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Buckeye 411
It looks like Philly native and Friends Central forward Amile Jefferson will finally make the decision of which college to play for Tuesday afternoon. With the late signing period looming Wednesday, it looks like the top 25 prospect has nailed it down to where he wants to go. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Jefferson said on Friday that he’s “still looking” at Ohio State, Kentucky, Villanova, N.C. State, and Duke. The Gatorade Player of the Year in the state of Pennsylvania had at one point put the Buckeyes high on his list, but since has seemed to favorite the likes of N.C. State and Duke.The Friends’ Central senior averaged 20 points, 10 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game in his high school career. The McDonalds All-American has a very good all around game, that best suits him at the power forward position in the college game.
Early on, it looked like Duke and Ohio State would be in a battle to convince Jefferson they were the school for him. But as of late, N.C. State has really put together a push to convince the undersized forward. And now, with one scholarship left for 2012, Calipari is putting in his last sales pitch for Jefferson in Lexington. Back in December, I profiled Jefferson in a 2012 recruiting update:
A lot of what has kept the Jefferson recruiting wheel rolling has to do with the likes of Anthony Bennett, who has yet to sign a Letter of Intent, and might even opt to wait until after the late signing period. Both Power forwards were on the radar of Kentucky and Duke. Jefferson has also continued to explore his options based on probable NBA Draft picks. NC State, who was the most recent to jump in the mix, has a top five class heading to campus in 2012. If they could add Jefferson, they could really be a threat in the ACC right away next season. With the talented C.J. Leslie returning though, many wonder if Jefferson still has them as a favorite heading into Tuesday. I personally believe that Duke would be the perfect fit for Jefferson to develop his game and get immediate playing time. In fact, in due time, he could become the next Eldon Brand or Shane Battier in that program. His skill set really plays into how the Duke program has handled it’s undersized bigs in the past. His game is similar to that Sheldon Williams, Carlos Boozer, Christian Laettner, Leoul Deng and the tons of forwards that have come through the program and made their way to the NBA. All we can hope for is that his announcement doesn’t take as long as former recruit Tony Parker, who selected UCLA after three hours of non-sense. |
Happy May, everybody! Let’s check out the ways that the BBN fellers are keeping out of trouble.
As part of their ongoing “Favorite Buckeye” series, Dan at OHD gave us a look at wrestler Kevin Randleman, who might just join Vrable in the BBAMF Hall of Fame:
There’s a lot of talk about toughness in sports. In fact, some time there is so much talk that it ends up getting tuned out. Well, I assure you that when I tell you that Kevin Randleman’s 1993 was one of the most impressive displays of toughness that I have ever seen in any sport, I’m not being hyperbolic. Randleman entered the tournament as the #1 overall seed and he backed it up scoring an impressive first-round victory over Clarion’s Dan Payne. In the second round, however, things took an ugly turn. During his match against Central Connecticut’s Mark Frushone, Randleman suffered a dislocated jaw. The injury wasn’t caused by an illegal move, so if Randleman couldn’t get back on the mat within the allotted “injury time” he would forfeit the match and be eliminated from the tournament. However, instead of taking the easy and understandable way out, Randleman popped his jaw back into place and kept wrestling.
The Yahooligans over at the newest OSU Blog and rookie member of the BBN took umbrage at the way that many in the media were responding to some of former OSU Quarterback Terrelle Pryor’s comments in Sports Illustrated, and asked some pointed questions of the “media elite”-
Then there is ESPN. I don’t even know where to start with these guys. Brian Bennett of the Big Ten Blog drew the short straw to do the writeup on this and, as usual, kowtowed to his employer’s agenda. Here’s a tip Brian. When the NCAA has investigated Pryor and found zero evidence of an infraction occurring, that’s probably a good indication that it didn’t occur. For instance, you referenced the ESPN story about how Pryor was receiving a steady stream of checks from Dennis Talbott for signing memorabilia so that Talbott could sell it. I, as well as many others, have talked with Talbott. He categorically denies giving Pryor any monies. In fact, the NCAA declined to even contact Talbott as part of their investigation.
Fans of Ohio State basketball who have followed our tournament to find the best basketball team in school history probably have thought that this match up was inevitable in the championship game of the All-Time Tourney. When Chris and I started this, one of our first conversations was how these two teams would match up. On one side, you have a team that was destined to win a championship behind the play of it’s super stud leader. On the other is a squad that the country knew was good, but surprised with big shots, amazing comebacks, and a final four run that ended short in the National Championship game.
There is no doubt that the fans voted for the two best teams in school history, and today they meet to decide once and for all, which team is the greatest to don the Scarlet and Gray. Here is a breakdown of the Jerry Lucas’ 1960 Buckeyes vs. Greg and Mike’s 2007 squad.
To the victor go the spoils, and in this case, the winner of this mythical match up gets to face the Jerry Lucas led squad of 1960. When you look at the success of teams in Ohio State history we have covered every one of them in depth in this tournament. We have yet to have a game where the parallels were scary. For the Jim Jackson led 1992 team they played in one of the best all around era’s in college basketball history. For Mike Conley and Greg Oden, there was just one team that was clearly better in the Florida Gators.
The 1992 Buckeyes was very diverse and talented group that competed with every team in the nation. They had a transfer from Indiana in Lawrence Funderburke who contributed early and often and became an eventual starter that season. Jamaal Brown is still considered one of the best PG’s to play in Columbus and of course there’s Jim Jackson. I still believe if they hadn’t had the misfortune of facing TTUN for a third time that season they would have won it all.
The 2007 Buckeyes were instantly successful with incoming frosh Greg Oden, Michael Conley and Daequan Cook. The other two in that class were special as well and stuck around a little longer in Othello Hunter and David Lighty. Widely believed to be the best class to come in since Lucas, Havlicek and Nowell they took the fans on a great ride making it to the NCAA Championship.
What are to follow will be several comparisons of each team’s makeup. We will be including our opinions of each comparison with who has the advantage and at the end will be guest appearances. We hope you enjoy our tournament as we look forward to the outcome!
Ah, the joys of a new server to bring you the midweek morass that is SBP. Thanks to everyone’s patience as we had a bit of a sabbatical earlier this week to upgrade the hamsters in the wheel.
Circle of Life
Buckeye 411
Before we get into the usual links and fun-making, I wanted to talk a bit about fan expectations.
Over the past few days, Buckeye Nation has seen both sides of the loyalty of young adults, and hopefully our amazingly rabid fan base can gain a bit of perspective.
First, we watched in shock as Ohio State Senior (and tBBC favorite) Michael Brewster went undrafted in the NFL selection process. Even more shocking was that several centers from inferior programs did not suffer the same fate- Western Oregon? Michigan? C’mon…
While there are surely lots of reasons that this happened, including, as our friend Jeremy Birmingham pointed out, really REALLY poor coaching during his college career, it’s difficult to pinpoint one specific instance that led to Michael falling from a first rounder as a junior to an afterthought as a senior. It could be some of the season’s struggles- Michigan State and Florida both indicated that they could get a jump on their rush due to his rhythm (Might also explain Shugarts’ issues); at times his shotgun was a bit off target as well. It could have also been the “post-season”; reports that he had some challenges at the senior events, rumors of a rift that led to a last minute change of agent. Or, like many members of last year’s team, perhaps all of the off field drama and change caught up with him all at once.
But for Buckeye fans, our feelings of empathy and sympathy for Mr. Brewster were also tempered with another realization- this happened, in part, because he is a Buckeye. No, I’m not insinuating that the NFL is intentionally snubbing Ohio State players- the data proves that to be less than accurate. Instead, I believe the Michael cost himself lots of money because his loyalty to the program and to the coaches wouldn’t let him cut and run in the middle of the chaos.
Granted, we don’t know what went on behind the scenes other than this- of the members of the “Block O/Brew Crew”, Michael was the highest profile recruit and player to not find himself in the papers on a regular basis for off field issues, particularly during the past 13 months. To the contrary, as his friends and teammates (some of whom he helped bring to Columbus) continued to make decisions that led to last season’s issues and were over and over again sanctioned in ways that hurt the team, Brew was the anchor that sought to keep things together. During a time when it would have been easy to jump to the next stage in his career- first round projections, programmatic instability, loss of friends and coaches, Michael chose to stay in the Scarlet and Gray.
And that decision, in part, cost him on draft day 2012.
Let me be clear- Michael Brewster doesn’t need me to be an apologist for him. He’s landed with his home-town team (although Kansas City would have been nice for family reasons), and is bringing the positive attitude and hard work mentality to his current situation in the same fashion that he showed in Columbus. Tuesday’s Dispatch has a great article on where he’s currently at, including this great quote-
Just more people that I get to prove wrong. I think it’s an exciting challenge.
But you’ve got to wonder- if you took off your Ohio State glasses for a minute, and imagined that he was your son or grandson or family friend; If you knew in January 2011 how the season would end up for the Buckeyes, what would you tell him to do? Would you ask him to be loyal to his alma mater, or pursue his dreams in “The League” even if that made Ohio State weaker in a key position?
You’d hopefully choose the career option in your advice- particularly if you had the wisdom of hindsight. And yet, as fans, we often want young adults to think not of their own needs and dreams, but to have the same needs and dreams that we do- to be enthralled with Carmen Ohio no matter the cost.
And that brings us to Lewis Neal. Read More
The early favorite and the only National Champion in the history of the program is headed to the Final of tBBC All-Time Tourney.
The 1960 Buckeyes left little doubt in taking down the All-Ohio Five Led by David Lighty. There was some thinking by us at tBBC that the most recent success of the program would give some momentum to the young buckeyes but to no avail. The Jerry Lucas led squad is widely considered to be one of the best teams ever in the NCAA and will tough to beat in any mythical tournament.
They will face the winner of semi final number two between the Jim Jackson led 1992 Buckeyes as they take on Mike Conley and Greg Oden of 2007. Stay tuned and thank you for your votes!!!
Time for another wander around the BBN for a look back at the week in Ohio State Sports. Oh, and be sure to check out one of the newest places for news from Buckeye Athletics, Unscripted Ohio, from our friends Chris and Jeremy and the Buckeye Sports Bulletin/Yahoo!/Rivals family. It’s a great resource… and we hope to add them as the seventh seal on the BBN in the near future.
We’ll toot tBBC’s horn first this week, if only to give best wishes to our own Jim, who ties the knot to his beautiful fiance today. Mazel Tov, guys… Enjoy your amazing day and your time together on the honeymoon. Oh, and remember: come August his heart belongs to Urban.
James led off our double look at recruiting this week, covering the post- spring game options for football’s class of 2013-
Most people are projecting 21 as the upper limit of scholarships in 2013, so with Heuerman on board (speculation as I write this- ed. He verballed to Notre Dame… what can you do?), that leaves approximately seven spots to fill.
On Friday, Joe talked hoops, given that there are still some options for the Buckeye 2012 class now that transfers and the NBA have increased Ohio State’s numbers-
Now that it seems that the rest of Ohio State’s open scholarships will be turned down for other programs across the country (Amile Jefferson, Anthony Bennett), Thad Matta and company will be looking at the best transfer options and gauging interest in the upcoming month.
Yet, there is still one more interesting option that has evolved from the class of 2012…
The team from the Buckeye Blog evaluated last Saturday’s Spring Game, first with a take on the “Hoot And Holler” drill that kicked off the game-
This is exactly what the 2012 Ohio State team will be playing for – pride and respect. There is no Rose Bowl or Big Ten Championship to play for this year, and some (including myself) have worried about where the motivation will come from for the players. Worry no more. This new coaching staff has instilled a competitive spirit amongst the Scarlet and Gray ranks that was palpable throughout the stadium during this drill.
The review continued by evaluating not only the quarterback performances, but the way that their new coach is grooming them to be the tip of the spear for the new Buckeye offensive philosophy-
Although I’m still a fan of Big 10 style threeyardsandacloudof football, at some point even a successful Jim Bollman offense gets frustrating (not to mention the emotions associated with an unsuccessful Bollman offense). Meyer has said that this is still Ohio State and that we can expect to see a solid running game come fall. Unlike 2011 however, not only will there be the threat of a passing game (which was non-existent at times last year), we should actually have a solid passing game in place.
While there were a number of great articles at TSB this week, the one that made national news was Michael’s interview with Kyle Dodson, which addressed the “Bret Bielema” allegations of a “bumping” recruiting violation- Read More
