Good morning, Buckeye fans. Although we're college football-less until Dec. 15 when bowl season kicks off, we at least have college hoops right now. Well, Ohio State doesn't play until Saturday so that Aaron Craft can ace his exams, but my point remains the same.
For those who are having a hard time transitioning from football to basketball, let me suggest that you focus on the similarities between the two Ohio State teams.
The season is young and the team is prone to sleepwalking during stretches of the game, while still trying to figure out their identity beyond the dynamic player who accounts for most of the offense and a couple of intimidating guys on defense.
If other players step up and start contributing consistently, then the team will be special by the end of the season. Luckily, they're under the guidance of a coach who has proven he knows what he's doing.
The basketball team, however, has a more difficult schedule, although that's not terribly evident the next couple of weeks. And hey, they aren't banned from playing in March, so we've got that going for us, which is nice.
MILLER SLIGHT. Yesterday brought the disappointing news that Braxton Miller was not invited to the Heisman ceremony, but if he finishes in the top five, it will be the 18th time a Buckeye has done so.
Some wondered if Ohio State's postseason ban played a part in the snub, though the main reason Braxton won't be going to New York is because Johnny Manziel, Manti Te'o and Collin Klein separated themselves enough from the pack. After his trip to the hospital during the Purdue game, he wasn't quite the Mr. Do Everything for the team as he was for the first half of the season. Of course he also didn't need to shoulder as much of the burden, particularly on the ground with the emergence of Carlos Hyde.
One award the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year remains in the running for is the Silver Football, which goes to the B1G's best player and will be announced on Friday1.
While his passing game was rather criticized this year — his receivers dropping catchable balls certainly didn't help — everyone is expected an improved Braxton next year, perhaps the one who finished the season completing 14 of 18 throws. Urban Meyer is one of them, saying:
"He can throw the ball," Meyer said. "He has very good mechanics, a very strong arm, a great release. He has all the tools. And he's a smart guy. We just have to break (some bad habits). For 18 years, he has been a better athlete than everyone else and gotten away with it.
Despite an impressive sophomore campaign, his coach added, "I've never coached a guy going into his junior year with so much room for growth." If everything goes as planned, he'll be in New York around this time next year.
TWELVE WON-KEYS2. David Briggs of the Toledo Blade listed 12 reasons why Ohio State went 12-0 this season, with all the usual suspects included such as Urban, Braxton and the senior class (John Simon received a special shout-out).
As he pointed out, sometimes the ball has to bounce the right way to keep a perfect season intact, which was especially the case when Kenny Guiton led the most memorable Buckeye drive of 2012.
There will also be little room for error in 2013 if Ohio State wants to make it to the national championship game, which will obviously be the goal heading into the season:
Can the Buckeyes run the regular-season table again in 2013? Why not? The prediction here is 11-1 because we saw how many things had to go just right for OSU to be perfect this season. But with nine starters returning on offense, a core of defensive playmakers, and the Meyer Year 2 Phenomenon — his second season at Utah and Florida ended in perfection and a national title, respectively — a national title run is in play.
As we know, it's super hard to go undefeated. But without opponents like Michigan State and Nebraska, the schedule should actually be easier and a loss would be even less tolerable in the eyes of pollsters. And the fans. And Urban.
For now, though, it's nice to be able to reflect on 12-0 and how the Buckeyes got there.
Why wasn't Micah Hyde named to an All-America team?ORDINALLY PEOPLE. CBSSports.com unveiled their All-America teams yesterday and Ohio State was represented by three players. Bradley Roby and John Simon made the second team while Big Hank was on the third team.
With Manziel and Klein named to the first and second team, respectively, Braxton's shot at being honored would've come on the third team, but Northern Illinois' Jordan Lynch, QB of everyone's favorite BCS team, was their choice.
Other notables included the Big Ten's lone first-team selection, Northwestern's Venric Mark as a punt returner, and South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, who was probably recognized thanks to Brady Hoke's "He's pretty good" endorsement.
On the second team were Wisconsin's Montee Ball and Ricky Wagner, Michigan's Taylor Lewan and Purdue's Kawann Short.
I think the third teamers were picked mainly for their interesting names (what up, Hroniss Grasu?)3. The third-team RBs was a duo with superfluous letters in their names: Stanford's Stepfan Taylor and Nevada's Stefphon Jefferson. Pfrops to those fplayers.
RANKING KINDLY. Switching gears to basketball, Ohio State fell from No. 4 to No. 7 in the polls, but in Ken Pomeroy's ratings — something we should actually pay attention to — they're fifth, right after four teams they beat last season: Indiana, Florida, Duke and Syracuse. The Buckeyes are ranked in the top ten in both adjusted offense (7th) and adjusted defense (10th).
Although these rankings can change daily, the Big Ten is well represented with Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin holding spots 8-10.
In ESPN's power rankings, Ohio State dropped from second to seventh. Of 17 voters, Ohio State is slotted everywhere from No. 5 to No. 15. Ranking them fifth were two writers, Eamonn Brennan and Robbi Pickeral (I have never heard of her but she sounds smart), and a researcher, Jason McCallum.
Ranking them at No. 15 was former Virginia Tech head coach Seth Greenberg. I'm going to go ahead and trust the nerds over him. Coaches, even former ones, probably shouldn't be trusted when it comes to voting.
VOTE OR LIE. And on that note, Steve Spurrier confirmed everything we suspected about both the coaches poll and SEC coaches when he admitted that his final ballot is affected because it's made public:
"If it was anonymous, I would have changed it a little bit, to be honest with you. I would have put some other teams here, there and the other. When I'm going to read USA Today (Monday), I'm going to see where all those other SEC coaches put us, and so forth, and they're going to see where I put them."
He went on to say, "We're in the SEC, we look out for each other a little bit" and although the same is probably true for most conferences, it just comes off like more S-E-C circlejerking.
Still, he's probably right that if anyone thought his team wasn't given their proper due, that coach would go all Preston Brooks at the next SEC coaches meeting. In the Big Ten, if there's bad blood, then a coach will just passive-aggressively mention it to reporters.
CLICKERDOODLES. Purdue could be after Darrell Hazell if Butch Jones turns them down... Athlon ranks all 35 bowl games in watchability... NIU is offering students free tickets to the Orange Bowl... Harsh but true, Mufasa... A promo for season 4 of Justified... Is a new Arcade Fire album coming?... Happy National Cookie Day... Someone knew who to call.
- 1 Apparently the Big Ten coaches vote on this award, so let's not get too optimistic. ↑
- 2 Sorry, I was reaching on that one but hopefully "ordinally people" made up for it. ↑
- 3 If there's ever a TV remake of Miami Vice, Ace Sanders (PR) and Duke Johnson (All-Purpose) will be the names of the main characters. ↑
