The majority of Ohio St's appearances must be back in the pre-WC4E spark of life as well, I recall Thad Matta having a couple of contenders, though.
Yeah, only three in my lifetime and one of those was vacated. They have come in bunches for the Buckeyes:
- 1939
- 1944
- 1945
- 1946
- 1960
- 1961
- 1962
- 1968
- 1999 (vacated)
- 2007
- 2012
From 1939-1946 Ohio State had four F4s in eight years. That every-other-year pace would make even the blue bloods jealous.
From 1947-1959 they had no appearances in 13 years.
From 1960-1968 they had four appearances in nine years. That is close to the 39-46 pace.
From 1969-1998 they had no appearances in 30 years.
They had the one in 1999 that was subsequently vacated.
From 2000-2006 they had none in seven years.
From 2007-2012 they had two in six years.
From 2013-present they have none in 14 years.
Peak Matta was blue-blood level success. In the eight years of his second through ninth years as HC (2005/6 through 2012/3) they had:
- 5 league titles - that is a pace of better than every other year.
- 7 NCAA Appearances - the lone exception was a year where they got screwed and proved it by winning the Not Invited Tournament.
- 5 S16s including four straight.
- 3 E8s.
- 2 F4s.
- 1 NC appearance.
Ohio State's last second weekend NCAAT game was an E8 loss to #9 seed Wichita State on March 30, 2013. It was a frustrating loss because #9 seed Wichita State had taken out #1 seed Gonzaga so Ohio State had a very favorable Regional Championship match-up as a #2 seed taking on a #9. However, at the time it seemed like a setback. Ohio State had four straight S16s and two straight E8s and had been to the F4 the previous year. I think that most tOSU fans looked at it like I did and thought "we'll be back here next year". I was in my 30s then and next year still hasn't come. Only in retrospect did the loss to the Shockers become the end of an era rather than a setback.
