...a tradition of hope, passion, and misery
It was the ultimate “No no no no no no… YES!” shot. Aaron Craft is not known to be a three point shooter. He wasn’t even going to be known as a free throw shooter much as he missed some of those down the stretch of this game. But, in this one time with this moment in front of him with a tie game, Aaron Craft stepped up, waved off his teammates and drained a three point shot with almost no time remaining.
[Related: Slammin’ Sammy: Buckeyes Crush Iona’s Will In Tourney Opener]
TD is out and about around the country like he normally is, but hotel rooms have Internet. So, we talked about some sports with TD in the shadow of Jerry Jones’ behemoth stadium.
Here’s a rundown…
There has not been a clear cut, no doubt about it, first pick in the NBA draft kind of player emerge from the college game yet this season. One of the contenders for that top spot is Kentucky big man Nerlens Noel.
On Tuesday evening, Noel suffered a knee injury that has been described as gruesome-
“The No. 25 Wildcats also may be without freshman forward Nerlens Noel for a significant length of time because of a left knee injury he suffered during the second half of their 69-52 loss to No. 7 Florida. The 6-foot-10 Noel landed awkwardly on his left knee and then slammed the knee into the basket support after chasing down Mike Rosario on a fast break and blocking the shot with 8:03 left.”
“Noel left the O’Connell Center in a wheelchair. The school said in a statement that Noel would fly back to Lexington, Ky., with the rest of the team Tuesday night. “His leg was wobbly, knee looked dislocated,” Florida center Patric Young told the Palm Beach Post. “It was gruesome. I don’t want to think about it.”
Noel immediately grabbed his left knee and screamed in pain. Trainers immediately rushed to his side and Calipari eventually came over and stayed with Noel until he was carried off the court by several teammates.”
A picture has of the landing has been making the rounds on twitter.
[Related: NBA Rookie Rankings]
(Photo by Kentucky.com)
With Tyler Zeller’s little brother Cody deciding to stay in school for his sophomore season, the Indiana Hoosiers sit proudly atop the 2012-13 NCAA Division I men’s basketball ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll.
The Hoosiers received 21 out of a possible 31 first-place votes and 761 overall points from a panel of coaches. Zeller is one of four starters returning to Bloomington for the upcoming season. The Hoosiers, however, will undoubtedly have their hands full as two Big Ten rivals sit in the top five with Thad Matta’s Ohio State Buckeyes and John Beilein’s Michigan Wolverines being ranked fourth and fifth, respectively. Indiana will close their 2012-13 season by facing the two teams in consecutive games.
Usual suspects Louisville, Kentucky, North Carolina State, Kansas, Duke, Syracuse and Florida help round out the top 10.
[Related: The Ohio State Perspective]
What has happened to the Cleveland State Vikings?
Once the darlings of the Horizon League, the wheels have come off of the proverbial wagon and Head Coach Gary Waters has been left scratching his head, wondering how things turned so quickly towards the negative.
The Vikes were 20-4, 10-2 in the conference and battling it out with Valparaiso for league supremacy. Then Valpo came to town on February 9th for the ultimate showdown. The winner would be in control their own destiny for the regular season title as well as the inside track to host the Conference Tournament. Instead of coming out hyped on their home floor where they have been so good during the Waters era, CSU laid a major egg, being blown out in front of their biggest crowd of the season. The loss gave Valpo essentially a two-game lead on Cleveland State, since they had now beaten them twice.
Little did we know that was just going to be the beginning of the Vikings swoon. [Read more...]
When the polls were released last week, Ohio State’s men’s basketball team was 13-2, which was good enough to be ranked 7th in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll and 6th in the AP Top 25. Two blowout wins against Nebraska (71-40) and Iowa (76-47) later and the Bucks moved to #5 in both polls.
In fact, the top five are unified in both polls for the time being.
The Buckeyes jumped Duke in the AP poll and both Duke and Missouri in the ESPN/USA Today poll. Duke was hurt by a five point loss at the hands of Temple, while Missouri lost 75-59 to Kansas State.
The upcoming schedule could prove to be difficult for the Buckeyes as they head to Illinois and are back home to host Indiana. Illinois is currently 14-3 (3-1 Big Ten) while the Hoosiers are 15-1 (3-1 Big Ten.) Of course Indiana also handed the Buckeyes a pretty tough four point loss on December 31st in Bloomington.
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.
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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...]
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.
So Julio Jones might be a bit of a reach at 6 now that he has a broken foot requiring surgery… It’s pretty amazing Jones was able to run a 4.39 forty anyway, but this must have been a pre-existing injury the wideout simply wasn’t aware of while training for Indianapolis. Jones’ strong Combine effort seemingly helped to solidify his standing as a likely top-15 pick. We heard similar optimism at this time last year about Demaryius Thomas’ broken foot, which remained a problem for him after Denver drafted him. Michael Crabtree, on the other, had a similar injury and enjoyed a productive rookie year. [ProFootballTalk] [Read more...]
While the Cleveland news is slow (understatement) we thought we would get a leg up on our bracket competition. We will be using Yahoo. We will be giving out a prize to the winner. There is no cost to enter, so really you have no excuses!
Here’s how we are doing the scoring. I decided not to weight the later rounds so heavily that it won’t be interesting. Also there are bonus points based on upsets or underdogs.
Round of 64 = 1 pts + Bonus = 1 x seed diff
Round of 32 = 2 pts + Bonus = 1 x seed diff
Reg. Semis = 3 pts + Bonus = 1 x seed diff
Reg. Finals = 4 pts + Bonus = 1 x seed diff
Semifinals = 5 pts + Bonus = 1 x seed diff
Championship = 6 pts + Bonus = 1 x seed diff
Instructions to enter are after the jump. [Read more...]
While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something else for WWW? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
Solid start to the regular season for the No. 4 Buckeyes: “Even with four returning starters from last year’s team, it was a pair of freshman who made the biggest impact in the season-opener as Ohio State began 2010-11 campaign with a 102-61 win over North Carolina A&T in front of 13,022 fans at the Schottenstein Center, Friday night.” [Matt Barker/Buckeye Banter]
Previewing what to expect from OSU after losing first-round draft pick Evan Turner following 2010′s brief run in the NCAA Tournament: “Ohio State will be two-deep at every position, with several players (both starters and backups) having the ability to play multiple positions. There are five positions, so let’s begin.” [Danny/Inside the Shoe]
Happy Selection Sunday everyone! For your afternoon entertainment, we have two games starting at 3:30 pm featuring teams from the local area. The Cleveland Cavaliers (51-15) look to extend their winning streak with a home contest against the struggling Boston Celtics (41-23). Since being 23-5 on Christmas Day following an impressive road win against the Magic, Boston is an even 18-18 to fall to nine games below the Cavs in the Eastern Conference standings. The two teams still have one more game left against each other on Sunday, April 4th in Massachusetts.
The other basketball game for the NE Ohio folks today is Ohio State taking on Minnesota in the Big Ten championship. The Golden Gophers have all but secured their bid for the NCAA Tournament while a win today could possibly mean a #1 seed for the Bucks. Back-to-back thrillers against Michigan and Illinois have pulled the team within striking distance of a second straight conference title, but a limited bench might mean the team is finally out of gas.
Share your thoughts here as the drama unfolds. Keep the comments civil and be sure to read the commenting rules before you do.
Following their shocking, last second win over rival Michigan yesterday, the top-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes are back in action at 1:40 pm today in Indianapolis. They will take on Big Ten #5 seed Illinois for a berth in the conference championship game Sunday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the #3 seeded Akron Zips play the upstart #9 Ohio Bobcats for the MAC title at 6:00 pm at the Quicken Loans Arena. Winner will get a ticket to the big dance while the loser will likely sit at home and watch for the rest of the college basketball season. The Zips lost their final regular season game at home to Kent State, blowing an opportunity for an automatic bid to the NIT. Ohio, on the other hand, has defeated three straight favorites in a row to advance to the championship game.
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