MILWAUKEE -- When Jon Diebler woke up last Tuesday morning, he had a gut feeling that his gut was not feeling well. "I woke up at eight," said Diebler, Ohio State's designated long-range marksman, "and by 9:30 I called our trainer. I couldn't keep anything down."On Friday night at the Bradley Center, Diebler played all forty minutes of the Buckeyes' 68-51 defeat of UC-Santa Barbara. He also led all scorers with 23 points, including seven three-pointers from beyond the arc. All this after three days spent mostly on his back or in bed.
"Tuesday, I laid in bed all day," said Diebler, "and I knew this was bad timing. Not just because of the tournament, but this was finals week, too."
An "extremely kind" science professor allowed Diebler to postpone a science course final on Wednesday, when he only left his room to travel to Milwaukee. On Thursday, Diebler only made it through fifteen minutes of practice before, as Buckeye coach Thad Matta recalled, "all of a sudden I see Jon racing off the court and I'm thinking, 'Where's he going?'"
Diebler was going to toss his cookies. He missed the rest of practice and only on Friday was he able to keep down food. Still, in a game in which Ohio State led by double-digits most of the way, Diebler played the entire way.
"Jon's the only guy I know whose twenty-four hour flu takes seventy-two hours," said Matta, "but once he got going tonight we kind of knew he was okay."
As long as Diebler can keep his food down, he can keep knocking shots down. And as long as the Upper Sandusky, Ohio, native can keep knocking those down, the Buckeyes will keep knocking down the door to a date with No. 1 Kansas in the Midwest regional final. While Evan Turner may be the national Player of the Year, he shot only 2 of 13 in Friday night's victory. When defenses harass Turner as the Gauchos did, Diebler is normally open beyond the arc. And if that happens...it's enough to make opposing coaches nauseous.
"We had a student manager playing the role of Diebler this week," said UC-Santa Barbara coach Bob Williams. "We should have found a guy who can shoot like Diebler."
Diebler is a coach's son. Playing for his dad, Keith, Jon helped Upper Sandusky to a 27-0 record his senior year while averaging 40 points per game and becoming Ohio's all-time leading scorer (3,208 points). That skill does not come without effort.
"I used to take 500 to 1,000 jump shots a day," Diebler said after Friday night's win, "but then my older brother (Jake, who just finished his senior season at Valparaiso) suggested I should focus on 'makes'. You don't get any better from the ones you miss."
Diebler, who shoots 42.1 percent from beyond the line (14th nationally), now makes 100 shots daily from each of five spots on the floor. That's 500 makes from beyond the arc.
"I'll break it up, say, fifty at a spot and then move to the next spot," he says. This is all done after practice, usually late at night in the Buckeyes' gym at the Schottensteim Center, which is known, aptly enough, as "The Schott".
"We're lucky that we have twenty-four hour access to it," says Diebler. "I'm not the only one there. I show up late at night and E.T. (Evan Turner) is usually already there himself."
Against the outmanned Gauchos, Ohio State did not need Diebler to be so accurate on Friday night, much less for all 40 minutes. But he was. The simple verity for the Buckeyes is that their long-range success in this tournament is inextricably connected to the health of their long-range bomber.
KEY ELEMENT: Dallas Lauderdale, the man who sounds like a connecting flight on American Airlines, owned the airspace around the rim on Friday. The Buckeyes' 6-foot-8 center had 12 rebounds and an outrageous 8 blocks -- more impressive when you consider he was often manning up against a 7-foot-3 center, UC-Santa Barbara's Greg Somogyi -- on Friday. Come Sunday, Lauderdale will battle Georgia Tech's 6-foot-10 freshman stud Derrick Favors in the most intriguing individual matchup in that second-round contest.
NEED TO FIX: Evan Turner's body language. Whether because Turner was playing so close to his Chicago home, or because of the baseline-to-baseline pressure UC-Santa Barbara imposed on him, he seemed frustrated and annoyed most of Friday night. Turner, a 58% shooter, was just 2 of 13 from the field and seemed flustered at times. To his credit, the Buckeyes' primary ball handler dished to open teammates, but he'll need to adjust his temperament as Ohio State advances.
"He's got to keep his composure," Matta said. "Keep playing through it."
FACES IN THE CROWD: Former Ohio State linebacker A.J. Hawk, now with the Green Bay Packers, was in attendance along with his wife, Laura, whose brother is former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn.
NEXT YEAR: The ceiling is high for the Gauchos' Somogyi -- and with his being 7-3, it would have to be -- who still has two years of eligibility remaining. The Hungarian native attended high school in northern California, although his parents remain in Budapest. It came down to the University of Portland and UCSB for Somogyi and, well, have you ever been to Santa Barbara?
"You should see how far he's come since we first got him," said Gaucho coach Williams of the 240-pound center after Friday night's loss. "Our strength coach is going to be the team MVP between now and the beginning of next season.
Williams attests to the potential of Somogyi, who had six points and six rebounds against the best competition he has ever faced. "He's seven-foot-three and he has a 7-9 wingspan," said Williams, "and those guys don't come around very often."
