thad Matta said.
This victory may serve as a sign of just how big an impact freshmen can have in this new era of college basketball, in which players are essentially forced to attend college for at least a year before becoming eligible for the N.B.A. draft.
Greg Oden, a 7-footer from Indianapolis, is the poster child for the new rule, and he put forth his most dominating performance so far in this N.C.A.A. tournament on Saturday. He again overcame his recent nemesis, foul trouble, to score 17 points while shooting 7 of 8 from the field.
He turned the game’s momentum with a little less than 10 minutes remaining in the second half when he drew an intentional foul and converted a 3-point play. The foul on Memphis guard Chris Douglas-Roberts was his fourth of the game. It was part of a 5-point possession for Ohio State that gave the Buckeyes a 2-point lead.
Ohio State Buckeyes never trailed from that point on, going on a 19-6 run.
“It changed the whole complexion of the game,” said Memphis Coach John Calipari, who added that he did not have a good view of the call. “It put fire in them and took the wind out of our sails.”
Conley made the pass to set up that play, one of the many subtle but critical plays he made while controlling the game from the point. Calipari respected Conley so much that he told his guards not to even try to steal the ball from him.
Conley finished with 19 points, 2 assists and 2 steals and was named the South Region’s most outstanding player. But Matta said that Conley’s performance transcended statistics.
“The stabilizing factor is what I love about him,” Matta said.
Every freshman star needs a senior complement, and that is what Ron Lewis has given the Buckeyes during this tournament.
His 3-point shot forced overtime against Xavier in the second round, and his 25 points carried the Buckeyes back from a 20-point deficit against Tennessee on Thursday. Lewis scored a team-high 22 points Saturday.
“I’m just living a dream,” Lewis said.
Lewis probably sealed the game during the 19-6 run when he made a 3-pointer from the top of the key to give Ohio State a 74-66 lead with 4 minutes 32 seconds remaining. It was fitting that the Memphis senior Joey Dorsey had failed to hold onto a rebound, leading to Lewis’s basket.
Dorsey went from a virtual unknown to an infamous Greg Oden antagonist this weekend. Dorsey called Oden overrated and predicted that he would score 15 points and grab 20 rebounds against him.
Instead, Dorsey had no points, no shots and only three rebounds in 19 minutes. Calipari referred to Dorsey’s line in the box score as a “gazillion” because it had so many zeroes in it. Dorsey’s comments clearly motivated the Buckeyes.
“When somebody talks about Greg Oden, they’re talking about all of us,” Conley said. “We took it up on ourselves to come out and play the game, and I think that’s why we were so successful.”
After the game, the Buckeyes’ celebration was businesslike. They ended the season as the country’s No. 1 team and entered the tournament with the goal of winning it, not just reaching the Final Four in Atlanta.
They will play the winner of Sunday’s East Regional final at the Meadowlands between top-seeded North Carolina and second-seeded Georgetown.
Memphis ended its season in the Round of 8 for the second consecutive season, again falling short of its first Final Four trip since 1985. Jeremy Hunt led the Tigers with 26 points.
After watching the Buckeyes pull away at the end of the game, Calipari said that he was a firm believer in their potential.
“They are better than us,” he said. “I don’t care if we pressed, trapped, played a 1-3-1 zone — they’re better than us.”
The Buckeyes returned only four players from the team that won 26 games last season, earned a No. 2 seed in the N.C.A.A. tournament and lost to Georgetown in the second round. And that made Conley’s and Oden’s ability to carry this team so remarkable.
“I think one of the biggest keys that people probably forget, usually when freshmen come in and take a team to the Final Four, there’s a bunch of veterans coming back,” Matta said. “We had one starter coming back on this basketball team.”
But the Buckeyes also had the country’s best package deal in Oden and Conley, the high school teammates and best friends straight from central casting.
“The reason we came here was to win,” Conley said. “And we’re definitely doing that right now.”
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