In Case You Missed It

OSU LogoIn case you missed it is Men of the Scarlet and Gray’s semi-weekly look at items that would interest the casual and hard-core Ohio State fan, be they news items, interesting blog posts or funny memes you probably saw on Reddit last week. It’s all here and it’s all for you. Have a tip that should be included in the next ICYMI? Send it our way!

ONE MORE TIME. After big Ohio State wins, if it’s late enough at night when the game ends, I usually have trouble falling asleep. I’m sure I’m not alone in this regard. I think I watched Sports Center until 4 in the morning after the Buckeyes won the National Championship in 2002, just to watch the highlights one more time. You did too, right? All of that is set up to say that I was having troubling falling asleep Tuesday night after the massive upset at Indiana. So why not relive those moments one more time by reading Eamonn Brennan’s excellent recap of the game.

Also:

PROGRESS. You know, I really thought we were making progress. I thought we were getting past this kind of thinking. But then someone like Duncan Couch has to go and screw it all up. I’m sure you’ve already read his piece, but I’ll link it here again for posterity.

He still receives more hype than he would if he were black and that has been the case throughout his college career. So many around the sport — mostly those not wearing scarlet and gray briefs this morning — agree with me on this.

As our own SYR asked him, point-blank, on Twitter, we also ask Graham Couch: Who are those “around the sport” that “agree with [you] on this”? Just name one. If you’re so brave to make this statement and this assertion, then man-up and tell us who else is.

We should be past this. This is the 21st century, where we are supposed to be in a post-racial culture where we judge based on merits (Craft has outworked Appling his whole career, by the way) and no on the rudy hue of their cheeks. But no, some mouth-breather has to dredge up the same old tropes. And he we are again.

Moving on.

I NEED AT LEAST TWO GEES IN MY KHAKIS. Congrats to former Buckeye Brain Hartline, inking a new five year, 30+ million dollar deal with the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins took Hartline in the fourth round of the 2009 NFL Draft.

Hartline, to me, has always been an enigma. I know he was never comfortable with Terrelle Pryor at QB (Hartline and Todd Boeckman were good friends) but there was just something a bit “off” in my view. Maybe it simply was that strained relationship, maybe it was something more. Either way, it’s good to see another Buckeye succeeding in the NFL.

RULES. The NCAA released some information regarding changes to enforcement of football players “targeting other players”:

The new rule in football means that discipline for those players flagged for violations will mirror the penalty for fighting. If the foul occurs in the first half of a game, the player is ejected for the remainder of the game. If the foul occurs in the second half or overtime of a game, the player is ejected for the remainder of the game and the first half of the next contest.

In an effort to address concerns when one of these plays is erroneously called on the field, the ejection portion of the penalty will be reviewable through video replay. The replay official must have conclusive evidence that a player should not be ejected to overturn the call on the field.

Great. As we have seen this season during basketball, video reviews has been a roaring success. I think this is a conspiracy between the NCAA and networks broadcasting these sporting events, because you know we’ll be going to commercials every time there is a reviewable play. Mo’ Rotel, mo’ money.

But the real problem is not the change to the football rules, but the proposed changes to the “padding in and around the pole vault box”. This is something that has to be discussed? What happened to safety first?

THIS AND THAT. Devin Smith, your new #9 on offense. Ohio State has it’s Pro Day today, and here are the participants. Cheetos.

Indiana Live In Game Chat

Buckeyes Outlast Northwestern, 63-53

OSU LogoAt least one Big Ten team can take care of its business against lesser opponents. It certainly wasn’t pretty, but against Northwestern, it hardly ever is.

The first half was the Lenzelle Smith Show early, with him hitting a barrage of threes (that’s the technical term for 4 three pointers in a half) and solid play otherwise (we’ll all agree to pretend that break-away non-dunk didn’t happen). But the pesky Wildcats would not go away and the strength of some nifty three-point shooting themselves kept them close in the first half.

Ohio State took a 29-22 lead into the locker room.

Northwestern came out hot, hitting 75% of their shots early while Deshaun Thomas’ shooting woes continued and Northwestern pulled to within two points early in the second half.

It looked like Ohio State might be able to pull away as the defense tightened up and Deshaun Thomas had an easy layup followed by a steal and fast break by Shannon Scott. Up by six, it looked like they would wrest control from the Wildcats and cruise to an easy victory. Then a couple scores by Northwestern followed by a prayer with no time on the shot clock by Abrahamson put Northwestern up by one.

It was back and forth after that, according to script again as Ohio State couldn’t put away the Wildcats until late. But put away them they did, outscoring Northwestern 15-7 down the stretch to win 63-53.

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Deshaun continues to be an enigma. He’s had a stretch now of nine or ten games where he has not been efficient in any way. Sure, he’s a “volume shooter” and okay, sure, he has a short memory but he just doesn’t look confident. Craft picked up the slack on Sunday and Smith picked up that slack tonight but this team is going to go as far as Thomas takes them this March.

Northwestern Live In Game Chat

Northwestern Preview

OSU LogoFor a team that normally struggles to even think about making it to the Big Dance in March, Northwestern has been a thorn in the Buckeyes side for a while now. Last year, it was the 75-73 nail-biter. Early this season, Northwestern practically limped into Columbus and almost ran away with the improbable upset. A late run prevented an embarrassment of epic proportions.

So Bill Carmody brings his healthier Wildcats against Ohio State this evening, (7 PM, ESPN2) looking to finally get the B1G upset is so deserves.

Northwestern does a lot of things that give Ohio State trouble: long, patient, drawn-out offensive possessions that chew up clock and wait for the defese to make a mistake, allowing for easy baskets off of back-cuts and screens. It happened time and again in the last meeting and a deeper team this time should be able to execute their offense and frustrate Ohio State defense.

Ohio State, for its part, needs to turn this into a track meet. Northwestern isn’t build for transition defense and Ohio State is at its best when it’s running the floor, looking for easy baskets on fast breaks and steals by the solid back court play of Scott and Craft.

This should also be a good chance to Deshaun to “right the ship”. He’s clearly been feeling the pressure to be the man and it’s showing in some of his shot selection and his tendency to shoot the ball early in the shot clock or while double-teamed. Craft proved on Sunday that he is able to bear the mantle of the “second option” for whatever that means. He can certainly get to the rim against Northwestern and should be able to continue his contributions on the scoreboard.

Last time I previewed the Northwestern game, I chuckled to think it was going to be anything but a blowout. Now having seen another top B1G team go down in horrible, horrible flames, I’m not making that mistake twice. I still think the Buckeyes should win (and win easily), I would not be surprised to see this turn into another 51-54 slugfest that comes down to the end.

(One more time for Google Juice: Epic Failure)

In Case You Missed It

OSU LogoIn case you missed it is Men of the Scarlet and Gray’s semi-weekly look at items that would interest the casual and hard-core Ohio State fan, be they news items, interesting blog posts or funny memes you probably saw on Reddit last week. It’s all here and it’s all for you. Have a tip that should be included in the next ICYMI? Send it our way!

Yikes. The blogging slump was more prolonged than I thought. Let’s get to this before it goes any further:

THIS SHOULD BE ONE OF MANY. If you’ve been on Twitter in the last forty-eight hours, you’ve already seen this linked a million places, but if not, Braxton Miller is on the cover of the March 4, 2013 issue of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, part of SI’s Spring Football Preview.

Braxton_SI

JIM BOLLMAN, MAN OF MYSTERY. Jim Bollman continues his foray across the country, this time showing up in East Lansing, posing as the offensive coordinator of Mark Dantonio’s Michigan State football team. Sometimes I think this is all a huge joke, that Bollman is just throwing job offers against the wall and seeing which one sticks.

JOHN SIMON, OHIO BORN AND BRED. WFNY links to an article that the Cleveland Browns (among other NFL teams) have met with and interviewed the real Johnny Football, John Simon, and that the meetings were “positive”. The Browns are prepping to install a 3-4 defense which may not be the best fit for Simon, but his drive and determination have to give NFL scouts reason to at least consider him a possible draft target. As a Browns fan, I’ve longed for the days that the Brownies would give some Buckeyes a chance to prove their mettle. Hopefully Simon fits that bill and is on the Browns sideline this coming season.

THEY HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY, BUT DO THEY HAVE THE SPEED? The SEC and other conferences will be chipping football players this upcoming season to monitor things like speed and direction of movement of football players, all in the name of… maybe it could lead to safety?

They obviously won’t be using these in the B1G because the speed is slow and the direction is forward. Nothing to see here, move along. (Actually, it would be great to see this track Braxton Miller’s movements. How many yards did he really gain on the five-yard scramble?)

THINK UCONN HAD IT TOUGH? The obvious parallels of UConn’s magical 2011 run and if the Buckeyes can make it out of the B1G Tourney as champions should give us at least a glimmer of hope that there still could be some magic up Coach Matta’s sleeve.

EXTRA POINTS: Consider the Johnny Loophole closed. (And with it, another blog post the sportsMonkey and I don’t get to write) Joke about fans of Michigan football being ashamed of themselves and the shame it brings on their families goes here… Got some time to kill? Watch this tour of the Ohio State Football weight room, it’s like an episode of Cribs for really committed football fans.

Buckeyes Take Out Frustrations on Minnesota, Win 71-45

OSU LogoMinnesota came into Columbus struggling just as much as the Buckeyes had been recently. Out of sheer necessity, one of these teams had to win. The game started as a whistle-fest (both teams were in the bonus with more than 14 minutes in the first half) with neither team playing particularly fluid.

Ohio State played tough defense during the first half, but looked a little out of synch at times. Defensive switching was sluggish and discombobulated. But things came together during the last six minutes and they played strong team defense, getting good defensive minutes from Shannon Scott.

Thomas struggled all first half until the final couple minutes when he hit a jumper, drawing a foul (leading to a three-point play) and a putback. Finally, Ohio State finished the half with a last second three-pointer by Craft put the Buckeyes up by six.

Thomas started the second half better than the first, hitting a couple open threes early as the Buckeyes built an early nine-point lead.

Ohio State had multiple opportunities in the middle of the second half to open up a sizable lead but couldn’t take advantage of bad offensive sets from Minnesota. Eventually, Ohio State’s defense became too much to handle for Minnesota, who suffered a drought of baskets while Ohio State started to pull away. Ohio State went on a run with a couple buckets from Thomas and was punctuated by a steal and a coast-to-coast slam by Evan Ravenel.

After that, it was all Buckeyes as Minnesota seemed at wits end and wanted nothing to do with the rest of the game. They played with little motivation and got lazy as the Buckeyes’ defense clamped down and swarmed the ball and frustrated the Gophers into mistake after mistake.

With the game out of hand, Amadeo Della Valle came in of the bench and brought everyone to their feet at the end, hitting a couple threes and playing like a man possessed. He’s going to be fun to watch.

This game was definitely what the doctor ordered. The Buckeyes didn’t look great all the way through, but they were able to get their defense straightened out and got some great play from Shannon Scott and Deshaun Thomas. They should be able to go into this Sunday’s game against Michigan State with a little more confidence.

Minnesota Live In Game Chat

In Case You Missed It

OSU LogoIn case you missed it is Men of the Scarlet and Gray’s semi-weekly look at items that would interest the casual and hard-core Ohio State fan, be they news items, interesting blog posts or funny memes you probably saw on Reddit last week. It’s all here and it’s all for you. Have a tip that should be included in the next ICYMI? Send it our way!

I fell into a funk this past week, so I must atone for this lapse in activity by bringing you one of the best ICYMIs of all time. I hope I can do it.

A CALL FOR HELP: I received an email recently from Kiya Sabet and they asked if I could reach out to you, our smart and attractive readers to see if you could help. Here is what they sent me (and yes, I’m leaving that butt-kissing first line in there):

I am writing you today to express first what an excellent site you have and second to let you know that myself and a couple of partners are in the process of developing a documentary commemorating the 2002 season and National championship of OSU. What we are looking for and hope to work with, is we need non-standard footage OSU figures particularly Clarett and Tressel. By non-standard I mean anything shot from fan perspective, coach’s box, in and around Columbus of players and anything you feel would be fitting to this sort of project including still photos. Thank you for your time and I hope to hear back from you. If you have any questions I can be reached at kdsabet@gmail.com or 813-995-3467.

If you have anything that could support these guys in their endeavors, please contact them directly.

UNC TO THE BIG sixTEeN? Retweeted by pretty much everyone yesterday, Jeff Ermann of InsideMDSports tweeted:

MotSaG’s own Kade has been emailing me for months saying this is going to happen, with me usually replying that I only want UNC if they bring Georgia Tech and the triple option with them. I don’t know if this will happen and I don’t even know if I care at this point, but it’s clear that Jim Delany is out there, manipulating the rest of the college sports world into doing his bidding.

THE CUPCAKES SERVED THEIR PURPOSE. I think for most Ohio State fans in general, this was a long time coming:

“The nonconference schedule in our league is ridiculous,” Alvarez said during his monthly radio show on Madison’s WIBA-AM. “It’s not very appealing …

“So we’ve made an agreement that our future games will all be Division I schools. It will not be FCS schools.”

WOODY HAYES. The Woody Hayes statue has been reverently erected outside the Woody Hayes Athletic center, proud of what he sees.

Speaking of Woody Hayes, here’s the Woody Show after beating Michigan in 1975. Amazing.

And more Woody Hayes.

THE LONG ROAD BACK.They posted this last week, but Chris Holloway’s interview with Quinn Pitcock over at the Buckeye Empire is worth a read

BASKETBALL RECRUITING. Brandon Castel over at the O-Zone has a round-up of how Thad Matta’s 2014 class is shaping up and it has the potential to be a strong one, something Matta definitely needs.

HE’S OURS. ALL OURS. Tom Herman was named the Big Ten’s best recruiter by Rivals.com:

The job that Herman, Ohio State’s offensive coordinator, did by going to Texas and grabbing three of the state’s top 20-ranked prospects, including five-star linebacker Mike Mitchell — Texas’ No. 1 ranked prospect — gets the nod as this year’s most impressive feat.

ETC: Ryan DAMN Shazier… UGH even when he’s describing The Rivalry, he calls us “Ohio”. That’s Dirty Pool, Denard.

Ohio State Something Something Wisconsin Basketball Something Something

Ooof.

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(More later if I can bust out of this blogging slump)