Get pumped up!
(Thanks as always to MannyCincy)
The Road to the Final Four (in a Buick)
March 24, 2011 by 2 Comments
So I mentioned earlier this week that I had some big news to announce concerning the Final Four. This is it. Buick (the official NCAA partner of Human Achievement) is choosing fan sites of teams with a chance to make it to the Final For and offering them two tickets to the Final Four if their team of choice makes it.
Much to utter flabbergastion and surprise, they have chosen your humble home for Buckeye fans, Men of the Scarlet and Gray, as the Buckeye representative. I was pretty much floored when I got the invite.
They were gracious enough to let me select the second person to go with me if the Buckeyes makes the Final Four. They suggested I be creative in the selection. Well, if you didn’t already know, I am a happily married man that was just offered possibly one of the best vacations of all time. So yeah, Mrs. Kaiser is coming. That’s as creative as it gets around here, people. I promise a fellow MotSaG’er will be invited next time. Promise!
Buick also asked that I share with you Buckeye faithful some of what Buick is doing and their involvement in the Tournament and how you can get involved:
Buick is creating The Human Highlight Reel, a growing online archive to document and celebrate the amazing stories of human achievement with student-athletes, alums and fans. You can check out the Human Highlight Reel at http://www.ncaa.com/buick. You can also submit your own story of a former student-athlete for the Human Highlight Reel.
For fans, there is an exclusive Buick-NCAA Team Badge application found on the Buick Human Highlight Reel tab on Buick’s Facebook page, which allows college basketball fans to post a college-specific March Madness badge on their profile to show support for their team. The app is accessible exclusively through Buick’s Facebook page and will keep a tally of the number of fans for each team.
Buick has also started Buick Achievers, a $4.5 million annual GM Foundation-funded scholarship program designed to recognize and reward 1,100 students who demonstrate excellence in both the community and the classroom. It will provide 100 outstanding students who major in the science, technology, engineering, mathematics, marketing, business administration or other related fields with up to $25,000 a year, for up to four years. More information can be found at http://www.buickachievers.com/
So please go and check those sites out and make sure you get your Facebook OSU badge because Ohio State is currently #3, and that’s not right. Let’s get them up to #1 where they belong (also, if you aren’t already, you can also be a fan of MotSaG while you’re there).
So needless to say, I am beside myself. I am like a kid on Christmas Eve, anxiously awaiting these next two games.
GO BUCKS!
(Full Disclosure: Buick asked me that if I accept this offer, they want me disclose that Buick is providing me with the tickets for this opportunity. So there it is.)
NCAA Tournament Rounds One and Two Wrap-up
March 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Game One: 3/18/2011 (16) UT-San Antonio 46, (1) Ohio St 75 (33-2, 16-2 Big Ten)
The tournament hors d’oeuvre for the top seeded Buckeyes arrived in the form of the UT-San Antonio Road Runners and they were just that — a tasty snack, a warm up for better things to come.
It’s a bit of a challenge to recap such a lop-sided game. A theme throughout the season is going to manifest itself starkly during the tournament. This basketball team is so balanced that one or two players can have an “off day” and someone else will pick up slack. When it happens, it’s a thing of beauty.
This first game was led by William Buford’s 18 points while Jon Diebler added another 14. The game was mostly out of reach by half-time and most of the starters were able to rest for large stretches of the game.
Game Two: 3/20/2011 (8) George Mason 66, (1) Ohio St 98 (34-2, 16-2 Big Ten)
Yes, at one point Ohio State was down to George Mason 11-2. They then proceeded to go on a 50-15 run to finish out the first half. There’s lots of things you could call that run. It was a blow-out of epic proportions. It was dominating. It was never close again.
Once again we see that when one part of the engine is gunked up, someone else steps up. When Buford and Diebler were struggling, David Lighty stepped up and took the game over on his own. It was a beautiful thing because it was Lighty’s last game in Ohio as a Buckeye, after he and his fellow seniors had just graduated and he was in his hometown. It’s always better at home.
The freshmen got in on the act as well. MotSaG Hero Aaron Craft had a field day dishing out the ball, racking up 15 assists. It helps when the guys you’re are feeding are hot (and 15-22 from behind the arc certainly qualifies as “hot”). Jared Sullinger declared the game over with his 18 points and 8 rebounds. It was a great team effort once again.
And when Sully says it’s over, it’s over.
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So now it’s on to the Sweet Sixteen to face a young, talented Kentucky team. I think Ohio State will match up well with Kentucky but it should be a battle. Fortunately Thad Matta will coach circles around John Calipari, so we definitely have that going for us.
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I finally gathered the courage to check my bracket in the MotSaG Tournament Pick’Em. It isn’t pretty. But reader Mike G’s bracket is. He got the Butler upset of Pitt, both the Morehead and Richmond upsets with Richmond coming out of that game. That earns the tip of the cap to Mike.
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I have a really cool Final Four related announcement coming up but I have to hammer out a few details before I can finally spill the beans.
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Finally: Tennessee has fired Coach Pearl. That is all.
Tressel to sit out first five games, too
March 17, 2011 by 27 Comments
Johnny mentioned this in the comments of his post on the appeal results for the Tat-5, but it deserves its own post. From the Columbus Dispatch:
Ohio State and football coach Jim Tressel announced tonight that he will serve a five-game suspension for his role in the scandal that brought major NCAA violations to the university’s door.
The announcement came moments after the NCAA denied Ohio State’s appeal to reduce the five-game suspensions of five football players for selling memorabilia and accepting discounts on tattoos, a violation of the NCAA extra benefits rule.
Tressel had been suspended for two games and fined $250,000 by the university for his own violations, which came to light last week. A source told The Dispatch that it was his decision to increase his suspension to five games; his fine will remain the same.
“Throughout this entire situation my players and I have committed ourselves to facing our mistakes and growing from them; we can only successfully do that together,” Tressel said in a statement. “Like my players, I am very sorry for the mistakes I made. I request of the university that my sanctions now include five games so that the players and I can handle this adversity together.”
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said in a statement: “I have accepted his request and we are taking action to notify the NCAA. Until the NCAA has completed its investigation, we will not be publicly discussing the details of this case.”
In Case You Missed It
March 16, 2011 by 2 Comments
Well it’s back to this.
It might be hard to believe but there is still a lot going on in Buckeyeland that doesn’t involve the basketball team crushing lesser teams and getting ready for a Final Four run. It includes Buckeye football.
Once a Buckeye, always a Buckeye? Let’s start off on a really good foot. Kirk Herbstreit. Poor Kirk Herbstreit. For some of us here at MotSaG, Kirk is still a Buckeye and for that is respected and loved. Others of us have given him the heave-ho, the final nails in the coffin being his naming the names of the Tat-5 during an ESPN bowl broadcast and the other being his indefensible final AP ballot. But we all believe that we would never do anything to the point of making him so uncomfortable in his own hometown that he would uproot his family and move OUT OF STATE. But that’s exactly what happened, and that’s a shame.
I also wonder if Tennessee fans will still be welcoming him after he makes some unkind remarks about their beloved Volunteers. Time will tell.
But, if your in the market for a multi-million dollar home, a couple just recently came available. One is Kirk’s and the other is Buckeye Hero Big Daddy Dan Wilkinson’s.
I’m sorry, so sorry People seem to think Jim Tressel owes them an apology and are looking for contrition from him during this scandal and they have been impatiently waiting for him to say he’s sorry. Happy, people?
Everybody does it It seems quaint at this point, but I was following this story about HBO doing a documentary/expose on what goes on in the dark recesses of college football recruiting. I first saw this when Ramzy tweeted a link to this story about Stanley McClover, a highly coveted DE recruit and Ohio State commit that strangely de-committed to Ohio State and switched his commitment to Auburn. That led to this revelation:
Specifically: former Auburn defensive end Stanley McClover allegedly has admitted that he received cash payments to attend Auburn and that the payments continued during his playing career on the Plains.
(more can be read here)
At this point it’s a rather tenuous position to try to take the higher ground as an Ohio State fan on any topic related to following the rules, but this tangentially involves Jim Tressel and is therefore relevant..
Oh yeah, and there was this, too.
In addition to these SEC scandals that may soon be brought to light, another area of interest going forward is going to be these 7-on-7 camps. Thayer Evans of Fox Sports has been writing up a storm about this topic and should be required reading. This is going to be big.
Just for fun Finally, we direct you to this post we put up shortly after Ohio State’s loss to Florida in the 2006 National Championship game. We kindly direct your attention to Jay’s comment.
Well, SCOREBOARD (via)
MotSaG 2011 NCAA Tournament Pick’Em
March 13, 2011 by 5 Comments
We’ll be doing the annual MotSaG NCAA Tournament Pick’Em again and we’d love to have you join us.
If you participated in last year’s contest, then you should be automatically re-invited. If you didn’t participate last year but would like to get in on the fun this year, drop a comment here (or hit us up on the Contact Form) and we’ll send you along an invite. A Yahoo! account will be needed.
Good luck! (And yes, you will be mocked for not penciling in Ohio State to the Championship game. The mocking will be so strong you’ll probably want to pack up your family and move to Tennessee.)
B1G Championship Game Live Chat
March 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Normally we’d direct you over to The BBC who has been graciously hosting these chats for like ever, but for a game of this magnitude we figured we could keep things “in-house” on this Championship Afternoon.
Also, feel free to use this as an open thread for any comments on the announcement of the NCAA Tournament brackets.
