Congratulations to the Ohio State Buckeyes who won the NIT Championship last night in New York:
For the second year in a row, Ohio State was finishing the season in a championship game. And while the prestige of playing in the National Invitation Tournament final can hardly match that of the N.C.A.A. tournament decider, the Buckeyes appeared grateful that the result was different.
Last April, they trudged off the court defeated by Florida and promptly lost their top talent to the N.B.A. But Thursday night, again set to lose some of their top players to graduation and the pros, the Buckeyes stayed on the court at Madison Square Garden long after the buzzer.
Inspired performances from their two seniors, Jamar Butler and Othello Hunter, pulled together a team composed mostly of underclassmen as Ohio State muscled its way to a 92-85 victory over Massachusetts for the N.I.T. title.
Nice work.
