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Ohio State proves how good they can be by poleaxing Wisconsin

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After Wisconsin came back from 15 down and beat Ohio State back in February, Jared Sullinger accused a Wisconsin fan of spitting on him when the Kohl Center crowd stormed the court.

Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan’s response to the accusation? “We won. Deal with it.”

After No. 1 Ohio State worked No. 10 Wisconsin 93-65 in Columbus on Sunday afternoon, I think its safe to say that its been dealt with.

Thanks to Purdue’s loss to Iowa yesterday, Ohio State had nothing more than pride -- and possibly the No. 1 overall seed in a week -- to play for. That didn’t matter, as Ohio State put together quite possibly the most efficiently and impressively dominant performance we’ve seen this season.

With 14 minutes left in the first half, Jon Diebler missed Ohio State’s first three of the game. It was also the last three that Ohio State would miss, as the Buckeyes hit their last 14 triples, finishing the day 14-15 from beyond the arc. They were 32-47 from the field, meaning that the Buckeyes finished with an unheard of effective field goal percentage of 97.9%.

Let me repeat that.

Ohio State had a 97.9 eFG%. The NCAA average is 49.1%.

That is amazing.

There’s more. Ohio State scored 93 points, but they did it playing at Wisconsin’s pace, just 57 possessions. That means that Ohio State scored 1.63 PPP, which is almost as ridiculous as their eFG%.

In other words, Ohio State showed you just how good they are capable of being. Just four days after hitting 10 threes against Penn State, Jon Diebler had 27 points on 8-10 shooting while hitting seven threes. Jared Sullinger had 22 points and eight boards while William Buford and David Lighty combined for 31 points, 11 boards, and seven assists.

I’d be shocked if the Buckeyes -- hell, if anyone -- puts on a performance like this again this season. They were that good for an entire game.

But it goes to show you just how dangerous this Ohio State team can be when they get it going.

A point guard that doesn’t turn the ball over and doesn’t care about scoring? A center that necessitates a double team? Three wings that are capable of scoring 25 points on a given night?

There are no dominant teams in college basketball this season.

But part of me will be surprised if Ohio State doesn’t win the national title.

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @ballinisahabit.