When they talk about games being a mismatch on paper, I think this is what they’re referring to. In related news, the line for the game is starting to close on 18 in some books.

			EDGE
Points	2524	1977	OSU
Points/Game	74.2	68.2	OSU
Field Goals Made	912	654	OSU
Field Goals Attempted	1838	1460	OSU
Field Goal %	49.6	44.8	OSU
Free Throws Made	451	470	UCSB
Free Throws Attempted	656	691	UCSB
Free Throw %	68.8	68.0	OSU
Free Throw Rate	35.7	47.3	UCSB
Three Pointers Made	249	199	OSU
Three Pointers Attempted	642	525	OSU
Three Point %	38.8	37.9	OSU
Rebounds	1138	949	OSU
Rebounds/Game	33.5	32.7	OSU
Off. Rebounds	309	256	OSU
Off. Rebounds/Game	9.1	8.8	OSU
Def. Rebounds	829	693	OSU
Def. Rebounds/Game	24.4	23.9	OSU
Assists	500	403	OSU
Assists/Game	14.7	13.9	OSU
Assists/Turnovers	1.3	0.9	OSU
Assist %	54.8	61.6	UCSB
Turnovers	385	451	OSU
Turnovers/Game	11.3	15.6	OSU
Turnover %	17.3	22.8	OSU
Steals	243	196	OSU
Steals/Game	7.1	6.8	OSU
Steals %	10.9	9.9	OSU
Blocks	139	90	OSU
Blocks/Game	4.1	3.1	OSU
Block %	7.6	5.8	OSU
Fouls	520	556	OSU
Fouls/Game	15.3	19.2	OSU
DQs	8	9	OSU
Possessions	2221.0	1978.0	OSU
Possessions/Game	65.3	68.2	UCSB
Points/Possession	1.1	1.0	OSU
Efficiency	113.6	99.9	OSU
Effective Field Goal %	56.4	51.6	OSU

The Ohio State athletic department announced Tuesday morning that Buckeyes head coach Jim Tressel had received a 2-year contract extension to his existing deal. This two year addendum means that Tressel’s current contract, which had been slated to expire in 2012, will now be in place through the duration of the 2014 season. While increasing his time as Buckeye’s head coach, the university mentioned specifically that the deal fails to include any additional financial escalators, and that the 2 additional seasons will come at his current salary (believed to be in the neighborhood of $3.5 million per season or good for 4th highest nationally). As touched on elsewhere, this is both a product of Tressel’s relative lack of additional suitors and the unique vocational alcove The Vest has nestled himself into, where by which the marriage has become such a symbiotic, mutually beneficial relationship, it’s almost transcended typical business arrangements of these sorts. Buckeye Sports Bulletin’s Marcus Hartman had these words from A.D. Gene Smith on the issue of the contract’s financial terms:

“Jim has indicated to me he is satisfied with his salary. He is aware of the financial situation we all face in athletics…”

Make no mistake about it, should the market dictate otherwise, the university should continue to show the same good will towards Tressel as they have repeatedly in the past and keep his contract on par with fair market value. Keeping up with the joneses aside (and not discounting any and all recent successes), neither party should have any real incentive to look elsewhere at any point during the first half this next decade.

Hartman also went on to beat me to the punch on a sentiment I think many observers of the program feel very strongly, that it shouldn’t come as any kind of surprise if 2014 marks the end of the Jim Tressel-era in Columbus. While the conclusion of that season would find Jim Tressel just 62 years young, he’s made it abundantly clear in the past that he has no real interest in sticking around past the point of diminishing marginal returns on his worth as Buckeyes head coach, nor does have the desire to represent the university in his present role in the same fashion Joe Pa or Bobby Bowden have and did respectively well into their later stages in life. That being said, it’s absurdly premature to mince words over potential hypothetical successors, be it from within the current staff or a potential outside hire. There isn’t another coach in the country better suited to be an ambassador for The Ohio State University, and any fan of the school in each of the next 4 season (or beyond) should be feel honored and privileged as such to have him representing them.

UPDATE: In perhaps the strongest indication yet that this next class of freshmen could be the last Jim Tressel oversees graduating, the Dispatch’s Ken Gordon revealed this very intriguing new additional contract detail:

If Tressel steps down before deal is done in Jan. 2015, OSU makes him an assoc. athletic director, pays 150k

Things continued to move quickly on the recruiting front asToledo Rogers defensive back Derjuan Gambrell has become the fifth member of the class, joining Chris Carter and Antonio Underwood as verbals that have come through in the last 18 hours (and all coming near the announcement of a two year contract extension for JT).

The 6-foot-2 and 180-pound Gambrell has been a varsity starter at free safety since the beginning of his sophomore season. He made 64 tackles and intercepted two passes this past season. Gambrell has been recruited by the Buckeyes as a cornerback.

Offered just last month, Gambrell comes in a bit under the radar, but has decent speed and the size the staff loves in corners.

With the NCAA’s version of the kids’ table (the 16a v. 16b play-in game) roughly 12 hours from first servings, it’s time to look ahead to Friday night’s main offerings as the Buckeyes travel to Milwaukee to take on the #15 seeded University of California-Santa Barbara Gauchos (a Gaucho is some kind of mustache clad man of mystery with an unabashed love for loud clothing; I checked).

UCSB recorded a 20-9 overall mark on the 2009/10 campaign, going 12-4 in pulling a double of their own in claiming both the Big West regular season and conference championships. To clinch the one-bid league’s lone NCAA berth, the Gauchos upended 3rd seed Long Beach State, a team they were on the wrong side of a 5-point defeat back in January, 69-64 in Anaheim. This marks UCSB’s first trip dancing since 2002 when as a 14 seed they lost to 3rd seeded Arizona 86-81.

Before drawing any conclusions based on prior performance (nearly a decade ago mind you), head coach Bob Williams aside, there are few similairites between the two units. This incarnation of tourney-bound Gauchos has little on their body of work to suggest any kind of upset in the making is in the works (as one shameless alum is professing). UCSB only faced two BCS schools (Cal and NIT bound Arizona State at that) all season and a third non-BCS but tournament headed team (San Diego State) losing by an average of 19 points in the three games. Unlike Siena a year prior, this club is severely lacking in the recent tournament successes or playing BCS schools tight to fall back on departments.

With the range of starters’ heights running from 6′2″ to just 6′7″, this shouldn’t be a club that frustrates the Buckeyes with their length or relative size. The Gauchos finished 8th of the 9 teams in the Big West in rebounding, averging just under 33 collectively per game. The Bucks would have to be completely out of rhythm or overlook UCSB significantly for there to be even a chance of the Gauchos being competitive for second chance opportunities and routinely turning Ohio State misses into fast break points.

For those completely in the dark on the institution itself, the 5th-largest campus in the University of California system hosts 18,429 undergraduate and 2,981 grad students. The main campus is located a just a little more than 2 hours northwest of LA. While mostly known for their success in collegiate soccer and water polo, the university’s proclivity for being on a seemingly tropical beach all the more necessitates a reality shattering 20+ point beat down from the men of the scarlet & grey.

Credit where credit’s due, the school produced 11W favorite and Big Ten Network sideline reporter Charissa Thompson. The school is also responsible for educating the founder of TMZ, Harvey Levin, ESPN’s morning Sportscenter host Josh Elliot, acousti-singer songwriter/surfer Jack Johnson, and major league baseball players Michael Young, Barry Zito, Ryan Spilborghs, and Skip Schumaker.

If you have designs on making the relatively reasonable commute to Milwaukee, tickets go on sale at 2 p.m. at ohiostatebuckeyes.com. Essentially the way ticketing should work, is you’ll be charged $75 total for both the Oklahoma State-Georgia Tech and the UCSB-Ohio State game at the point of purchase. Should the Bucks win Friday night, you’ll automatically have $75 more per ticket charged for Sunday’s contest against the winner of the previous game. Anyone located in the Big Ten post-graduation capital of Chicago is looking at just around a 2 hour or so commute. No excuses, y’all.

Carter made an unofficial visit to the Columbus campus today. He received a scholarship offer and gave the school his commitment during a phone call the minute he got home.

“I left my house about 9 this morning and got home about 3:30 this afternoon,” he said. “I knew I wanted to go there from the beginning, so why wait?”

Carter, a 6-4, 315-pound tackle/guard, blocked at a 91 percent efficiency this past season for the Eagles with 16 pancake blocks. He also received offers from Akron, North Carolina State, Miami (Ohio) and Toledo.

One of the weak spots that many pundits have identified for Ohio State going into the NCAA tournament is the lack of size on the front line. Furthermore, they typically point out the lack of production from the post, which reflects Thad Matta’s guard-oriented offense. During the heady days of the 2007 NCAA tournament run, this was not a concern because of the presence of Greg Oden at the center position. Even the year prior to that, Terence Dials prospered greatly in Matta’s offense, winning Big Ten Player of the Year honors. But the man who currently occupies the “5″ for OSU is in a bit of a late-season slump.

Back on Feb. 27, Dallas Lauderdale matched his career high in points with 14 as the Buckeyes downed Michigan. But since then, his offensive production has dried up almost completely. In the season finale against Illinois, he had only 2, and he matched that total in each of the 3 Big Ten Tournament games. And his shot-blocking prowess, which had formerly struck fear into the hearts of B10 opponents, has gone the way of his scoring, as he has blocked only one shot in the last 4 games. Lauderdale has seen his minutes decline during that span as well, but his regular back-up Kyle Madsen hasn’t exactly exploded in points either. Madsen played 25 minutes in OSU’s 90-point effort yesterday but failed to score.

It is well known that Lauderdale is a horrendous free throw shooter, and this might be one reason why Coach Matta is reluctant to make him a big part of the offense. If he starts to make a move toward the basket, many teams might elect to just give the foul knowing that it probably will not cost them much. As a result, it would not be wise to use possessions trying to run post plays when there are so many other weapons on the floor. But is it possible that the lack of a post threat causes problems for our perimeter players?

On Saturday, ESPN’s Hubert Davis said that although he considered OSU a solid 2-seed, he did not think they could stay with the top teams due to the lack of size. Digger Phelps argued that Ohio State would present problems because most teams do not face that kind of a 4-out-1-in offense on a regular basis. The win at Michigan State would seem to bear out Phelps’ point. On the other hand, we saw last year how the Siena front-line had their way on the offensive boards. I still have nightmares about that game.

The question remains: does OSU suffer for the lack of any type of inside threat? Is this the weakness that could take the team down against a top-level team in the NCAA tournament? What do you think?

Turns out we were being a bit delusional thinking the Buckeyes were staring down a high two seed or even had an outside shot of snagging a one seed. Instead, the NCAA selection committee made the road back to Indy a little more difficult for Ohio State when they were awarded the last two seed in the Midwest Regional meaning any paths to a Final Four will have to go through Kansas, the tournament’s top seed.

But that’s not all. This Regional of Death also includes potential Sweet Sixteen opponent Georgetown¹ as the three, Maryland at four, Sparty at five, Tennessee at six, a dangerous Oklahoma State team as the 7th seed and Georgia Tech as a 10. If you’re keeping up, those teams represent the Big 12 regular season and tournament champs, the Big Ten regular season and tournament champs, the ACC co-champs, an ACC tournament finalist and a Big East tournament finalist. Day-umn.

Meanwhile, Duke is in a regional with Villanova, Baylor, Purdue and Texas A&M. Didn’t the Big Ten defeat the ACC in the Conference Challenge for the first time this season? Shouldn’t the Big Ten’s regular season and tournament champion get a little bit more love than the ACC’s regular season and tournament champion? (See also: The ACC’s six selections compared to the five awarded to the Big Ten.)

You have to wonder if the low two seed was because of the team’s terrible RPI or whether geography got the nod. The Selection Committee is supposed to seed in an “S” pattern, but it’s much easier for the traveling mass of Buckeye fans to get to a game in Milwaukee than it is, say, Oklahoma City or Providence. Is this a case where our reputation for traveling came back to bite us?

Finally, why does the Big Ten have such a difficult time with scheduling? In the fall, there’s the 50+ day void when teams fall off the national radar, much to Joe Paterno’s chagrin. In the spring, it’s the timing of the Big Ten tournament championship — ending just a half hour before selections are revealed — that seems to hurt the conference.

The Other Four

If you’re a fan of Big Ten basketball, Friday is going to be a special day. While none of the five Big Ten selections will be in action on Thursday, all five will play Friday, kicking things off at 11:25AM when #11 Minnesota squares off with #6 Xavier in Milwaukee.

#4 Purdue tips off against #13 Siena five minutes later in Spokane (Siena is currently getting 4.5 if you’re into making some easy coin), #4 Wisconsin faces #13 Wofford (+9.5) at 3:45PM in Jacksonville and #5 Michigan State takes on #12 New Mexico State (+12.5) at 4:20. Which should please members of the Spartan football team.

If you were wondering, the Buckeyes are currently 16 point favorites over the Guachos.

Your Belated Pro Day Recap

Lost in the insanity of Evan Turner draining the life out of Ann Arbor was Ohio State’s annual Pro Day. Luckily for you, the first-ever 11W intern, Jared, was in attendance² and filed the following report:

NFL coaches and scouts were out in full force at the WHAC on Friday despite the fact that this year’s crop of departing Buckeyes is without a massive headliner. However, the man that most scouts came to see did not disappoint.

DE/LB Thad Gibson, always known as a workout warrior, wowed some scouts, and even Strength and Conditioning Coach Eric Lichter, by posting an (unofficial) 4.51 40-yard dash (other reports had Gibson running a 4.59). OSU is certainly known for its fast track, and the times were done by hand, but some scouts couldn’t hide their astonishment/glee.

Safety Kurt Coleman clocked in with a 4.55 not entirely helping nor hurting his effort to get a look as a corner at the next level and receiver Ray Small came in with a 4.52. All times are unofficial and timed by media members. Ohio State did not announce official times.

In a sad note, DT Todd Denlinger did not finish his 40 yard dash as he pulled up shortly after starting what appeared to be a tight hamstring.

Thad is starting to generate some real draft buzz lately with most analysts pegging him as a second round selection, while a few are even saying he might get lucky and go in the late first round.

The Madness

BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock is right: The inevitable expansion of any tournament is a terrible thing. How else to you explain a selection show so captivating the nation’s sports fans that national advertising campaigns are rolled out for it. I’m not saying I’m dying to move this thing to 96, but you have to admit, having 64 65 involved is a lot of fun.

• ¹ We’re all Bobcat fans on Thursday night.
• ² Only the sweetest internships include trips to OSU’s Pro Day, you know.

We learned it would be against the UC Santa Barbara Guachos on Friday about five minutes into the selection telecast. Now, we have an approximate tipoff time: 9:45ish.

Technically, the game is scheduled to start “30 min fol.” the conclusion of the 6:15 Oklahoma State/Georgia Tech tilt.

Also, in terms of festive mascots the Buckeyes have faced, I think this is the guy I want to party with most.

The mission, of course, becomes Getting Back to Indy, but there are some things to settle. Among them:

Which one seed will the Buckeyes draw? With Duke and West Virginia winning their conference tourneys, you have to think the Buckeyes’ odds of getting a one seed is around 2% (despite the insane finish and the team’s sterling record with a healthy ET in the lineup). Assuming they get a two, who will they get paired up with? Syracuse looks vulnerable and the chance to beat down Duke is appetizing.

How many Big Ten teams will make the field? Four are definitely in: Ohio State, Purdue, Michigan State and Wisconsin. But what about Minnesota and Illinois? Is there room for one? Both?

Do you have what it takes to emerge on top? Don’t forget to fill out your bracket in the 11W Tournament Challenge. Bragging rights and an awesome 1960s Championship Box Set from Homage are on the line.

Get your brooms out.

Ohio State clinched a sweep of the regular and postseason conference championships with a 90-61 soul stealing against the overmatched Minnesota Golden Gophers this afternoon in Indianapolis. The win still probably doesn’t land the Buckeyes a #1 seed in the Dance but it assures a #2.

Evan Turner wrapped up MVP honors with a 31 point, 12 rebound, six assist performance giving him back to back 31 point games. Turner had plenty of help as David Lighty played a fantastic game finishing with 20 points, eight boards and fve dimes and Jon Diebler stood out recording 19 points and playing some excellent defense on Minnesota’s three point bomber, Blake Hoffarber (0/3, 0 pts).

Leading just 42-40 at the 13:42 mark, Ohio State unleashed one of their patented runs, this time a 20-5 blitz, pushing the Buckeyes to a 65-45 lead with 7:12 remaining. The run was the ET, D-Light and Diebs show. Turner scored the first five points with a baseline j and a triple from the top of the circle then Lighty took a turn scoring six straight on an array of determined drives to the rack. Diebler then hit a trey and Lighty added one of his own before Diebs drained another to complete the onslaught.

Not getting the desired camera time, Ed Hightower then T’d up Buford but it didn’t slow down the Buckeyes as they ran off a couple more buckets, hitting 12 straight shots at one point. Sick.

Ohio State held a 33-30 lead at the break in what can only be described as a sloppy effort from both teams. The Buckeyes committed eight turnovers and Minnesota nine, most were unforced, not the product of insane defense. That said, Diebler did a nice job limiting Hoffarber’s touches – he took just one shot in a scoreless half. The Gophers also shot a less than impressive 39%. Diebler paced the OSU attack with 10 points (3/6) while Wil Buford and David Lighty added six apiece. Turner put up a pretty stat line of nine points and eight boards but he also turned it over three times and took some ill advised shots. In the post, Dallas struggled once again adding just two points and zero rebounds in the first half before picking up two fouls. Kyle Madsen completely outplayed the big fella on the weekend.

For the game, OSU shot 59% from the field and 57% from distance. Defensively, they won the glass 33-22 and held Minnesota to 42% shooting.

Now, we wait for the brackets…