ICYMI:
- Full spring practice schedule. (Practice starts March 8 and the spring game is April 16.)
This week's NSFW ANTI-WORK #BANGERS:
- Omar Little robs Marlo Stanfield's poker game.
- When Keeping It Goes Wrong: Darrius.
- Ted Ginn Ohio State highlight reel.
BRAXTON TO RUNNING BACK? Braxton Miller worked out with wide receivers at the NFL Combine, and that's probably where he'll play with the team that drafts him.
But there's an argument that Miller's best position is running back:
I'm still on the Braxton to RB train: @TheCFX pic.twitter.com/XLI5QdnRp9
— Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) March 3, 2016
This is an argument that goes deeper than a graph. Miller undoubtedly has the talent to play running back in the NFL; my only question would be, could his body withstand a running back's pounding over an NFL season?
I feel dirty typing that from the comfort of my East Side recliner, but I used to live with a platoon running back at Montana. Watching highlights on Sunday, he told me a routine three-yard run up the gut was hardest hit he took all day.
"But that's a routine play," I said.
"Yeah," said the 21-year-old who could barely walk, "It's still like a refrigerator falling on you."
Miller can add weight, but he won't run into many aggravated refrigerators if he stays outside.
KNOCKING MICHIGAN STATE MAY NOT BE ENOUGH. The men's basketball team plays Michigan State on Saturday. It's a must-win for the Buckeyes (they all are at this point), but a win may not be enough to get them off the NCAA chopping block.
From dispatch.com:
“There is a lot of work to do and a very short period of time to do it, but the converse of that is I think a lot of teams on the bubble would love a chance right now of getting to play a team like Michigan State,” said Eamonn Brennan, who compiles the “Bubble Watch” for ESPN.com. “(With a win), maybe they’d be a 50-50 shot depending on what the committee decides. I think right now if you told Ohio State fans or (coach) Thad Matta or whomever that it would be a 50-50 shot on selection Sunday to get into the tournament, they would take those odds.”
[...]
Jerry Palm of CBSSports.com, who hasn’t had the Buckeyes in any of his projections, said they need to beat Michigan State and essentially win at least three games in the Big Ten tournament to make their way onto the bubble.
“Beating Michigan State on the road, if you consider that realistic, that’s basically it,” he said. “If they don’t beat Michigan State on the road, I don’t think they can get on the bubble. If they win at Michigan State, then we can have a different conversation. But that still doesn’t put them in.”
Ohio State should earn an invite because 20 wins with this team would be akin to Thad Matta wringing blood from rock. Alas.
And sure, I won't brag to my bastard grandchildren about the 2015-16 men's basketball season, but I do respect this team's resolve. It could've folded—long before Jae'Sean Tate tore his labrum—but here they are, trying to dope fiend Tom Izzo and sneak through the NCAA Tournament's backdoor.
That's moxy.
MEANWHILE, IN INDIANAPOLIS... The No. 2-seeded women's team makes its entrance to the 2016 Big Ten tournament with a game against Rutgers Friday night at 6:30 p.m. on BTN.
The Scarlet Knights beat Nebraska 66-63 on Thursday night. For Ohio State, it's a chance to correct a shocking two-game skid that closed its regular season.
From thelantern.com:
“We have a great opportunity heading to Indianapolis. It’s going to be a competitive tournament,” OSU coach Kevin McGuff said. “We had a tough week last week, but we control our destiny, and I think we can beat anybody that we are going to play if we have the right mindset and we really compete to win.”
[...]
OSU is not satisfied with completing the regular season on a two-game losing streak, sophomore guard Kelsey Mitchell said. The Buckeyes first lost to Minnesota in overtime and then to Michigan State in triple overtime in the finale. However, Mitchell said they have put the past behind them and have been focused on the task at hand.
“We didn’t have the week we wanted to have,” she said. “It’s just one of those things where we have to turn the page. We have to get back to how things were.”
Sure, the skid cost the Buckeyes a regular conference title... but perhaps they needed the wake-up call before postseason play. "Regular season championship" always seemed like an oxymoron to me, and a Big Ten Tournament win is helluva consolation prize.
TALK ABOUT A FLASHBACK. Mike Thomas, who was not born in 1994 like Wikipedia claims, turned 23 on Thursday. One of my favorite Thomas factoids is he roomed with Cardale Jones during their year at Fork Union Military Prep.
They've both come a long way:
Happy Birthday shoutout to @Cantguardmike pic.twitter.com/uJU2JhPXM7
— Mark Pantoni (@markpantoni) March 4, 2016
I'm convinced there's a book deal or a sitcom to be made about that pair's adventures in military school.
NEW DRINK OF THE SKULL SESSION. For years, illegally caffeinated FourLoko has been the drink of choice of the Skull Session. No longer.
While some expect me to elevate the No. 2 drink of the Skull Session, Fairlife Chocolate Milk, to the throne... they are unaware of the alcohol-fueled vodka comet streaking across the eastern hemisphere:
You're damn right all I drink now is Evan Ravenel Okinawa Vodka.
THOSE WMDs. The cunning, unprecedented hack of Ukraine's power grid... Farmers feel thrown under the bus as Big Food changes... Texas police searching for shooter who escaped on a hoverboard... Historian says he found only adult photo of Vincent Van Gogh... What Google learned from its quest to build the perfect team... Are you a spy or something?
