Didn't catch last night's men's basketball contest in Happy Valley? Here it is in a Tweet and a Vine:
#PennState fans chanting overrated to DRuss. #DoYouWanttoWakeTheDragon
— Jeremy Birmingham (@Birm) March 4, 2015
Bold strategy. Let's see how it played out for the notoriously deep thinkers of Happy Valley:
Silk finished with 28 points, and Ohio State left with the 77-67 victory. Thad Matta is decidedly good as well.
THE TIME INVOLVED IN THE GRIND. Fans watch players make dazzling catches on Saturday and say things like, "Gosh, it'd be amazing to be an Ohio State football player." And that's true (as long as you're a winning Ohio State football player), but there are so many issues and downsides to being an elite student-athlete I think (most) fans gloss over or don't think about at all.
Which is why I enjoyed this article from Ben Axelrod of BleacherReport.com:
The NCAA limits a college football team's allowed practice time to 20 hours per week while class is in session, and like any elite program, Ohio State uses all of them. But when you take into account classes and any extra football-related activity players choose to take part in on their own, their weekly workloads often extend to 40 hours per week—if not more.
[...]
"Right at the end of the semester, we were going into finals, and we were also in bowl practice," Decker told Bleacher Report. "I had some pretty challenging classes during the season, and I had to study a lot to do well in them and do well in those final exams. There was like a three-day span where I had three or four exams and two of those three days I didn't even sleep."
[...]
"It definitely gets frustrating," linebacker Joshua Perry said. "You get pissed off, you get overwhelmed and you question things. But the biggest thing that we did this year was we had a really close group of guys. So when you're feeling that way, your buddy will automatically look at your face and know what's going on."
And please, spare me trash like this:
@BenAxelrod Internet Champion doesnt approve of your story, Ben: pic.twitter.com/22kJLvdpb1
— Tim Shoemaker (@TimShoemaker) March 4, 2015
Why is it when you're talking about the grind of elite college athletes, some manbaby has to come in with some uphill-both-ways hogwash? Nobody is talking about him, and we're sure as hell not talking about his "sixty hours a week" job as an unarmed "security guard" at a parking garage.
I tip my cap to any player taking football and school seriously, because I'm not sure how interested I'd be in geology class if I could run a 4.3 40-yard dash. (Actually, yes I am.)
OSU AS THE MODEL. It's bemusing to me to think this time last year we were fretting over another Ohio State postseason collapse. WHY ISN'T JIMBO FISHER IN JAIL? WHY HAD WOODY HAYES FORSAKEN US? WHY COULDN'T THAT ASSHOLE JUST LET URBAN MEYER EAT HIS PATHETIC PERSONAL PAPA JOHN'S PIZZA IN PEACE? Those were just some of the questions I remember pondering at night.
Now, I'm dealing with articles like this from Paul Myerberg of USAToday.com:
How can the field catch up with the leader? Taking a page from Meyer's blueprint might help. It was Meyer, after all, who said in the winter of 2013 that the conference as a whole needed "to keep pushing that envelope to be better."
"Our whole conversation needs to be about 'How do we recruit?' When you see 11 of the SEC teams are in the Top 25, that's something that we need to improve."
The Buckeyes' would-be competitors have taken notice. Michigan State's recruiting has picked up significantly, with back-to-back highly rated classes adding talent to Mark Dantonio's foundation. Penn State and James Franklin have noticed. Nebraska has embraced a new approach to recruiting since Mike Riley's arrival.
And then there's Michigan, which took things one step further: To beat Urban Meyer, the Wolverines hired a coach cut from the same cloth — Jim Harbaugh, once of Stanford — and this sluggish rivalry has new life.
Sorry, but it's too late for the Big Ten. The only programs recruiting on Ohio State's level are Alabama, Florida State, and maybe (we'll see this year) Southern California. Sure, Michigan might be there... in 2019.
I don't want to sound arrogant, but how can I not when I'm talking about a team that won a title with a bunch of redshirt freshmen and sophomores? Because that's the epitome of arrogance.
JIM TRESSEL FIST PUMP. It didn't get the requisite BOOOOOOM, but Ohio State picked up another 2015 commit yesterday.
From an old friend of the site, Alex Gleitman of OhioState.247Sports.com:
The 6-foot-2, 200-pound [Mitchell] MacZura handled both punting and kicking duties for his school this past season. He punted 33 times for an average of 33.6 with 8 inside the 20-yard line and a long of 49 yards. He hit 3 of 5 field goal attempts with a long of 37 and accumulated 61 points through field goals and PATs.
He was rated as the top kicker in the state by Preps.com and his review from Chris Sailer kicking says the following, in addition to grading him as a Division I prospect:
"Mitchell is a good all around K/P. A good athlete that has a great frame for the punting position. Has the tools to develop into a top combo prospect. Like his upside. Nice prospect."
Blessed to say that I have committed to The Ohio State University to continue my athletic and academic career pic.twitter.com/hoXHgxBeGd
— Mitchell MacZura (@MitchMacZ9) March 4, 2015
Sean Nuernberger and Cameron Johnston are the only kicking specialists on the roster at the moment, so an addition of a combo prospect like MacZura sense to anyone with two brain cells to rub together.
I'm sure some folks will have something to say about MacZura's pedestrian numbers, but I think I'll defer to a three-time champion in Urban Meyer's (and his staff's) evaluations.
THROUGH THE HEART OF THE HERD. Woke up to this yesterday and it made me chuckle. Y'all are some wizards with that Photoshop:
@11W @marion_ohio In case you guys run out of Zeke shirts again, give Nuge a try #happybelatedbdayNuge pic.twitter.com/tGiEjNLUQ3
— David Tomczak (@angryIggy22) March 4, 2015
As Ramzy pointed out, David nailed the ball's path through the uprights. (Well hit, sir.) Here's a walk down memory lane to close the day:
THOSE WMDs. How the Columbus Crew got its name... Opinion: Ohio State should invest in two-ply toilet paper... When keeping it real goes wrong...NSFW charge sheet against foul-mouthed Scottish teacher who was stuck off is a sight to behold... Driving doesn't seem cool when put in perspective like this.
