You know, I figured the revenge factor would take over my soul by now after what happened against Purdue last season but as it turns out, I'm not even mad about it anymore.
The missed extra point forcing OT, the fact T.Y. Williams was actually targeted on Braxton's first throw shining a light on the state of the passing game, the five sacks, the getting outgained by almost 70 yards, the three straight losses to follow. Be damned, all of it.
If anything, I encourage Boiler fans to savor the flavor of last season's victory because at this point, it's highly likely the Buckeyes won't drop another one to Purdue for at least 10 years. Right now, they have Hope while we have, well, hope.
And their Hope seems to be hollow when looking at BTN's deep dive into the numbers:
- Miller and Hyde are the first pair of Buckeyes to eclipse 100 yards rushing in consecutive games since Archie and Pete Johnson back in 1975.
- The combined 115 points put up by Ohio State in the last two conference games is the most piled up by the Buckeyes since the 1950 edition blew up for 131 points on the combo of Minnesota and Iowa.
- Last week marked the first time in OSU history that two rushers (Hyde 156, Miller 149) and one receiver (Smith, 106) topped the century mark in yards in the same game.
Meanwhile....
- Purdue has given up 771 rushing yards in the last two weeks, gashed by Michigan and Wisconsin.
- The old gold and black defense is surrendering a conference worst 45% conversion rate on 3rd down.
- The Boiler offense is just 4/27 on 3rd down conversions the last two weeks (15%).
- Getting a taste of their own medicine, the Boilers have shanked four extra points, converting a ridiculous 85% on the season (23/27).
BEFORE I FALL FOR THE HOKEY-DOKE, I'LL LET THE PISTOL SMOKE. Everybody's 2nd favorite competitive eater addressed a number of topics ahead of this week's marquee conference matchup against the Spartans and I'll be darned if some of it wasn't interesting enough to include here.
Discussing his policy of telling verbal commitments that they'll lose their Michigan offer if they visit other schools, Hoke said:
“It is (the policy.) The whys and the why not is basically: When you take a commitment and it comes, it’s a little bit of a numbers game and how many positional guys you can take at this position. It’s a big puzzle you try to put together and enhance your program and do the right things for Michigan. At the same time when you take a commitment, it takes one off the board that you go tell another guy that we filled it up here or there, and it’s common for practice and place in a lot of programs when a guy decides this is where he wants to be and go and believe me, we never pressure a guy into making that decision. But once that decision’s made, we’re going to stand by it and we’re going to put that scholarship away and we’re going to take some other young men who had opportunities we’re moving forward and they need to move forward.”
Okay, do what you gotta do. But one quick follow up question - do you continue to target kids that have verballed to another school?
“We have.”
Got it.
With Saturday's matchup against the Spartans, Hoke fielded the obligatory rivalry-comparison query and couldn't bring himself to say Ohio State is a bigger rival than Sparty, instead opting to basically imply it's a tie between Michigan State, Ohio State and Notre Dame:
“They’re both important. Look at the rivalries that we have. You’ve heard me talk we’ve got a great national rivalry with Notre Dame, we’ve got a great state rivalry that is and intense as any rivalry and I’ve been in the Civil War (Oregon-Oregon State) before, coaching at Oregon State. This rivalry, when you look at in state and the passion, people draw a line in the sand. It’s as good a rivalry as there is. The Ohio rivalry has been there and probably was even stronger when coach Hayes and Coach Schembechler were (there), the 10-year war. They’re all very important…. I don’t know if it’s more important. I’ve always thought it was important. I learned that a long time ago in 1995 (his first game, when U-M lost in East Lansing.)
None of this matters but I'm curious to hear what he says about The Game during his presser that week.
ALABAMA SHAKES. It could be more bad news for those of us north of the Mason-Dixon or really, anywhere outside of the state of Alabama in glancing at The Tide's 2013 conference schedule released yesterday by the SEC.
In need of zero favors, Nick Saban's squad received plenty.
Alabama gets LSU at home and plays just one SEC East road game, at...Kentucky. In fact, they completely avoid Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
The complete road slate is comprised of Texas A&M, the Wildcats, Mississippi State and Auburn.
Looking at their fellow divisional mates, LSU has a roadie at Georgia and plays Florida. Over in the West, South Carolina has three straight conference roadies though they are fortunate to not have 'Bama or LSU on the schedule.
Of course, the stars could align just like they did in 2002 when Ohio State knocked off a supposedly unbeatable Miami Hurricane squad. Sign me up.
If Q's got the Juice, the Buckeyes could make a run.YEAH YEAH YEAH, THEY PLAYIN' BASKETBALL. Seth Davis was lucky enough to crack the code and gain access to Ohio State's first official practice of the hoops season but first, he summed up nicely exactly what Thad Matta has meant to Ohio State basketball:
"Success has become so routine in this program that it's easy to forget that before Matta arrived, Ohio State had won just two NCAA tournament games in the previous five years. In the eight seasons since then, Matta has guided the Buckeyes to two Final Fours, three consecutive Big Ten regular season titles, and a No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament in five out of the last seven years. Even more remarkable is the fact that Matta has done so while losing seven non-seniors to the NBA -- including 6-foot-8 power forward Jared Sullinger, who left last spring following his sophomore year.
That's a pretty fine resume for a guy leading what everyone recognizes as a football school.
Davis goes on to note that while the collection of talent didn't wow him, the fact is most of the elite programs lost more than they brought in. Also, the Buckeyes have a unique weapon in Aaron Craft as "one of the best perimeter defenders of the last decade."
Of course, he also accurately notes that this team struggled from distance last year and there's no reason to think it'll be an easy task to better those results knowing the Buckeyes won't likely have a true low post scoring threat for forcing defenses to collapse.
Some of the responsibility to improve from deep will fall on Craft and according to Davis, Craft has rebuilt his jumper and is determined to avoid overthinking on the offensive end:
"I tend to overthink things at the offensive end. A lot of my shooting problems are in my head. I'm working on just believing in myself and letting it go. Take a bad shot every once in a while. See how it feels."
I think this new approach could be key early on, hopefully allowing LaQuinton to ease into what is expected to be a widely expanded role in addition to letting Amir Williams find his way while Lenzelle Smith Jr. plays the role of glue guy.
The roster appears as deep as it's been in years with Shannon Scott, Sam Thompson, Evan Ravenel/Williams and Amedeo Della Valle fighting for minutes. Matta has played a crazy short bench for much of his tenure and some fans have jumped on that despite the fact it was out of necessity. Regardless, that pocket of fans might get their wish this season:
"Everybody started on that [depth question] a couple of years ago. I had seniors who had played a ton of minutes and we had a bunch of new guys. I think we're going to be able to run nine or ten guys this season. I really do."
I think eight is probably more likely but improved depth should enable the Buckeyes to be a tad bit fresher come March. Your first glimpse of the Buckeyes comes just in just 11 days as they take on Walsh in an exhibition matchup before hooking up with Marquette for realsies in only 21 days.
VILLAIN TURNER OVERDRIVE. Entering his 3rd season as a pro and still trying to live up to the hype of being the #2 pick in the NBA Draft, Doug Collins is throwing another wrench into Evan Turner's mojo - moving the Villain from the two slot to a three man thanks to a crowded backcourt of names like Jrue Holliday, Jason Richardson, Maalik Wayns, Nick Young and Royal Ivey.
The move should help Turner in some ways, notably that he won't be called on to shoot as many jumpshots but the move will also likely decrease his ability to be a factor on the post and on the glass as he goes against bigger defenders.
Hopefully the position switch won't impact Turner's mental approach, something he's struggled with a bit in the past, especially after Evan seemed to really put it together at times in the playoffs last year, averaging nearly 11 points and nine rips as the 8th-seeded Sixers knocked off the Bulls in the opening round before falling to the Celtics in seven games.
Through four preseason games, ET is averaging 28 minutes, nine points, six boards and 3.5 dimes while hitting just 34% from the floor.
LINK 182. A convo with Aaron Craft... WNBA Finals promotional logos... 19 Things That Prove The '00s Are Over... Braxton added to Manning Award list... Nike fires Michael Jordan.
