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]

This will be a renewal of a great, recent series- Vince Young led the Longhorns over the Buckeyes in 2005 on their way to a national title and a Heisman*; Troy Smith and Ohio State defeated Texas in 2006 in a season that ended with a national title game (involving Urban Meyer… hmm…) and a Heisman for Smith as well.

Ohio State lost to Texas in the 2009 Fiesta Bowl following a great performance at the end of the game by Heisman finalist Colt McCoy.

Here’s the official word from the WHAC:

Let’s start out west this week, which gives me a chance to do two of my favorite things in the world.  The first is to enjoy this moment: Oh, Rich Rod face, how I’ve missed your sublime poignancy. The second is to post a great FanShot, sent to us from pretty choice seats in Eugene… lots of people making their “O” face in that game, for sure. As a reminder, if you go to a game this year, send us a photo and we’ll run it on Monday mornings.

So, let’s talk about the Ducks.  The wife and I watched the game… at least until Arizona threw … [Read More]

Do you ever feel dirty rooting for the Maize and Blue?  Do you ever get one of those shudders like pure evil has settled into your soul?

Never dirty, just horribly dazed watching what passed for our beloved Wolverines the last three years.   And if you’ve been following the Maize and Blue this season, as you know, … [Read More]

There is an old saying that history often repeats itself. When it comes to a quarterback derby, Ohio State’s history is fraught with them.

It became clear with each boo on Saturday from the 105,000 fans crammed into Ohio Stadium that the honeymoon with Joe Bauserman is over. With every errant pass, throngs of scarlet and gray clad spectators wondered when it was going to be Miller Time, well Braxton Miller time.

Whether a change needs to be made or not, the problem is nothing new when it comes to Buckeye signal callers.

Stan Jackson and Joe Germaine duked it out in the late 90’s. Steve Bellisari and Austin Moherman dueled at the turn of the century, and most recently Terelle and Todd fought for the job in 2008.… [Read More]

After much speculation and rumors, the article that possibly expedited the end of the Ohio State careers of Jim Tressel (and Terrelle Pryor?) went online at Sports Illustrated this evening.

In it, author George Dohrmann raps up a six week investigation into Ohio State football and other aspects of life in the WHAC.  As you can imagine, it’s not flattering.

Sports Illustrated is alleging that the number of student athletes who have exchanged memorabilia for tattoos is actually 28, and not the 6 that were originally named.  After interviewing former employees at two Columbus area tattoo parlors, this number also includes nine Buckeyes currently with the program- Jamaal Berry, C.J. Barnett, Bo DeLande, Dorian Bell, Zach Domicone, John Simon, Storm Klein, Etienne Sabino, and Nathan Williams

Also in the piece, SI alleges that some of the exchanges of memorabilia was for marijuana, and … [Read More]

Although there is still a game or two left between various college football teams around the country, for Ohio State and its fans, the waiting game has begun.

Having put the finishing touches on an 11-1 regular season with a convincing 37-7 victory over Michigan on Saturday, the Buckeyes now wait to see who and where they will be playing in their bowl game.

At the moment, the most likely destination is the Sugar Bowl against an SEC opponent (likely Arkansas). But until the bowl selections are officially released, everything is uncertain.

Rather than looking forward into the unknown, I thought I would take a moment to look back at how the regular season went for the team.

Each year, I have ridiculously high expectations for the Buckeyes in the preseason. So high, in fact, that it is almost impossible for the team or the players to live up to … [Read More]

As promised, updates from Tressel’s press conference and other college football news:

Buckeye 411

• Injury Report-Homan and Bell will be back for Penn State, as was reported earlier. Evenge is also progressing in his rehab.
• Speaking of Penn State- Today’s “Good Tweet” announces that Dustin Fox will be the honorary captain when the Lions come to Columbus next Saturday.
• Injury Report, cont.- As was speculated across the webs and in this week’s tBBC Radio Hour, Jake Stoneburner is not yet 100%, but will be closer after the bye.
• I Found My Quarterback In San Francisco- Coach Tressel today spoke about Troy Smith’s game with the 49ers, and mentioned that Coach Mike Singletary contacted him while he was weighing whether to start Troy or David Carr.
• Award Winners- We updated this on Tuesday, but here are the honors for the Minnesota game: OPOTW-’Boom’ Herron, DPOTW- Brian Rolle,
… [Read More]