Eleven Warriors

Mizzou runs better than OSU

If there was any doubt after the past two BCS Championships and Rose Bowls, the Big Ten is now officially a slow conference.

At least according to Illini linebacker Martez Wilson. The Tribune caught up with the sophomore linebacker at spring camp and he dropped the following bomb on his conference mates:

"I chose not to redshirt. I told them I'd work hard and get as much playing time as possible. I got a starting spot on special teams as a gunner, and it helped me a lot to adjust to the speed. Some teams were very fast."

Such as the first and last teams the Illini played last season, he said.

"The fastest games I played were Missouri and USC," he said.

Now, I'd prefer a guy with more than 2 tackles against the Buckeyes be the one to evaluate their team speed, but the Illini have scoreboard on us, so what is there to say.

Then again, how fast does a guy need to be when he can stiff-arm you two feet into the turf?

(Via the FanHouse)

One and done?

Buckeyes Finish 35th in Final Coaches Poll Not exactly what I had in mind heading into the season but strides were made down the stretch. The extra games and practice time can only help what will be an even younger squad next fall. Assuming Koufos bolts for the NBA or Greece with Butler, Hunter and Wiggler already history, three starting jobs and four of the top seven spots in the rotation would be up for grabs.

That sets up next year's squad to be even younger than the '08 group as Anthony Crater, William Buford and BJ Mullens enter the fold expecting to see immediate action alongside a slew of soph's in Turner, Lauderdale, Diebler and Wallace.

Somewhat scarily, Lighty will be the elder statesman on the squad. Hill and Madsen will also be juniors but they won't provide any on court leadership from their seats on the sideline. You know Matta's gonna challenge Lighty to polish his game and leadership ability over the summer and I expect Turner to be the #2 in that regard.

OSU: Scholarship Hit Appears Likely As stated in previous reports, it now appears certain the Basketball Buckeyes will be forced to give up a scholarship for a year due to a below 925 Academic Progress Report (APR) score.

Ohio State created an academic improvement plan and mailed it to the NCAA along with a dozen no-bake cookies and two Asian strippers in hopes the Evil Empire will choose not to invoke a penalty.

Though many will point a finger in Oden's direction for pulling the infamous O'fer 2 (leaving during a term and being ineligle for next season at time of withdrawal) Bob Baptist noted the four year rolling score was also hurt by the early adios' from five players though Conley and Cook are said to not have hurt the APR score since they finished spring quarter before taking their skills to the NBA.

Hopefully, Koufos won't follow in Oden's footsteps with his own O'fer 2.

Look, coming up with questions for polls is no easy task. Sometimes the questions come right to you, but other times you have to think about it for at least 10 seconds. That's why we don't want to pile on the WWL too hard for this poll they put up recently:

I know they have Butch and the ACC is the ACC, but come on. That's a 94% fail ratio.

Since you guys had fun with the last two Woody caption contests, I thought it was time for another.

No ladies on each arm this time around but I'm sure you'll make do.

As usual, the winner receives only the props of fellow readers. We already give up more booty than Dashiki. In that vein, I'll start it off - "Hey, Arch...smell my finger!"

Not a gentleman

It's been a couple of days since Tressel's "only between gentlemen" comment about whether there was a gentleman's agreement in the conference when it comes to recruiting. I personally think it was the Vest just trying to be clever and not really a dig at Rodriguez, and those in the Wolverine community seem to agree for the most part.

Well, the comment finally made its way back to Ann Arbor:

"Huh well, maybe I'm not a gentleman," Rodriguez said. "I never heard of that (gentlemen's agreement). In that regard, I would be guilty as charged. I know as soon as I took the job, there was a commitment to the University of Michigan who changed his commit and went to another Big Ten school. I didn't blame the coach for doing that. Until the guy signs, he's out there, particularly if he visits.

"If the young man is committed to your school, yet he's still visiting other schools, he's not truly committed; he's just very, very interested. You have to understand the difference in that. I've been doing this a long time, (and) I never heard of such a thing. I don't get caught up in all the he said, she said. One thing I've had to learn to develop, thick skin over the years as head coach. I'm proud of the way we recruit. We certainly aren't going to break any NCAA rules when we recruit. As far as a gentlemen's agreement, I've never heard of such a thing."

As I mentioned when the whole Tiller/Rodriguez issue first blew up, there might have been a gentlemen's agreement back in the day, but not in this era of text messages and bulk email applications.

At any rate, it's good to see that The Rivalry won't miss a beat -- even in this transition season. As much as I hate to admit it, I like the way Rodriguez handled that. Could you imagine Carr saying anything other than "I'm not going to get into that," and declaring the interview over before storming out of the room?

News out of camp has Eugene Clifford making the switch to safety. Clifford, you may recall, may have or may not have run into a little trouble with the tree last season and was subsequently suspended for the LSU game. Here's to fresh starts.

In other secondary news, linebackers Jermale Hines and Tyler Moeller are getting looks at strong safety as the staff experiments with ways to stop the spread. The thought of putting a little more size at the position is intriguing and it put a smile on my face knowing that Tressel was game-planning for Michigan in April.

Continuing their excellent series, Better Know a Buckeye, Vico and the guys at Our Honor Defend present the complete Mike Adams story. I have to check Wikipedia for the parting of the Red Sea story, but I'm pretty sure it's true.

I'm a little late on this but as most of you know, Dan Potokar headed to Indianapolis a few weeks ago to undergo extremely intensive treatment for cancer. Based on comments from the family there's no guarantee he will even survive the 6-8 week treatment.

To help with expenses, Ohio State has set up a fund so Buckeye fans can show just how much they care about every player, not just the stars.

The 11W crew will be making a donation and we urge you to do the same. Donations can be made through Ohio State and a Bowl-A-Thon is also set up for April 26 at Grove City Lanes.

While I'm at it, though not Buckeye related, I would also like to urge everyone to consider giving to The Nationwide Children's Hospital Heart Center (P.O. Box 16810 Columbus, OH 43272) in the name of Jackson Brown.

Jackson was laid to rest Monday after battling through two heart transplants in 3.5 months in addition to reminding folks like me what's really important in life. God Bless Jackson and his incredible parents.

Huh?

As we were all out enjoying the first wave of warm weather this past weekend, some bad news hit when it was announced that Mike Adams had sustained a shoulder injury and would require surgery.

Considering fellow Brew Crew mate Michael Brewster is himself recovering from shoulder surgery, the "Crew" isn't exactly off to a hot start. Meanwhile, A.J. Soprano J.B. Shugarts, the third member of the group, is expected to compete with Bryant Browning for the right tackle spot vacated by Barton, so at least they have that going for them.

A lot of Buckeye fans are understandably disappointed as most had visions of Orlando the 2nd dancing in their heads. But the two positives out of this are: (1) the injury appears to be minor and (2) this edition of the team is so deep that they don't need Adams playing a full season to get to where they want to go.

Bollman indicated that had the injury occurred during the regular season, it's likely something a guy plays through, but the timing gave the staff time to get him right, so if he does make it back early enough in the season, he's good. He was also smart enough not to get locked into picking a date when Adams may see the field again.

I expect we'll all know a little more about the situation once August rolls around. Until then, all we can do is debate the merits of rushing him back too soon, redshirts, grayshirts and other vital matters.

Finally, a lot of chatter about Beanie telling some of the beat guys that he was going to be a Buckeye for four years. Gordon's not biting on it -- and neither are we. NFL GMs love guys that run like the love child of Eric Dickerson and Bo Jackson, and last I checked, making a million dollars was a little more fun than sitting through class.

To that end, we're creating the 11W Beanie Wells Challenge™. If you really believe that Wells will be a Buckeye for four years, go ahead and leave your thoughts about it in the comments. The first three that wax poetic about this possibility will get a chance to run this blog for the entire weekend of the 2009 NFL draft.

Mangino photo excuse

Normally, we wouldn't have a dog in tomorrow night's national championship game. If a Big Ten team were playing, we'd probably be pulling for them, but when two great neutral teams square off, we just hope to get a good game out of it.

This year, however, we'll be pulling for the Kansas. It's not because Self spent some time in the Big Ten or the fact that we think Calipari may run a loose ship (although we do). It's because the 11W Steak Knives competition is down to the final two entries and the entry with Kansas winning it all is named "Beat Michagain".

This is also not to say that the Memphis-backing TerrellePryor's Left Pinky entry isn't wonderfully named, because it is. But this is Buckeye country and beating Michigan trumps all else, right? Besides, can you feel the synergy?

In an unrelated note, a small shoutout to Sparty for partying so hard, it took police in riot gear firing tear gas to break them up. With skills like that, you're welcome in Columbus anytime.

UPDATE: As the astute commenters have pointed out below, I'm evidently not that great at the bracket math. The Beat Michigain entry is still in first place, but has Memphis winning it all. So I guess we're all Memphis fans now and please ignore the title of this post. The Angsman1 entry will win it all if the Jayhawks win tomorrow night.

MOP Kosta Koufos paced Ohio State with 22 points, 20 in the second half, as the Buckeyes placed four in double figures on their way to the first postseason championship in the 11W era, a 92-85 victory to claim the 2008 NIT Title.

Sure, it wasn't the NCAA's but it doesn't change the fact the Buckeyes will be one of two teams to end the postseason with a win which will no doubt serve as a springboard to 2009.

The Buckeyes trailed by 10 after an 8-0 run put UMass up front 37-27 with 3:35 left in the half but the Buckeyes used a 20-6 blitz over the next 7 minutes to take a 47-43 lead just 2:39 into the second half effectively seizing control of momentum and a lead they would never relinquish.

UMass managed to tie it at 68 after after Ricky Harris' 6th of 7 triples with 3:45 on the clock but Koufos would score the next 7 points for OSU before Evan Turner sealed it converting 4/6 at the stripe with UMass forced to foul.

Turner was a beast notching 20 points, 6 boards, 4 assists and 3 steals while giving fans a glimpse of next season when he starts and/or logs heavy minutes running the point. The boxscore credited him with 8 turnovers but I must have had too many Labatt's because I thought the number was only half that. Regardless, the kid is a future star and if Crater can't handle the point I truly think Turner can with a summer focused on nothing but ball handling and decision making. He's the goods. Period.

Sporting the gray #14 for the last time, Jamar Butler recorded 19 points (8/12 FG) and 8 dimes boosting his school record totals in assists (580), three pointers (242) as well as threes in a season (104). It was a roller coaster ride for the senior from Lima this season but he leaves with 105 career wins and his legacy firmly intact. Hats off to one hell of a gritty performer. He never evolved into the vocal leader this team craved but I think his career production speaks for itself.

Also in his swan song appearance, Othello Hunter capped his career with 17 points (7/11 FG), 9 boards and 3 blocks. It was Hunter's triple, his second of the season, that capped the aforementioned 20-6 run ensuring UMass would never again have the lead. His 13 second half points were large and his athleticism will certainly be missed.

The Buckeyes overcame a 41-36 halftime deficit by shooting a scorching 61% in the second half (19/31) while holding UMass to 35% (17/49). The markmanship was sorely needed as OSU was pistol whipped on the glass surrendering 30 offensive rebounds and 21 second chance points.

And while I'm feeling frisky, I'm still convinced Jon Diebler is nothing more than a reserve spot up shooter who will likely find himself behind David Lighty, Turner and Buford in the rotation next season. He received a pretty strong defense from some folks in the comments after his 10 points against Dayton but he responded with 0 points and 6 rebounds in the last two contests returning to his 'the-game's-too-fast-for-me' form. Sorry, not trying to hate. I desperately want him to prove me wrong - I just don't see him being anything more than a 3 point shooter but I'll take that considering the talent we'll have on the perimeter next season.

Anyway, props to Thad Matta and company for regrouping after losing 6 of 8 in February (2/2 - 3/1, actually) to win 6 of the last 7 en route to an NIT championship and a solid 24-13 record after losing Greg Oden, Mike Conley, Daequan Cook, Ron Lewis and Ivan Harris from last year's squad.

With newcomers BJ Mullens, William Buford and Anthony Crater set to play impact minutes alongside (hopefully) Koufos, Lighty, Turner, Dallas Lauderdale and Diebler plus the unknown quantity that is Bad-Knees Offut and maybe some kid named Pryor, the 2009 Buckeyes are set to make some noise.

Ohio State 23-13, 10-8 Big Ten Roster | Schedule

April 3, 2008 7:00 PM ET - ESPN —— The Garden New York, NY

UMass 25-10, 10-6 A-10 Roster | Schedule

OPPONENT: UMass comes into the NIT finals as a fairly hot team, winning 10 of their last 11 games. They have come back from double digit deficits in 3 of their 4 tournament games, including a 22 pointer at Syracuse. The Minutemen are coached by Travis Ford, one of the sexiest names for open coaching positions around the country and a former bomber from Pitino's days at Kentucky.

UMass likes an up-tempo style of play and that is reflected in their 81.4 points per game. They are not the best shooting team OSU has faced this year, connecting on just 44 percent overall, 35.6 percent from deep and 67 percent from the charity stripe. They do make over 9 threeballs per contest and dish out 15.6 assists, but get outrebounded by -1.6 and turn it over 13.5 times a game. I did not see them play Florida, but I expect to see a helter skelter defense, evident from their 7.4 steals and 7.5 blocks per contest.

KEY PLAYERS: Four of UMass's five starters are New York natives, so there will be more than the 237 people who watched Ohio State's semi-final game, but they don't seem to be a very deep team. Gary Forbes, a 6'7" senior from Brooklyn, leads this team in scoring (19.5) and rebounding (7.6). Forbes doesn't appear to be the "best" shooter, connecting on only 41 percent overall and 30 percent from deep, but he has attempted 551 shots and 236 free throws.

Ricky Harris, a 6'2" sophomore, comes in scoring 18 points a game and has attempted 266 three pointers. He connects on almost 37 percent of his bombs, but only averages 2.5 boards and 1.7 assists. Etienne Brower is a 6'8" senior who is second on the team with 6.7 rebounds and third with 12.5 points. He too likes the threeball, taking 182 of his 306 shots from there and making 43 percent of them.

Chris Lowe is a 6'0" junior who is the other member to average over 30 minutes a game, he comes in averaging 11.9 points and a team leading 6.2 assists. Dante Milligan is a 6'9" senior who hails from NYC. On the season he is averaging 9 points and 5.8 rebounds in only 19 minutes of play, but may sense his career ending as he went for 30 points and 23 rebounds in his last two. No one else on their team seems worthy of my time.

NOTES: This is the first post season tournament final for UMass... The Minutemen went just over 10 minutes without a FG against Floridia... Travis Ford is rumored to be leaving for LSU after the game... The best wins for UMass this season are Syracuse twice and Dayton...

BUCKEYE BREAKDOWN: I have said from the beginning I liked the NIT bid. That sentiment has spread quickly throughout Buckeye Nation, as we have watched this team put on a display of hoops we have not seen all year and I have no doubt this is a spring board for next year. Can you hear all the haters though when we win this championship? Fuck 'em, it's been fun.

Ohio State has shot 51 percent in this tournament, an obvious by-product of extra practice time and have scored more than 70 points in four straight for the first time all season. Their defense has been suffocating leading to 23 blocks, 34 steals and a 14.5 point winning margin, while holding teams to 43.2 percent shooting.

Four Buckeyes are still averaging in double figures lead by Jamar's 17.5 and Kosta's 17.3, followed by D-Light's 11.5 and Othello's 10.3 points. O-Hunter also leads Ohio State with 7.5 rebounds a game, while Koufos is grabbing five and a half. Turner may have had his best game of the season Tuesday with 17 points, 8 boards, 5 assists and 4 steals. That game pushed his tourney average to 8.3 points a game and his 10 steals matches Lighty for the team lead.

NOTES: Koufos is shooting 70 percent (32-46) for the tournament... This is the third NIT finals for OSU, beating Wyoming in 1986 and losing to UConn in 1988... Ohio State's 58 wins over the last two seasons are the most in consecutive seasons, as are the 75 games played... Matta is 12-6 in the NCAA and 4-0 in the NIT...