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BOISE — Gonzaga and Ohio State can’t seem to get away from each other.
The teams, who played in the PK80 Invitational in November with the Zags winning 86-59, are both staying at The Grove Hotel in downtown Boise. It’s rare for that to happen at an NCAA Tournament.
The highest-seeded team, No. 4 Gonzaga in this case, typically gets the more favorable accommodations at a tourney site, but an NCAA mix-up resulted in both being at the same location.
“It was too late (to change) when the arrangements were made Sunday night so it was fine,” Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth said. “I rode down the elevator after I got done working out with (Ohio State coach) Chris Holtmann.”
Ohio State’s focus when the 68-team bracket came out was on its opening game against South Dakota State, as it should have been. But the Buckeyes couldn’t help but notice what could be in store for their second game, should they win: Gonzaga.
“The whole team is excited for this one,” Ohio State guard Kam Williams said. “We’ve been wanting this matchup ever since the bracket came out. Hopefully, when they take the court they’ll feel us, because they didn’t feel us in the first game.”
The first matchup between the schools this season was a no contest. Gonzaga had its way with the Buckeyes, shooting 59 percent while holding Ohio State to 35 percent in the rout.
The Buckeyes have improved a great deal since then.
Picked to finish 11th in the Big Ten, Ohio State won 24 games during the regular season and finished second behind Michigan State in its first season under Holtmann. The Buckeyes lost to Penn State in their Big Ten Tournament opener, but beat South Dakota State in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament to earn a rematch against the Zags.
The two teams know each other so well that when Holtmann was brushing up on the Buckeyes’ first-round opponent on Monday night, he decided to dial up Gonzaga coach Mark Few.
The Zags defeated South Dakota State in the first round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament.
“He was enjoying a beverage and a view of the mountains,” Holtmann said. “I said, ‘Man, what a life that is right there.’ I was quite envious at the time.
“It was about 9:30 or 10 our time. I was just trying to figure out how to guard South Dakota State and asked if he had any suggestions. We had a good conversation and you could tell he was pretty chatty. I said, ‘OK, I gotta go, I have to get back to work.’”
Gonzaga knows it didn’t see the best of Ohio State star Keita Bates-Diop in the first matchup.
Bates-Diop has played in 32 games and has just twice failed to reach double figures: Rutgers (season-low six points) and Gonzaga (seven points).
The versatile junior forward was a handful for the rest of OSU’s opponents. Bates-Diop was the Big Ten Player of the Year and earned some All-American honors after averaging 19.4 points and 8.8 rebounds.
At 6-foot-7 and 235 pounds, Bates-Diop can score from behind the arc (54 3-pointers), create off the bounce or go to work in the post. He showed all three aspects with 24 points and 12 rebounds — his 19th double-double — in Thursday’s win.
Gonzaga’s Johnathan Williams has the size, strength and athleticism to defend Bates-Diop. He did a nice job on the Buckeyes’ standout in the November meeting, but the Zags also had success when they went to a zone defense.
“We watched them as they ran through that Big Ten almost to the last week of the season, and they did a great job of getting them to believe and really come together,” Few said. “They seem like they’re really connected. We know it’s going to be really tough, physical.”
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