No. 2 Ohio State (28-7) needed Craft’s only 3-pointer of the game – an arching shot over 6-foot-7 defender Georges Niang from the top of the key – to avoid yet another upset in the West. Four of the top five seeds have fallen fast and hard in that most-busted bracket.

The Buckeyes’ 10th straight win sends them into the round of 16 for the fourth straight year, a school record. They’ll play sixth-seeded Arizona on Thursday in Los Angeles.

Tenth-seeded Iowa State (23-12) overcame a late 13-point deficit by hitting 3s – the Cyclones’ specialty – but wound up beaten by Craft’s lone basket from behind the arc.

This year’s First Four event has been sold out since last October, and what the event still has this year is a big economic payoff for the city of Dayton. Matthew Ferrel is part of this year’s organizing committee.

“Yea, last year the economic impact to the Dayton region was somewhere in the neighborhood of four to $5 million,” Ferrel says.

“That was with four games. This year we have ten nationally televised games, tens and tens of thousands of visitors to the Dayton region, the economic impact is estimated to be in the neighborhood of eight to $12 million.”

As of now, the First Four Tournament games will remain in Dayton through 2015, but The University of Dayton is hoping the NCAA will sign on for another 10 years.

Ferrel believes the city has earned it.

“I think Dayton has obviously proven, the UD staff has proven year in and year out, 28 years now they’ve been a host of the NCAA tournament, a hundred and one games will have been hosted after this week… They’ve proven that they are as good as anybody in the country at running an event with the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, and I think our community has shown, you know, it’s sincere about their role as the long term host for the kick-off of March Madness.”

With the tournament underway, 64 teams will vie for the national championship title. On Wednesday, the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds will take on the James Madison Dukes—and the La Salle Explorers go up against the Boise State Broncos.

University officials are calling the gift from Buckeye booster Sam Covelli “one of the most transformational gifts ever” to the school. Covelli is the country’s largest owner of Panera restaurants.

OSU athletic director Gene Smith said the new Covelli Arena will be home to seven varsity sports, including wrestling, volleyball and gymnastics. It also will serve as a training facility for men’s and women’s volleyball, an occasional venue for women’s basketball and site of local tournaments and camps.

OSU hopes to break ground in late 2014 or early 2015.

Trustees at the University of Maryland on Monday voted to accept an invitation to join Ohio State, Michigan, and other Big Ten schools in all sports beginning in the 2014-2015 school year.

Maryland would be by far the most eastern school in the mostly Midwest Big Ten, although Rutgers is expected follow suit by Tuesday, departing the Big East and making it an even 14 in the Big Ten.

46-year-old Scott D. Studer faces multiple felony counts. Authorities using a search warrant entered his home at 6:15 a.m. Wednesday and found images of nude boys on a DVD, a laptop computer and a flash drive.

Police say over an eight-year period, cameras were hidden in a Jackson High School locker room and were turned toward the showers.

Studer resigned Wednesday from his coaching job and his position as a building aide for the Jackson Local School District.

About 50 people met with police and school officials Wednesday evening to discuss the case, some of them irate.

Studer had been a coach for more than two decades.

The two-time All American forward announced yesterday he’s forgoing his final two years at OSU to turn professional.

“It was a lot,” Sullinger says. “I had a talk with coach (Thad) Matta and he pretty much told me ‘do what’s best for me.’ I thought the best decision for me was to go to the NBA.”

Matta says he’s comfortable with the sophomore’s decision.

“You go through this, and the top-tier programs in the country all deal with the same thing. When it’s all said and done, we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and say ‘OK, what do we need to do to win again next year.’”

Sullinger, a Columbus native who starred at Northland High School, is expected to be a first-round draft pick in the NBA Draft in June.

Some members of the team who won’t be taking the court? Men.

Every practice, nine men put on Ohio State gym shorts and lace up their sneakers just like the women and run through drills and scrimmages. They’re official members of the women’s team: subject to drug testing and other NCAA rules. They just can’t play in games. Julio Garcia is a junior studying pre-law. He played basketball in high school in Texas and joined the women’s practice team to stay in shape and stay active in the game.

“It’s different; you’re not really used to it. You don’t know to go hard or to take it easy on them. But they definitely don’t take it easy on us, so you have to go hard against them, too,” Garcia says.

Nathan Rossi agrees. He’s a senior biology major who joined the team last season after getting an email about try-outs.

“They’re just as physical,” Rossi says.

“They’re playing at Ohio State for a reason. It’s fun to play against them because it’s a challenge every day, but it’s a challenge I like, so it’s fun.”

And it’s a trend that’s made its way into most powerhouse programs. The University of Tennessee is credited with dressing the first men’s practice players in 1974, and a recent survey by the NCAA shows up to two-thirds of women’s teams practice against men.

OSU head coach Jim Foster says it makes his team tougher.

“It allows us to practice against a physicality that other teams have. There’s some quickness there and some basketball attributes that make our defenders have to work a little bit harder,” Fosters says.

OSU junior guard Amber Stokes has started every game for the Buckeyes this season. She says the male players have made her better.

“They’re very competitive,” Stokes says. “They play as if we’re guys too, and they help us a lot. I’m glad they come in…they have classes and stuff but they still come in and they work with us. It’s really nice to have them and I really appreciate it.”

Appreciated, but it can make things a little…awkward.

During a recent practice, a male player accidentally elbowed a female player. He obviously felt bad and apologized, but she shrugged it off without a second thought.

Nathan Rossi recounts a similar story from last year.

“I caught a ball on the wing and there was nobody around me,” remembers Rossi.

“So I went to the hoop and one of the smallest girls on the team, Maleeka Kynard, jumped right in the way at the last second and I ran her over. I felt really bad about it because I was going full-go and she was just getting in the way. I felt pretty bad…it was like four days before their first game.”

Buckeye fans will soon find out if the tough practices helped the women get ready for this year’s NCAA tournament. OSU tips off against Florida in their first round game Sunday at noon.

OSU’s St. John Arena hosted early games in this year’s women’s tournament, and Nationwide Arena will host first and second round men’s games next year. But OSU and the Greater Columbus Sports Commission are trying for more games, even the coveted later-round contests. The Sports Commission’s executive director Linda Logan said OSU and her group are putting a bid together to submit later this year.

“For men’s basketball in particular, it would be for 2014 and beyond, and it would be for the early rounds as well as the regional,” Logan said. “Also, for the women’s tournament as well, we probably would expect to see some early round bid opportunities, and also for the women’s Final Four for 2017 and beyond.”

Logan said this year’s women’s tournament games generated some $4 million in local spending, while men’s tournament games in 2009 had a local economic impact of $10 million.