Eleven Warriors - A Buckeye Sports Blog

Carter can’t smile with these two just yet (latimes.com)

Emmitt Smith, Jerry Rice, Russ Grimm, Dick LeBeau, Ricky Jackson, Floyd Little, and John Randle are all deserving of their recent election into the NFL Hall Of Fame Class of 2010, but one man that without a doubt should be getting inducted in Canton with them this summer is former Buckeye and Minnesota Vikings wide receiver, Cris Carter.

Carter, a victim of a snubbing by the NFL Hall Of Fame for the second straight season, was not only wrongfully left out of the class, but was eliminated even before a final group of 10 players was decided upon. Why do I call shenanigans on this you ask? Well if you look at the numbers you’ll see why Buckeye fans, Vikings fans, and all football enthusiasts in general should be standing up in arms about the recent news that has come down on big Mr. Carter this weekend.

We know all he ever did was catch touchdowns, and he certainly did it well. Carter ranks second amongst receivers all-time with 130 TD receptions in his career, only trailing 2010 Hall Of Fame selectee Jerry Rice. Carter also is second on the all-time receptions list (once again behind Rice) with 1,101 catches, has 11 seasons with 50 or more receptions (ranks 3rd), had 122 receptions in a season twice (ranks 3rd), had eight season with 1,000 or more receiving yards (ranks 4th), was a three-time All-Pro, and played in eight straight Pro Bowls. The numbers are certainly hall of fame worthy as you can see, but that’s not all Carter did that is deserving of enshrinement in Canton this summer.

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Taking this villain thing to 11

Three weeks ago, I wondered if the Buckeyes, with the return of Turner, had a potential run for the Big Ten title in them. At the time, I thought Thad’s crew could optimistically go 10-2 to finish at 13-5, but with the Spartans unbeaten at 5-0 and looking near invincible in conference play a share of the title was likely out of the question.

But then Kalin Lucas went down and Michigan State dropped two straight on the road while the Buckeyes moved their conference winning streak to seven games, getting hot at the same time teams like Illinois, Wisconsin and Purdue began to turn things on. There are now five teams, tightly grouped within a game and a half from the top and all with a shot to win the Big Ten — something that was inconceivable just a few weeks ago.

Lucas may or may not be back to play the Boilermakers Tuesday, but the longer he’s out, the more likely it appears that another team might sneak in and capture the crown.

And why not Turner and the Buckeyes?

Since returning from injury, Turner has stepped up his game to the point that he now ranks first in the conference in points and rebounding, second in assists, third in steals and fourth in field goal percentage. As Chris so eloquently put it last week, John Wall, my ass.

It’s not just all Turner. Buford has emerged into the player we all thought he had the potential to be and Lauderdale is even coming along with steady contributions from Lighty and Diebler.

Next up is a very winnable game against the Hoosiers in Bloomington on Wednesday (okay, I’m being kind — very winnable should read “virtual lock”) before the team travels to Champaign Sunday in what’s sure to be a battle. After that, it’s three home games, a trip to Penn State (lulz) and the pivotal matchup with Sparty on Saturday the 20th.

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Though neither managed to match Santonio Holmes’ feat of winning Super Bowl MVP honors, Malcolm Jenkins and Will Smith earned their first NFL championship tonight in an exciting Saints comeback win over the Colts.

Congrats to both.

John Wall? Never heard of him (AP: P. Vernon)

Another game, another Magical display from Evan Turner. The all-purpose pimp had another POY effort tying his career high with 32 points along with seven boards, five assists and four steals against zero turnovers in 68-58 victory over the Hawkeyes bringing the Buckeyes (7-3) to within one game of the first place Spartans.

While this one never materialized into a blowout, OSU didn’t allow Iowa to hang around as long as they did 12 days ago using a 15-6 start to the second half to build a 47-33 lead with 12:55 left. Iowa chipped away cutting the lead to a eight a few times but Turner would not be denied scoring 14 of OSU’s final 17 points and 20 in the second half to secure the win.

Besides Turner’s domination, the defense had its moments picking up six steals in the first half alone leading to 14 points off turnovers as OSU built a 32-27 halftime lead. To their credit, Iowa hung around for a half shooting 52% from the floor including 4/5 from downtown but the Buckeye D would kick into a higher gear after halftime holding Iowa to 36% shooting (8/22 FG, 4/15 3FG) erasing any chance of an upset.

Turner hit 12/22 from the floor unleashing his usual array of pull up jumpers and driving layups as he moved past Luke Witte, John Havlicek and Larry Siegfried on the OSU all time scoring list. At this point, I advise the fringe fans to make more of an effort to turn on the TV because time is running out to watch one of the greatest Buckeye ballers of all time.

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Buford, scoring 15.7 over his last 16 games.

#18 Ohio State 17-6, 7-3 Big Ten Roster | Schedule

February 7, 2009 12:00 PM ET – BTN —— The Schott Columbus, OH

Iowa 8-14, 2-7 Big Ten Roster | Schedule

Ohio State looks to extend their conference winning streak to seven, as they welcome in the Hawkeyes, losers of three straight, including a 65-57 defeat against the Bucks 11 days ago.

Last Sunday, the Bucks gave a spirited effort in front of the 1960 team, but played flat Wednesday against Penn State and the first meeting with Iowa was extremely boring. This week they welcome back former captains, so we can only hope the Saturday banquet and the possible pre-game speech by the likes of Clark Kellog, Ronnie Stokes or Matt Sylvester creates the same energy for this game.

Opponent

Ohio State clearly has the better talent, as the Hawkeyes resemble a typical high school team from rural America and not a Big Ten squad. But the Hawks always seem to play well in Cbus and OSU has a tendency to lose a three point shooter. Iowa used an effective high pick and roll, with some timely 3-point shooting to keep the game close in Iowa City. The pick and roll forced Thad to switch to zone late in the game, so don’t be surprised to see Dallas doing his best to defend 23 feet from the hoop.

Iowa is the lowest scoring team (56.5) and worst shooting team (38.1) in conference play. Their 2 wins came against Penn State and Indiana, while losing their others by an average of 11 points a game. Even though they have launched the 3rd most 3-point attempts in league play (239), Iowa is hitting just 29 percent and connected on 10 of 31 in the first meeting.

The Hawks will primarily run with 7 guys, lead by Devan Bawinkel, who hit 13 of 21 bombs attempts against the Bucks last year and has yet to take a 2-pointer this year in 66 shots. Offensive Lineman wanna-be, Brennan Cougill will also get about 17-19 minutes and scores almost 5 a game.

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The Ohio State coaching staff decided to shake things up a bit at this year’s Signing Day press conference. Instead of the traditional presser in which The Senator gets up and discusses the newest members of the Buckeye family, Tressel had nine of his assistant coaches each introduce two players of the class.

We were on hand to capture the words of wisdom about each of the 18 members of the recruiting class of 2010, and without further ado, here are the videos, starting with the Doc introducing Hyde and Smith (many more after the jump).

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TP2 2.0?

With two nights sleep on it, several rational appeals to reason making their way around, and 207 days until the Thundering Herd come to town to kick off the 2010 football season in the Shoe, it’s only natural to begin mulling how the 2011 meat market will shape up.

A quick overview of the offensive players who will wrap up their eligibility following the 2010/11 season looks as follows:

*=Assuming the rumors of Schwartz’ transfer don’t come to fruition

This of course excludes the possible early defectors (Pryor, Posey, heck, even Herron in some circumstances) and transfers seeking the opportunity for fresh starts. Even being conservative in ballparking this all, given the 10 that have no choice but to move on to the next chapters in their lives, and assuming 2 early pro declarations and/or a transfer or two, and we’re looking at (give or take) roughly 12-14 hypothetical offensive spots to fill. So where to go with the potential offers?

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