Eleven Warriors - A Buckeye Sports Blog

On the DL: 7 points, 7 blocks (J. Davidson)

The new look Buckeyes used a balance attack including a career high 7 blocks from one Dallas Swatterdale (TM: HBomb productions) to run away from Delaware State 70-42 tonight in St. John Arena.

The true sophomore added 7 points with his swat count while freshman Wil Buford and David Lighty added 13 apiece to complement Jeremie Simmons’ 10 points helping OSU to leads as large as 28 points in Thad Matta’s eighth straight season opening win.

The Buckeyes also received 9 points (3/6 treys), 4 rebounds and 3 assists from Jon Diebler and 8 points, 3 rebounds and 3 steals from Evan Turner.

Employing a long 1-2-2 zone press, OSU forced 16 turnovers and held Delaware State to 37% shooting while using a 10-3 run to start the second half to build a 45-25 lead with just over 17 minutes to play.

Nine Buckeyes saw at least 12 minutes of action. I know it was Delaware State but Corey and I both liked what we saw from such a young squad. Here a few quick-hit observations since we know everyone’s got their mind on a certain football game slated for high noon Saturday:

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A trader reacts to the fall

COLUMBUS, Nov 20 (11W Financial Wire) - Columbus Gold Pants futures suffered their sharpest one day drop in history today as investors moved with the advancing line for the game.

After opening at $9.41, a mass sell off left the miniatures at $2.11, which reflects their lowest value since the awards were first introduced in 1934.

The fall is the latest in a relentlessly steady decline in value since peaking at $350,000 in mid 2001 and many city residents are staggered heading into what should be the biggest game on the calendar.

“Typically, the market is impervious to external forces in the economy at large, but the collapse of the auto and banking industries coupled with the sad state the Wolverines find themselves in was just too much,” said Brutus Sanderson, Gold Pants strategist for J.P. Morgan Private Bank. “We’ve gotten into a full-blown, self-feeding downturn.”

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Hoops Squad Set to Begin 2008-09 Season
Lost in Michigan Week is the fact Thad Matta’s troops begin the regular season tonight at 6:30pm against Delaware State. The game takes place in a real basketball venue, St. John Arena, and can be seen on the Big Ten Network.

There are still plenty of tickets available to see Matta move to 5-0 in season openers at OSU and 8-0 overall. Even more noteworthy, this will be the first chance for many to get a look at stud freshmen Anthony Crater, BJ Mullens, William Buford and Walter Offut. Additionally, juco transfer Jeremie Simmons will give you a first look at his ability to score and run the point.

This will also mark the debut of the new and improved Evan Turner, as he looks to parlay a solid freshman season into first team all-conference honors. We’ll also get a chance to see if David Lighty has truly evolved into the leader being propped up in the press during this off-season.

Our guy Bob Baptist put up a nice season preview capsule that’s worth a look.

Lauderdale Set to Return from Injury
Returning big Dallas Lauderdale will also be on display tonight. OSU announced he’s been cleared to play after suffering an injury to his left shoulder during the scrimmage at Miami on November 2nd.

We’ve beaten this horse to death but Lauderdale could in fact be the key to Ohio State returning to the big dance. Based on the notion Matta will likely employ plenty of match-up zone this year, I am excited to see Lauderdale share minutes with Mullens providing much needed rebounding and physicality and the back end of the zone defense.

If those two can log heavy minutes together, OSU’s transition game will truly flourish with Crater/Simmons pushing the ball and Turner, Lighty and Buford filling the wings.

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With a win, Leach and Harrell can clinch the Big 12 South.

After passing off the most boring slate of football to Jason last week, this coming weekend will begin to decide where teams will end up in the bowls.

The television gods have given us a full day of games, starting with The Game at noon.

I don’t recall an Ohio State/Michigan game that has drawn less hype, but it is still the ninth straight season where this game has at least one team that could win a share of the Big Ten title with a victory.

No matter how low RichRod has taken that program, they still have a chance to rise up and knock OSU from a possible BCS game and fourth straight conference title.

National Games

#9 Boise State at Nevada, 4:05PM - No National TV
The Broncos close out the season with this visit to Reno and a home tilt against Fresno State. These two teams played to a 69-67 overtime thriller last year and Nevada lost to Texas Tech 35-19 at home earlier this season, so this game could swing either way. Something tells me though, the BCS is hoping for a Boise loss.

#17 BYU at #8 Utah, 6:00PM - The Mtn. Network
The battle of Mormons takes place in Salt Lake City and will decide the winner of the Mountain West conference. Of course the Utes are looking for an undefeated regular season and a berth in the BCS. BYU lost to TCU in week seven, being held to 7 points, but have still managed to score 400 on the season, while Utah has gone for 401. Each team has won 6 times in their last 12 meetings, with 10 of those games being decided by a touchdown or less.

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Baller

Last week, in honor of the Ohio State-Illinois game, we took a look at the Illini’s “Galloping Ghost,” Red Grange. This week, in honor of the Ohio State-Michigan game, we’ll take a look at a player who was better than Red Grange: Ohio State’s Chic Harley.

In 1950 the Associated Press named its All-Star College Team for the first fifty years of the century. Red Grange was named to the second team. The first team halfbacks were Jim Thorpe and Chic Harley. When asked to explain his vote, one AP writer said:

“Red Grange was a great runner, but that’s all he was. Chic Harley was a great runner, a great kicker and a great defensive back. That’s why he made my first team. He could do it all.”

In truth, Harley could do anything athletically. The first time friends took him to play golf, he shot an 82. He bested Willie Hoppe, a legendary pool player, in a game of billiards at a downtown Columbus restaurant. During his years at Ohio State (1916-1917, 1919) he started at guard on the Buckeyes basketball team and played well enough in the outfield on the baseball team to be offered professional contracts by the St. Louis Browns and Chicago White Sox. During his sophomore year, he was asked to help out the OSU track team; he set a conference record in the 50-yard dash that stood for decades. There simply wasn’t anything he couldn’t do.

Chic was born in 1895 in Chicago – the town that gave him his nickname. His family moved to Columbus in 1912, and Harley starred at East High School. His exploits became the stuff of local lore; East’s games regularly drew more fans than Ohio State’s games at Ohio Field. Harley lost only one game while at East – his last, to North High School. A campus fraternity recruited Harley for Ohio State, and the program was never the same.

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Sad, really.

You’ve witnessed the transfers. You’ve seen a recruiting class fall apart with a wave of defections. You held out hope before Toledo did the unthinkable. You suffered through four hours of bad weather and shoddy play last weekend before watching the Northwestern Wildcats walk out of the Big House with a victory — after expecting one coming in.

You have watched your favorite program pile up eight losses on the year — something that’s never happened before in the long and illustrious history that is Michigan football — and you fully expect #9 to come this Saturday.

So what’s a reasonable Wolverine fan to do?

You take up the advice of your head coach and focus on the economy. Specifically, making a little cheddar to spur the recovery by selling your sad loyalty on eBay.

That’s right, things are so bad up North that fans of the program are selling their allegiances to the highest bidder:

I was born and raised in the heart of Michigan. My first word was “Hail.” I could whistle “The Victors” by the age of three. But, all things must come to an end - and for me, the end is near. You can decide my fate.

And what’s the going rate for the loyalty of a Wolverine fan? About eighty bucks.

This is a partial list of teams that surrendered fewer yards to the Illini than the Buckeyes did Saturday: Louisiana-Lafayette, Iowa and Western Michigan. So it was curious that the Buckeye defense, which had been peaking, was carved up so easily in Champaign.

Granted, it was the Big Ten’s top offense and they’re powered by a guy that can do some incredible things with the ball. But it appeared as if there was some sort of informal competition to see who could rack up the most missed tackles in the first half.

Credit the Buckeye defense for making solid halftime adjustments, though. And when you step back and look at their performance, they were just a little elastic, that’s all. They held when it mattered and forced big plays when they needed to. Oh, and add Tyler Moeller to that list of players you can’t wait to see next year.

Field Flop

What I love about this sequence is that no matter how old Tressel gets, he’ll never need any type of male enhancement tech. All he’ll need to do is loop these three minutes of the game. A booming punt from your own territory, leading to a field position edge. Then the fumble on the very next play. Five runs later and the Buckeyes had the first lead of the day. That’s Tresselball smut.

With the line of scrimmage the 23, Trapasso fields the snap at his own seven. Zook puts 10 on the line, but does not go for the block.

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In case you don’t get 1460 The Fan which is likely if you live outside the outerbelt, Herbstreit and Spielman had a great back and forth yesterday as they discussed this Saturday’s clash.

With tongues somewhat in cheek, the two didn’t paint a pretty picture when discussing the Wolverines and what they expect to occur in The Game.

The Detroit News was able to pick up the comments and put them out there for the Wolverine faithful to see. Normally, I’d assume the head coach of said team up north would use these comments as bulletin board material but considering the current coach doesn’t seem interested in grasping the rivalry, maybe not. Either way, the conversation was classic sarcastic Spielman with a touch of tolerable Herbie.

Spielman lobbed this bomb to kick it off:

“Anybody that played in that game understands what that game is and how special it is. For Michigan, I think it’s vital for them because they have absolutely nothing. I admit when I’m wrong — I was wrong about Michigan winning four games. I think they’re going to win three…This team has no confidence, man. They’re dead men walking.”

Gotta love a guy that will admit when he’s wrong.

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Program covers from The Game, left to right: 1941, 1949, 1954, 1955, 1961 and 1968

It’s been a while since we’ve held a prediction contest, but you know the Wolverines rate one every season, regardless of gross failitude from parts up North.

This time we have a pretty cool prize to offer. Pictures Plus Online has a whole slew of Ohio State program covers available as posters, including the six shown above, and they’re giving out one to the winner of this contest.

All you have to do is submit your score prediction as a comment on this post and the closest guess will win. As a bonus, if you nail the exact score, the folks at Pictures Plus Online have offered to frame and matt your poster — which is awesome because that means you can hang the bad boy in the living room next to your Gauguins.

The fine print:

• Must be 18 years-old or older.
• One entry/comment per person.
• Your entry/comment must include a valid email address. Comments without email addresses attached to them will be deleted.
• Duplicate predictions are ineligible — first come, first serve.
• Deadline for entries is kickoff.

A little foreshadowing for the weekend? Antonio Pittman is finally getting his chance in the pros.

For the first time in a few weeks, this was actually a tough decision, as a handful of Buckeyes had performances that would win the award in other weeks.

Perhaps they sensed it was Michigan week. I know I started to get pumped on Sunday morning knowing that school was coming down to Cbus and Ohio State had a chance to send them to a 3-9 season.

Keeping the party going in Carolina was Chris Gamble and Na’il Diggs, as the defense clamped down when they had to en route to a 31-22 win over hapless Detroit. Gamble has become a tackling machine, getting credit for 10 tackles, 9 of which were the solo variety, while Diggs was in on 5 tackles and got his first interception since 2003. Carolina is now 8-2, good for second in the NFC.

Not be outdone on the defensive side, Nate Clements had 6 tackles and a pick in San Fransico’s 35-16 victory over St. Louis. Wil Smith had 7 tackles and a sack in the Saints 30-20 win in Kansas City, while Jay Richardson’s two tackles and a sack for a safety couldn’t help the Raiders upset the Dolphins.

Antoine Winfield had 8 tackles in their 19-13 loss to Tampa Bay and A.J. Hawk teamed up with Ryan Pickett for 9 tackles in their 37-3 smackdown of the Bears. The win by Green Bay put them in a tie with the Bears and Vikings atop the NFC Norris.

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