Atlanta – That Ohio State freshman did it again. Rising above the rest as if they were mere mortals, he took control when he had to and led the surging Buckeyes on another stressful step toward the national championship. Yes, the best freshman in the country has turned into one of the best players in the country.
Boy, how about that Mike Conley Jr.?
Best freshman in the country? Over his center, Greg Oden? Conley has been in the shadow of his former high school teammate for so long, he needs to set off fireworks to be seen. Well, in the biggest game of his life, with his 7-foot teammate watching from the bench – again – Conley sparkled in the Final Four.
The point guard’s team-high 15 points and masterful floormanship at the Georgia Dome on Saturday night helped overcome Oden’s foul trouble to lead top-ranked Ohio State to a 67-60 win over Georgetown. It wasn’t just Conley’s points. Two Hoyas scored more. But Conley hit 7-of-12 shots and had five rebounds, six assists and only one turnover in 39 minutes.
“I think from the first time I saw Michael Conley play, I thought he was the perfect point guard for our system,” Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. “The job that he’s done reading this team, I mean, he has such a high basketball IQ.
“He did some things today through scouting that I can’t explain.”
What’s easier to explain is Conley helped the Buckeyes (35-3) win their 22nd straight game, with Oden playing only three minutes in the first half. Conley helped them survive the nation’s fifth-best shooting defense, with Ohio State guard Ron Lewis going stone cold, 1-for-8 from the field.
And Conley did it with the world watching. Oden made first-team All-American; Conley only made all-Big Ten and all-Oden Friends.
“I don’t really think about it too much, about me being overshadowed or anything,” Conley said. “I just go out and play. Greg is deserving of all the attention that he gets. I’m happy for him. I’m happy where I’m at. It’s gotten me right here.”
With Oden playing only 20 minutes, Georgetown’s 7-2 Roy Hibbert had one of the best games of his life, scoring 19 points. But Hibbert is much more needed by Georgetown than Oden is by Ohio State, thanks to Conley. At 44-44, Hibbert sat down with his fourth personal. Oden returned with three fouls and quickly took advantage, scoring inside to spark a 7-0 run for a 51-44 lead with 6:37 left.
The second-seeded Hoyas (30-7) never got within four after that.
During the stretch, Georgetown’s normally stone-faced persona cracked. Needing to play at a pace normally associated with Galapagos tortoises and Princeton, Georgetown missed five straight shots, which the Buckeyes turned into two fast-break baskets.
Suddenly, the Hoyas had to play catch-up, and not enough time remained.
“North Carolina got them in the first half with a lot of transition buckets,” Conley said of the Hoyas’ Elite Eight win. “It really hurt them. We felt if we could do that, establish that in our game, we’d be better off.”
No team with a 7-foot All-American would be better off with him on the bench. But for the third game in the past four, Oden had foul trouble. He picked up his second personal when he charged into freshman DaJuan Summers and sat the last 17:19 of the half with goose eggs in the box score. Conley, however, picked up the slack, hitting two 3-pointers on his way to 11 points to give Ohio State a 27-23 halftime lead.
And as much as Oden was absent in the first half, he did score 13 in the second, and Georgetown star Jeff Green must have been somewhere on Peachtree Street. Getting double-teamed often when he didn’t even have the ball, he took only five shots all night and scored just nine points, half his postseason average.
Friday night, Matta showed a 10-minute Jeff Green highlight clip to the four Buckeyes assigned to him. Starting with Ivan Harris, Ohio State turned Green into a non-factor.
“I went 4-for-5,” Green said. “I didn’t want to force anything. I took what they gave me.”
Conley gave the Buckeyes a lot more.
Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
