Heeter and the Buckeyes have been a little lost of late.Ohio State operates the NCAA's second-largest athletic department. Eleven Warriors is committed to keeping you informed of what's happening with those sports that make Ohio State athletics more than just football and basketball. Around the Oval will be your bi-weekly update on these teams.
Hello everyone and welcome to the latest installment of Around The Oval, your #11W look at non-revenue sports at the greatest public university in the history of existence. When last we spoke, it was not we who spoke, it was Chris who was helpin' me out by filling in on my Tuesday time slot whilst I was cavorting in Toledo on a visit with mi familia.
In that version of Around The Oval, Chris took you to Cleveland to look at the Buckeye hockey team, who dropped two straight to Michigan. Since then, things have gotten, shall we say, worse for the icers. After being swept this past weekend by Michigan State, the Bucks have now gone ten straight games without drinking from the delicious cup o' victory.
While we still love the hockey team here at 11W, we're going to try and avoid talking too much about their last set of losses, but rather we'll talk briefly with Buckeye Sports Bulletin's Jeff Svoboda, a real smarty-pants when it comes to all things Buckeye hockey. Jeff was kind enough to answer a few questions for me about what's happened to our beloved scarlet and gray skaters.
SVoBODA SAYS STUFF
I wanted to make this short and simple, so I went to the expert and went with three simple questions that are at the heart of the Ohio State hockey fan's conscience right now. (Thanks again to Jeff for taking a few minutes to help out here. Follow him on twitter @JeffSvoboda)
Ten straight games without a win after being 14-3-1, now sitting at 14-10-5 – simply put: What the heck happened?
What the heck happened? It's everything. Whereas everything went right in the first half, it's been the opposite in the second half. They're young, some bounces are going against them, and they've been inconsistent on the power play and the penalty kill and occasionally in net. The truth of the matter is they're probably not as good as they were in the first half and not as bad as they look right now, but time is running out to turn it around. They've been playing decently of late but just can't get the breakthrough.
In that ten game stretch, the Buckeyes have only scored 19 goals – where can they find an answer to their scoring woes?
The answer to the scoring woes will be interesting. They're so young offensively -- seven of the 11 forwards dressed Saturday were true freshmen -- and now senior Danny Dries (probably their most talented player) is suspended indefinitely. The all-freshman line of Max McCormick, Tanner Fritz and Ryan Dzingel has been absolutely on fire recently but they're not getting contributions from other spots as teams have turned up the defensive intensity late in the year. The power play is really struggling, too, as there's no true quarterback for it on the blue line. A couple of the recent games would have turned in their favor if they could have just gotten a PP goal.
With four games left on the regular season schedule all against teams now ahead of them in the standings, what are the Buckeyes postseason prospects?
The postseason prospects are good in some ways, bad in others. All hope at the CCHA regular-season title is out the window. The Buckeyes can still get a first-round bye in the league playoffs if they turn it on. Worst-case scenario is they keep losing and end up getting passed for ninth and have to go on the road to start the playoffs. The NCAA tournament prospects actually still look decent. The Buckeyes are 12th in the PairWise rankings that mimic the selection criteria for the NCAA tourney; if the postseason started today, OSU would be in the 16-team field. For all that's gone wrong of late, the Buckeyes still do have time to turn it around and accomplish some goals, but the games against Western Michigan and Miami will be very tough.
One thing is for sure, the Buckeyes have a very short time to get things back on track or this once promising season will come to a much sooner than expected conclusion.
men's tennis continue to make their mark
When you think of Ohio in December and January, you may not necessarily think "tennis" right off the bat, but in Columbus, there's a team of Buckeyes who are not only thinking it, but playing it; and playing it very well. So well in fact, that with their latest win, the men won their 135th straight home match.
Senior Chase Buchanan has been very good for the Buckeyes 135 straight, that's pretty good. Right?
The latest victim to fall prey to the Buckeyes' rackets of doom and destruction were the 12th-ranked Waves of Pepperdine, who made a cross-country trip only to be soundly spanked and sent packing.
The Buckeyes entered the match undefeated (6-0) on the season, led by top doubles team in America with senior Chase Buchanan and sophomore sensation Blaz Rola. Despite that tandem suffering their first defeat of the season, the Buckeyes were able to keep the Wave from crashing in on their winning streak.
Ohio State won four of the five matches that finished (Buchanan, the 28th ranked singles player in the nation played Sebastian Fanselow, but the match was not finished) and were led once again by Rola, ranked 8th nationally. Rola dispatched Finn Tearney (6-4, 6-1) to improve to 11-2 on the season.
The Buckeyes also got winning efforts out Ille Van Engelen, Devin McCarthy and Connor Smith in singles play, and the doubles teams of McCarthy/Van Engelen and Smith and Peter Kobelt.
Ohio State will make it's first road trip of the season on February 9th, when they will travel to #30 Louisville to put their undefeated record on the line. The last loss for the Buckeyes came in last year's national semi-final against top-ranked Virginia.
BUCKEYE BITS
The 6th ranked Buckeye wrestling team took care of the big uglies from TSUN.
Oh yes, it's almost baseball season. The Buckeye baseball team recently held their "Meet The Team" dinner.
Former Buckeye gymnast Brandon Wynn was named to the US Senior National Team.
The #15 women's track team had another good meet at Illinois, led by senior Christina Manning who set facility record in the 60m hurdles.
The defending national champion men's volleyball team went topped Mount Olive in three sets, 25-16, 25-17, 26-24. The Buckeyes are now 8-4 on the season and will be back in action against IPFW this Friday night.
Thanks for reading this week's "Around The Oval", folks. See you next week.
