Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel directs his team during practice Friday in New Orleans for Monday's BCS championship against LSU.

NEW ORLEANS — Just a few blocks from Bourbon Street, where partying was perfected, the Ohio State Buckeyes are getting primed for their national championship date with LSU by staying in their hotel and staying out of trouble.

It's almost like they're in a monastery. No, wait — that happened almost 40 years ago.

So that his players were walled off from all the distractions — or, as some would put it, fun — of going to a bowl game, coach Woody Hayes used to make his Buckeyes spend the nights before their Rose Bowl games in a monastery.

"Have you ever been to one?" said Rex Kern, the Buckeyes quarterback in 1968 when Hayes first conceived of putting his linebackers in with the monks. "It's really peaceful, which is obviously why Woody wanted us there. I remember walking among the olive trees, all the shrubbery and the landscaping — it was great for meditation."

The current Buckeyes aren't exactly contemplating their navels. They're surrounded by plenty of things to keep them occupied, including a world-class workout facility and a game room that includes piles of the latest video games and large flat-screen monitors.

Still, they believe their singularity of mind and purpose will be reinforced by sticking around the Hilton instead of collecting strings of beads down at the French Quarter.

That ethic comes from their head coach. Jim Tressel constantly repeats the age-old coaching caveat, "Nothing good ever happens after 10 o'clock."

So the Buckeyes are all but sequestered as they count down to Monday.

Harrah's Casino is mere steps from the front door of the team hotel, but Tressel has banned the Buckeyes from going there.

Several LSU players were spied enjoying the gambling tables and one-armed bandits late on Thursday night. (The jury is still out on whether slot machines strengthen or weaken a player's arm.)

The Buckeyes stress they could go out on the town, but they don't want to leave anything to chance after a 41-14 pounding by Florida in last year's national championship game.

"I've actually not gone anywhere," safety Kurt Coleman said Friday. "I've lived in the hotel room and the film room. I haven't been anywhere."

Defensive tackle Doug Worthington said he and teammate Nader Abdallah, a New Orleans native, spent 30 minutes on Bourbon Street earlier this week but hustled back to their rooms because of temperatures in the 30s.

Others have said the only thing they've seen of New Orleans is through the windows of their bus on the way to and from practices.

Woody would have loved these guys.