Archives for January 2013

Worley keeps the Pipeline flowing

OSU FootballThis was going to be a huge recruiting weekend but by most accounts it was going to be biggest for the 2014 class. There are a few guys from 2013 who will be there this weekend though and it didnt even take getting to Friday night to get the first commit out of the weekend.

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Christopher Worley is a 6’3″ 190 lbs 4 star LB/Safety from Cleveland, Ohio. Worley is one of many who have come to OSU via the Glenville Pipeline. Christopher Worley becomes recruit no 22 for the 2013 class. By many accounts he is a hybrid player he can play both Safety and LB and may be destined to play the STAR position at OSU. He is a BIG hitter and has a lot of speed. He will need to hit the weight room though and may need a redshirt year to get use to the system but he is primed to be another stud from Da Ville. 247sports ranks him a 4 star and the 28th best athlete in the country. ESPN ranks him a 3 star and the 42nd best OLB in the country. Scout ranks him a 3 star and the 55th best OLB in the country. Rivals ranks him a 3 star and the 52nd best OLB in the country. Below you can see his JR year highlights.

Marc Givler of Buckeye Grove broke the news via Twitter.

Christopher Worley just confirmed the news via his own twitter.

Aaron Craft or Trey Burke — Would You Rather?

OSU Logo(Lathers on SPF-2000000 sunblock)
(Dons Flame Resistant Suit)
(Starts post)

This post has some serious blasphemic implications. In fact, I don’t know if I’ll be able to look Vico in the eye after writing this. The choice I’m going to present is probably an easy one for you as a Buckeye fan. But as I’ve sat and watched the Buckeye Basketball team struggle this year, it’s a topic I’ve had to wrestle with: Who would you rather see on your team: Aaron Craft of Trey Burke?

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Now, before you dismiss this strictly hypothetical with “this isn’t a one-to-one comparison,” I understand that. This isn’t apples to oranges but maybe Granny Smith to Fuji. (Fuji are the best, by the way). So I am just going to present some strengths and flaws that each player brings to the court and I will leave a poll at the end. The decision will be yours. I will not be surprised by either outcome.

Both of these players are eerily similar in the history department. Both were heavily recruited by teams that ultimately did not end up playing for. Both are from Ohio and have strong Ohio ties. I’m not exactly sure this is the case with Michigan fans, but both are adored (if not lusted after) by their fanbases.

So let’s lay out the arguments for both and see where this goes, shall we?

Trey Burke

Pros

There’s no denying that Burke Scorer with a capital S. Through 16 games, Burke is averaging 18.3 points per game and 7.2 assists per game. That means he is combining for at least 40 percent of Michigan’s total offense. He is aggressive with the basketball but doesn’t always get to the free throw line. Throw in 39.2% from three point range and it’s easy to see that Burke is able to score.

Trey Burke is also quick and fast with the ball in his hand. He’s able to go either direction and his ball handling skills are solid.

From the offensive side of the ball, Burke is a game changer. Whether it’s taking a lead early or in crunch time (which there hasn’t really been a lot of for the Wolverines) Burke is a guy who is going to get his shot, get inside and make you pay. I think most Michigan fans want the ball in Burke’s hand with the game on the line.

Cons

Comparitively speaking, Burke is at times a below average defender. While this observation may be more based on his freshman season, he struggled to stay in front of his man and wasn’t really known for his strength (whatever that may mean to you).

Again, this is more of an observation of his freshman results, but Burke has had tendency to heave shots at in opportune times. He is taking a better shot selection this year but can still take his fair share of those head-scratching shots.

Aaron Craft

Pros

Where Burke is a Game Changer with the ball in his hand, there is no doubt that Craft is a game changer on the defensive side of the ball. You can’t watch a game of Ohio State basketball and not hear, ad nauseum, how Craft is the best on-ball defender in college. But the truth is, he is one of the best, going toe-to-toe with anyone he faces and he doesn’t back down. His feet are extremely quick and I really don’t know how he moves so effortless from side to side. He’s also a physically strong player that gives him leverage against pretty much any opposing team’s point guard.

Craft doesn’t seem to get too flustered very often. He seems to be level headed to a fault and I think is a sneaky weapon he has in his arsenal as he gets inside the head of an opponent. Those ruddy cheeks and babyface smirk has got to get under the skin of more than one Big Ten guard in the past three years.

Cons

Aaron Craft is unfortunately an offensive liability more times than not. His jump shot mechanics are not the prettiest and his outside shot is still shaky at best. Averaging less than 9 points per game and 4.7 assists per game has become a problem at times. There have also been times when Ohio State as a team has gone cold where Craft becomes tentative. He is still quick off the dribble and has a good inside game, getting good position and initiates contact but he doesn’t seem to be agressive enough to take the ball to the rack as many times as people would like to see.

Because of his limited offensive arsenal, Craft really can’t dictate tempo or control the game from his position. He has had to rely on others to snap Ohio State out of shooting slumps and when defenses tighten up, he isn’t as aggressive taking the ball inside.

In Conclusion

These aren’t the only differences between the two, just a few I’ve chosen to highlight. I’d love to hear how you guys think they match up.

As far as head-to-head match-ups, last year each guy got his against the other. Burke got the better of Craft in last year’s game in Michigan, which the Wolverines won 56-51. Burke had 17 points, included a little floater at the end the pretty much sealed the deal. Craft returned the favor in the Big Ten Tournament, holding Burke to 1 of 11 shooting and causing most, if not all of his 8 turn overs. It was apparent that this match-up was going to be thrilling as long as both players were on their respective teams.

Burke flirted with the NBA last year, giving Michigan fans the tremors, but has returned and is playing extremely good basketball. Craft, on the other hand, is now shouldering more of a load of responsibility than he had his previous two years with the departure of players like Jared Sullinger and William Buford. The added pressure has definitely weighed on Craft and his game has regressed. Did he peak as a sophomore, with little pressure to score, allowing him to concentrate solely on his defense?

Decision Time

So this is the question I present to you: Burke is an Ohio Boy. Craft is an Ohio Boy. Both are point guards. Both are dynamic personalities. So the question is present to you: Who would you rather have leading your Ohio State Buckeyes?

[poll id=”32″]

Purdue Live In Game Chat

The importance of “Conference Pride”

You will have to bear with me here for a few minutes as most of the people reading this post are B1G fans and have no idea of what “Conference Pride” is or what I am talking about. You see there are 14 teams in the S-E-C and if you know anything about those fans it is that in their mind they truly believe all of them won a National Championship Title last night. Not only that but they also feel like all of them have won 7 straight titles and 9 of the 15 total BCS titles.

For an example, Vanderbilt recently won a bowl game over a 7-6 North Carolina St team from the ACC. Their fans had a chant going for most of the 4th quarter: S-E-C… S-E-C… S-E-C. Could be heard I am sure for miles around the stadium as if this Vanderbilt team had just won a conference title. They hadn’t, by the way, as a matter of fact I don’t think Vanderbilt ever has won one (maybe they have heck I don’t even know if they have won 20 conference games in the last 20 years to be honest). The fact that Vanderbilt is a middle of the road CFB team doesn’t matter to its fans or any of the fans of other SEC teams. They saw it as a victory for the entire conference and proof that the SEC is better then the ACC.

Last night a 12-0 Notre Dame went into the BCS title game against a 12-1 Bama team with possibly the biggest fan base that Bama had ever come up against. Notre Dame fans were on their own though, it was their fans against an entire conference fan base. Things didn’t start off well even before the game started. Johnny Manziel, the Heisman winning TAMU QB, was seen on the Bama sideline yacking it up with the team he beat earlier in the year. For OSU fans this would be like if TTUN was in the game and Braxton Miller was there hanging out with Denard and company — NEVER EVER WILL HAPPEN. In the SEC, though, it is completely normal and accepted I am sure Johnny Football went clubbing last night with Bama players and fans and celebrated like he just won a BCS title.

Finally here is where it starts to matter: The Media/voters. They are the ones who are perpetually pushing this conference superiority crap and not calling it out for the BS that it is. Most B1G fans can’t and don’t look past their own teams to see why rooting for their arch enemies is so important (Myself included). I will use one voter as an example of how conference pride is important.

Jon Wilner is a voter and media member from the San Francisco area. He voted Ohio State 10th in his last AP poll last night. Here are a few of his insane thought processes.

Example 1

* Spent no time filling out the top line with Bama and slotted Oregon into the No. 2 spot almost as quickly.
* I never considered ranking Oregon below Stanford because of the head-to-head result.

Basically he just said I know Stanford beat Oregon but so what that proves nothing!!!

Example 2

* Florida lost by 10 to Louisville in the Sugar Bowl but only dropped four spots from my early-December ballot. The Gators won at Texas A&M and at Florida State, and they beat South Carolina and LSU — those wins served to largely offset what happened in the Sugar.

We will get back to that Sugar bowl win by the BIG EAST team soon!!!

Example 3

* I have been asked on numerous occasions if I’m ranking Ohio State far below its place in the AP poll because of the sanctions.

The answer: Nope. I’m ranking Ohio State far below its position in the AP poll because that’s all the Buckeyes deserve.

They shouldn’t be confused with the undefeated champion of the Big 12 or Pac-12.

The B1G was mediocre this season — closer to the Big East than the SEC — and when given a chance to show its stuff in non-conference play, tOSU struggled to beat Cal.

This is where he goes off the charts in his stupidity. He earlier said Florida which he ranked 6th ahead of Louisville at 14th lost to Louisville and was destroyed the whole game by Louisville no matter the final score. Oh by the way Louisville is the Big East Champions. He clearly thinks the SEC is far superior of a conference to the Big East yet in head to head the Big East won easily. Then he says OSU is comparable to the Big East not the Pac 12 or Big 12 and clearly not the SEC……. HUH???????? Stupidity at its finest.

You can see this hacks final ballot and a plethora of other stupid reasonings behind his final poll.

The SEC ended up having a so-so bowl season but if you believe the fans and media no one can compete with any of them no matter what the score boards say. Sure the SEC (see Bama) has been dominant lately and will continue to be so for many reasons for the forseeable future.

What isn’t true is that B1G fans need to hate each other so much so that we can’t and don’t support each other in the non-conf games. You see the squeaky wheel gets the oil. If B1G fans scream it enough the media/voters will start to believe it they are just that gullible. Still don’t believe me?

Check out this link that lists how all the AP voters voted 12-0 Ohio State in their final polls.

In conclusion for some to most voters facts don’t matter and that if B1G fans can come together and force our opinions that the B1G is better then everyone else maybe we can convince the voters to vote us significantly higher in the polls which will get us more teams in the playoffs. Maybe it wont as well but it does seem worth trying and giving it the old S-E-C try.

All together now…. RAH RAH RAH….. B-1-G…B-1-G…B-1-G….. RAH RAH RAH

MotSaG 2012 College Bowl Pick ‘Em Results

Blog/site newsCongrats are in order for Chris T, the winner of this year’s College Bowl Pick ‘Em contest. His TangemansPicksofDestiny just edged out atjbuckeye’s picks 467-462. For winning this year’s contest, Chris also wins himself a 50$ gift certificate to Amazon.com.

MotSaG writer Trevor was the highest finishing member of the staff. For his good picks he gets NOTHING. (YOU GET NOTHING!)

Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s contest. We plan on holding more contests in the future and hope you’ll join us again!

In Case You Missed It

THE RICH KEEP GETTING RICHER: In the biggest news to rock the Buckeye Blogosphere since forever, Vico and Michael from Our Honor Defend have defected over to join the Eleventy Warriors Behemoth (while Charles will take his talents over to the BBC). Congrats to Jason and the guys at 11W for landing these two blogging stalwarts (emphasis on the WARTS, of course).

THAT’S COACH HAYES TO YOU: Woody Hayes would have turned an hundred years old next month and even at a hundred, he would put a dent in your rear end and whip you into shape like nobody’s business. Ohio State will be honoring Mr. Hayes with a fund raising dinner. Ironic that Woody was born in Valentines day. In my version of things, he seems like he would be the most unromantic person on earth. The opposite was probably closer to the truth.

YEARRRRGHH!!!! I will be posting a little more about this very soon, but hopefully everyone has had a chance to see Coach Coombs pump everyone up. I wonder how many cube walls were punched and jugs at the water cooler were curled after watching this video.

WHAT IFS: “But the way we finished and the way we started playing defense and being a really good team there’s no doubt by the way we finished we would have been a contender,” Meyer said.

“I’m not bitter at anybody for where we are,” [Tim Hinton] said. “There is some disappointment that we have a group of young men that truly refused to lose and had opportunities to win another game and possibly two more games. It’s obviously been an unbelievable year. I wish for the players’ sake that we had the opportunity to win again, because they certainly earned the opportunity to perform and play at a high level. It is what it is. This was a great group to work with. I’ve been very fortunate to be a part of them.”

COOOOOOP: John Cooper, the only coach to win the Rose Bowl with a Big Ten team and a Pac-10 team was inducted in to the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame, which apparently is a thing and is big enough of a thing to have the inductees introduced by Keith Jackson.

WE’RE MOVIN’ ON UP: MotSaG’s recruiting guru SYR has always favored 24/7 Sports recruit rankings, and Ohio State has been bumped up to #2 in their latest refresh of their class rankings, behind only Alabama.

ROLL TRIBE: I’m not exactly sure if this is the first time a Buckeye has ever become an Indian (that seems like a good stub for someone to start on Wikipedia) but Nick Swisher made a lot of Cleveland Buckeye fans happy by signing a four-year deal with the Indians. All it took was a visit from Urban Meyer. And Jim Tressel. And Thad Matta. Excellent recruiters, all of them.

WILLIS McGAHEE, MIAMI RUNNING BACK: We could tell it wasn’t going to be a gimme game like when we whooped on Nebraska [in the previous year’s title matchup]. They came to play. This Oral History of the 2003 Fiesta Bowl game is the greatest thing since… the 2003 Fiesta Bowl.

I don’t say this very often anymore, but: Read The Whole Thing.

AND FINALLY: In the department of no one wants to see this, David Boston was sentenced to six months of jail for assaulting a woman. While not an excuse, it is interesting to note that the article mentions that David Boston had suffered from four concussions. I wonder if this defense is going to become common in the near future.

MISC: We all love Urban Meyer and you’re going to love him even more watching him in this Tostitos Homecoming Party Bowl video. Terrelle Pryor is forever a Buckeye and hopes one day you’ll forgive him. New transfer rules forthcoming from the NCAA? Our Twittering Buckeyes page just keeps getting better and better.

Hahahahahaha Part II

Basketball Week in Review/Preview

Week of 12/30- 1/5 Review

Ohio State 70 Nebraska 44

Finishing off of a solid, yet unimpressive 10-2 non-conference schedule, the Buckeyes began B1G play on January 2nd versus the Nebraska Cornhuskers. The ‘Huskers traveled to Value City Arena with an inflated 9-4 record and ranking in the bottom half of the country in almost every single statistical category. The Buckeyes came out hot and displayed their best defensive performance of the season, allowing only 17 points in the first half and 44 for the game. Deshaun Thomas led all scorers with 22 points and actually outscored the Cornhuskers all by himself 18-17 at the half. Once again, their perimeter defense was excellent, holding Nebraska’s shooters to only %28 (6-21) from beyond the arc. Aaron Craft had a solid night distributing the ball with 8 assists and 0 turnovers, but shot 0-4 from the field and finished with 0 points. He needs to be an option offensively for this team to succeed, or we will be seeing his defender start to sag off of him, clogging the passing lanes and daring him to shoot. With a showdown in Champaign, Illinois on the horizon, the Buckeyes took care of business like they were supposed to and sent the ‘Huskers back to Lincoln with a bad taste in their mouths.

Illinois 2

Ohio State 55 Illinois 74

Illinois fell to Purdue in their B1G opener and it seemed like the perfect time for the Buckeyes to take advantage of a team that was coming off of an upset. Think again. The Illini handed Thad Matta one of his most lopsided losses of his career and it was not even as close as the scoreboard indicated. The Buckeyes have not won a true road game this season and do not have one quality win on their resume. This will become a problem come selection Sunday with the B1G being the strongest conference in all of college basketball. Brandon Paul led the Illini with 19 points and their 6-11 center Nnanna Egwu had a great game with 16 points and 8 rebounds. Deshaun Thomas dropped 24 points on 9-21 shooting, but struggled against the Illini defense to really find his shot. The Buckeyes have massive offensive troubles and if Thomas is struggling they really do not have second and third options like years past. This needs to be figured out quickly with Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana and Minnesota all on the horizon.

Week of 1/6- 1/12 Preview

Tuesday January 8th

The Buckeyes are hoping to bounce back after their blow out loss against Illinois by traveling to Purdue, the same team that defeated the Ilini the game before. This gives the Buckeyes a chance to get their first real road victory of the season against a .500 team who plays pretty well at home. The Boilermakers are one of the better rebounding teams in the country, averaging 41 rebounds a game, which could translate into a problem for the Buckeyes who have struggled on the glass in their losses. Ohio State can limit Purdue beyond the arc as they are shooting a modest %28 from three point land. The Boilermakers are very young but they are scrappy on the boards with freshman 7 footer A.J Hammons who averages 10 points and 6 rebounds a game. Offensively the Buckeyes need to worry about Terone Johnson, he led Purdue with 25 points in their upset win over Illinois. This is a good game for Ohio State to get back on track before they host the #2 Michigan Wolverines on Sunday.

Bradley Roby to return next season

Ohio State already has to replace 7 starters from a 12-0 team for next season luckily for them it won’t be 8 as Star CB Bradley Roby has told Columbus Dispatch Sports Reporter Tim May this evening he will return for his RS JR year which is huge as Roby is a star and a shut down corner who may be the best in the country next year. Below you can a recap of the conversation Tim May had with Bradley Roby via his twitter feed.

The “Abusement Park” is coming to Ohio State

OSU FootballSeeming for months it has been rumored that a certain LB was going to commit to OSU. He was a strong lean at the very least and a silent commit at the most. Well that all changed today as he officially became a member of the 2013 class and in doing so brought along his SPARQ National Title and world record.

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Mike Mitchell is a 6’4″ 225 lbs 5 star LB from Plano, Texas. Mike is a freak of an athlete as evideced by his highlight reel below and his nickname of “The Abusement Park” and his world record breaking SPARQ national title at last summers The Opening. Mike will most likely play outside LB at OSU and brings a lot of abilities in a complete package of pass rushing and run stopping. He is the kind of athlete you don’t see very often who can play right away at the next level and not be behind in size or speed. Scout ranks him as a 5 star and the no 2 LB in the country. 247sports ranks him as a 4 star and the 100th best recruit in the country. Rivals ranks him as a 4 star and the 30th best recruit in the country. ESPN ranks him a 4 star and the 121st best recruit in the nation. You can see his highlight reel below but it doesnt include his SR year.