The Stache is back folks!Thursday Skull Session is here again and it's time to get your Seuss on like only The Vest can. We are just three full days away from revenge time when "Deal with it" and his squad of buzz cuts come to town and you can tell that the Buckeyes will be ready to skin some Badger this time around.
In addition to the anticipated match up and chance to gain an outright conference crown on Sunday, spring practice begins in just 28 days for the Bucks. Hopefully you'll be more focused on OSU's upcoming Final Four match-up rather than Joe Bauserman running drills with the first team offense, but we know football is king in Columbus, so we'll do our best over the next few weeks to bring you the best of both worlds.
Before we get into the nitty gritty, I bring you one last masterpiece from Lexco44 himself, as he puts a wrap on the entire 2010 football season. If this doesn't get you excited for March 31, I don't know what will. Oh yeah, and Jon Diebler is a straight up baller.
Smooth criminals. The people at SI.com did some research and appears there are some serious criminals in college football. Breaking it down by number of players on each team who had criminal records, it appears the teams you don't want to mess with are Pittsburgh (22), Iowa (18), Arkansas (18), Boise State (16), Penn State (16), and Virginia Tech (13). Considering OSU defeated three out of the top five on that list, I'd say despite not getting in trouble with the law, the Bucks can certainly hold their own if things hit the fan during a game. In case you were wondering, the Bucks checked in tied for 11th with Florida, Oregon, and USC on the list with 7 players on the team with criminal records. Looking at some of the teams mentioned above, maybe Indiana, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Purdue should look at the police blotter before deciding how to fill their recruiting boards.
Pick your winners. The ESPN "experts" made their picks for conference players and coaches of the year on the site and Jared Sullinger did quite well. Out of the 15 experts who made selections, Sully was named player of the year by 7 of them. JuJuan Johnson was selected seven times as well, with Jordan Taylor getting the lone other vote. I think Johnson will take home the award due to Sully cooling down from a stats stand point down the stretch and Johnson playing himself into a top ten pick in this year's draft as of late.
As for the coaches, Thad Matta didn't get as much love as he should, only receiving five votes. Matt Painter was the consensus winner with eight votes, while "Deal with it" received the remaining two votes. This was probably the first year in like forever that Tom Izzzo didn't receive a single coach of the year vote. It still amazes me that Thad Matta doesn't get more national respect. The guy has always been a tremendous recruiter, and while he doesn't seem to have much trust in his bench, he has come a long way in improving as an in-game coach. There are very few other coaches in America who I'd take over Thad and I'm very glad one of Andy Geiger's last acts as AD was bringing in the gum master.
Spring is just around the corner. That's right, as mentioned before spring practice is a blink of an eye away. ESPN broke down 11 story lines to watch this spring, and of course Ohio State made the list at number five for "searching for stopgaps" to step in for the "Tat Five" for the first five games of the season. Some other stories of note include the Will Muschamp era beginning at Florida, the Brady Hoke era at TSUN, Wisconsin reloading their offensive line, and Texas's rebound from a disaster 2010 season. If you don't care about the national scene and are only concerned about the B1G, Adam Rittenberg has you covered for both the Leaders and Legends divisions. Yes, those names still suck.
NFL Combine chatter. The Dispatch did a great job while at the NFL Combine last weekend and we thought we'd share some of their work with you. Here is five questions with Cam Newton, the Harbaughs, and Gabe Carimi. Some Chimdi Chekwa fluff after he ran a 4.33 (unofficial)/4.4 (official) 40-yard dash time with a cast on for a dislocated wrist suffered in the Sugar Bowl. Here's a piece on Devon Torrence and his road in trying to make it as a professional athlete for the second time in his life.Dane Sanzenbacher and Brandon Saine are facing uphill battles when it comes to the draft in April. Finally, Justin Boren was reunited with an old teammate in Indianapolis.
Around the Big Ten. Boiler Station brings you some things to watch for Purdue, as Danny Hope and the Boilers kicked off spring practice yesterday. Hammer and rails takes a look at what Purdue needs to do to get a 1-seed. ESPN's KC Joyner has an Insider article on how Nebraska will fit in the Big Ten. MGoBlog is on serious bubble watch. Minnesota looks like it's getting a pretty sweet new basketball facility. Iowa is probably the only fan base who really, really cares about the Big Ten Wrestling tournament. TOC takes a look at the MSU senior class. Finally if you're headed to Indy for the men's Big Ten hoops tourny, here's a list of bars where you'll probably find Chris hanging out rather than covering the games for us.
