Dallas Bieber will make you some pancakes.Thad Matta's Buckeyes are seven wins from completing a perfect regular season, one of the best teams in the last decade according to those with the math to prove it, and have some of us considering previously unthought of scenarios, like: "Maybe we should drop the first round of the conference tourney to get some rest and avoid unneeded pressure." Why then are there still so many doubters?
Seth Davis likes both Kansas and Texas more than the Buckeyes, which, in the case of the Jayhawks at least, is the complete opposite of the way the punditry would break were this a football conversation, but is still frustrating, regardless.
Yahoo's college hoops blog The Dagger looks at the prevailing notion that there are no great teams in college basketball this year, but says a win in Madison Saturday could go a long way towards ending that talk:
If Ohio State wins at No. 13 Wisconsin on Saturday, isn't it time we reconsider?
Consider for a moment what the top-ranked Buckeyes have accomplished this season in rolling to a blemish-free 24-0 record.
They throttled SEC front-runner Florida in Gainesville in November and limited Florida State to 44 points in Tallahassee two weeks later. They won their first 11 league games against an unusually deep Big Ten by an average of nearly 10 points. And they clobbered second-place Purdue by 23 points last month in their lone meeting thus far.
Hear, hear. Bo Ryan's 148-11 home record is not to be trifled with, but a win Saturday over the second place Badgers would go a long way towards extinguishing any lingering debate over who is or isn't the nation's top team. Matta, for his part, hears none of this.
FAIL Blog has just scheduled a post for mid-November. Brady Hoke sat down with The Detroit News and had this to say when it was suggested that his team would go at least 8-4 with 18 returning starters: "If we don't win the championship, we failed, period."
On one hand, you have to respect him demanding excellence right out of the gate. On the other hand, wow. We're going to have some fun with that quote later this year.
Other gems from the interview:
- When asked how he felt about Michigan being fractured under Rodriguez: "It just pisses me off that Michigan got to that."
- Recounting his early Ball State career: "Uh, yeah, for two years I really didn't have the best goals in mind. I wanted to play football and try to drink every beer in Muncie, Indiana."
- Hoke's favorite book Lone Survivor, and his musical tastes are a vast improvement over his predecesor's. The ringtone to his cell phone is The Who's "Who Are You?"
- Oh yeah, he refuses to call us "Ohio State", calling us "Ohio" instead. When asked why, he just smiled. Jerk.
"TV Ted" has mad miles. There's been a lot of discussion about the less-than-stellar officiating in the Big Ten this year. Normally, the impulse is there to point out just how badly the Buckeyes are getting robbed up and down the court, but the calls have been bad across the board. Palming calls against our guys, phantom travels on their guys. A terrible out of bounds call against us and a questionable charge called on them. Is fatigue a factor?
But if O'Connell's schedule sounds crazy, it's relatively sane compared to a recent run by Ted Valentine. He's nicknamed "TV Ted" because he's on the air more than Anderson Cooper -- and he likes to make his presence felt. Check out this run: Works an 8 p.m. ET tipoff at Alabama, Jan. 29. Works a 2 p.m. ET tipoff at Kent State, Jan. 30. Works the next four nights in Jackson, Miss., High Point, N.C., Birmingham, Ala., and Charleston, S.C.
Earlier in the piece, referee Brian O'Connell's itinerary was highlighted: 11 games in 13 days all up and down East Coast. Which begs the question: Should the NCAA or conferences step in to limit the number of games a guy can call?
Random bits: An intramural team made up of OSU basketball managers is "coached" by David Lighty and Jon Diebler and is undefeated... Lighty has fallen behind KU's Tyrel Reed in the Lowe's Senior Class balloting, so get your incognito browsing-on and do your part... The History Channel is officially dead to me.
