Happy Sunday The Ohio State University Buckeyes Athletics fans and welcome to your Sunday Skull Session.
We hope it's been a great weekend so far and everyone is looking forward to having a random Wednesday off mid-week or you made a nice little vacation out of the upcoming holiday.
The was an exciting week of Buckeye news and the countdown of weekends until the Miami-OH football game is in single digits (9). That's definitely more points than Miami will score as well. Count it. No mercy, even for the little brother Ohio schools.
ON TO THE NEXT ONE. With the 2012 NBA Draft out of the way and Jared Sullinger beginning a new career with the Celtics, the media has started speculating on next year's draft.
Many would expect the national analysts to list Deshaun Thomas pretty highly, but you'd never guess who showed up in the first round of CBS's 2013 Big Board:
23. LaQuinton Ross, 6-7, 225, SF, Soph., Ohio State
He'll be the Buckeyes' top NBA prospect with his length, size and ability to score the ball all over the court.
If LaQuinton Ross lives up to all the hype this coming season, the Buckeyes may be even better than projected, and they are already going to be ranked pretty highly to start the season.
If Ross is 23, where's Deshaun? Well, he comes in at number 40 on the Big Board, which would land him in the second round.
SURGERY FOR J-HALL. Many rumors have been floating around the internet that Ohio State senior RB Jordan Hall sustained injuries to his ankle and had surgery to repair damages. 11W had the report last night and Hall cut up his foot walking barefoot in the grass a few days ago. Hall looks to be out for around 10 weeks, most likely putting him out for opening day and possibly beyond. RB Carlos Hyde has his work cut out for him.
The news seemed to surface when Alex received information via Twitter that Hall was in the hospital and required medical attention. However, that Tweet was later deleted by the user as they later realized it may have violated certain confidentiality laws.
The surgery was later confirmed, but the extent of the injury had not been released to the media, before last nights OSU release:
Surgery went great doc said
— Jordan Hall (@Jordan_Hall7) June 30, 2012
His teammates have expressed his concern:
@Jordan_Hall7 thank God. I’m praying that you are ready by Sept. 1. We NEED you.
— CJ Barnett (@See_4our) June 30, 2012
We wish Jordan Hall a speedy recovery while we wait for additional details on his injury.
MORE '13 NBA DRAFT. Big Ten network also is looking ahead and speculating on the conference's top draft prospects for 2013.
This write up differs from CBS Sports and is way more predictable and inside the box.
For obvious reasons, Cody Zeller falls at number one on this list and could very easily go first overall in the actual NBA Draft next season. That's if the NBA scouts don't penalize him for one of the many stupid reasons they can find to deduct talent from these great college athletes. I wouldn't be surprised if Zeller dropped because his "wingspan is too short" or something like that.
He may have fallen to the 2nd round on CBS' Big Board, but he's probably the second best prospect in the conference:
2. Deshaun Thomas, Jr., Ohio State – Every team covets scoring. No Big Ten player does it better than Thomas, an efficient scorer who hasn’t met a shot he doesn’t like.
Like I said before, if Thomas and Ross can be a legitimate 1-2 punch, the sky is the limit for this squad. Man, I can't wait for basketball season.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT. Transfer Rodney Hood picks Duke after going MIA for days. 2013 commit TE Marcus Baugh has known that he's wanted to play at OSU for a long time ($). Robbie Hummel is the feel good story of the NBA Draft. The not so real Bill Walton sheds some light on the draft. UK head coach John Calipari had a pretty good excuse to not be out recruiting; he was with his 6 guys at the draft #Humblebrag. West Virginia is anxiously awaiting the Big 12 and has already painted the logo on their field. A desperate couple forged media credentials to sneak into the NBA Finals in Miami.
