COLUMBUS, Ohio &8212; They put on straight faces all last season every time someone asked the question of the Ohio State Buckeyes.

So what do you have to play for since your school won&8217;t let you go to the NCAA Tournament?

There was pride, Natchez native and OSU junior Je&8217;Kel Foster said at the time. There was the role of spoiler the Buckeyes could play &8212; and did &8212; despite no postseason hopes. It was the result of infractions under former head coach Jim O&8217;Brien, the guy who brought Foster from to Columbus after junior college and was released after he arrived on campus.

But when the season ended, there was motivation, quite possibly a bitter taste in their mouths from the best 20-win season that nearly no one knew about. All eyes were focused on making the 2006 tournament.

Here are the Buckeyes in the Big Dance.

&8220;They brought that up all the time in our summer workouts,&8221; Foster said. &8220;They always said next year we&8217;d be able to play in it and we had to take care of our job and the NCAA would take care of the rest.

&8220;I&8217;m just blessed, man, to be able to play in the NCAA tournament with a great team. We have to go out now and play Ohio State basketball.&8221;

This is what all the hard work was for. The No. 2-seeded Buckeyes will play No. 15 seed Davidson at 11:15 a.m. Friday in the second day of the tournament. It&8217;s a safe bet to say last year&8217;s team would have made the field of 64 had it been eligible, but that may make this year&8217;s entry all that sweeter.

It may have helped the Buckeyes (25-5) and head coach Thad Matta realize there&8217;s nothing automatic in the world of big-time college basketball.

&8220;He and I were talking about it the other day,&8221; OSU assistant coach John Groce said. &8220;(Senior post) Terence Dials is the only guy who has played in an NCAA Tournament game. This is a new experience for all of our guys. I think being in the NCAA Tournament is the ultimate. One thing about Je&8217;Kel is he never takes anything for granted, and I think he&8217;s really looking forward to March Madness.&8221;

The appearance is a fitting ending to Foster&8217;s collegiate career, one that&8217;s blossomed on the court and taken him from the flatlands of West Texas to the beaches of Florida to the loud and raucous arenas of the Big Ten.

He&8217;s improved every step of the way. Always known as a prolific shooter from the perimeter, Foster showed this season he can be one heck of a defender as well as his 70 steals led the Big Ten.

He still lit it up from the outside. His 73 3-pointers were third-best in the conference. He was named second team All-Big Ten.

&8220;Defense is always something I take pride in &8212; ever since I was little,&8221; Foster said. &8220;The whole team has improved. I&8217;ve always been a defensive player. I take more pride in my defense than my offense. Sometimes I try to at least get some steals and do other things &8212; I try to do what my team needs me to do to get the win.&8221;

It&8217;s of little surprise, however, that he&8217;s risen up to become a major player for a team that&8217;s currently ranked No. 6 in the country. Foster has started all 30 games for the Buckeyes, averages a team-high 33.8 minutes on the floor a game, averages 12.4 points a game and is even the third-best rebounder on the team.

&8220;Je&8217;Kel has done well everywhere he&8217;s been,&8221; NHS head coach Mike Martin said. &8220;When you keep moving on, you&8217;ve got to keep proving yourself. He went to Howard and won there, and he went to Chipola and won there. It&8217;s no big turnaround. He&8217;s always been a good, balanced player. He always took pride in his defense, rebounding and scoring inside.

&8220;He&8217;s a very committed, hard-nosed kid and very focused. He makes everyone around him better, and he&8217;s always done that.&8221;

He&8217;s risen up from last year&8217;s role where he didn&8217;t earn a starting spot until later in the season. He started only 12 games despite appearing in all 32 contests, including the LSU game when he scored 20 points after halftime.

Foster averaged 7.7 points a game last season while finishing as the team&8217;s most accurate 3-point shooter (62 of 145, 42.8 percent).

&8220;I think the kid has improved every area of his game,&8221; Groce said. &8220;He had a phenomenal junior season, and the other seniors have done a great job, but it&8217;s been his attitude when we got here that helped us do this faster than we thought we could. I think a lot of it has to do with who he is as a person. I&8217;ve been coaching for 11 years, and he may be one of the best, if not the best, I&8217;ve coached. You have to give credit to his parents and how they raised him.&8221;

The Buckeyes have done it this season with an inside-outside game that may be hard to handle in the tournament. Dials (6-9, 260) has become a force in the middle to take pressure off the perimeter game &8212; or vice-versa, depending on your view &8212; to propel the Buckeyes to the Big Ten regular season championship and the tournament championship game.

Dials leads the team in scoring at 15.0 points a game and rebounding at 8.0 boards a game.

&8220;We have a great post player in Terence Dials and (6-8) Matt Terwilliger,&8221; Foster said. &8220;They open up a lot of shots on the perimeter for the guards. Every now and then we&8217;ll see zone, but most teams play us man to man. You have to man up &8212; basketball is still basketball, no matter where you play it at or what level you play it on.&8221;

The focus now, however, is on Foster and the outside game after he went cold in the championship game against Iowa, a 67-60 loss. Foster hit just two of 10 from behind the arc and missed two more inside it to finish with six points, and the Buckeyes canned only six of 28 from 3-point land.

No need to worry about Foster, Matta said this week.

&8220;It&8217;s something, like with Je&8217;Kel, I don&8217;t care if they go in or not,&8221; Matta said during a teleconference. &8220;In the Purdue game, he was 2 of 15 but came up with assists, rebounds and steals. He is just such a tough competitor it doesn&8217;t bother him. Obviously, when he&8217;s making shots we&8217;re a better team. He&8217;s been putting in extra shooting and extra preparation so hopefully we&8217;ll see him knock shots down over there.&8221;

It&8217;s &8220;over there&8221; for the Buckeyes, about an hour&8217;s drive from Columbus to Dayton where they will take on a veteran Davidson ball club Friday morning. To hear him talk about it, you&8217;d swear Foster has been in the Big Dance before &8212; he&8217;ll take it one game a time &8212; but the madness begins now for a Natchez kid who dreamed of being here.

It&8217;s been a storybook season under Matta, and Foster has been a big part of it.

&8220;He&8217;s just a positive guy,&8221; Foster said. &8220;He&8217;s always speaking positive on his players. You never hear any negatives about anybody. He&8217;s a great guy. At this time of year, anybody can get beat. You can&8217;t look past anyone, and it starts Friday with Davidson.&8221;