ICYMI:
- Urban Meyer admitted he's thinking of moving Ohio State's future spring drills to Florida.
- Ohio State beat Akron in an overtime N.I.T. instaclassic, 72-63.
- D'Angelo Russell questioned the work ethic of pretty much every former Ohio State teammate besides Kam Wiliams.
SORRY FOR PARTYING? Spring is in the air, folks. You can tell by the bright sun and cool 65-degree days. You can also tell by the smell of blood dripping from the hatchets of anonymous scouts and sources connected to the meat-processing that is the NFL Draft.
We're in that perilous time between fake football at combines and pro days and the actual drafts. Some teams are finalizing their draft boards. Other teams are leaking bogus information to the press in attempts to poison the well in attempt to ward off other suitors for the prospect they like.
Are Joey Bosa and Ezekiel Elliott the latest victims? Perhaps.
Noah Spence reportedly told teams he wasn't the only one partying at Ohio State. While undoubtedly true if he said it or not, he denied it publicly. Regardless, the stone was cast, and it looks like teams have fingered Zeke and Bosa as partiers.
From walterfootball.com:
Bosa told teams that he wouldn't take the [drug] test because he was going to test positive for adderall. He is said to have ADHD or ADD, so teams wouldn't have held that positive test for adderall against him and they feel he should have just gotten a prescription for the medication. Teams believe that Bosa knew he was going to test positive for worse drugs and that is why he refused to take the test. Bosa wouldn't admit to using ecstasy or molly, but he did admit that he likes to attend raves. He claimed that he likes going to raves for the "music," which teams found to be very questionable. Molly and ecstasy are common drugs used at raves.
At Ohio State, Bosa was a roommate with Ezekiel Elliott. Apparently, their shared place was a party destination, and Bosa told teams that he had to move out and get his own place to get away from all the parties that Elliott had going on. Sources say they suspect that Elliott was also using molly and ecstasy while parting. A number of Elliott's teammates in the Combine interviews told teams that Elliott was a partier, and a unique individual. They said they hung out with him some, but he rubbed some the wrong way. Sources from multiple teams said that Elliott didn't interview well at the Combine, while Bosa had mixed feedback. The skepticism of why he goes to raves and the refusal of the drug test bothered some evaluators.
Of course none of this reportedly matters to these sources. They don't think these accusations will affect either's draft stock, which makes the handkerchief-waving that much more ludicrous.
My one piece of fake-lawyer advice, however, would be to never place yourself at a rave in the same breath you're denying ecstasy use. Though it does present the humorous image of someone explaining "raves" and "mollies" to a 65-year-old GM. ("They're like, uh... a techno Woodstock...")
If an NFL team passes on Bosa or Elliott for this dumb stuff then that's their loss.
CAN WE BEAT THE GATORS ONE TIME PLEASE? The 2007 BCS championship. The 2007 NCAA Tournament championship. THE 2011 TAXSLAYER.COM GATOR BOWL!!!!
All three of those losses are painful in their own way, which would make an N.I.T. Round 2 win a helluva palate cleanser.
No. 3 Ohio State will host No. 2-seeded Florida on Sunday at high noon. (Florida's court is under construction so the Gators are forced onto the road.)
If Ohio State wins, it will play either play at No. 1 Monmouth or host No. 8 Bucknell, No. 5 Hofstra, or No. 4 George Washington. (Yeah, I thought he was dead too. I guess we know now why they call it the "It's lit!" Tournament.)
FOLLOW MIKE CONLEY ON THE JOURNEY TO PAST SUCCESS. Remember when Greg Oden and Mike Conley's Ohio State team almost lost to Xavier? That was a thing that almost happened, until Ron Lewis unzipped his pants:
So close, Xavier! So close!
But allow Mike Conley, who may not have went pro after that season if Ohio State gets knocked in the second round of the tournament, to walk you down memory lane.
From theplayerstribue.com:
The moment that ball left Ron’s hands and went through the nylon, my teammates and I hit a level of confidence we didn’t know we had. Losing our All-American big man to fouls in regulation was tough, but overtime was still ours for the taking … it wasn’t over!
Once overtime began, my confidence was through the roof and the flow of the game came so easily. The stat sheet said I was 3-for-3 from the field with 11 points in the five minutes of overtime, but honestly, my sole focus was doing anything and everything possible to get Ohio State to the Sweet 16.
We ran away with the game in OT, outscoring Xavier 16-9 in the OT period. We survived.
Years later and this is still my favorite play from that game:
Nothing going on there but tough but fair refereeing.
SLADE IN PUERTO RICO. Spring break, a time kids love to know, has come to Columbus.
Defensive lineman Darius Slade looks to be catching up on his studies while breaking in Puerto Rico:
"Getting old is good, actually," I just told myself from the rustic prison that is my rotting body. "Beaches are bad, as are vacations to island resorts!"
IN MEMORY OF BAD DORMS. I thought I'd seen some ramshackle college residences.
I knew a guy in Montana who lived in a basement closet, which looked palatial compared to these serial killer digs:
Think your room is small? These 1936 students were living off campus in a basement. Check out the large pennant! pic.twitter.com/nEXNgus1gA
— OSU Archives (@BuckeyeHistory) March 9, 2016
THOSE WMDs. Beat writer's block... Confessions of a sponsored content writer... The land no country wants... #Branding in the age of social media... The 63-year old in charge of new emojis.
