Buckeye Blogger NetworkIt’s not summer yet, no matter how many days of 90+ degree weather that we have in Los Angeles… but the summer blockbuster season is upon us. With that in mind, let’s revisit an SBP favorite for this week’s soundtrack.
Buckeye 411
It’s Disney? Rats…
The beauty of it is, kids are kids and people are people, and if they first and foremost feel that you care about them and that you really are there to serve them, it’s easy. I’ve had the chance to hone those skills for many, many, many years, and to me it’s second nature to want to see what I can do for someone.
This also sounds familiar,
That marketing and television and all of the funds that are involved in major college athletics have certainly taken a little bit of control, not just for the institution, but I think it’s affected the experience for the youngsters. It’s not necessarily what I believe in, and I worry a little bit that there’s so much time invested into that singular passion, that — are we giving them the experiences that they are going to need through the rest of their lives?
Akron students… I hope you know how fortunate you are.
Buckeye Hoops
Welcome to another Monday Musings. I’m glad that you stopped in. Grab a coffee and have a seat. Frankly, I’m a bit light on sports this week, so we’ll start there.
Football
A big week for Orlando Pace, who was elected into the Collegiate Football Hall of Fame. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve seen a lot of quality offensive linemen play at Ohio State, but I think that Pace was one of the most dominant linemen I’ve seen. He obviously institutionalized the ‘pancake’ block, while possessing very good strength and extraordinary agility for a per his size. This was a very well deserved honor bestowed upon Mr. Pace.
Women’s Golf
The NCAA tournament is upon us with the Regionals being played May 9-11. Coach Hessian’s Ohio State team will be traveling to Palo Alto to compete in the Western Region. I’ll have recap in an upcoming Musing. Good luck Buckeyes.
All smiles
You know what would make a great Mother’s Day present? Flowers. Oh, and a new member of the Class of 2014.
Well, you’re on your own for all things floral, but today’s announcement from Gary Indiana playmaker Lonnie Johnson certainly helps make the day festive…
Johnson, a Buckeye lean for quite some time now, initially visited for The Game in November, and had been rumored to have been on the verge of a commitment for several months. His announcement today was moved up from the June 2 date that he said was his target earlier this week.
There was speculation that he was planning on making an official commitment on an official visit with his parents in January, but that visit never manifested leaving some to posit that there were some outstanding concerns on the part of the OSU staff. If true, his commitment today would indicate that those have been addressed.
Johnson is a member of the Core 6 training program that also includes Clifton Garret, Jamarco Jones, and Dylan Thompson as well as current OSU verbal Marcelys Jones.
A 6’2″ wide receiver, Johnson’s list of finalists included Purdue, Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana, Cincinnati, and Nebraska, and said that OSU was a finalist with Mizzou and Kentucky.
After the jump, check out the speed that this young man brings to the Buckeyes: Read More
The past six months have seen lots of talk about conference realignment and as a result many teams will be finding new homes in the next couple years and some conference will be almost unrecognizable after the massive reorganization. The Big Ten will not see any change in its membership until 2014 but Big Ten fans won’t have to wait that long to see the effects of conference realignment. While everyone who is a college sports fan, at least beyond their own team, will likely see the impact of conference realignment beginning this fall, Big Ten fans will feel the direct impact of the realignment come December. This week the matchups for the annual Big Ten-ACC Challenge in men’s basketball were released and for those fans who missed out in all the realignment talk, the list of matchups will cause a large amount of confusion. In addition to announcing the matchups for the challenge, Yahoo sports has ranked the matchups in terms of interest and while I generally agree with much of Yahoo’s coverage, there are several issues that I have with their ranking of matchups.
My issues with Yahoo’s rankings begin almost immediately as they ranked Michigan-Duke as the most interesting matchup. Sure, to the casual fan who for some reason give Michigan basketball more historical credit than it deserves and ignores the whole NCAA ruling on the Fab Five, this may seem like an intriguing matchup of two teams with a rich history, it actually won’t be that good of a game. The Wolverines lose their star player as Trey Burke declared for the draft and in early December the team will still be looking to fill that hole, they will also be looking to find someone who can randomly put up ill-advised shots as Tim Hardaway Jr. is also leaving. Meanwhile Duke returns a very talented team and will be adding star freshman Jabari Parker to the mix. Add in the fact that Coach K is a far better coach and this one shouldn’t even be close.
While the details are still coming out, I can’t stop thinking about how amazing the situation in Cleveland was yesterday. We need more folks like Charles Ramsey who would be willing to get involved when it’s easier to just mind their own business. Only one soundtrack possibility today, then.
Silver Dollar Pancakes- Exquisite!
Buckeye 411
Glad this gentleman is a Buckeye
One down, one to go.
Sandusky’s Own, Orlando Pace, has been elected into the College Football Hall of Fame as part of the 2013 class.
Background
Mr. Pace was born in Sandusky, OH, where he was a two-sport athlete at Sandusky High School. He was named to the Parade magazine high school All-America team as an offensive lineman and the USA Today All-America team as a defensive lineman. Not satisfied with being a ‘one-sport wonder’, Pace was also named 2nd team all-Ohio his junior season, averaging 18 points, while playing center. Talk about a post presence.
You think I’m kidding? Watch this. (Warning: Commentary of Brent Musberger and Dick Vermeil).
Ohio State University
Orlando anchored, in every sense of the word, The Ohio State University offensive line from ’93 -’96. Considering the number of talented players that have come through Columbus, that is exceptional (more later). To be honest, I’ll use bullet-points from OSU athletics site, because Orlando’s accomplishments are just too many and too great. Here they are: Read More
This is not too shabby:
(Unless it’s a prequel to a horrible uniform announcement, that is)
UPDATE: From the twitters-
@BCastOZone: Russ Hoeflich from OSU video dept made this for Nike, it is his production, not something Nike made!
Welcome to another Monday Musings episode, I’m glad that you stopped in. Grab your beverage of choice and let’s get to this.
A Bit of Context
This past Saturday marked the 43rd anniversary of one of the more horrific events in war/policy protest, free speech exercises, 1st Amendment type of stuff. May 4th 1970 was a sobering, tragic day at Kent State University; the day of the Kent State Shootings when 4 students were killed and nine injured. May 1970 was spring of my freshman year at Muskingum, which is just less than two hours south of KSU.
The period of late 60’s/early 70’s was a turbulent period; really the first that I can remember of an “us vs. them” mentality. Somehow the fact that we were all Americans escaped a lot of people. As a nation, we’ve seen much worse, and managed to work our way through it. There is currently divisiveness in various political/social topics. Frankly, the “us vs. them” mindset is a false dichotomy. My father had a saying that’s appropriate here; “folks are the same as people”. Indeed. So my advice is to relax, we’ll get through this.
