He'll be there next weekend along with the rest of the young Buckeyes, who held off top-seeded Syracuse 77-70 Saturday night to win the East Regional title.
Ohio State will play either North Carolina or Kansas next Saturday.
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Sullinger was on the bench for more than 13 minutes of the first half Saturday after picking up two early fouls, but Syracuse could not take advantage of his absence and the half ended in a 29-29 tie.
That was a critical element in the game because when Sullinger came back, he went to work and Syracuse could not contain him.
Sullinger was named the regional's most outstanding player after scoring 15 of his game-high 19 points after intermission. He also finished with seven rebounds.
The Buckeyes (31-7) also got 18 big points from Lenzelle Smith Jr., who had a huge night despite needing stitches after getting cut above the eye in the early going and having some vision problems. OSU also got 14 points and nine rebounds from Deshaun Thomas, who now has 89 points in four tournament games.
"These guys have played without me before, so they know what they have to do," said Sullinger. "We just kept competing on the defensive end. I think that's what won the basketball game. It's not the first time they've played without me, so I'm just proud of these guys."
The Bucks outrebounded Syracuse 39-26 and held the Orange's top two scorers for the season, Kris Joseph and Dion Waiters, to 10 and nine points, respectively. The two combined to miss 13 of 19 shots.
"Our defense wasn't the problem tonight," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. "Our offense was the problem. And I guess we fouled them too many times."
There were 49 personal fouls called in the game, 29 against Syracuse, and the Buckeyes made 13 of their last 14 free throws to salt the game away.
Waiters and James Southerland fouled out for Syracuse and centers Baye Keita and Rakeem Christmas along with forward C.J. Fair had four personals.
Boeheim was called for a technical foul in the first half. Officiating crew chief John Higgins said the technical was called because Boeheim was "out of the coaching box and gesturing about a call."
Matta said being able to sit Sullinger while still remaining right in the game was "a great luxury."
"Those guys did a tremendous job of holding the status quo as we went into halftime," he said. "Basically, I said we have 20 more minutes to do it in and I felt good he was getting rest.
"Everybody kind of pulled together (after Sullinger went to the bench), and it's something we've been preaching with this team It came down in the second half to guys making big plays. We told them to win this game, somebody was going to have to step up and make plays.
Just about every Buckeye did.
Sullinger said the team has heard doubters during the course of the season and it has fueled the Buckeyes.
"They said we were the underdogs, weren't good enough, mentally strong enough, not physically strong, immature, we heard it all," said Sullinger. "When we were going through that slump in February (losing three of five), everybody was saying this team was kind of on a downhill.
"We constantly pushed through that. We're just trying to play hard and play smart. We're not going down to New Orleans for a vacation. It's a business trip."
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