King Kaufman's Sports Daily

This column gives: Florida over Ohio State for the NCAA title. But foul trouble is the great wild card.

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April 2, 2007 | Two minutes, 41 seconds into Ohio State's 67-60 win over Georgetown in Saturday's NCAA Tournament semifinal, Buckeyes center Greg Oden picked up his second foul and left the game.

It made me wonder: When college basketball teams are facing a dominant player, why do they even run an offense? Why not just keep running at the guy until he reaches or is late sliding over to help twice. His coach will dutifully take him out of the game for you.

I'm specifically thinking Florida should do this Monday night in the National Championship Game. I think I'm sort of joking. But the more I think about it, the more I think I'm not joking.

If the dominant opponent is a center or power forward, as most dominant players are, just keep slashing through the lane or feeding your own low-post player until the whistle blows twice. When the second half starts and your big-time opponent returns, go back to cutting or posting up until he gets his third. Out he'll come.

In most cases, though this is less true with Ohio State than with any other team in the country with a dominant player, a team's losing its best player is a devastating blow.

It will happen, and sooner rather than later. It's the very rare college player who can resist reaching, who moves his feet early every single time down the floor, particularly as fatigue starts to set in, which happens quicker than you might think for most big guys. Add in the hair-trigger whistle most NCAA referees carry into games, and an opponent's foul trouble is there for the causing.

"So much for this marquee matchup of Oden vs. Hibbert," I wrote in my notes when Oden went out with 17:29 to go in the first half. "Now we know they'll play each other for maybe 20 minutes total."

I was wildly optimistic.

Oden sat for the rest of the half, returning after halftime. We've been over this, but what Ohio State coach Thad Matta was doing was sitting Oden on the bench for nearly half the game -- nearly half the game! -- to try to keep him from fouling out. What happens if he fouls out? He has to sit on the bench. It's kind of like never driving your car so you don't get a flat tire, because if you get a flat tire, you can't drive your car.

Next page: Hibbert's foul trouble. Plus: The pick. And: Pool o' Experts winner is ...