On a day when Ohio State celebrated the 50^th anniversary of its 1960 national championship team, the current Buckeyes looked and played a lot like champions themselves.

No. 20 Ohio State shot a robust 63.0 percent from the floor (34 of 54) en route to an 85-63 rout of visiting Minnesota on Sunday afternoon at Value City Arena.

“It has been a great weekend having the 1960 team back on campus,” Matta said. “It was great having an opportunity for our players to interact with those guys. I think our guys had a great appreciation. I said, ‘Hey, fellas, these guys will be up in a suite watching you play.’ ”

That 1960 team had to be impressed. Matta and his team attended a banquet Saturday night for the 1960 team and they were recognized at halftime of Sunday’s game.

“They’ll be back on Wednesday,” Matta joked.

After opening the Big Ten at 1-3, OSU won its fifth straight conference game to move to 16-6 overall and into a tie for second in the Big Ten at 6-3.

“I feel good, considering where we started,” Matta said. “There is a ton of basketball still to be played. I like our positioning. It was a brutal start. I think these guys have done a good job of keeping the focus.”

Sophomore William Buford hit on 10 of 14 shots from the floor – including 4 of 5 on three-pointers – to lead the Buckeyes with a career-high 26 points to go with five rebounds and five assists.

“When we’re in transition, it’s a fun game,” Buford said. “We just do what we like to do. We’re pretty good in transition. We had a lot of good looks and alley oops, so it was a lot of fun.”

Evan Turner added 19 points, eight assists and four steals for the Buckeyes, who won for the fifth time in the last six games.

“We just wanted to play basketball and set the tone and definitely not let anybody come in here and win on our home court,” Turner said.

Jon Diebler added 19 points as he connected on 5 of 9 three-point tries. David Lighty had 11 points for OSU, which avenged a 73-62 loss at Minnesota on Jan. 9.

Rodney Williams had 13 points, Ralph Sampson III had 11 points and Blake Hoffarber and Damian Johnson had 10 each for Minnesota (13-8, 4-5), which lost for the fourth time in its last five games.

“This was a game where we just didn’t give ourselves much of a chance to win,” said Minnesota coach Tubby Smith. “We’ve got to play a lot harder and a lot smarter. It is disappointing. A lot of it has to do with Ohio State. They are a very talented team and they’re playing well right now. We’re not.

“We’re not defending and that is a real troublesome sign.”

Hoffarber had burned the Buckeyes for seven three-pointers and 27 points in the loss at Minnesota. In this game, he was 2 of 4 behind the three-point arc.

“I think he’s the best shooter in college basketball,” Matta said. “He was obviously a focal point of what we were trying to establish, not letting him get going. It’s the sickest feeling when he (shoots) because it’s going in. We knew he would make some, but we wanted him to work for them.”

Ohio State shot an amazing 73.1 percent (19 of 26) from the floor in the first half in building a 49-35 halftime lead. Turner had 15 points and Diebler and Buford each had 13 in the first half for the Buckeyes.

“I thought we did a good job of taking good shots,” Matta said. “Defensively, we had some lapses. But I thought for the most part, especially on the perimeter, that we did a good job with what we wanted to do.”

OSU forced 17 turnovers with 10 of those coming off steals. The Buckeyes got 24 points off turnovers and had 16 fast-break points in the game.

“I thought we were active,” Matta said. “We used our size. We were able to tip some passes. We weren’t as good on our rotations in the first half. We made that adjustment at halftime.”

Minnesota got as close as 12 early in the second half before the Buckeyes went on a decisive 17-2 run to go up 68-41 with 13:27 left and put the game away.

Ohio State never trailed in taking the win. Diebler had a three-pointer and a pair of free throws to put OSU up 11-6 with 15:35 left in the first half. Buford then had an alley oop dunk off a feed from Turner. Turner then had a steal, which he took coast-to-coast for a layup and a foul. His free throw put OSU up 16-11 with 12:36 left in the half.

Turner sent the lead to 10 at 23-13 with a 16-foot jumper from the top of the key. Minnesota trailed 32-24 after a layup by Hoffarber with 5:53 left in the half.

The Buckeyes then reeled off six straight as Buford had a one-handed runner in the lane, Lighty got a layup off a blocked shot by Dallas Lauderdale and Buford made a pair of free throws after a Turner steal to make it 38-24 with 4:00 left in the half.

OSU twice led by as many as 16 in the half. Diebler’s three with four seconds left – off a drive-and-kick by Turner – made it 49-35 at the break.

Ohio State had played poorly in each of its last three games in the first few minutes of the second half. The worst of those showings was last Saturday at West Virginia, where OSU blew a 40-28 halftime lead in a 71-65 loss to the Mountaineers.

Minnesota got as close as 12 early in the second half after Johnson made a pair of free throws to cut it to 51-39 with 18:18 left.

But this is where the Buckeyes embarked on their 17-2 run to basically put the game out of reach. Turner started it with an alley oop to Lauderdale on a drive. Buford then canned a three. Lauderdale then blocked a shot, starting a fast break which Buford finished with a lob to Turner.

After Minnesota’s Johnson scored on a lob, Buford hit a three off a pass from Lighty on the secondary break. The onslaught continued with a Diebler three, a Lighty layoff off a lob and a Lighty alley oop from Buford on the fast break to make it 68-41 with 13:27 left.

“That was the focus at halftime,” Matta said of his team’s strong second-half start. “We were up 12 points against Wisconsin and they scored the first eight points (of the second half). We traded baskets with Northwestern. I challenged the guys to get off to a great start and I thought they did a pretty good job of it.”

OSU twice led by as many as 28 points in the final 11 minutes before settling for the 22-point win.

“We played well the whole game, which is something we have struggled with the past few games,” Diebler said.

Also Notable

* Members of OSU’s 1960 national championship team were recognized at halftime. A banner commemorating the achievements of Hall of Fame coach Fred Taylor was unveiled in the rafters at VCA (see below for video of the ceremony).

* OSU has moved into a second-place tie with Wisconsin, Purdue and Illinois in the Big Ten. They are all three games behind Michigan State, which reached the halfway point in the conference at 19-3 overall and 9-0 in the conference.

* Buford eclipsed his previous career high of 24 points set at Indiana last year.

“Late Tuesday afternoon, Will had a major root canal,” Matta said. “Going into the Iowa game (Wednesday), he had probably slept six hours in the two days prior. Will is a very tough kid. He feels a lot better now and, obviously, I thought he played really well today.”

* At Iowa on Wednesday, Diebler was 0 for 3 on three-pointers. That snapped a string of 30 straight games dating to last season where he had made at least one trey. His five made threes in this game were the most he had made in six games, dating to a 5-for-8 performance against Indiana on Jan. 6.

Since then, he was 7 of 19 (36.8 percent) from behind the arc.

“I thought Jon had great energy and great legs on his shots and took good ones,” Matta said.

Diebler added, “It comes from our big guys setting really good screens. Evan, Will and Dave have been playing so well they pull attention away from me. It feels really good.”

* Lauderdale added six points and a career-high eight rebounds in 27 minutes for OSU. He was 3-for-4 from the field. For the year, he is 39 of 47 (82.9 percent) from the floor at VCA.

* OSU improved to 13-0 this season at VCA.

* At home against unranked opponents, OSU is now 83-2 overall under Matta.

* Ohio State now leads the all-time series with a record of 75-55, including a 47-18 mark in Columbus. The Buckeyes have won nine of the 10 meetings with Minnesota at VCA. The lone loss was a 60-56 decision in overtime in 2005. Matta is now 5-5 vs. Minnesota in his career.

* Ohio State hosts Penn State (8-13, 0-9) on Wednesday (6:30 p.m., Big Ten Network). PSU dropped a 66-46 decision at Purdue on Sunday.

* Click here for the box score from ESPN.com. Click here for Dave Biddle’s What We Learned column. Click here for our photo essay on the game.

Postgame Videos

Here is video of Matta’s postgame press conference:

Here is video of the postgame press conference with Turner, Diebler and Buford:

Here is video of the halftime ceremony featuring the 1960 national championship team, including Bob Knight addressing the crowd: