With everything that happened on both the Ohio State football and basketball fronts over the past two days, we needed a little extra time to digest it all before recording this week's Real Pod Wednesdays.
That's why this week's episode is coming a little later on Wednesday than usual, as we talked about the latest happenings in Ohio State sports (though E.J. Liddell's decision to test the NBA waters came after we recorded) including Ohio State's football pro day and the basketball Buckeyes' addition of Jamari Wheeler.
We start with pro day, which only gave both of us more reason to believe Justin Fields should be a top-three pick in this year's NFL draft. We also talk about some of the other standouts from the event, including Baron Browning, Pete Werner and Tommy Togiai, and what we learned about the injuries Josh Myers and Wyatt Davis played through at the end of last season.
Our weekly look at what's happening in Ohio State spring football (19:47) takes us to the linebackers after we talked to Teradja Mitchell, Dallas Gant and Al Washington last week. We're pretty confident Mitchell and Gant will be two of Ohio State's new starting linebackers this year, but who will start at Sam? Is Craig Young the man to beat at that position, or could a transfer addition be in the works? And does Gant's foot injury potentially open the door for another linebacker such as Tommy Eichenberg or Cody Simon to push for the starting job at Mike?
We also talk (27:32) about how the absence of several other projected starters or key players due to injuries this spring, including Haskell Garrett, Harry Miller, Cameron Brown and Kourt Williams in addition to Gant, could impact the Buckeyes in their preparation for the fall.
In the second half of the show (39:05), we turn our attention to the basketball Buckeyes and their latest addition, as Colin explains why Ohio State quickly moved to add a guard through the transfer portal and what Wheeler's role could be for the 2021-22 Buckeyes. We also talk (46:17) about the Buckeyes' potential options to still add a coveted big man to their roster.
Additional news on the basketball front came last Friday when we learned that Indiana had made a run at trying to hire Chris Holtmann away from Ohio State, so Colin shares what he learned about the Hoosiers' efforts to poach Holtmann (51:05) while we also talk about the impact Thad Matta could make in his return to college basketball as Indiana's associate athletic director for men's basketball administration.
Stay tuned until the end of the show, too, to hear why Colin is bullish about Ohio State basketball taking a step forward and being a real contender next season.
Real Pod Wednesdays is available on various listening platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts, or you can tune in by clicking on the audio player above.
