Some weekend, eh? Grab your coffee and let’s get right to it.

Men’s Basketball

A week that started out fairly well, then crashed and burned. In the NCAA’s, they’ve managed to dust Iowa State 78-75, Arizona 73-70 and then fell flat against Wichita State 66-70.  I don’t have much to add to the fine recaps, above, however you can bet that after some musing on my part, I’ll have something to say next week. It seemed that Thad was pushing the right buttons and the team responded in the first two games. On Saturday, things were pretty disjointed. I’d hoped the 2nd half effort against Arizona would carry into the WSU game, but alas, no. Although the offense gott significant points from senior junior DeShaun Thomas and LQR, that was it, unfortunately.

General Thoughts

I hate to do this, but let’s start with a definition: to dislike intensely or passionately; … [Read More]

School: Wichita State University
Location: Wichita, KS
Founded: 1895
School Type: Public
Student Population: 14,806 total, 11,763 undergrad
Stadium: Charles Koch Arena “The Roundhouse”
Seating: 10,506
Opened: 1955
Head Coach: Gregg Marshall
Experience: 6th year

After beating their doppelganger, University of Arizona, Ohio State moves on to play Missouri Valley Conference representative Wichita State Shockers. Like Ohio State, Wichita State finished 2nd in their conference. They enter this game on a 3 game winning streak, and have won 9 of their last 12 games.

The Shockers, seeded #9, currently sit at (29-8, 12-6). Their 1st round NCAA win was against Pitt 73-55 (no surprise), but then edged Everybody’s Number One, Gonzaga 76-70. The Shockers enter this game scoring 70 points per game, while giving up 61. The numbers are very similar to Ohio State’s averages of 70 and 59 per game. The Buckeyes are a 4-point favorite, so … [Read More]

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.

The season was filled with ups and downs, learning experiences and unfortunately some major underachievement.

Losing a halftime lead at Cameron Indoor Stadium and falling to Duke seemed to mark a learning experience: You can’t let good teams off the hook, especially on the road.

The second half debacle of the home loss to … [Read More]

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 2^nd ranked Indiana Hoosiers was one of those exceptions, and the Buckeyes rose up to the challenge.

Here are the Hoosiers, in the midst of a rebirth of sorts under head coach Tom Crean, with a chance to clinch their first outright Big Ten title (on their home floor no less) in twenty years against their … [Read More]

The Rivals top 100

On Monday, the newest and last Rivals top 100 for 2013 was released. Among those 100, Urban Meyer’s coaching staff has received seven verbal commitments and is still waiting patiently for answers from two others. The most “top 100” players the Buckeyes have ever claimed were 8 commits in 2008. If either Vonn Bell (safety from Rossville, Georgia, ranked number 32) or Dontre Wilson (running back from Desoto, Texas, ranked number 100) commit to Meyer’s 2013 class it will match or exceed that ’08 record. I am a math genius.

The currently committed list includes the following:

#30 Mike … [Read More]

Chicago State is quite a step down from Kansas in terms of difficulty. They’re #331 in the RPI currently with a 3-11 overall record, and are 0-9 away from home. Their best win was a 67-54 decision against Alabama State. So far, their best opponents have been Notre … [Read More]

Saturday, December 22 4:00pm on CBS

The first half was easily described by the microcosm that was the last 10 seconds of the period. The Buckeyes put together a good play, got a wide open look for Thomas from long range. He missed it, which was quickly followed by a missed put-back by Aaron Craft. The Buckeyes for the half went 10-29 shooting, combined with a number of sloppy, unfocused plays that cost … [Read More]