PSA: Dawand Jones is large.
But you broke the seat
— Mickey Marotti (@MickeyMarotti) June 30, 2021
Look on the bright side: at least this summer players are able to destroy actual workout equipment instead of ripping gutters off of their houses while trying to quarantine pullups.
Word of the Day: Languish.
NIL D-DAY. Folks, today is the day. For the first time in modern history, college athletes in all sports are now free to profit off of their name, image and likeness.
And if you spent any time at all on social media yesterday, you'd know that the players are more than ready with pretty much everybody blasting out a post that looks exactly like this:
Dms are open pic.twitter.com/H6ZGPvprBa
— Jeremy Ruckert (@Jeremy_Ruckert1) June 30, 2021
I have no idea how long it'll take to start seeing these deals publicized, or how many players will get deals, or really how any of this is going to work, but I'm happy to be along for the ride!
Frankly, it's about damn time. This honestly shouldn't even be a groundbreaking moment, because there never should have been a law banning someone from profiting off of their own likeness anyway. Even the "they're just regular college students" argument never held weight, because every other non-athlete college student has been free to profit off of their likeness since the beginning of time.
And I'll take those wins from 2010 back now, too, since the Supreme Court basically decided that those players did nothing wrong by a unanimous decision.
HE READY. With Duane Washington Jr. heading to the professional ranks, it suddenly looks like Meechie Johnson is going to have a much, much bigger role this season.
The good news is, he's confident and ready to roll.
Johnson said he spoke with Washington after his final game in the NBA draft combine but repeatedly said his approach won’t change regardless of Washington’s decision.
“I’m working to come back and be a bigger role on the team regardless if he’s there or not,” Johnson said. “Whether Duane’s there or not I’m going to do what I have to do for the Buckeyes to do what we have to do to win. I’m working every day the same. The work is going to be consistent and the game will show.”
Some of that will be fueled by being passed over by Team USA.
“Gave it everything we had, me and Zed both,” he said. “I enjoyed it. NBA scouts were there. It’s political, but that’s a lot of things in life. It was a great experience and I learned a lot from being there.”
While it is true that Johnson recorded more trillions than made shots and assists combined, he also had almost no prep or practice time before just getting thrown into Big Ten games when he should have still been in high school, so I'm cautiously optimistic we'll see a breakout year.
HOOPS PRO WEEK. Whoever came up with the idea for this Hoops Pro Week deserves a substantial raise because everything about this is absolutely awesome.
Sights and Sounds from the first annual Ohio State Hoops Pro Week#DevelopedHere #GoBuckeyes pic.twitter.com/8kShLepOLb
— Ohio State Hoops (@OhioStateHoops) June 30, 2021
Being real, it's not often that the basketball team sets the standard for things at Ohio State, but this is absolutely an idea that the football team needs to steal, even if it would be quite a bit more difficult to implement.
Although, cool as it was, it seems like someone felt a little left out...
When is pro in something other than sports week
— Mark Titus (@clubtrillion) June 30, 2021
COME HOME, JAKE. Kirk Herbstreit's twin sons somewhat famously ended up at Clemson over Ohio State, but at least one of them isn't going to finish there.
Kirk Herbstreit's son, Jake, was a redshirt sophomore walk-on who was a member of Clemson's scout team in 2020 and did not see any game action. https://t.co/13YhXsUjMQ
— USA TODAY Sports (@usatodaysports) June 29, 2021
There's no info on why he left the team, other than "to pursue other opportunities," but if those other opportunities happen to lead him to Columbus to join his younger brother Zak, I'd welcome him with open arms. Especially if it somehow pisses off Dabo.
SONG OF THE DAY. "Summertime Magic" by Childish Gambino.
NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. People are paying £200 a gram for ‘ethically sourced cocaine‘... Meet the queens at the top of Mexico’s most ruthless drug cartels... A man who set fire to his house by cooking steak in a toaster upset at the insurance payout... An entire village beside a lake is for sale at just £125,000 — but you’ll have to share it with the local ghost... Cyclists have mixed feelings about sharing bike lanes with pizza delivery robots...
