The Situational: In Flagrante Delicto

By Ramzy Nasrallah on March 1, 2017 at 1:05 pm
Ohio State coach Thad Matta cheers a made basket in a win against Wisconsin, Feb 2017
42 Comments

If you're reading this it's too late.

We're one game from completing the sixth (!) consecutive season where Ohio State finishes with fewer wins and a lower B1G tournament seeding than it had the previous year. The last time the Buckeyes demonstrated futility like this it was doing so from under the NCAA's thumb a dozen seasons ago.

This season's epitaph? Barring an actual win streak - they still haven't strung together more than two consecutive since November - it's already been drafted and is simply awaiting print. Oh and by the way, this season is categorically worse than that futile 2004-05 campaign:

Ohio State Basketball Under Thad Matta
Year Wins B1G REG B1G Tourney Postseason
2005 20 6th Quarterfinals Probation (O'Brien)
2006 26 1st Finals 2nd Round
2007 34 1st Champions National Runner-Up
2008 24 5th Quarterfinals NIT Champions
2009 22 5th Finals 1st Round
2010 29 1st Champions Sweet Sixteen
2011 34 1st Champions Sweet Sixteen
2012 31 T-1st Finals Final Four
2013 29 2nd Champions Elite Eight
2014 25 5th Semifinals 1st Round
2015 24 6th Quarterfinals 2nd Round
2016 21 7th Quarterfinals NIT 2nd Round
2017 17* 10th* TBD Not Great

The difference in 2005 was that the future was a delightful conversation topic rather than a cold, cautionary one. Those Buckeyes also overachieved in the face of their O'Brienish circumstances, handing eventual national runner-up Illinois its only loss in the regular season finale. 

Press play on the clip below from that game with the Illini and make sure your volume is on. Don't just watch the final sequence; listen. Ask yourself the last time the Schottenstein Center sounded or felt like this during any game.

The 2016-17 regular season finale this Saturday is 13 years to the weekend from that Illinois takedown. They'll face an Indiana team somehow finishing up a year that's even more disappointing than Ohio State's (man, the Buckeyes can't win at anything). 

We don't require a sterile, murderous title contender to get passionately engaged in the team, and that 2005 edition was proof of it. This program needs to revolve philosophically on who sees the court and when, get physically stronger (ah...ah...ahCHOOOmarclovingdoyouevenlift) and complement their star-potential protagonists with prideful role players who box out, kill for rebounds and smother opposing playmakers.

It's lost its edge. This isn't some shocking exposé, either - you watch the games.

And they've been especially difficult to watch this season because in between rare bouts of glory, Ohio State has consistently played like a disinterested group of actors attempting to mimic a college basketball team. Even if it's only one or two players dripping with apathy, it's too many - and that's how culture problems lose containment. The program hasn't shown that One Heartbeat vibe since the top of the current slide.

Fine, I'll say it: This Buckeye basketball depression has been evident for years and must be both halted and immediately reversed. That may be easier to admit than it is to accomplish.

They started at the top; now they're here. Let's get Situational!

The TRUTH

lebron james at the 2016 Ohio State-Michigan game
Photo: Joe Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports

Speaking of fine, I said it - we live in turbulent, controversial and polarizing times. We've never in the history of our Republic needed bold takes that spit the truth all over parched minds more than we do now. Basic facts are in constant dispute these days; we've reached the point in our discourse where talking around the issues is no longer acceptable.

Informed citizens now need to restate what should seem obvious no matter how redundant it might be for their audience. Politics? Schmolitics - we're talking about sports here.

There's no finer example of bravely speaking sports-truth to power than my good friend and Go Iowa Awesome contributor Adam Jacobi, who is unafraid of the facts, no matter how frightening or uncomfortable they might be for some people to hear:

It takes your breath away. Some things just need to be said.

  If you do the research - and granted, it's across multiple topics and academic areas of complexity - you'll likely reach similar conclusions. Truth has a way of finding the light.

Time is an important construct in Jacobi's sports truths. Notice right now, EVER and today in succession. A less scientific observation would leave itself vulnerable to time, space or both. Correctly framing your argument is just as important as making it.

It takes diligence, research and a commitment to fact-finding to articulate the foundation for a bold but important position on any sports topic, and Adam has demonstrated a commitment to excellence in that regard. Think about that the next time you post a comment in the 11W forums, on any other Internet message board - or are just shouting at students while they're walking to their classes on campus.

And stay vigilant about keeping your relationship with facts both sterile and unemotional. It only takes one slip-up to lose your footing on the slippery ledge that is Your Credibility.

I take back everything good I just said about Adam.

The Bourbon

There is a bourbon for every situation. Sometimes the spirits and the events overlap, which means that where bourbon is concerned there can be more than one worthy choice.

Today is Ash Wednesday, a solemn religious observance marking the beginning of Lent which concludes annually with the Ohio State Buckeyes annual spring game Easter weekend. If you don't keep tabs on the liturgical calendar or participate in Lent, you probably recognize it as that time of year when your religious friends abstain from eating meat on Fridays. 

This fishy part of Lent is a market opportunity in the predatory, profit-driven business world. Case in point:

You may have wondered why Whitey's chose now to launch a new seafood product - while also reintroducing Shrimp Nibblers back into America's consciousness. Well, wonder no more. This is called Seasonal Marketing, pupils.

Panty melter. You're welcome.
Old Charter: Seafood, Drink Bourbon

Cornstarch, monosodium glutamate and a pungent fish-like essence are here to fill the market's meatless void, and if you're grossed out by any of this you're clearly too young to remember when Taco Bell also used to do it (don't click on that).

We're not here to judge how carnivorous or pescetarian you choose to be over the next 40-odd days. The Situational prides itself on providing sturdy bourbon guidance, so today we'll discuss how to properly pair seafood - whether you're dining on Dover Sole at the chef's table in Nerai or drunkenly shoveling Shrimp Nibblers into your face on a Friday night - with the appropriate brown liquor.

White wine and seafood have had a love affair for as long as humans have been pairing food that was pulled from the water with barrel-aged grapes. Pairing bourbon with seafood is actually much easier than choosing the right wine. Whites range from dry brut to German sickly-sweet. Bourbon, despite all of its complexities, lends itself to seafood regardless of what you choose. There are only good and better choices.

The best choice for a seafood dish is going to be the one that doesn't overwhelm the food, which with whiskey is going to be an exercise in label reading rather than color-picking. You're going to want a low-proof bourbon for your White Castle Seafood Crab Cake Slider. Bourbons start at 80 proof, which is where your fish beverage choice should end.

The most available low-proofer out there is Basil Haydens, but the choice here is Old Charter. It lives on the bottom shelf and doesn't suck, which means you can shift more of your meal budget toward upgrading your seafood - or, if you're at White Castle - ordering more sliders and Shrimp Nibblers.

Old Charter uses the Buffalo Trace's famed Mashbill No. 1, which in simpler terms means what starts out as Old Charter is exactly the same as what starts out as Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare and George Stagg. You should be able to pay at the liquor store with a $20 and get change back - but buy some disposable cups while you're there too, since you're taking it to White Castle.

Now you're all set for Lent. Why Old Charter - specifically - for seafood, you ask? Because the way Southerners pronounce Charter is almost identical to how New Englanders say Chowder. So let it be written; so let it be done.

The Playoff

Four years ago last month Urban Meyer successfully poached Dontre Wilson out of Texas and away from Oregon. Four years later, Wilson is without an NFL combine invitation and preparing for a professional football career with a giant chip on his shoulder.

It's lazy to say Wilson was a bust; you're either the Next Percy Harvin or you're not. The gradient is unforgiving. Dontre left Ohio State after four years and 226 touches.

DONTRE WILSON'S FOUR-YEAR COLLEGE ODYSSEY
Rush yds TDs REC YDS TDS PR YDS KO YDS TOUCHES YDS TDS
65 428 2 77 925 10 31 243 53 1280 226 2876 12

...most (all?) of which you can relive here, in 32 minutes of Dontre Wilson college highlights:

Entire video recommended. Rendering one bluechip recruit's chronologically-ordered and fragmented four-year career down to half an hour provides clarity about not just his performance, but those entire seasons. My observations from watching Dontre #RunLikeTre:

  • He had 1051 kickoff return yards his freshman and sophomore years. Only 229 after that. Something happened near the end of his sophomore year that altered his trajectory.
  • ...and that something was the 2014 Michigan State game, where he played so poorly he was practically shaving points, before ending the game with a touchdown and a broken foot (19:58 mark). That trip to East Lansing was the fulcrum of his career. He never returned to Spartan Stadium, nor did he return to his early form.
  • We really, really missed Tom Herman the last two seasons. Yes, you already knew that.
  • Dontre missed him more than we realized. His first two seasons he was deliberately being given the ball on the edges (swing passes, flares) with a running start and an opportunity to exploit his situational slipperiness. His final two seasons he was just plugged into a random spot on the field. His utilization post-Herman was generic. That is, at kindest, a misallocation of resources.
  • Reliving his freshman highlights, especially in space and on returns illuminates why Michigan deliberately targeted him in Ann Arbor and purposefully got him to eject himself from The Game. Dontre was a threat. Three seasons later, he wasn't even Ohio State's third option. Here's to him returning to his original bluechip form.

Good luck professionally, Dontre. And thank you all for getting Situational today. Go Bucks.

42 Comments

Ohio State Blows Out Indiana, 38-15, for Second Top-Five Win of Season

Josh Fryar

Prognosticating: Indiana

Dry Goods Contest
View 42 Comments