Although everyone is picking Florida Monday night, we think Ohio State will win for a couple of reasons, with the caveat that Oden manages to play more than 20 minutes.1)like the Duke-Vegas game in 91, the earlier game was basically even except for one disastrous stretch (two in the Vegas game).
2)If Oden stays out of foul trouble, he'll shut down the inside and Ohio State' quickness becomes a significant advantage on the perimeter.
3)This team has improved dramatically, even since the end of the regular season. When they played earlier, at UF, they weren't that far off - and Oden had just started to play and had one hand to use.
4) Ohio State has gotten used to winning and to winning close games.
In the first game, OSU was badly outrebounded. With a healthy Odom, that shouldn't be as big a deal.
They had 10 steals and only 13 turnovers to Florida's 16.
They got nothing out of Oden or Lighty. Florida almost doubled their fg%, 70% to 36.5%. That probably won't happen again. All things considered, I think they've got a great shot.