Surprise!
Y'all thought you were rid of my clunky prose for at least a week, but as usual, I'm here to ruin your morning.
See, I couldn't find a replacement for every day of my absence, so instead, you get a special edition honeymoon Skull Session featuring some Buckeye #stuff at least tangentially relevant to each of the west coast cities my wife and I will be visiting.
Don't worry, you won't have to deal with me again for another week – I promise.
Word of the Day: Foible.
PORTLAND. Greg Oden hasn't been in true basketball shape since injuries derailed his career with the Portland Trailblazers, but that didn't stop him from helping out his best friend, Mike Conley, when he needed a hand preparing for this season.
Oden was once a generational big man prospect, but injuries robbed him of a promising career. But he’s still seven feet tall, still has arms that are freakishly long and is still Conley’s best friend.
So, when Conley called for help, Oden was willingly available.
“I just wanted to see my friend again,” Oden said. “This was a chance to hang out with him because with his schedule we don’t see each other that often. I asked Mike: ‘Is this going to help you?’ He said yes. So once he said that I was going to stay as long as possible.”
Why would Conley seek Oden’s help for basketball purposes? It’s simple. Conley played with Gasol as his big man for his entire career. Gasol was more of a pick-and-pop big. He wasn’t going to catch lobs over the rim. He caught pocket passes, bounce passes. One of Conley’s biggest adjustments last season was playing with Gobert, who is maybe the best vertical lob threat in the league. Only Conley was used to throwing bounce passes, which of course is not Gobert’s strong suit.
Oden and Conley laugh at the fact that Oden is no longer in NBA shape, has put on a few pounds and is no longer the terrific lob threat that he used to be. But, he was good enough to help Conley in the offseason. So, the two worked together consistently, repetition after repetition. They stopped, drank water, went back to it. And then Conley and Gobert and Jazz assistant Alex Jensen did the same in the weeks leading up to training camp.
I feel like "no longer the terrific lob threat that he used to be" is purely relative. I mean, as far as I know, he never stopped being seven feet tall. You toss a ball up to him and I bet he still throws it down like a Nerf ball.
In any case, the practice clearly worked. Conley went from averaging just 4.4 assists per game last year to dishing 6.0 a game this year. Obviously, it wasn't enough to take the Jazz to the finals, but it was a noticeable improvement.
SEATTLE. If you haven't noticed, Ohio State's got itself a nice little Seattle-area recruiting pipeline going, landing elite receivers Gee Scott Jr. and Emeka Egbuka out of the Seattle suburbs in consecutive classes.
Now, the Buckeyes are trying to make it 3-for-3 with J.T. Tuimoloau, a teen who you may have heard of.
If it feels like this Washington connection has come out of pretty much nowhere, that's because it has. Before Scott and Egbuka, Ohio State had only signed players from the state of Washington in history, and one of them was Archie Griffin's nephew. So if the Buckeyes sign Tuimoloau, they'll have signed more players from Washington in two recruiting classes than they had in the 130 previous years combined.
Who the hell knows if this is going to continue (or if Washington is going to keep producing five-star teens), but I'm not exactly mad about it right now.
SAN FRANCISCO. Free recruiting pitch to any elite teen running back who wants to go somewhere that's going to get him NFL-ready: Ohio State's running scheme is basically just the San Francisco 49ers'.
When the rookie running back was preparing to transfer from Oklahoma to Ohio State, he made it a point to study game film of NFL teams that ran an outside zone running scheme. The 49ers were a team that Sermon focused on throughout the process.
“When I was making the transition to Ohio State, I was looking at a lot of outside zone,” (Trey) Sermon said. “The 49ers were definitely one of the teams that I looked at. Just going through the progressions and the reads because I knew when I got to Ohio State we were going to run a lot of that.”
...
“It hasn’t been too difficult just making the transition,” Sermon said. “Some of the stuff is similar to what I did at Ohio State. I feel like my acclimation will be pretty smooth and it will be good.”
I remember the days when there was legit concern about how players would translate from the college scheme to the pro game. That's not really a thing these days, evidenced by, uh... *gestures at all of the Buckeyes making instant impacts wherever they go in the NFL*.
LOS ANGELES. Hey, remember that time Ohio State went Duck hunting in L.A. (Pasadena, but close enough)? Cause it was glorious, and still might be my favorite bowl game that wasn't a title or a playoff game.
Let's do that again on Sept. 11, but in the 'Shoe this time (and also, by about three more touchdowns, if I can get greedy).
SONG OF THE DAY. "Dani California" by Red Hot Chili Peppers.
NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. Stones that sparked a ‘diamond’ rush in South Africa are actually just quartz... Why single people smell different... Banksy might have to reveal his identity to own his art... When Danny Trejo negotiated between Hollywood and Mexican prison gangs... The soothing, slightly sinister world of productivity hacks...
