Buckeye Blogger Network
Tournament Game Face
School: Michigan State University
Location: East Lansing, MI
Founded: 1855
Student Population: 47,954 total, 36,675 undergrad
School Type: Public
Stadium: Breslin Center
Seating: 16,000
Opened: 1989
Head Coach: Tom Izzo
Experience: 18th year
Pick your poison, Huskers
School: University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Location: Lincoln, NE
Founded: 1859
Student Population: 19,345
School Type: Public – Land Grant
Stadium: Bob Devaney Sports Center
Seating: 13,595
Opened: 1976
Head Coach: Tim Miles
Experience: 1st year at Nebraska
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Basketball’s regular season is in the books. It’s officially time to get serious: Its tournament time. It’s also Wednesday night and you know what that means… Let’s rumble!
Hoops on Hoops
The Buckeyes finished the regular season Sunday with a 13 point home win over Illinois. They finish with a record of 23-7, good for a tie for second place in the Big Ten and the number two overall seed in the Big Ten Tournament. They now await tomorrow’s winner of Purdue vs Nebraska and will play Friday at 6:30 eastern on the Big Ten Network.
Deshaun Thomas, Lenzelle Smith and Aaron Craft during the 2012 tournaments
A big time showdown with the Indiana Hoosiers on the hardwood. Spring practice has started on the astro-grass. The weather must be warming up (soon?) in Columbus, Ohio. It’s Wednesday, let’s rumble!
Upset in B-Town
With the conference tournament and eventually the NCAA tournament still on the horizon, it can be tough to put a ton of stock into the importance of a regular season game these days in college basketball. There’s seemingly always tomorrow or another shot to fix what you have done wrong. Last night’s game in Bloomington, Indiana against the 2nd ranked Indiana Hoosiers was one of those exceptions, and the Buckeyes rose up to the challenge.
Deshaun Thomas and Lenzelle Smith feeling good in Assembly Hall
The NFL Combine is over. Basketball season is getting good and maybe, just maybe the Buckeyes are catching their second wind. It’s Wednesday, let’s rumble!
Tommy Terrific at the 2000 Combine
NFL player factory
Seven Buckeyes were selected to participate in this year’s NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, Indiana. John Simon, Jonathan Hankins, Jake Stoneburner, Zack Boren, Reid Fragel, Nathan Williams and Etienne Sabino were poked, prodded and dissected by doctors and NFL executives. They then went onto the field at Lucas Oil Stadium for tests of agility, speed and overall skill. Read More
Yessiree-bob, the start of another week. With coffee in hand, let’s get right to it.
Football
A bit of a slow week, but not entirely dormant. For instance, Charles has an article on rules changes that he’d like to see implemented. They concern ability to return onside kicks, number of coach’s challenges and ball placement for overtime. You should read his article, but really need to for my comments to make sense. Go ahead, I’ll wait….
I did a casual study (I was wearing jeans at the time) of Division 1-A overtime games in 2012, research source being ESPN game recaps. There were 33 games that went into overtime. The game summary did not specify who actually won the overtime coin toss, so I assumed that in all instances, the coin toss winner chose to play defense in overtime. However, the following citation from a paper by Brams & Sanderson makes me think that’s a pretty solid assumption:
Between 1996, when the present college overtime rule was adopted, until 2007, there were 328 overtime games. In only four games did the winner of the coin toss choose to play offense (Rosen and Wilson, 2007). The fact that 99% of the teams that win the coin toss elect to defend first is prima facie evidence that there is an advantage to doing so.
Back to the 2012 overtime games. Of the 33 games, 22 (67%) were won by the team that won the coin toss and elected to play defense. There were 13 losses incurred by the ‘first offense’ teams due to some sort of offensive malfunction; 7 by missed field goals, 4 by interceptions and 2 on loss of downs. I just quickly eyeballed these drive results, so your mileage may vary; however, it still represents the gist of the offensive failings. Since these teams also ran plays from scrimmage to get as close as possible before attempting the FG, having an initial spot at the 25 yard line is still not a bad idea. Read More
School: Michigan State University
Location: East Lansing, MI
Founded: 1855
Student Population: 47,954 total, 36,675 undergrad
School Type: Public
Stadium: Breslin Center
Seating: 16,000
Opened: 1989
Head Coach: Tom Izzo
Experience: 18th year
School: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Location: Minneapolis, MN and St. Paul, MN
Founded: 1851
Student Population: 51,853 total, 30,375 undergrad
School Type: Public
Stadium: Williams Arena, AKA ‘The Barn’
Seating: 14,625
Opened: 1928
Head Coach: Orlando ‘Tubby’ Smith
Experience: 6th year
