Hoops news:
- The women's team downed No. 5 Maryland on Monday night for sole possession of the Big Ten lead.
- The men's team hosts Northwestern at 8 p.m. on BTN.
BOSA, THE BEST TO EVER DO IT? Urban Meyer could assemble an All-Meyer team that would rival any coach's all-time roster from any era.
When asked about the best player he ever coached, Meyer—in his glorious syntax we've all come to love—crowned the man they call "the Big Bear."
From foxsports.com:
"I've been lucky to coach Alex Smith, who was the No. 1 pick, [Tim] Tebow, Zeke [Ezekiel Elliott] ... the Pounceys, all these great players," Meyer said. "It's hard for me not to say Joey is not the best I've ever coached or been around."
If you read that right, Meyer is elevating Bosa above a former No. 1 pick, a former Heisman winner, two first-round offensive linemen and the undisputed MVP of Ohio State's 2014 national title run. Not to mention, he's also coached a slew of other college All-Americans and/or future NFL standouts such as Percy Harvin, Brandon Spikes, Joe Haden, Reggie Nelson, Ryan Shazier and Bradley Roby. He's even coached three former first- or second-round defensive ends, Carlos Dunlap, Derrick Harvey and Jarvis Moss. [...]
"He had the unique combination of just incredible power and strength and speed," Meyer said, "but also, I call it getting skinny. He was able to turn sideways, and the offensive line had such a hard time blocking him."
I'm sure Saban could throw together a formidable squad, even if A.J. McCarron lined up under center. But I wouldn't bet against the All-Meyer team.
The full podcast, for those into such things:
ORLANDO PACE: STILL BALLIN'. The Pro Football Hall of Fame decided over the weekend to right its egregious lack of an Orlando Pace bust. Pace's large adult son will get the honor of ushering Pace into eternity, and Pace will enter with pride knowing what it means to his home state:
Now that we sorted the joke that was Pace's exclusion from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, perhaps we can rectify another wrong: the lack of Orlando Pace Ohio State highlights on Youtube.
Where is my 10-minute reel of Pace driving defensive linemen through the Earth's crusts? The best I could find is his 60-second 1996 Heisman spot and this high school basketball clip:
It's a damn shame the federal government shut down Sandusky's mutant program after Pace escaped and terrorized the nation. (Somewhere in the distance, John Cooper wistfully nods.)
WILL MATTA STICK WITH LOVING? As mentioned at the top of the program, the men's basketball team hosts Northwestern tonight. Thad Matta is expected to shake up his starting lineup (again).
Marc Loving has escaped the scythe... so far.
From dispatch.com:
Coach Thad Matta has stuck with Loving, citing factors beyond scoring. Loving helped spark a first-half comeback at Illinois and had a season-high five assists in a loss at Purdue. After a loss Thursday at Wisconsin in which Loving was 2 of 7 from the field and tied a season-high with four fouls, Matta said he wasn’t sure what was wrong with Loving but didn’t dismiss the idea that something was amiss.
When Northwestern visits Value City Arena tonight, Loving isn’t guaranteed to be in the starting lineup. Along with Jae'Sean Tate and Keita Bates-Diop, he is one of three players to start all 24 games this year.
“We’re hoping that he's going to hit his stride,” Matta said of Loving. “He has worked very hard the last few days. I think that he has to come to grips with just going out and playing his best basketball. There’s nothing else he needs to be thinking about — just do what he can do and do it with great energy and great effort. Don’t overthink situations, just go out and play.”
I'm sure it's hard to just "go out and play," as a college student when you get booed at home court.
I wouldn't start Loving tonight, yet it pains me any time a Buckeye player is tagged as the root of the problem and incessantly dragged on social media. That's not me erecting an army of straw men either. Feel free to search "Marc Loving" on Twitter tonight for a glimpse into some of the abuse hurled that young man's way. It's not right.
BROOKLYN PIPELINE ON DECK? My #take on NYC is it's overpriced and overcrowded, which makes it bad. But if it's going to make a habit of sending Urban Meyer-caliber ballers to the Buckeye State then I'm willing to reexamine my position.
Enter 2016 signee Jahsen Wint, a three-star athlete flipped from Temple.
From brooklyndaily.com:
“From where I am from, people don’t actually make it,” said Wint, who was raised in Crown Heights and now lives in Brownsville. “For me to make it and do it for Brooklyn — it just feels good.”
Mother Claudette Ramos-McKoy and an aunt kept him busy with sports and out of trouble coming up in the hardscrabble neighborhoods. First was karate — but Wint took to it too quickly, and his family scrambled to find something else to occupy his time.
[...]
At 9 years old, Wint joined the Brooklyn Renegades youth program. He fell in love with the sport — it was an outlet.
“I was just a little angry kid, so I had to find something that I could do that I could hit people legally,” Wint said with a smile.
According to the article, Wint will start his Buckeye career at strong safety. (You're kidding yourself if you think Wint leaving karate before his ninth birthday is going to stop me from screaming "MR. MIYAGGGGIIII!" after he splinters a Michigan Man with a backhand chop to the throat.)
MAKES U THINK. Ex-Michigan Wolverine Logan Tuley-Tillman (you might remember him burning his Ohio State recruitment letter and posting it to Twitter) was in court on Monday to plead guilty to felonies.
From mlive.com:
Tuley-Tillman pleaded guilty to illegally capturing/distributing an image of an unclothed person and to committing a crime with a computer. A second charge of capturing/distributing an image of an unclothed person is slated to be dropped at the sentencing.
[...]
Few details of the Sept. 4, 2015, incident, during which he videotaped himself having sex with a woman and sent it from her phone to his, were released in court. Standing in court in a navy sport coat, a purple dress shirt, tie and khaki pants, he admitted to the two charges, saying "yes sir" to Swartz and clarifying that the phone used to send the video was hers.
Tuley-Tillman admitted during the police investigation that he recorded their consensual sex without the woman’s permission.
Gross stuff... which is why it surprised me to see this tweet later in the day:
Michigan transfer offensive tackle @LoganTillman on his official visit with @UHCougarFB this week pic.twitter.com/vLbMvOxXsn
— Joseph Duarte (@Joseph_Duarte) February 8, 2016
Flagrant misuse of the word "transfer" aside, Tillman tweeted in January he committed to Washington State. That tweet has since been deleted.
Tom Herman founded MENSA, and he's too talented to soil his team with character risks. He already proved he can win without a sex criminal whose case isn't even adjudicated.
Tuley-Tillman will be sentenced on March 28th.
THOSE WMDs. Weapons of mass destruction, marijuana found in North Carolina man's home... Shiba Inu: The dog behind the doge... Why people cheat... A brief history of Americans buying lead... Photo: Selling pretzels in the snow, 1910... How far $50 of gas will get you.
