Eleven Warriors

The Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs continue their back-and-forth battle for an NBA title – a six game series that will end this week, in Miami. 

Had the opportunity to take a headline literally, since age 16

Once the trophy is raised, some of these guys will shed a tear and consider how crazy it is that they've accomplished a childhood dream, considering how little fanfare they created coming out of high school. 

Certainly, there is a guy that has so deeply indulged us with his clearly undervalued importance to us peasants, since the day he was deified.

Others are a reminder that players develop at different ages, and can flourish once they’re placed in the right college environment.

Even in an era of widespread communication, those with the slightest hint of NBA talent can still slip through, unnoticed by major Division-1 college coaches. 

The following players were lightly recruited coming out of high school. Maybe, their championship mentality and determination were shaped by how they were perceived coming into college:

There are currently 10 players in Ohio State's 2014 recruiting class. When National Signing Day 2014 rolls around, the class will have around 20 members.

Webb is the top member of the 2014 class

You, fan of math, have realized that we're at the halfway point of this class, which has the makings of a top-10 class nationally if the next few months go according to plan.

Of the 10 future Buckeyes, four are expected to play on the offensive side of the ball when they arrive in Columbus:  WR Lonnie Johnson, OL Marcelys Jones, OL Kyle Trout, and WR/ATH Parris Campbell.

There are also four defenders the Buckeyes have in this class so far. Those four: DE Dylan Thompson, LB Kyle Berger, LB Dante Booker Jr., and CB Damon Webb.

Sam Hubbard, who plays linebacker for Cincinnati Moeller, could easily end up on the offensive or defensive side of the football when he arrives in Columbus next summer. He could slide into the tight end slot on offense or play defensive end, linebacker, safety, or Star if the Ohio State coaching staff decides playing defense is best for his career at Ohio State.

German born kicker/punter Sean Nuernberger is the lone specialist in the class. He'll be the only specialist in this class come signing day.

Join me after the jump to take an in-depth look at the first 10 commitments of Ohio State's 2014 recruiting class. 

I turn 40 years young later this year which puts my sports-formative years squarely in the crosshairs of the John Harold Cooper era at Ohio State. 

Sure, properly raised, I was a already a Buckeye diehard, having cut my teeth on the Earle Bruce era but it's those mid-teens to mid-20's that truly first bring out all the emotions and experiences come with being an "all-in" fan of any team. 

To have those said sports-formative years bump against JHC's tenure in Columbus can only be summarized as both a gift and a curse. 

The southern gentleman, already enshrined into the College Football Hall of Fame, will now also be inducted into Ohio State's Athletics Hall of Fame, and rightfully so. That said, is anyone surprised it took longer to make into the Ohio State version?

Probably not. And you know why. 

Seventy-five days from now the Ohio State Buckeyes are going to play the Buffalo Bulls, and they're going to beat the living shit out of them.

Home openers are impossible to look past, so Buffalo will get the full, gruesome treatment and no one will bat an eyelash at the outcome. People will just be relieved that college football is finally back and happy there's a three-day weekend as well.

San Diego State visits Columbus the following Saturday. That guest appearance on the schedule was elevated when Vanderbilt of the SEC - a conference that will play anyone, anywhere - abruptly canceled what would have been the season opener. The Buckeyes should win that game too, as well as the roadie the following week at Berkeley.

And right around mid-September is when the raindrops that are already falling - in June - should build into a full deluge of preemptive outrage: The Buckeyes' schedule sucks, and they don't deserve to play in the BCS title game even if they continue to win all of their games.

This is because official BCS rankings in September will not only have merit, they also won't actually exist yet - which just makes them scarier, especially to people outside of the Ohio State loyalty program.

If the Buckeyes make it to 3-0, that's when their detractors will begin to cluck in earnest. It's already happening now, months before the season even starts.

This means that Ohio State has moved into a gated community normally reserved for the Boise States of the world, but without the media welcome wagon, general goodwill or Pat Forde blithely offering up his chastity.

A happy Steelemas to you! In these limp days of June, what better way to brighten up your day than Phil Steele's preview of Ohio State?

Because it's never too early for bullet points or listicles, here are three interesting tidbits from Steele's preview:

1. Last year's least attended road game and Big Ten home game were at Indiana, with 48,880, and Purdue, with 105,290 attending. For shame, Hoosier State.
2. OSU has been much better at beating the spread versus Big Ten opponents (50-28-2 since 2003) than non-conference opponents (25-20).
3. Steele predicts that this year's linebacker corps will have similar production to last year. With all due respect to departees Zach Boren and Etienne Sabino – none to Storm Klein – Boren's inexperience, Klein's rust/plodding play and Sabino's journeyman career contributed to last year's underwhelming results.

Complaints about the thoroughness of Steele's preview and how much ink he uses to tout how accurate he is are absolutely valid. But a couple of things excuse those peccadilloes.

For one, he's previewing every single team by himself, an enormous task. He goes much deeper than the other national preview magazines in their omnibus previews, and does have a track record of reasonable accuracy.

Mostly, though, it's the tradition of looking forward to Steele's magazine that everyone enjoys. Steele's preview is a relic of a time when information on schools outside one's own was much harder to come by, and there was far less football content to consume in the summers. The Eleven Warriors team can and does provide more in-depth coverage, but as longevity and nostalgia go Steele has us beat.

Speaking of football content in the summer, the free NCAA 14 demo will be available for download today and Ohio State-Michigan is one of the available matchups. I have a hunch that highly elusive Braxton Miller "QB #5" will be outrunning Desmond Morgan "LB #48" et al on speed options in a few hours: even if the EA series is stagnant, it'd be hard to pass up this demo.

Nebraska was very active on the recruiting trail over the past week. The Huskers picked up six of the Big Ten's eighteen commitments this week. 

Which Big Ten school will land OT Jamarco Jones?

Michigan, Penn State, Northwestern, and Wisconsin were the only four teams in the Big Ten that did not gain another member for their 2014 classes. 

Nebraska made the biggest jump in the team rankings with their big weekend. The Huskers moved from 12th to 7th with the top six schools remaining the same. 

Ohio State picked up a commitment from kicker Sean Nuernberger, but remain at number two in the rankings behind Michigan. Michigan currently has a comfortable lead for the Big Ten's top spot in the recruiting rankings. 

Three Big Ten teams, Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State, are fighting for a commitment from highly rated OT Jamarco Jones. Jones is coming off visits from Michigan and Michigan State and is currently at Ohio State. Will Ohio State land Jamarco Jones to close the gap on Michigan? Or will Michigan distance themselves or could Michigan State shock many by landing Jones and jumping up in the rankings? It appears that we will find out on June 27th. 

Continue reading for the latest B1G Recruiting Rankings and other tidbits including Penn State possibly getting closer to landing another four star prospect. 

Trees.

There's pretty much no such thing as a douchebag tree. One of the only exceptions to this is the racist tree, but other than that jerk, in pretty much every tree is a cool cat of the plant world. They provide shade, occasionally delicious red fruit (including my favorite, Red Delicious apples), and when they're cut down they provide a convenient morality tale for children that doubles as a metaphor for their smug parents.

So I love trees. I'm the selfish kind of environmentalist, the kind that wants to protect trees and forests and the environment mainly so that I and my future children and my children's children will have a nice quiet place to sit and think about the best place to bury incriminating evidence. Trees help provide that, along with nooks and crannies for raccoons and other potentially rabid animals to hide in.

Also trees are great at providing allergens that make my life a living hell from May through August, and are straight up crawling with ants that cover you every time you try and sit underneath one.

Woah, maybe trees aren't that great. Maybe they kind of suck? Nope, too late now, I've made my choice and I'm sticking with it. Trees are great. Here is a list of B1G state trees, meticulously ranked after an exhaustive analysis of their individual merits.

2012 was a banner year for the Buckeye ground attack. The Scarlet and Gray’s 242 rushing yards per game was good enough for 10th in the nation, churning out 37 of the team’s 60 total TDs in the process.

Carlos doing Carlos

Nearly 80% of the squad’s 2,907 rushing yards came via Braxton Miller and Carlos Hyde. The tandem was downright deadly running Urban Meyer’s newly installed spread. 

Miller, is tailor-made for Meyer’s offense. His speed, athleticism and shiftiness are exactly what Urban looks for in a playmaker. Hyde is the exact opposite; a bruising 235 lbs back that would rather go through opponents than around them. 

Hyde doesn’t fit the mold, and that’s exactly what the coaches love about him. Just listen to Running Back Coach, Stan Drayton.

"The beauty of this offense is that it fits the skills of our players. It can always be adjusted to the skill that we have with them, our personnel. (Meyer's coaches) have always been a power, inside-zone outfit, no matter where we've been. It's just that down in Florida, you were doing it with guys who weighed 185 or 190 pounds. Now you're doing it with a 235-pound back, and these guys when they hit it they break a tackle or two."

With a full year operating Meyer’s system, an entire offseason to study its finer points, and the offensive line returning four senior starters Miller and Hyde are primed and ready to obliterate last year’s ground performance.

It seems its not really a question of will they…but how will they? So instead we’ll shift our focus to which of the duo will have more rushing yards in the 2013 season?

One of the great things about having a forum here at 11W is that it gives me the opportunity to think up interesting scenarios that I might otherwise never consider.

Spielman in his prime at Mike linebacker this year? Swoon.

As I wandered through my father’s day festivities with the family, I kept thinking about how the Buckeyes will more or less need to finish undefeated again to have a shot at the BCS National Championship.

While the current roster may be sufficient to accomplish the feat, I can’t help but wonder how the 2013 Buckeyes might be upgraded in some key areas. I thought it would be an interesting exercise to dream up five players I’d love to bring forward in a time machine to shore up this team’s weaknesses.

The generally accepted weaknesses of the 2013 Buckeyes are linebacker depth, youth on the defensive line, right tackle, wide receiver, and punter. I started pondering the five trips I’d get in my mythical time machine and which guys would best fill the holes on the current roster.

This is a completely subjective exercise, obviously, so feel free to weigh in with your alternates. Here are the five guys I’d bring forward with my limited number of TARDIS trips:

It’s arguably the most powerful friendship in football – Urban Meyer and Bill Belichick – unless Nick Saban and Belichick’s bond surpasses it. The Meyer-Belichick connection is back in the headlines with the New England Patriots’ recent signing of Tim Tebow.

When Meyer was in the early days of his time at Florida, the phone rang and Belichick was on the other end. Meyer, not believing it, said, “Yeah, this is Pete Rose.” Once Meyer realized he actually was talking to the three-time Super Bowl winning head coach, the two coordinated a visit to discuss football philosophy.

Belichick wanted to talk X’s and O’s with Meyer, who was the author of a still foreign and mysterious offense at the time. Meyer also didn’t own a national championship, so he picked Belichick’s brain on how to create a winning culture through a strong locker room. Four years later, Meyer owned two national titles.

Belichick’s fingerprints were sprinkled throughout those championship runs, and still today at Ohio State.