Eleven Warriors

Huntington Park, the new ballpark under construction in Columbus's Arena District and future home of the Clippers was just announced as the host for the 2009 Big Ten Baseball tournament.

Games begin May 20th and it will be the first time the baseball tournament has been held at neutral facility since 1994.

While we don't follow Buckeye baseball as well as we probably should (though these guys do a great job of it), it's nice to see the event coming to Columbus.

Now if we could just get a Final Four at Nationwide Arena...

As nervous as Ohio State fans should rightly be about facing Texas in Glendale, we all have to look at the upside: two traditional powers will meet in a high-paying, high-profile bowl. This is a lot better than going to the Liberty Bowl to face some WAC champion, or – God knows – staying home altogether.

Others more capable than I will do a complete rundown on the 2008 Longhorns (probably complete with “The Imperial March” as background accompaniment), but I thought it might be interesting to take a quick look back at Longhorns history, and note two seasons in which Ohio State and Texas dominated the college football landscape.

1969

Let’s not dwell too much on the 1969 Ohio State Buckeyes, because the very remembrance of how that season ended can make you leap out of your office window. Rex Kern, Jim Stillwagon, Jack Tatum and company were the defending national champions, and looked poised to claim a second straight national title until a stunning 24-12 loss to Michigan in Ann Arbor (a game for which my father swears Rex Kern was paid to lose). That opened the door for Texas.

The Longhorns coasted through the 1969 season, riding the crest of a 30-game winning streak that lasted from the 1968 to 1970 seasons. They beat #8 Oklahoma handily, steamrolled rival Texas A&M 49-12, then prepared for a December 6th showdown with #2 Arkansas.

The 1969 Texas/Arkansas game (yet another contest that has earned “Game of the Century” plaudits¹) should have been played for bragging rights alone, but Ohio State’s loss to Michigan gave President Richard Nixon all the opportunity he needed. Eager to curry political favor in the South, Nixon elected to attend the game personally, and brought with him a plaque symbolizing the national championship.²

Texas overcame a 14-0 Arkansas lead, as well as a few critical turnovers, and won a slow, boring battle of attrition and field position by a score of 15-14 before 44,000 fans. True to his word, Nixon conferred the national championship on Texas – a decision that still sends Joe Paterno into apoplectic fits.³

Texas went on to beat #9 Notre Dame 21-17 for the school’s 500th football victory, and the Longhorns cemented their first national title since 1963 - an ABC-TV poll of sportswriters even declared Darryl Royal “Coach of the Decade.”

1970

Texas rolled through the 1970 season, and so did an infuriated Ohio State team.⁴ Both schools pulverized their opponents by mind-boggling, record-setting scores, and both schools played and whipped Texas A&M (Ohio State won in Columbus, 56-13, and Texas won in College Station, 35-13). Both schools beat their rivals (Ohio State beat Michigan 20-9, and Texas beat Oklahoma 49-9). All year long, Ohio State and Texas swapped the #1 and #2 position in the AP poll.

Both schools then proceeded to fall flat on their faces in their respective bowl games.

These were the days when wire services routinely declared national championships before the bowl games were actually played – a system that surely would have benefited Ohio State in 2006 and 2007 (and perhaps a couple of Cooper’s teams, to boot). Texas won the UPI championship after beating #4 Arkansas 42-7 in the regular season finale; Ohio State won the National Football Foundation title after crushing Michigan. The Buckeyes went out to the Rose Bowl to play Jim Plunkett and Stanford, and Texas prepared for another game against Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl; the outcomes of those two games would determine the 1970 AP national champion.

Ara Parseghian’s Irish proceeded to snap Texas’ 30-game winning streak, beating the Longhorns 24-11 and dropping Texas to #3 in the AP poll. Ohio State held a 17-13 lead going into the fourth quarter of the Rose Bowl, but Plunkett’s Indians scored ten points in the game’s final ten minutes, and upset Ohio State 27-17. The loss left Ohio State at #5 in the final AP poll.

Without question, the years 1968-1970 were filled with glory for both the Longhorns and Buckeyes, but they are also years of missed opportunities. Both programs had legendary coaches at the height of their powers; both programs had legitimate shots at three consecutive national championships. Interestingly, both teams went on to continued glory in the early and mid-1970s until Royal stepped down at Texas in 1976, and Hayes was dismissed in 1978.⁵

¹ There have been a slew of “Games of the Century,” including 1946 Army/Notre Dame, 1966 Michigan State/Notre Dame, 1993 Florida State/Notre Dame (sensing a trend here?), and 2006 Ohio State/Michigan. How the 1916 Cumberland/Georgia Tech game qualifies is anyone’s guess.
² Also attending the game that day were future President George H.W. Bush and the Reverend Billy Graham.
³ Paterno’s 1969 Lions went unbeaten, and elected to attend the Orange Bowl after their eighth win of the season, turning down offers from other bowls, including the Cotton. Penn State assumed that Ohio State would win out, and a trip to the Cotton Bowl to play Texas would only result in a game for the #2 spot. Several Penn State players are on record as saying that they felt the Cotton Bowl was a game for Texas, run by Texans, and that the visiting team wouldn’t be treated well by bowl officials. That’s why Penn State chose the Orange Bowl, and why Paterno lost out at a shot at the 1969 AP title (Penn State finished #2).
⁴ This was the season in which Woody had a carpet reading “24-12” placed outside the exit of the OSU locker room. The carpet stayed there throughout the offseason, and all through 1970, until moments after the Buckeyes’ win over Michigan.
⁵ Both coaches shared one other trait: a complete disdain for Oklahoma’s Barry Switzer. After Oklahoma beat Ohio State in a nail-biter in Columbus, Woody famously remarked that the Buckeyes had been beaten by “the best team money could buy.” Darryl Royal nearly exploded when Mack Brown invited Switzer to address the Longhorns before the 2002 Big 12 title game.

David Lighty led four Buckeyes in double figures with 21 points to go along with 10 rebounds in an 81-68 victory over a game Jacksonville Dolphin squad.

Evan Turner (17 pts, 5 reb), Jon Diebler (14 pts) and Jeremie Simmons (10 pts) combined with Lighty and the rest of the Buckeyes to shoot a blistering 64% from the floor including a 10/17 (58%) night from beyond the arc though the Buckeyes continued to struggle from the stripe converting just 63% (17/27) of their charity tosses.

The contest featured a barrage of runs from both teams including an 18-2 run giving OSU an early 18-6 lead with 12:22 left in the first half before Jacksonville countered with a 14-4 run of their own cutting the OSU lead to 22-20.

Shortly thereafter, the Buckeyes went on a 13-4 run keyed by two threes and an assist from Wil Buford before a Lehmon Colbert triple cut the OSU lead to 45-34 at intermission.

Lighty had 14 points on 5/6 shooting with Buford (3/4 FG) and Turner adding eight each in a first half that saw the Bucks shoot 74%. The Buckeyes also assisted on seven of their 17 first half field goals after recording just six total assists in the win over Butler.

Ohio State would stretch the lead to 56-37 with 17:09 left thanks to an 11-3 run to start the second stanza featuring triples from Diebler, Lighty and Simmons but soft defense and turnovers allowed Jacksonville to chip away and cut the lead to 69-64 with 5:04 left.

Fortunately, Lighty, Turner and Dallas Lauderdale combined to convert 7/8 free throws over the final five minutes as OSU closed the game on a 12-4 run pushing the final margin to 13 points.

While the Buckeye defenders looked sluggish and disinterested at times, allowing Jacksonville to shoot 50% (26/52) for the game, they were able to lock down the Dolphin shooters when necessary and held a slight 26-23 edge on the glass thanks to Lighty's 10 caroms and Turner's five.

Besides the stellar play from Lighty, positives included Diebler taking three shots inside the arc (2/3), Simmons shooting over 50% (4/7) for the first time this season and Buford recording 8 points (3/6) and a nice assist after getting shut out versus Butler.

Anthony Crater also saw a little more action and though he failed to score, he did drop three dimes and grabbed two boards after seeing just six minutes against Butler thanks to the flu.

Though the Buckeyes scored their most points to date, they got very little down low as Lauderdale (8pts, 3 reb) and B.J. Mullens (3pts, 1 reb) combined for just 11 points and 4 boards.

Next up: the Iona Gaels this Saturday at Noon EST.

#16 Ohio State 6-0, 0-0 Big Ten Roster | Schedule

December 17, 2008 9:00 PM ET - ESPNU —— The Schott Columbus, OH

Jacksonville 2-5, 2-0 A-Sun Roster | Schedule

The mighty Dolphins of Jacksonville roll into Cbus tonight, to face OSU for the second time in history, with the Bucks taking the first game 85-74 back in 1986.

Don't take the Dolphins lightly though, they have been tested with close losses to Florida State (2), Georgetown (9), Baylor (8) and Georgia Tech (3). With the lethargic performance from OSU on Saturday, this one unfortunately could be close for a while.

The Buckeyes still sport the nation's longest win streak at 11 and jumped five spots this week in both polls. This is the second of a five game home stand, ending with tilts against WVU on the 27th and Iowa on NYE.

#	Name	PTS	REB	ASST	POS	#	Name	PTS	REB	ASST
2	Jeremie Simmons	7.2	2.3	2.2	G	3	Ben Smith	18.4	4.9	3.0
33	Jon Diebler	10.2	2.5	1.5	G	1	Travis Cohn	6.1	4.1	1.3
23	David Lighty	7.8	5.5	1.5	F	45	Marcus Allen	10.9	6.0	2.0
21	Evan Turner	16.2	7.3	3.3	F	10	Ayron Hardy	8.1	5.4	1.3
52	Dallas Lauderdale	7.7	5.3	0.2	C	41	Lehmon Colbert	8.3	4.7	1.6

Opponent

Jacksonville hasn't played since December 6th, after posting back to back Atlantic Sun victories against Belmont and Lipscomb, so perhaps they will be the rusty team. They are scoring 64 points a game, shooting 42% overall and connecting on only 29% of their attempts from downtown. They won't shoot many from behind the arc, attempting more free throws (147) than threes (131) and only Smith (39) has taken more than 20.

The Dolphins are giving up 70 points per game and allowing teams to shoot 47.5% against them, but the most surprising stat to me is their 41 boards a game. Looking at the starters, no one averages less than 4.1 caroms a game.

Coach Cliff Warren will only use 7 primary players, with Aric Brooks and Evan Jefferson seeing the most minutes off the bench. Brooks is a sophomore forward averaging 5.3 points and 3.1 rebounds a contest. Jefferson is a senior guard contributing 4.7 points and just over 1 assists.

Buckeye Breakdown:

The Bucks are coming off their lowest scoring output of the season, connecting on only 1 bucket and 7 free throws in the last 12:30. Their 64 points a game ranks them 262nd in the country and the lack of consistency beyond Evan Turner is becoming a bit unsettling.

Ohio State still ranks last in the Big Ten with 42.5% (131-308) shooting and seriously, are dishing out only 11.3 assists per game, including 6 against Butler. Since going 8-19 in their opener, Thad's boys have gone 27 of 94 from deep. On the upside, they are starting to drive the hoop more and getting to the line, but making them is still a problem.

Thankfully, Ohio State prides themselves on defense, still ranked 2nd nationally with 50.3 points given up per contest. Teams are only shooting 34.5% against them, which puts OSU fifth and no team has reached the 70 point plateau.

One thing to look for tonight is the continued development of the point guard. Simmons poor play as of late is concerning and has sparked a little debate. He has hit 7 of 24 threes over his last 5 games and has taken only 6 shots from inside the arc over the last three, but has taken care of the rock, turning it over only 5 times against 13 assists. Anthony Crater's minutes have suffered a bit recently and he has yet to take a shot that isn't a three, but he brings a different level of intensity on defense.

With another height advantage tonight, the inside game of Swaterdale and Mullens also needs to continue the steps forward. I have really liked Mullens attitude since he took one off the nuts in the Samford game and Dallas is quickly becoming a Buckeye Nation favorite.

Etc

• Thad Matta is now 26-3 in December at Ohio State
• Only Memphis, Kansas, UCLA, UNC, Floridia, and Duke have a higher winning percentage over the last three seasons. OSU is 85-23 in that span.

Tressel had his first Fiesta Bowl press conference yesterday and though most of his responses were run-of-the-mill, there were a few nuggets tucked in there.

First, Nathan Williams will likely be making the trip to Arizona, despite his recent trouble with the law. Whether he plays or not is still up in the air:

"From a team standpoint, there is some in a physical nature and there's some in a playing-time nature that the coaches and the seniors all agreed upon. So he'll have some work to do and miss some time and he'll have some constraints on the bowl trip, and so how he handles all of that will determine what exactly happens on the 5th."

As I'm sure most of you know by now, six juniors filed paperwork for the NFL. The six, Hartline, Ballard, Coleman, Russell, Cordle and Washington are nowhere near the 13 that filed paperwork in each of the past two seasons. In 2006, Ginn Jr., Pittman and Gonzalez left early, while Gholston was the only one of the 13 to do so last year.

Of course, Beanie is another junior looking to leave early, though he didn't file the paperwork because there's a pretty clear idea that he's a first round selection. Of the six that did file paperwork, Washington and Hartline are probably the most likely to exit, though Ken Gordon thinks Hartline will be back.

Though I wouldn't be heartbroken to see Hartline leave early, I don't think that move would be wise for him. He needs a bounce-back year to get his numbers up and he could probably stand to gain some maturity if some of the chatter that's out there is to be believed. Regarding Beanie -- just assume he's gone and you'll save your hopes getting crushed in a month. He's ready and it's the right move.

Ballard has the tools even if he wasn't used as much as he would have probably liked, but he would be better served with another year of seasoning. As would Coleman. Cordle and Russell will likely get their rating back, tuck it into their back pocket and work on moving the number up for next season.

On the subject of Beanie's health, Tressel expects to have a fully-operational #28 for the Texas game:

"I would call him right now probably 85% healthy and we anticipate he'll be 100% as we go into the game."

A 100% Beanie isn't something we've seen since 2006 and would be, you know, kind of huge to have against the Longhorns.

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Congratulations are in order for Laurinaitis as he becomes the first three-time all-American linebacker for the Buckeyes. Though he didn't earn consensus honors this season, he is believed to be only the 2nd ever three-timer on the AP team. His awards tour may have gone sour outside of the Lott, but that's certainly exclusive company -- whether you might think he's a tad overrated or not.

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The University has put out desktop wallpaper for the Fiesta Bowl, if you're into that sort of thing.

Club Trillion is going global.

Mark Titus appeared on Bill Simmons's BS Report today and though the podcast is billed as "Bill introduces the world to Club Trillion", in reality, Club Trillion was introducing the world to Simmons.

Titus appears at the 41:47 mark and he talks about the bad blood with Kyle Madsen, how hard it is to get that trillion in the box score and how he almost ended up at Harvard.

Simmons was concerned that Titus may be his illegitimate son but he sure makes for a lousy maybe-dad. His closing words were something along the lines of "don't put porn banners on your website and does Greg Oden hate me?"

(MP3 Download)

The former Buckeye defenders rose up this weekend around the NFL, as the playoffs draw nearer and the weather becomes colder.

It was an overall lackluster performance by the wideouts this week, as Micheal Jenkins' 3 catches for 55 yards led the group, in Atlanta's 13-10 overtime win over Tampa.

Santonio Holmes (3 for 22) wins the clutch award, catching a controversial game winning 4 yard touchdown with :50 seconds left, making up for his 2 earlier fumbles in Pittsburgh's 13-9 win over Baltimore, clinching the AFC North.

Nate Clements started things on D with a team-leading 5 solo tackles, helping hold Miami to 150 yards passing in a 14-9 loss. AJ Hawk also lead the Packers with 8 solo tackles and a sack in Green Bay's 20-16 road defeat at Jacksonville.

In his second game back from a separated shoulder, Donte Whitner recorded 10 tackles in Buffalo's heartbreaking 31-27 loss at NY Jets. In winning efforts, Mike Vrabel had 5 tackles and his 4th sack of the season in New England's 49-26 road win against Oakland, while Antoine had 5 tackles and a forced fumble on Arizona's second possession, leading to a 14-0 Minnesota lead and an eventual 35-14 win.

However, for a league-leading third time this year, Chris Gamble takes home the award for his efforts during Carolina's 30-10 home drubbing of Denver. Gamble registered 7 tackles, giving him a career high 82 on the season, which ranks 1st amongst NFL corners. He ranks 10th with 19 pass deflections.

He also picked off his third pass of the season, at Denver's 27 with 1:55 left in the first. It lead to a field goal and the Panthers went on to score another 20 unanswered in their win. The win ties Carolina with the Giants atop the NFC at 11-3 and these two just happen to be meeting this Sunday in New York.

The game will be in primetime on NBC at 8:15 and could pit Gamble against either Michigan product Armani Toomer or Columbus native Domenik Hixon.