Eleven Warriors

#23 Ohio State 9-1, 0-0 Big Ten Roster | Schedule

December 31, 2008 4:00 PM ET - BTN —— The Schott Columbus, OH

Iowa 10-3, 0-0 Big Ten Roster | Schedule

Big Ten season opened up last night with Illinois shocking Purdue 71-67 in overtime, once again proving that anything can happen when it comes to conference basketball.

Ohio State put the smack down on Iowa by 31 in Columbus last year, only to lose by 5 in Iowa City. The Hawks are coached by Todd Lickliter, who was an assistant for Thad at Butler and will bring a similar style of play to the Schott.

Both teams come into the Big Ten opener in a little bit of turmoil. OSU's problems have been well documented and Iowa's leading scorer recently was picked up for public intox. and didn't play in their last game. As someone who went to Univ. of Iowa, getting picked up for anything in that town is difficult, so Anthony Tucker must have been acting a damn fool.

#	Name	PTS	REB	ASST	POS	#	Name	PTS	REB	ASST
2	Jeremie Simmons	7.5	2.5	2.4	G	30	Jeff Peterson	9.7	2.2	3.6
33	Jon Diebler	9.9	3.2	1.8	G	23	Jermain Davis	6.1	2.6	1.8
21	Evan Turner	16.2	7.2	2.9	F	5	Matt Gatens	10.2	3.9	2.9
44	William Buford	7.8	3.4	0.6	F	32	Jake Kelly	9.5	2.5	2.9
32	BJ Mullens	7.4	4.0	0.2	C	44	Cyrus Tate	7.1	6.8	0.1

Opponent

Iowa comes in scoring 64.6 points a game on 47.3 percent shooting, including 40 percent from deep. They may not score too much, but they hang their hat on the defensive end, allowing just 54.6 points a game, good for 4th in the nation. They are allowing only 9.2 assists a game and teams are shooting 40.4 percent against them.

Iowa's only win against a BCS conference thus far is Kansas State, pretty much playing cupcakes in the rest of their victories. Iowa has also faced WVU, losing by 19 in late November, while their other losses came against Boston College and Drake.

Lickliter will run about 8 players at the Bucks, but has only one senior that sees significant time. Both of their leading scorers from last year are gone and like Ohio State, they are still looking for their offensive chemistry.

Buckeye Breakdown:

I really don't know what to write here. Two weeks ago, after the ND win, I thought this team was bound for a top three B10 finish and a guaranteed NCAA tourney berth. Now after Lighty's injury, Nappy's transfer and the WVU loss, no one can predict what is going to happen.

I don't know what happened to Crater and quite frankly, I don't care anymore. Nappy is obviously getting some bad advice from his mom/camp and it follows a sad trend in college hoops. I know he is an up and down PG, but when you have a young team, you are not going to consistently win with the run and gun. The youngsters must learn to value each possession with good shots before they can push the tempo. Plus Crater showed no ability to break down his defender from the perimeter.

Can you imagine that introduction to his new team? Fellas, here is our new teammate, the one who quit on his last team after 10 games, when they were ranked 13th in the country, because he didn't get enough playing time and promises were broken, which prompted his mom to call the coach after a 28 point loss and tell him her son was taking his ball and going elsewhere. And after reading this Bucknuts article, it sounds like Mom may have been behind the entire ordeal...good life lesson Mom.

With that said, the rest of the offense was horrible last game and the need for a second and third scorer is critical. Buford is making strides to get there, but it goes back to that youngster theory of taking good shots every time. Diebler is 3 for 15 from deep his last three games, dropping him 5 percentage points to 36.2 percent and hasn't attempted a free throw since going 11-12 against Iona. Mullens has been inconsistent, scoring in double digits just twice this year and has only three games where he has grabbed 7 or more rebounds.

Hopefully you have the ability to tune into this game for the 4pm start, but don't be surprised if your eyes are sore after watching it. How will this young team respond to the recent adversity? What adjustments does Matta make? Will a second or third scorer emerge? We should have a better feeling about these questions over the next week or so, as the Bucks will travel to Minneapolis and East Lansing on Saturday and Tuesday. Unfortunately, I think a 1-2 start in the B10 is staring them right in the face.

Etc

• OSU is 53-41 all-time in Big Ten openers.
• Iowa leads the overall series 73-63.
• The Buckeyes fell to #23 in the coaches and #24 in the AP this week, 3 spots ahead of West Virginia.

The line has narrowed to 8, so the betting public believes the Fiesta Bowl will be closer than the 11 point opening gap. What about you? Think you can nail the correct final score?

If so, you'll be the lucky winner of two t-shirts from Ryan and the good people at Homage Clothing*. If nobody gets the exact score, we'll award one t-shirt to the entry that comes closest.

Though we're pretty big fans of our own shirts, the collection Homage has put together is pretty stellar. Plenty of Buckeye shirts along with many other themes, all having a weathered, vintage feel to them. I actually own the shirt pictured and it's easily in my own personal top three.

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.

^* You may have also seen the Homage ad on the sidebar as they've come on as our first official sponsor. If you have your own small business or know of someone that does and they'd like a way to reach thousands of intelligent, good-looking Buckeye fans, drop us a line.

The Buckeyes participated in a two hour session in full pads Tuesday and Tressel spoke briefly with the press prior to hitting the field. A quick rundown of the interesting bits:

• Five players still hadn't arrived to the Phoenix area by the start of practice. The five, Sanzenbacher, Posey, Dominicone and Gant, have been the victim of flight delays and other travel snafus. All were expected to arrive Tuesday and Saine, Sanzenbacher and Domicone made it in time for the tail-end of practice.
• The team was treating Tuesday's session like a game-week Sunday and will be back in full pads on Wednesday.
• Bauserman is playing the role of Colt McCoy on the scout team. It's hard to simulate a player as gifted as McCoy is, and Tressel said as much, but there could be worse choices and maybe Joe is turning some heads slinging the ball around.
• Cordle and Beanie were mentioned as players missing practice time in Columbus due to injuries, but he expects everyone to be ready for the game. We heard that Beanie spent most of the Columbus sessions in sweats (they call this preventative maintenance, I think) and also heard about Homan being slowed a bit before heading West, but the team should be healthy.
• Expounding on his earlier text message denying interest in the Browns job, the Vest probably put any future NFL rumors to bed by saying he wasn't an NFL guy.

Tressel commented a bit on Laurinaitis and the senator-speak was there in abundance, but he seems to be relaxed heading into the game. Which meshes well with the story of him rocking a Vince Young Texas jersey at practice one day at the WHAC.

Fierce Urgencies
Doug Lesmerises brings word of the new shirts being worn by the team: the front reads "BEAT TEXAS" and the back has "F U N" on it, referencing the King quote Obama put into play again this year. The motto didn't exactly work out so well in Los Angeles, but it's still a fantastic principle to live by. There was also a Nathan Williams sighting, but no word on whether or not he was still running with the threes. Lesmerises also snapped some great photos if you're into seeing your favorite team suited up looking all bad and all in Arizona.

Do Work
Unlike the Longhorns, the Buckeyes will not be taking in Steve Nash or the Insight Bowl in their run-up to kickoff. In fact, the team's itinerary is pretty sparse aside from two team dinners. If the dinners consist of bones and boulders, I think that spread has to close a little.

Bevo Sighting
Texas had its first practice in Arizona on Tuesday as well and opted to go light, working out in shorts. Mack Brown is also letting his seniors and junior McCoy decide the team's nightly curfew, so you'll be praised appropriately for sending strippers to the Scottsdale Plaza Resort (7200 N Scottsdale Rd, Scottsdale, AZ) nightly until kickoff.

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Elsewhere: Brandon Smith is pulling for Penn State and Laurinaitis has blown on Colt McCoy's neck.

Name	Quan Cosby
Year	Senior
Number	6
Position	WR
Size	5-11/200

You'll forgive Todd Boeckman if he seeks out Longhorn Quan Cosby immediately after the Fiesta Bowl Monday night. You see, it's not often that he comes across another player that is car-rental eligible, but that's exactly what Cosby, at the ripe old age of 26 is. In fact, he's 18 months older than Boeckman, giving him the edge in that oh-so crucial benchmark of whether or not you were alive when the Thriller video dropped.

Unlike Boeckman, Cosby has only been on campus for four years. He originally committed to Mack Brown in 2001, but his arrival to Austin was delayed by a stint in the Angels organization after the team selected him in the 6th round of the 2001 draft. Cosby's baseball experiment was short-lived as he spent just four years between rookie and Class A ball¹, and he eventually came back to the other sport he happened to be pretty damn good at.

The former two-time all-state football player and 2nd team USA Today All-American quarterback enrolled at Texas in 2005 and saw the field early at the receiver spot. At 23, he was older than his quarterback, Vince Young, and the old man pulled in 15 receptions for 270 yards and 2 TDs as a freshman, including this pretty sick catch against Kansas.

In his sophomore season of 2006, Cosby played in all 13 games, starting eight of them, upping his reception numbers to 45 while accumulating 525 yards and two TDs. He got off to a bit of a slow start, including just three catches for 22 against the Buckeyes in week two, but strung together three seven catch performances and another four catch, 101 yard effort in the Horns' last five games.

Last year, Quan took another step, starting 11 games and hauling in 60 catches for 680 yards and five touchdowns. Though he didn't really dominate any single game, he did catch 10 balls in an early season tilt with Central Florida. This season, his last at Texas, he registered an impressive 78 receptions for 952 yards and eight touchdowns. I know Texas plays pinball offense, but to put those numbers into a little bit of Buckeye perspective, the catches would put him 2nd in the Ohio State books for receptions in a season. Or, just good enough for honorable metnion All-Big 12.

Cosby had three 100-yard games this season, torching UTEP for 154 on eight and the Sooners for 122 on nine catches. He's shown the ability to bounce back from sub-par performances over the last two years, but a disturbing trend has emerged. The primary wideout under McCoy is going to get his, whether it be Sweed or Shipley, but whenever Cosby, the secondary option in each of the last two seasons, is held to three or fewer receptions in a game, the Longhorns are winless. Oh and four. Probably meaningless, but who knows.

Quite capable of burning teams in other ways, Cosby was an All-Big 12 special-teamer last year. The burner² set a Longhorn record for kick returns last season when he took 42 back for 1,017 yards including a 91 yard touchdown. His numbers dropped in that department this season as he split touches with Shipley and others on returns, but he was still good enough for 20+ a pop on kickoffs.

Against the Buckeyes, Cosby will look to do what he's done for the better part of two years now: catch balls underneath while the Longhorn offense methodically moves down the field. Chekwa will most likely be put on Cosby duty when Ohio State decides to roll man and when the Bucks show zone, he's good enough to find the pockets to keep the chains moving. One thing the Buckeyes must be aware of is Cosby's ability to break on Colt McCoy scrambles, turning what looks to be not much into a wish for someone to stab your eye out. Defensive backs be warned: the kid old dude likes to block.

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Highlights from the Cosby File (Source)
Favorite movies: Bad Boys 1 & 2
My sports hero: Deion Sanders
Favorite cartoon character: Wolverine

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¹ Cosby left baseball a .260 hitter in 340 career games.
² He was the Texas 2A state champion in both the 100m (10.46) and 200m (21.31) in 2001.

The recent trend of mediocre performances continued this week, as weather played a role in some games and other players rested for the playoffs.

Things were so bad, Donnie Nickey leads things off with his season high 5 tackles in Tennessee's 23-0 loss at Indy. Meanwhile, Gonzo mostly rested and only had 1 catch for 12 yards.

Carolina earned the 2nd seed by taking down the Saints 33-30 in New Orleans, as Chris Gamble recorded 5 tackles, raising his season total to 93. Gamble finished second in the NFL amongst corners in total stops, behind Antoine's 95, but his 83 solo tackles was tops in the league from that position.

Out on the west coast, Nate Clements helped Mike Singletary earn a job by leading the 49ers with 7 tackles in their 27-24 win over St. Louis, while Shawn Springs recorded 6 in the same game. And Matt Wilhelm chipped in with a solo tackle as San Diego beat down the Broncos 52-21 to win their division.

In New York, Ted Ginn and the Dolphins completed their incredible turnaround, earning a playoff birth with a 24-17 victory over the Jets, keeping Nick Mangold out of the playoffs. Ginn only caught two balls, but one was a 27 yard scoring strike in the first and the other was a 44 yard bomb off a fleaflicker in the third, leading to another touchdown. Speaking of the Jets though, The Gun Show had an extremely disappointing year, registering a measly 13 tackles, including 5 solo stops, the same as teammate Laveranues Coles.

From the other receivers, Jenkins lead Atlanta with 4 catches for 72 yards, helping clinch their playoff ticket, while Santonio Holmes caught 3 for 31 in Pittsburgh 31-0 pasting of the Browns.

Even though his stats may not have been eye popping and his Vikings helped knock my Bears out of the playoffs, Antoine Winfield still takes home his second (and should be third) Buckeye NFLer of the Week for his 7 tackles in Minnesota's 20-19 win over the Giants.

As mentioned 'Toine lead the NFL in total tackles amongst corners with 95 and last week was named a starter in the Pro Bowl. The Vikings will host Philly this Sunday and Winfield will get to showcase his skills nationally against McNabb and Westbrook.

The other first round games also have a little Buckeye flavor to them, as Indy faces the Chargers and Troy Smith battles Teddy Ginn in their Glenville reunion. Jenkins will perhaps get a chance to showcase his goods in front of the current Buckeyes, with a Saturday tilt in Arizona.

After letting Crater's selfish decision marinate for a day, I thought we should revisit what his departure, combined with Lighty's injury, might mean from a strategy and roster standpoint as the Buckeyes prepare for the conference opener tomorrow against Iowa.

The first question is obviously who will eat up Crater's 13 minutes per game? My first thought is Simmons takes at least five of those minutes since he's currently averaging 27 leaving another eight up for grabs.

Since we're only talking about 8-12 minutes to account for, especially in the short term, I could see Matta go big by shifting Turner to the point with Buford and Diebler on the wings with Mullens and Lauderdale down low.

I know Turner loves to turn the ball over at times but he does present some match up problems at the point and when he wasn't turning it over he proved very effective in a similar capacity during last season's NIT run. Plus, with Kecman's debut on the horizon, Matta would still have some available height options on the bench if he chose to lose Turner's rebounding while running the point for maybe one four-minute war per game.

Over time, I think Matta might look to work Offut in if he proves he can handle the point in practice. Such a move might mean a few (gulp) glimpses of P.J. Hill in the next couple weeks while Offutt learns the ropes but I wouldn't be surprised if Matta looks to see if such a move could work. Think about it, he already knows what Hill's ceiling is and that wasn't enough to get him on the floor the past year and two months so it might be wise, especially long term, to give Offutt a shot to show what he can do.

Regardless of how Matta chooses to fill the minutes left by "the best passer in the country", one strategical move should be to ditch the 2-2-1 press until it can be determined if anyone besides Turner is capable of stepping up. The bottom line is the press hasn't been that effective recently and if Matta is forced to shorten the rotation because nobody steps up to offset the depth once provided by Crater and Buford then he'll have no choice but to manage the energy level of his players seeing increased minutes.

We've seen fatigue plague Matta's short benched teams in the past and I'm particularly concerned about Buford and Mullens wearing down in their first season logging heavy minutes of major college basketball in a physical conference. Bagging the press would at least conserve some of that precious energy. We can all act baffled that 19 year old kids would get tired but it's a reality that must be managed appropriately.

Another huge key will be whether or not Kecman can help. That's a pretty big question mark considering he's a juco that nobody seems to know a whole lot about. Plus, it's highly unknown whether or not his European game will translate well to the Big Ten style of play. From what little we've seen, he looks like a guy that can score along the baseline facing the basket but he may not be all that comfortable trying to back a guy down on the block nor does he appear to be a strong rebounder. Only time will tell but how huge would it be if Kecman can help both scoring and rebounding in a reserve role?

Man. What a difference a few weeks makes. This team went from 7-0 with upsets over Notre Dame and Miami to 9-0 with an injury to the 'heart and soul' and now to 9-1 after suffering the worst loss in the Thad Matta era and the backup point guard the next day.

No wonder guys like Matta make the big bucks.

This is a tad old and we had it up in Good Shizzy, but this Wall Street Journal article about the number of great coaches that have Ohio roots gives me too much wood not to put into a full-blown post.

Ohio is a state in a deep recession, laid low by the decline of manufacturing. And yet, the Buckeye state is to college football coaching what Silicon Valley is to technology: It's where the brightest minds come from.

The interactive graphic is money as well (though Zook is from way-too-close to Columbus). Now if only some of that coaching talent could make its way to one of the state's NFL teams...

Name	Sergio Kindle
Year	Junior
Number	2
Position	LB/DPR1
Size	6-4/239

Texas linebacker Sergio Kindle gives hope to every program with a former high school all-American struggling for playing time early on in their career (slightly looking your way, Connor Smith).

After arriving in Austin accompanied by considerable (earned) hype, he was unable to crack the starting lineup his first two years and was officially in the "fighting for a starting spot" category heading into this season. Just a few short months after making life hell on opposing offenses, he's an all-Big 12 selection and one of the Longhorns the Buckeyes must account for on every snap Monday night.

Kindle matriculated to Texas after a standout career at Woodrow Wilson high school in Dallas². There, he was nothing short of dominant. Rivals thought enough of him to name him the nation's top linebacker prospect in 2005, while Texas football recruitniks considered him to be the best recruit out of the Dallas area this decade. He toted the rock on offense as well, accumulating 5,000+ yards and 86 TDs in three seasons. His senior season he earned Parade All-American, USA Today All-American, several national "ironman" awards and just for good measure, he was the only player in the state of Texas to earn all-state honors on both sides of the ball.

So, you can imagine why Longhorn fans felt some frustration when Kindle failed to make a splash on his arrival. An injury kept him out of the first couple of games of his freshman season and then he had one huge game followed by several middling efforts. Burnt Orange Nation went so far as to name him the 4th biggest disappointment of 2006 season:

Normally, disappointment is reserved for kids who've been in the program for more than one season, but the expectations surrounding Kindle were far from normal, and by all accounts, appropriately so.

Kindle was arrested for DWI the following summer and as a result, was held out of the first three games of his sophomore season. He didn't really do much to distinguish himself the rest of the season and many Horns fans were wondering if he'd exit town a bust.

Thankfully for Kindle, there's always a next year in sports and he used his next year to put on an audition for the first round of the NFL draft³. Though not quite the pure tackler that fellow linebacker Roddrick Muckelroy is, Kindle typically lined up at end and created havoc. He finished with 9 sacks and 13 TFLs on the season. The sack number is good enough for 22nd nationally and 3rd-best among listed linebackers. That, in and of itself is great, but when you consider that offenses must often first worry about Orakpo, Kindle gets scary quick.

Kindle is often substituted for on likely running downs and his run-stopping skill may be the one weakness he has right now. As a result, he's lined up more and more on the edge as the season progressed. Against the pass-happy Big 12, however, he did just fine.

Despite any perceived run-stopping weaknesses, Kindle will be a part of the group of Longhorns tasked with stopping Beanie Wells. Though he didn't see the field when the teams met in 2006, he does have experience tackling Wells. In 2006, Kindle was part of the West defense in the Army All-American Bowl that ultimately yielded three TDs to Beanie on his way to game MVP honors.

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Highlights from the Kindle File (Source)
During pregame, I like to: Listen to krunk music and bounce around
Favorite music artist: Rick Ross
Nobody knows I can: Rap

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¹ Designated Pass Rusher
² Woodrow as it is known in Dallas, is considered one of the best high schools in the city and notable alumni include two former Heisman winners in Davey O'Brien and Tim Brown. The dude that coined the term Gangster of Love also attended.
³ Kindle is most certainly and edge rusher at the next level and thought to be a first round selection. In mid-September, the word was that he was leaning towards leaving, so this very well could be his last game as a Longhorn.

With Christmas and a couple of hoops-related punches to the midsection in the rearview, it's time to start getting serious about football. As in, this Longhorn team the Buckeyes will be squaring off against a week from tonight will bring a serious amount of ass-kickage if the Buckeyes aren't ready.

A lot can change in the countdown to kickoff (Exhibit A, Exhibit B), but I think the Buckeyes will be ready. This group has taken two different approaches to the big one at the end the past two years and we all know how each approach fared.

First they tried to come out chill lackadaisical. You know, the one where you smile after throwing a pick or getting sacked. Shake it off. No big deal. It's only 41-14.

Then it was the chip-on-the-shoulder approach. The team took a custom-made dis-tape home with them for the holidays and came into the game wanting to prove the world wrong. Execute, no mistakes... MUST BE PERFECT. Only that approach didn't work out so well either as the team fought internally and mistakes did happen, with each one seemingly topping the previous.

So, I'm figuring the team triangulates emotionally and settles for a more even keel. Properly focused and intense for the task at hand, but looking to enjoy themselves in what will be the last Buckeye game for many of them (though I maintain that it wouldn't hurt if Tress got his Woody-on and dumped the Princess in favor of a place Anton Chigurh would look to settle into for a night).

Now whether that matters or not is up to Texas. There's a chance that the Buckeyes could come out and play one of their best games of the season and still not have enough for Texas if it is on as well. It would probably be one hell of a game, echoing the battle in Columbus just three years ago, but with both teams at their peaks, you have to give a slight edge to Colt over Pryor. For now, at least.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the snub effect is alive and well in college football and getting that would be great, but by no means is that guaranteed. That's why the news that Pryor and Boeckman may appear on the field at the same time was so welcome. Jeff likes some of the things you can do with the two of them out there at the same time and so do I.

Of course, this could all be disinformation (see: the Henton rumors ahead of the LSU game), but when every citizen in Los Angeles County testifies that he or she knew what the Buckeyes were going to do on each play of the USC game, you know you might have to mix it up a bit.

Free Alcohol, Drugs and Young Women Taking Off their Clothes

The New York Times has a feature up on the recruiting battle between Texas and Oklahoma for the services of defensive lineman Jamarkus McFarland. The Sooners eventually won out, but a Times reporter had access to both McFarland and his mother and we get several choice quotes. Like this one discussing a party thrown by Longhorn fans in Dallas after the win over the Sooners:

“I will never forget the excitement amongst all participants,” McFarland wrote. “Alcohol was all you can drink, money was not an option. Girls were acting wild by taking off their tops, and pulling down their pants. Girls were also romancing each other. Some guys loved every minute of the freakiness some girls demonstrated. I have never attended a party of this magnitude.”

He continued: “The attitude of the people at the party was that everyone should drink or not come to the party. Drugs were prevalent with no price attached.”

And this one:

McFarland’s mother, Kashemeyia Adams, said she received numerous offers, including one for an interest-free loan for a former classmate, if her son were to choose Texas. She said she did not believe the offers were affiliated with the Texas football staff.

As you can imagine, Longhorn fans are none too pleased and to be fair, McFarland and his mother both stated that neither of these incidents appear to have been affiliated with the Texas football staff, but that doesn't excuse this Mack Brown moment of cock-measurement:

“Whose house do you like better, Bob Stoops’s, Les Miles’s or mine?” Adams recalled Brown saying.

Don't mess, kids. Don't mess.

The Coldplay of College Linebacking

Be sure to check out Barking Carnival's breakdown of the Buckeye defense. Not only is the writing insightful and well-reasoned, but you get nuggets like this beauty:

James Laurinaitis has now received so much criticism for being overrated that he is now potentially underrated - cementing him as the Coldplay of college linebacking. Say what you will about his deficiencies - an inability to stop an OL in his tracks and shed, an absence of big hits, a last name that conjures an exotic form of halitosis - but the dude is as opportunistic as a small town hairdresser with a tit job who has spotted a divorced Corvette owner at Applebee’s happy hour.

Numerous reports indicate freshman point guard Anthony Crater will leave the OSU basketball program effective today.

Bob Baptist reports Crater was frustrated with playing time claiming Matta told him he'd be the starter once Conley was gone. Obviously, Conley left sooner than expected forcing Matta to go the juco route to provide depth.

As it turned out, Matta was forced to use Simmons as the starter so far this season mostly because he was actually capable of getting his own shot and was more game ready to this point.

I find it shocking Crater would use the "promise" excuse considering his offensive struggles led him to take exactly ONE two-point field goal attempt through 10 games. He couldn't see he was struggling enough that he shouldn't be the starter?

At this point, if he doesn't want to be here then good riddance. The bigger issue is obviously the season has completely veered off course with the loss of Lighty to injury and now Crater to woe-is-me syndrome.

We'll examine what this means more in depth later but off the top, I think we can expect to see a few things.

One, Tampa is going to get his wish because, unfortunately, P.J. Hill is likely to see at least minimal minutes, especially in the short term while Thad devises a game plan. Second, I think the Turner to point guard experiment from last season could also reappear for stretches.

What a weekend.