June 19, 2013

Big Ten Basketball – The Bizarro World

February 8, 2013 by 1 Comment

Tyler GriffeyIn case you have been all football all the time and have not paid the least bit of attention to what is going on in College Basketball so far, your old friend and College Hoops Honk is here to get you up to speed with the best conference in America.

My man @ClevTA (a must-follow on Twitter) said it best last night – Big Ten Basketball is the bizarro Big Ten Football right now. We watched all fall as mediocre team after mediocre team played boring, uninspiring football. Yes, your Ohio State Buckeyes came out undefeated under Urban Meyer, but even the most ardent OSU supporter would tell you this was far from a National Title type team. The next best thing in the league was probably either a Michigan team that was throttled by Alabama, scored nine points against a Nebraska team that allowed 70 to Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game, and needed a miracle bomb with less than a minute to go to force OT with Northwestern at home. An argument could be made for four loss Penn State as well, but two of those losses were at home to Ohio (not Ohio State, Ohio) and a bad Virginia team.

The bottom line – in the glorious history of the Big Ten conference, 2012 was as bad of a season as the league has ever had. [Read more...]

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Animated: Urban Meyer’s first Ohio State Gatorade shower

November 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Let’s hope it is just the first of many, but here it is. Not bad for a guy who inherited a six win team.

 

[Related: Ohio State’s defense clamps down to secure 26-21 victory over Michigan and 12-0 season]

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Michigan Strikes Back at Ohio State in Recruiting War

February 20, 2012 by 36 Comments

It’s not just a rivalry on the football field. Perhaps the greatest rivalry in college football, the disgust and animosity these two states feel for one another permeates all aspects of life. If an Ohio State fan beats a Michigan fan in a coin toss, said Buckeye will feel the almost the same level of pride and joy that is felt on those cold November afternoons when the scarlet and gray came out victorious. Almost.

But where the battle between these two great Universities is quickly heating up the fastest is on the recruiting trail. And it’s a battle that could potentially have implications for The Game.

Not much known about Brady Hoke when he accepted the Michigan, but Hoke has wisely leaned on his Ohio roots to build connections with Ohio high school coaches. In his own way, Hoke is developing a tenacious reputation as a recruiter himself. He is showing no fear of Urban Meyer and seems to be content to go toe to toe with the new man in charge in Columbus.  [Read more...]

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Ohio State Lands Commitment From 4-Star DB Armani Reeves

January 30, 2012 by 8 Comments

Sunday night, while Cavs fans were still basking in the joy of Kyrie Irving’s game winner over Boston, 4-star defensive back prospect Armani Reeves from West Roxbury, Massachussetts tweeted that he was going to announce his collegiate destination on Twitter.

Reeves, a potential impact player in the secondary, something the Buckeyes desperately needed, was said to be down to OSU and Michigan, with many recruiting insiders feeling like Michigan had gained a slight lead over the Buckeyes for his services. This would have been a bit of a blow to OSU’s recruiting momentum under Urban Meyer. An impact player at a position of need going to the rivals is always a bitter pill. But alas, in the end, Reeves took to Twitter to announce he was joining the Buckeyes.

From Eleven Warriors:

At the end of the day, Reeves (5-10/185) took the opportunity to come play in Columbus, where his skills are needed after the departures of Derjuan Gambrell and Dominic Clarke at the corner back position. He joins Najee Murray as the only two corners in this class, and will likely compete for the final spot in the two deep right away (Travis Howard, Bradley Roby, and Doran Grant likely have the first three).

The commitment of Reeves is a big one for the staff, as it filled a position of need and kept a very good player away from rivals Michigan and Penn State. With corner back depth being an issue these days, expect to see Reeves on the field from day one, either locking down receivers or on special teams. The Buckeyes continue to compile a very good recruiting class under Urban Meyer and only have a few slots left before things fill up.

The Buckeyes are still waiting to hear from Kyle Dodson, Devonte Neal, Stefon Diggs, and Jamal Marcus as we head to National Signing Day this Wednesday. The Buckeyes are currently holding the #3 ranked recruiting class (according to Scout.com) and if they hit on all 4 remaining players, they could move as high as #2.

 

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Boom Herron Has a Chance To Cement His Buckeye Legacy Against Michigan

November 25, 2011 by 13 Comments

When Ohio State faces off against Michigan, it’s always a big game. Even in the last couple years when Michigan has been down and Ohio State has been winning Big Ten titles annually, there was never a game Buckeye fans wanted to win more than the game against Michigan.

This game has given fans a lot of excitement over the years, and it’s a game capable of creating legends. Few will ever forget Maurice Clarett as a freshman running for over 100 yards despite his shoulder injury to lead the Buckeyes into the National Championship game. Troy Smith and Terrelle Pryor will always be remembered for never losing to Michigan. [Read more...]

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Ohio State and Michigan Prepare For Strangest Rivalry Game In Years

November 21, 2011 by 21 Comments

I remember once when I was young kid, probably around 4th or 5th grade, I was riding the bus home from school during the week of The Game. Growing up in the small town of Napoleon in northwest Ohio, sitting geographically closer to Ann Arbor than Columbus, there was always a pretty even split between Ohio State kids and Michigan kids (or, traitors to their state, as we used to call them).

As I sat on the bus that fall afternoon, a spirited discussion broke out between many of the kids about the merits of rooting for Ohio State and for Michigan. I don’t necessarily remember taking part in the discussion, but I do remember for the first time in my life feeling like one of the older kids on the bus had made a particularly compelling argument for why rooting for Ohio State was ignorant and based on blind loyalty. True happiness, he argued, comes from rooting for the superior school with the superior football team. [Read more...]

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On the availability of Gold Pants and Tressel’s new lawyer

May 15, 2011 by 5 Comments

The biggest problem I see with this selling gold trinkets on ebay thing to grown men who collect baseball cards, pursue autographs, and for some reason want to buy trophies off college kids for upwards of fifteen hundred dollars is that there’s just been too many produced over the last six years.

Approximately 200 gold pants are distributed each year that Ohio State beats Michigan, and the Buckeyes beat Michigan every year. 

Over the last six years, heading into the 2010 game, there’s been approximately 1,200 pairs of gold pants awarded to the OSU football playing family for their continued domination over the Wolverines.  

So a few of those pants end up in some tattoo parlor somewhere?  I blame Michigan. 

If these gold pants didn’t end up being so easy to get these days maybe the handful of them that did end up being found in the possession of some unsavory sports memorabilia hounds (out of the 1,200 produced) would never have got there in the first place.   

The Buckeye brass, however, appears to have no faith that Michigan will slow down production of these pants in the years to come and made a decision this morning as a result: no gold pants for anybody this year.  Not yet anyways. [Read more...]

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Big day for the Big Ten, and a Bracket Challenge Update

March 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The leader board will be a bit more relevant tomorrow once the field of sixteen is completely identified, but as of noon on Sunday here’s where we stand:
So nice work Techmohofer aka Nicholas C, 34 of 40 is pretty impressive so far.

Tough day yesterday though for our new last place title holder however, Go Cuse, who also has Pittsburgh winning it all.  I imagine he doesn’t like yesterday’s officiating crew all that much.

As a note, I am currently in 301st place, which is at least better than where I was after day one.  

–

A lot will be decided today though to be sure, especially for the Big Ten Basketball playing conference. 

There are four games today with Big Ten Teams involved, headlined obviously by the Ohio State Buckeyes tipping things off against George Mason this evening down at the Q. 

Those match-ups, estimated tip-times, point spreads, and a couple thoughts on each game are as follows: [Read more...]

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Bob Knight and Rich Rodriguez Support Jim Tressel

March 10, 2011 by 7 Comments

Whether it means anything or not, Jim Tressel has at least cemented his reputation enough with a couple peers enough that they were willing to speak out on his behalf.  On ESPN radio, both Bob Knight and former Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez have had supportive words for Jim Tressel.

Speaking to Mike and Mike, Bob Knight said the following.

“There is no coach in college sports that’s a better example, in my mind, of what coaching is all about and what it should be and how things should be done than Jimmy Tressel. He has done a great job at Ohio State, not because he’s won a lot of games, but because he has won a lot of games doing things the absolute right way. And I think that he would be at the top of the heap when it came to picking guys that did things the way they were supposed to be done. There isn’t anybody who is better in that regard than Jim Tressel is.” [Read more...]

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Buckeye Hoops Report: Ohio State is No. 1

January 19, 2011 by 3 Comments

As the college sports season turns from bowls to basketball, I am going to write a weekly report on the Ohio State Basketball team.  Conference play is starting to kick into high gear as the No. 1 ranked Buckeyes begin a 3 month run on a march to the Final Four.

This week, the Ohio State men’s basketball team ascended to a number one ranking in the polls for just the third stretch in the history of the program. 

OSU was ranked number one during a dominant stretch in the early 1960′s behind John Havlicek and Jerry Lucas.  This is the second time, however, that they have reached the top spot under Thad Matta, who led the Buckeyes to a 3 week stint atop the poll in 2006-07 during Greg Oden and Mike Conley’s brief stay in Columbus.  It’s highly unlikely that they will maintain this position during conference play in what is an elite Big Ten conference this season.  But let’s take a look at the week that was and will be for OSU and the Big Ten.

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It Was Most Definitely The WORST of Times…

January 6, 2011 by 32 Comments

On Monday when Eric Mangini got fired, my wife came home from work and we had the following conversation:

Me: “The Browns fired their coach today.”
Her: “Yeah, I saw that. So, is Michigan going to fire their coach, too?”
Me: “Probably.”
Her: “Wow, this has been a pretty bad sports year for you, huh?”

I stopped and thought for a second. And then it hit me. All five of the major sports teams I root for combined to make the last year or so (since seasons happen at different times) the worst aggregate sports year of my life. My boy TD touched on one aspect yesterday. But, for the rest, let’s just say: buckle up. This isn’t going to be pretty.

[Read more...]

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While We’re Waiting… Cavaliers Defense, Snow Days Recap, Ohio State-Michigan Preview

November 27, 2010 by 1 Comment

While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.

I understand that the Magic are a great basketball team. I understand that losing by 11 on the road isn’t all that terrible. I realize that the Magic love to shoot threes and are pretty good at making them. I understand that nobody on this roster has much of a chance at guarding Dwight Howard straight up. I understand all of this. But the Cavs’ defense is freaking embarrassing right now.” [John Krolik/Cavs the Blog]

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Breaking Down the Big Ten

October 29, 2010 by Leave a Comment

For most of the Big Ten it is the half-way mark of the conference season. Michigan State is the only undefeated team, while four others (Ohio State, Wisconsin, Iowa and Purdue) have just one conference loss. Let’s just skip Purdue as a contender, if for no other reason than they still play Wisconsin and Michigan State, and nobody who watched last Saturday’s game would take them seriously as a conference threat. That leaves us with four legit contenders for the Big Ten title.

The Remaining Schedules:

Michigan State 8-0 (4-0)- @Iowa, Minnesota, Purdue, @Penn State

Ohio State 7-1 (3-1)- @Minnesota, Penn State, @Iowa, Michigan

Wisconsin 7-1 (3-1)- @Purdue, Indiana, @Michigan, Northwestern

Iowa 5-2 (2-1)- Michigan State, @Indiana, @Northwestern, Ohio State, @Minnesota [Read more...]

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While We’re Waiting… Highest Paid Athletes, Jared Sullinger, Week 2 Blogpoll

September 8, 2010 by 5 Comments

While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com

Economic recovery! “We are living in a time dominated by a nasty global recession, right? Companies are shutting their doors; people are being laid off everywhere you look and signs are that it may continue for some time. There are however, certain people who are sitting pretty during this ill-fated situation – and those people are professional athletes. Many Pacquiao is slated to earn $38,000,000 in 2010. Floyd Mayweather Jr. is due to earn $60,250,000 – even though he’s refusing to fight you know who. David Beckham is making so much money stateside they’re considering legally changing his last name to Gates. Today I’m going to take a look at basketball’s rich list based on salary alone, and trust me it’s pretty horrible when you get into it. You’ll find guys on this list who would struggle to get on the NCAA All American team, some of these guys probably won’t even start for their respective teams next year, and when you factor in that they earn between them more than some countries do, it’s sickening.” [Stepein Rules]

[Read more...]

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While We’re Waiting… Antonetti Speaks, KNR Shouldn’t, and More OSU-Michigan

August 26, 2010 by 12 Comments

While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.

Chris Antonetti speaks: “I’m frustrated. Mark and I are frustrated. The Dolans are frustrated. But we are committed to doing everything in our power to put a championship-caliber team back on the field as soon as possible. That’s our goal. None of use enjoy losing. None of us are working in baseball to lose. We want to field winning teams. We want to be part of a championship organization. We’ve had that success in the past, in the very recent past as well as a recent history of success in the late ’90s and early 2000s. That’s where we want to get back to from a success standpoint. We’re all motivated by winning.” [Pat McManamon/MLB FanHouse]

[Read more...]

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Ohio State vs Michigan: A Lesson in Greed and Foolishness

August 25, 2010 by 25 Comments

How do you feel about tradition? Some feel tradition is a tool of the intellectually lazy. They would argue that there should be no such thing as tradition, that instead there should just be what is and what is not. If upon close rational examination, a new path or idea is deemed to be the preferred way, then that is the path that should be followed.

Still others would argue that tradition is necessary and vital to culture because it upholds certain ideals and allows them to maintain from generation to generation. In other words, without tradition, the links to our past would be gone and it would be hard for anything to organically hold any extra value or level of importance to us.

Which brings us to the greatest rivalry in American sports. [Read more...]

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WFNY Confessional: Rick

May 27, 2010 by 42 Comments

Right from the start, the idea for this piece came from a post over at 11Warriors. It looks like they got the idea from the college football blog Every Day Should be Saturday. We give them full credit for the idea. Everyone happy? Good.

I am not Catholic, so I have more of an ‘outsiders’ understanding of a confessional. I get repentance. Anyway, the idea of getting things off your chest that others might find offensive is appealing to me in the sports genre. So without any more adieu, here are my biggest Cleveland sports confessions.

1. When I was very young I didn’t really like the Indians.

There I said it.

In fact, I rooted for the Orioles for a while. The first World Series I ever watched was the Orioles vs the Phillies in 1983. That was a killer pitching staff. Boddicker, Palmer, Flanagan, McGregor. Throw in Cal Ripken, Eddie Murray and Rick Dempsey and you had an excellent team. [Read more...]

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Big Ten Wins “The Challenge”

December 3, 2009 by 12 Comments

BigTenLogoThe Big Ten should be proud this morning.  Last night, they won their first Big Ten vs. ACC Challenge.  The Big Ten obviously isn’t known as a basketball conference.  The Buckeyes have been pretty good in recent years, and Illinois, and Michigan State are pretty consistently good.  Wisconsin seems to be more surprisingly good every year even though it is seemingly every year that they “surprise” us.  No matter, though.  This is the first time the Big Ten has beaten the ACC in the three years of the competition.  So here is a rundown of the highlights.

First, the Buckeyes rolled through Florida State 77-64.  The Buckeyes had an 11 point lead at halftime on their way to a 13 point victory overall.  The stars of the game were Jon Diebler and Evan Turner.  Diebler was on from three point land last night hitting 6-12 from beyond the arc.  He only took one two-point shot and missed it.  That makes me laugh.  6-12 from three, and 6-13 from the field overall.  Either way, he had 22 points on the night.  The real star was Evan Turner.  Turner stuffed the box score with 25 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks.  The Buckeyes game was certainly not the highlight of the night, though. [Read more...]

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Say Goodbye To Tradition: OSU vs Michigan Game To Get A New Date Next Year

November 19, 2009 by 28 Comments

The RivalrySometimes you can hear a story about a future event that’s a couple years away and you can forget about it until the time draws near. That’s the case with this story. It was a few years back when the Big Ten first started kicking around the idea of adding a mid-season bye week for every team in the Big Ten, thus extending the season from 12 weeks to 13 weeks.

There are several reasons for doing this, not the least of which is that it theoretically will help the elite teams in the conference avoid a mid-season letdown game and stay undefeated, thus giving the conference a better shot of getting a team into the BCS Title Game. Furthermore, the idea is that it will help recruiting by being able to ensure kids a week off in the middle of the season.

As a person who loves tradition, though, this saddens me greatly. Growing up in Ohio, you could count on this time of year, when the air begins to chill, the leaves have fallen, Thanksgiving is around the corner, and OSU-Michigan will partake in The Game every year on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  [Read more...]

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Is Jim Tressel Holding Terrelle Pryor Back?

September 14, 2009 by 30 Comments

forcierpryorBy now, I’m sure you’ve heard it from any number of sources. I heard Colin Cowherd talking about it today when I went to pick up lunch. Stewart Mandel penned a piece about it today as well. The argument/rhetorical question centers around some combination of the following: is Jim Tressel’s coaching philosophy holding back the development of Terrelle Pryor and/or does Pryor now have a sort of “buyer’s remorse” for picking Ohio State over Michigan?

I’m weighing in as a Michigan fan, as I think I’m somewhat qualified to look at it in a, how to say, less biased way than most OSU fans. But, before I get going, some quick housekeeping to get out of the way…

1. I can admit when I’m wrong. As many of you probably remember, I wrote an incendiary screed about not being able to wait until USC beat up (“dismantled” was the word I used, if I can remember correctly) OSU. Well, I must tip my cap to Ohio State. They not only didn’t get thrashed, they gave USC all they could handle and then some, and if not for a few questionable coaching moves and back-breaking plays, probably win the game. I’m man enough to admit that I expected a beat-down, and Ohio State made a fool out of me. [Read more...]

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