The header photo is the perfect encapsulation of the Ohio–Indiana relationship. The Buckeyes soaring to the hoop while Indiana lags behind in a lower caste.
ICYMI:
- Kelsey Mitchell passed Brittney Griner as the women's basketball clinched a Big Ten title.
- Men's track & field captured its first indoor conference crown in 25 years.
- Shocking but true: Ohio State signed a trio three-star prospects in 2018, and each has the chance to become a star.
- Reserve your (or your business’) spot next to the life-size statue of Woody Hayes coming to Newcomerstown!
Word of the Day: Lissome
BUCKEYES TAKING IT TO THE HOOP. No, that wasn't a three-month long bender in which you hallucinated the Basketbucks—picked to finish 11th in the Big Ten by the "experts"—capturing a No. 2 seed in the tournament.
The bad news is Penn State looms. The worse news is we're relying on Northwestern to prevent that bad matchup from taking place.
Here's what the tournament looks like, for those sensible folks out there that were in bed by 8 p.m. on a Sunday:
Here are the odds according to the mysterious algorithm college basketball fans love to respect:
The Big Ten had its selection show today. Here's how the probabilities shake out. pic.twitter.com/fRn1oM5w1Z
— Ken Pomeroy (@kenpomeroy) February 26, 2018
Most "mathematicians" would probably see rate 11.2% as bad chances. Little do those numbers nerds know, No. 11 is a blessed number in Buckeye lore.
MEAT MARKET ALMOST OPEN. The NFL Combine kicks off on Feb. 27th. Some players, like Billy Price and Denzel Ward, are looking to secure first-round reps (spoiler: They will).
Other players, like projected second-day pick Jalyn Holmes, are looking to use the event to catapult their way up a team's big board. Holmes realizes the combine isn't the last step of his journey; he's just preparing like it is.
From dispatch.com:
“It’s something I always watched when I was younger,” Holmes said. “I’m not going to say it’s the same as the draft (itself). But right now it’s my Super Bowl.”
[...]
The combine’s marquee drills are the 40-yard dash and the bench press. One might think the 40 time wouldn’t be so important for a defensive lineman, but Holmes has been training hard for it.
“That’s why we all go out to these big facilities around the country — to get the 40 right,” he said. “The 40 can show just how athletic I am, how versatile I truly am.”
Holmes is underrated. And yes, me thinking a Buckeye isn't getting his props is nothing new. But it's not like Ohio State has been known in recent years for producing injury-prone busts. Having rotational guys like Holmes in the mix is what separates great defensive lines from good ones.
LEGACY SECURED. Earlier in this column, I criticized media experts who know much more than me about college basketball for picking Ohio State to finish No. 11.
To keep it real, however, I didn't see this surge coming, either. So that means the legacy of the seniors and Keita Bates-Diop is already secured.
From theozone.net:
“You can’t ever go into a season knowing what the chemistry of the team is going to be like,” Holtmann explained. “You don’t know what kind of agendas you may be dealing with. We have had an agenda-less group in terms of the leadership of our team from day one. From day one. We’ve had to manage other things from other guys, but with Keita and J.T., their agenda has been, ‘I don’t want my legacy to be anything other than something that people can feel proud of.’”
So while Tate’s career is coming to a close, and Bates-Diop’s likely is as well, they will leave Ohio State having provided one of the most unexpected seasons in OSU history. And that’s a whole lot more than just a footnote.
“I think it just reaffirmed in my mind to continue to try and bring those people into our program,” Holtmann said. “We need more of them.”
The departing class already has a unique legacy in Buckeye basketball history. They'll leave as legends if they rip off a postseason run that captures a Big Ten crown or goes deep into March.
BEEN CHEATING FOR LONG TIME. NCAA goofs like Mark Emmert love to claim the cheating scandal currently detonating college basketball is the antithesis of amateur athletics. Like most grifters, he's self-interested in maintaining a narrative in stark contrast to the truth.
Cheating is literally as old as college sports itself. It happened in the first intercollegiate competition, which was naturally a rowing match between Yale and Harvard in 1852.
From sbnation.com:
In an effort to gain a competitive advantage, Harvard used a coxswain who was not a student. A book called Scandals in College Sports says the cheating might have been even more rampant that day, and that there were multiple ineligible participants.
It was later discovered that some men who competed in the race were not college students; they are believed to have been professional rowers who were hired for the event. He therefore observes: “even before the starting gun went off or an oar hit the water, two elements were at play: the event was totally commercial, and the participants were cheating.”
Competition is a helluva drug, and it's only cheating if you get caught held responsible.
GREAT GESTURE. And now, we pivot from a cynical view of college athletics to a benign one.
Iowa guard Jordan Bohannon had a chance to break Chris Street’s free-throw record during a 77-70 win over Northwestern. (For those unaware, Street passed away in a car accident in 1993. He was 20 years old.)
"That's not my record to have. That record deserves to stay in his name."
— Iowa On BTN (@IowaOnBTN) February 26, 2018
- @IowaHoops' @JordanBo_3 discussed his FT miss to remain tied with Chris Street's record of 34 consecutive made. pic.twitter.com/bzfOfZJD7n
Nothing to say to that but "Respect, brother."
THOSE WMDs. Secretive Chinese Bitcoin mining operation may have made as much money as Nvidia last year... Neanderthals, the world's first misunderstood artists... The girl who told the truth... What went wrong in Vietnam... In search of warriors... DraftJoshAllen.com.
