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Buckeye Blogger Network
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.
One thing is for sure when you take over as the head coach at THE Ohio State University, you better know what it means to be an Ohio person. A lot of people believe Coach John Cooper got the top post at Ohio State back in 1988 simply because he beat TTUN in the Rose Bowl the year before while at Arizona State. Truth is he really probably got the job because of his history as a head coach and as a person.
Coop. There he is.
John Cooper grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee in the 1940’s and 50’s. He went into the U.S. Army right out of high school for two years before playing college ball at Iowa State. People then knew he was going to have a special talent for coaching with his abilities on the field that eventually led to him being team MVP and captain his senior year. He stayed on as an assistant coach with the Cyclones before taking a similar position with Oregon State. He made stops at UCLA, Kansas, and Kentucky before landing his first head coaching position at Tulsa in 1977.
His first season with the Golden Hurricane was 3-8 but they became pretty good after that winning five straight Missouri Valley Conference titles. Tulsa was in and out of the MVC for a year and when they returned Coach Cooper had them loaded. He began to put together a system for how he would recruit players and used it to bolster his resume. In the Top 25 ranked season of 1982, Cooper and the Golden Hurricanes went 10-1 and their only loss on the season was to Arkansas. This same year that SMU had the Pony Express, Coach Cooper had himself two 1,000 rushers in Michael Gunter and Ken Lacy and was called the Palomino Express. Despite its ranking and great season Tulsa wasn’t invited to a bowl game. Coach Cooper had the makings of a top-notch coach and was hired to take over at Arizona State in 1985. Read More
May’s second midweek madness gets existential. The big story of the day was the “discussion” about the future of our favorite sport- more on that after the jump.
Well, shoot.
Buckeye 411
But one thing is for sure – Urban Meyer will bring hardware back to Columbus with him before all is said and done. Gold pants, B1G titles and crystal footballs. For everyone who has piled on over the last twelve months – from those in Ann Arbor, Madison, and SEC country to those posted up at the headquarters of ESPN, Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News – there’s simply no way around it. Urban Meyer wins, and he wins big.
The benefactor? THE Ohio State University.
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.
The Ohio State softball team came into this weekend’s series against the Iowa Hawkeyes looking to turn around their fortunate after losing back-to-back series the previous two weekends. It was also the final 3 home games for seniors Mikayla Endicott, Alicia Herron, Vanessa Spears, and Katie Simonton. Here’s a recap of this weekend’s action.
Game 1 Iowa 2, Ohio State 0
Game one of a Saturday night doubleheader featured an old fashioned pitcher’s duel. Ohio State’s Mikayla Endicott faced off against Iowa’s Kayla Massey. Massey was able to pick up her 13 victory of the by out-dueling Endicott as the Hawkeyes squeeze out a 2-0 victory in a game that only lasted 90 minutes.
Iowa threatened early in the game when Johnnie Dowling lead off the game with a single and was moved over to second on Bradi Wall’s sacrifice bunt. Endicott was able to quickly shut down the early scoring threat with Dowling on second. She was able to get Megan Blank and Katie Keim to pop out in the infield to end the bottom of the first.
Ohio State’s first, and only, scoring chance came in the bottom of the second when freshman Shelby Pickett cracked a one out double to right. This would be the only hit that the Buckeyes would get off of Massey all game. Pickett then moved to third on Megan Coletta’s ground out to the pitcher. Massey then ended the Buckeye threat getting Malaina Saalfield to tap out back to the mound.
Both pitchers cruised into the sixth inning when Iowa was able to break the ice. Dowling lead off the inning with a bunt single and was followed up with a single by Wall. Both runners moved up into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt by Blank. Dowling scored on Keim’s groundout making it 1-0. Iowa picked up their second run of the inning when Herron dropped a soft liner off the bat of Liz Watkins scoring Wall. That proved to be plenty for Massey as she was able to get Ohio State to go quietly in the sixth and seventh giving the Hawkeyes the opening game win.
Game 2 Iowa 13, Ohio State 5 Read More
South Carolina AD Eric Hyman may be winning the NCAA Violations sweepstakes.
It’s the sports dead season again and, as is rapidly becoming a tradition around these parts, we find ourselves updating the table of violations for a school on our Compare and Contrast board. This edition’s winners are the South Carolina Gamecocks and the rather surprising conclusion to a two year investigation into improper benefits for the football team.
On April 27th, the NCAA Committee on Infractions released the dreaded Public Infractions Report (PIR). As you may know from our previous work, the Public Infractions Report is the document outlining the final decisions of the Committee and the ultimate penalties resulting from their violations. The document is particularly helpful in giving a window into the inner workings of the investigation. Sometimes that can be more interesting even than the penalties leveled at the institution.
Obviously, we’re still waiting on several other NCAA documents. That wait could stretch on for as long as a couple years, particularly for Miami and Oregon. We’ll include those documents when we can.
Until then, you can find our previous update here. That includes the full information available on all of the other investigations.
“May you live in interesting times”- Ancient Curse
With news today that PA linebacker Alex Anzalone has both decommitted from Ohio State and is no longer considering the Buckeyes, it has certainly been an interesting week for Ohio State Football recruiting.
First, Lewis Neal acknowledged that his jumping on the Buckeye Bandwagon and that he needed to slow down and assess his future before making a solid commitment.
Anzalone’s change of heart was the second of the week, but could easily be seen as the third; since Buckeye “lock” Mike Heuerman decided instead to head to Notre Dame.
Interspersed in all of this was the story of Charles Waugh, a registered Kentucky sex offender who interacted with a number of Ohio State recruits on twitter and facebook; and even met up with several (Anzalone and Heuerman included) at the Spring Game. For the most in-depth coverage of this, please see the work that Luke Zimmerman did over at Land-Grant Holy Land.
So, here are some things that are currently rattling around the ol’ brainbucket here at Mali Manor:
To be clear- this isn’t a comment on other sites’ decisions; several of the BBN do great work connecting with young adults. Rather, it’s more commentary that we haven’t figured out how to have these types of conversations as carefully as we’d like to, in spite of numerous conversations with the Ohio State Athletic Department.
“Ask before you act” is a great motto to have in this matter, and we’d rather be behind the news than make a huge mistake.
Oh, and believe it or not… It’s a GREAT day to be a Buckeye.
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!
