The glory of March

 "See, this is what's great about these tournaments," the guy says.

We're looking at the TV, the two of us, where the Big Ten Tournament is on and they're showing highlights of the Ohio State-Michigan State quarterfinal, which just ended a few minutes ago.

"Teams suddenly getting hot at the right time ..." my fellow watcher says.

And then we watch some more as Ohio State -- Ohio State! -- dismantles Sparty, and omigod and holy crap, besides, because the Buckeyes were supposed to be long gone by now.

Instead the 13-seed is advancing to play 1-seed Purdue in the semifinals today, and WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE??

I'll tell you what.

March is going on.

March means Ohio State, a 16-18 team that went 5-15 in the Big Ten and lost to Michigan State by 21 a month ago and again by six just a week ago, is suddenly blessed by the gods or something. The Buckeyes beat Wisconsin. They beat Iowa, which beat them by 17 the last time they played them. And yesterday they beat Sparty by 10 in a game the Buckeyes led from the 12:45 mark of the first half on.

And they did it without their sensational freshman and leading scorer Brice Sensabaugh, who was out with an iffy knee. 

Now they get 27-5 Purdue in the semis.

Last time they played Purdue, on Feb. 19 in Mackey Arena, the Boilermakers sent them back to Columbus in sandwich bags, 82-55.

Just spitballing here, but I don't think anyone wins this one by 27.  And you wanna know something else?

I think if you're a Purdue fan, you'd better use a pencil if you're already writing your team's name on the championship game line of the bracket. Ink might not be your best option here.