Who? The Buckeyes of Ohio State. Sorry, the Ohio State University. (Is the Columbus campus the only one who uses it? Because otherwise it's completely illogical.)
What? A bunch of poisonous nuts. Supposedly they're good luck. The one in the costume is Brutus.
Where? Columbus, Ohio, sister city to Genoa.
When? March 18th, in Bowling Green, Ohio.
How? They were an at-large selection.
Surprise? Their seeding has raised eyebrows; no one's denying that the Buckeyes belong in the field.
RPI: 26
SOS: 78
Record: 25-6 (11-6)
Good wins: At Oklahoma; most of their non-conference games were at home, which is not good for the numbers.
Bad losses: At Minnesota, at Illinois.
Who's running this show? Jim Foster and his sweaters, since 2002. (With many assistants, but Debbie Black keeps me from despising Ohio State with my usual seething vigor.)
Extra, Extra! The Columbus Dispatch
The scoring highs on the Ohio State stat page give away an important part of the story. There are three options: Samantha Prahalis leads the team in scoring, Tayler Hill leads the team in scoring, or they tie for the lead in scoring.
Not to take anything away from the talented and dynamic duo (but not Dynamic Duo, as neither of them is a Robin and I doubt either of them likes the idea of spandex). Prahalis, the senior, averages 20.1 points, while the junior Hill averages 20.3. Prahalis adds 6.4 assists per game, while Hill edges her on steals. They are both superb players- but Ohio State leans very, very heavily on them; Amber Stokes's 7.4 ppg average is third on the team.
One interesting stat that caught my eye: everyone except rarely used freshman Shelbi Honeycutt shoots at least 40% from the field, though a few of those small sample sizes could change with another game in the tournament.