Not going quietly

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LEXINGTON, Ky. – This was supposed to be Ohio State freshman phenom Greg Oden's NCAA tournament coming out party.

Instead it turned into a going away bash for a proud trio of Central Connecticut State seniors.

Obie Nwadike, Javier Mojica and Jemino Sobers didn't come close to pulling the upset, bowing to Oden and the top-seeded Buckeyes, 78-57, in a first-round NCAA South Region game Thursday night. No No. 16 seed has ever won in the tournament.

But the seniors and their hoarse-voiced, sweat-soaked coach, Howie Dickenman, gave us a little insight into what sports in general and this tournament in particular are supposed to be about.

Competing without fear. Refusing to back down. Playing as if it were your last game.

Maybe that's because for Nwadike, Mojica and Sobers it was.

"We came together as a team, we bonded," Dickenman said afterward, his powder-blue dress shirt sopping. "We have a passion for the game. If you beat Central Connecticut, you beat Central Connecticut. We do not beat ourselves. Tonight, Ohio State beat us."

While a multi-million dollar professional payday awaits Oden, whenever he's good and ready, the CCSU crew is more likely to go to work at the Stanley tool plant near their campus in blue-collar New Britain, Conn.

These tough guys shed a few tears after it was over, but they were anything but intimidated by the Buckeyes.

Central Connecticut, with just nine players, competed most of the game with its starting five – the three seniors plus freshman Joe Seymore and junior Tristan Blackwood.

The 6-foot-7 Sobers, playing opposite 7-footer Oden, shocked the heavily partisan Ohio State crowd by blocking an Oden shot 19 seconds into the game.

It didn't take long for things to turn ugly for the Blue Devils. A pair of three-pointers by OSU's Jamar Butler and a tip-in by Oden put them in an 8-0 hole. Central Connecticut didn't score until 3:45 into the game.

Three more Buckeye three-pointers, two by Ron Lewis and another by Butler, made it 17-3 with 13:21 left in the half. Stone-cold shooting (30 percent) left CCSU down 38-17 at the half.

"In the first half we were all excited," Mojica said. "This is the biggest crowd we ever played against. [OSU] applied great pressure. They're a great team. They're No. 1 in the country. That's what they do."

Dickenman challenged his team during the intermission to play with the guts and gumption that got them here. Exhausted and overmatched, they responded.

"At the half, I told them it was close to embarrassing," Dickenman said. "I said go out in the second half and play Central Connecticut basketball, the way everyone knows we can play. We might have fallen behind by 27, 28 points, but we kept battling because these guys know no other way."

They played Ohio State even in the second half, 40-40, fighting fatigue, fueled only by pride.

Nwadike fouled out with 4:35 remaining, the 6-2 ½ forward hauling in five rebounds against the Big Ten champs. Across the court, you could see Dickenman whispering to Nwadike he was proud of him as they embraced on the sideline. Later the coach called the Jersey City, N.J., native, "pound-for-pound the best rebounder in college basketball."

"For us it was hard knowing it's your last time," Nwadike said, trying to keep his composure. "We're like brothers. The biggest thing is not to be able to go to practice tomorrow and bond like we do. We won't be able to play as a team any more."

Mojica, a 6-3 guard who went from unrecruited to walk-on to Northeast Conference player of the year, again starred for the Blue Devils. He had 19 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals. It was hardly his shining moment. As a 10-year-old, he stopped the suicide attempt of his mother, Nancy, at their Milford, Mass., home, pulling the rope from around her neck.

Sobers, a 6-7 forward from Scarborough, Ontario, had 10 points, eight boards and three blocks. He certainly had to enjoy the swat of Oden.

Dickenman said if there's a Central Connecticut Hall of Fame, the three seniors should go in together.

"They should be inducted as a threesome for what they brought to this university, to the national scene," said Dickenman, a former assistant to Jim Calhoun at Connecticut. "We started 0-3, then 3-9. … Easy to pack it in. But they wouldnt let it happen.

"This team had a bigger heart than any team I've ever been associated with. They represent what we're all about."

Oden, he got his, scoring 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting with 10 rebounds.

You'll be reading plenty more about the Buckeyes big man before this tournament's over.

This might be the last you hear of Nwadike, Mojica and Sobers.

Or maybe not.