Eleven Warriors

Ohio State 14-6, 5-2 Big Ten Roster | Schedule

January 29, 2008 7:00 PM ET - ESPN —— Bryce Jordan Center University Park, PA

Penn State 10-9, 2-5 Big Ten Roster | Schedule

OPPONENT: The perennial punching bag otherwise known as Penn State basketball welcomes Ohio State to the Bryce Jordan Center while in the midst of a five game losing skid following two wins to start the conference season. The season officially went in the crapper with the loss of senior leader Geary Claxton to a season ending knee injury a few weeks ago in Madison after the Nittany Lions had won seven straight games albeit against shoddy competition. Ed DeChellis' squad is currently 149th in the RPI and boasts a laughable SOS of 102.

In conference, the Nittany Lions sport the 9th best offense (51 pgg) and have lost their last 4 games by an average of 19 points while shooting a league low 58% from the stripe. I'll throw them a bone and mention they lead the conference in rebounding defense at 29.0 per contest. Yay.

KEY PLAYERS: The loss of Claxton devastated the lean Lions leaving much of the heavy lifting to former Brookhaven star Jamelle Cornley. The 6'5" forward scored 15 points in last Saturday's defeat at Iowa but has his own injury woes following the aggravation of a bone bruise on his left knee. Cornley is 5th in the conference in scoring at 15.3 and 5th in rebounding at 7.1 per contest.

Besides Cornley, the Lions receive contributions from 5'11" freshman Talor Battle (8.8 ppg, 2.9 ast), 6'1" junior guard Stanley Pringle (5.7 ppg, 2.1 reb) and 6'3" junior guard Danny Morrissey (7.2 ppg), among others. Pringle led PSU with 17 in the Iowa loss while Morrissey has been held scoreless in his last two outings.

The smorgasboard of senior guard Mike Walker (5.6 ppg), 6'6" freshman forward David Jackson (5.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg) and 6'9" sophomore forward Andrew Jones (2.9 ppg, 3.9 rpg) will also see action.

NOTES: PSU almost upset the Buckeyes before falling 64-62 last year so you can expect a rowdy crowd as Penn State gets some national TV face time on ESPN's Super Tuesday...I'm not sure what's so "super" about this matchup but since Erin Andrews will be working the sidelines, I'll just assume that's the reason.

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BUCKEYE BREAKDOWN: Following last Saturday's beatdown of Minnesota, the Buckeyes hope to avoid an emotional letdown on the road against an inferior foe. Thad Matta's young squad is riding a modest two game winning streak that should swell to 5 in a row with PSU, at Iowa and Michigan on the docket before the February 10th showdown with Indiana in the Schott.

That said, inconsistency has plagued this team throughout the season meaning this will be a good measuring stick to see if this team has taken strides with regard to maturity. Good teams beat the teams their supposed to beat and the Nittany Lions are certainly in that category.

For all the individual inconsistency one constant continues to be the defense. The Buckeyes are currently 9th in the country in FG% Defense holding opponents to 37% and they rate 7th in the country committing just 14.4 personal fouls per contest.

KEY PLAYERS: Obviously, Jamar Butler is the straw that stirs the drink and the quiet leader was huge against the Gophers recording 27 points and 9 assists after reaching double figures in just 4 of the previous 6 contests. On the season, Butler leads OSU in scoring (15.0), assists (6.3) and steals (1.5) while boasting a sick 2.6/1 asst/to ratio. The handsome devil is also shooting 92.7% from the stripe and 42% from distance.

While Butler's season is not surprising, the emergence of freshman Evan Turner has turned some heads. The rangy swingman from Chicago has shown steady improvement in recent weeks and he's blown up in his last three outings averaging 17 points, 7 boards and 3 dimes per night. The decrease in turnovers has been just as impressive and he's shooting a ridiculous 61% in conference play.

Strong play from Turner and Butler has helped to offset the roller coaster ride known as David Lighty. The sophomore had recorded back to back games in double figures before the wheels fell off against Minnesota. Lighty struggled from the floor (1/5) and committed a season high 6 turnovers in a performance comparable to the aroma of hot garbage.

Freshman Kosta Koufos has been a whipping boy all season due to a style of play that's softer than your alcoholic Grandpappy's stool but he's still the Buckeyes' 2nd leading scorer at 13.7 ppg and leads the team in rebounding (6.8) and blocks (1.9) while Othello Hunter checks in at 9.4 ppg and 6.4 rpg.

Off the pine, Arctic-Jon Diebler is averaging 6.3 ppg and his shooting percentages have plummeted to hypothermic levels (28% FG, 26% 3FG drawing the ire of Buckeye Nation. Conversely, Matt Terwilliger is the talk of the nation after the Buckeyes moved to 29-1 when he pours in at least 4 points.

NOTES: Thad is 8-0 all time against PSU...Butler is averaging just 8.1 ppg in 8 games against the Nittany Lions...The Buckeyes have held every conference opponent to 39% shooting or less thus far.

The Oregonian is reporting that Portland's favorite injured superstar had to miss a 20th birthday party hosted for him at the Roseland Theater on Friday night.

The doors at Roseland Theater opened to the public at 9 o'clock Friday night, and there was a $15 cover charge for Greg Oden's birthday party. And there was alcohol served. And the promoters signed a deal with Toyota to sponsor the event.

More than 800 customers, 18 and over, were on the preliminary guest list, and there were lines of walkups.

Sounds like an amazing night. Until the agents got involved:

Oden has a team of agents who learned about the birthday party on Friday and were understandably nervous about how it was promoted. Then, his agents discovered there was a cover charge and alcohol would be served. And they saw Toyota's Scion logo on the billing, and after they finished slapping their foreheads, they called their client.

His agents clearly earned their paychecks on this one. Not to mention the deft image work they did in preventing a thousand fans from seeing their hero roll up in a Taurus.

(Via SBB)

As most of you have probably already heard, Al Davis has gone ahead and drafted first year coach Lane Kiffin's letter of resignation, cementing his legacy as bat-shit craziest owner in NFL history (what, you can't win a Super Bowl in year 1?). Kiffin, of course, is refusing to sign the letter, setting up an epic showdown between owner and coach.

What Al wants, Al usually gets, so expect Kiffin to walk out soon with a pile of cash. What do Lane Kiffin and the Raiders have to do with the Buckeyes? Not much, other than a hotshot young offensive mastermind will soon be on the market and not-so coincidentally, that was the difference between Ohio State and its last two SEC opponents.

Similar thoughts were floated when Norm Chow was cut loose from the Titans, but in o-coordinator years, he's getting up there. Ohio State needs an offensive coordinator that designs plays on a Blackberry. The Buckeyes should be looking for a guy that shows up for an interview with his NCAA playbook on memory card.

Kiffin, head of the only offense in NCAA history to field a 3,000 yard quarterback (Leinart), two 1,000 rushers (Bush and White) and a 1,000 receiver (Jarrett), would bring all that and more.

Of course, the Buckeyes are not likely to be looking and there's no saying whether a guy that's lived his entire life on the West coast would come to the Midwest, but it's fun to dream, isn't it?

We rolled out a couple of small site updates over the weekend. All without taking down the server or catching fire to anything, so we're kind of proud of that.

First up are Gravatars. This service allows you to bind an icon to your email address when it's used in comments to various blogs and message boards out there that have the service implemented. Here's an example of what one looks like.

If you haven't already done so, head over and sign up so you can bling out your comments on this site and The Big Lead, Get The Picture, RUTS and many others. At the very least this should help us all know which comments belong to the real Wil and Gatorpilot.

The other thing we did was we added 11W Lite to the widgets on the right. This will allow us to make snarky judgments on the various items of interest that we don't have the time to write a full post about. Not that we're good at being snarky. But, you know..

Hopefully you'll find them cool and/or useful, but let us know either way.

If there's one thing we're good at around here, it's procrastination. We are to getting things done on time as Reggie Germany is to taking notes in class. We're that good at it.

So good, that we're presenting our nominees for the 2007 College Football Blogger Awards on the final day of submissions.

Before we get to our nominees, we want to remind you that you can still nominate your own picks until midnight tonight.

On to the good stuff.

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BEST NEW BLOG: West By God Virginia
Only on the scene for a little over 4 months, these guys post non-stop, are insightful and extremely funny. All the makings of a great blog. Toss in the fact that they've been the blog voice of one side of a holy war and this pick becomes a no-brainer.

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BEST COMMUNITY: MGoBlog
You know what's the sign of a strong community? Racking up a near triple digit comment count on a post about stadium renovations. In April. And they're Michigan men, so you know can spell and use fancy words.

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BEST WRITING: MGoBlog
You can't begin to understand how nominating a blog representing that team pains us. But credit where credit is due. Brian's writing is the perfect mix of web-style prose, factual abundance, clever analysis and snarkiness.

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FUNNIEST BLOG: Loser With Socks
We hate the shit out of the fact that he piles on OSU and the Big Ten constantly, but there's no denying Jai's pure comedic genius. He gave the world this, and followed it up by coining "Tebow of Nazareth". Need more proof? Exhibit A, Exhibit B and Exhibit C.

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BEST ANALYSIS: Sunday Morning Quarterback
SMQ puts out better material in a week than most MSM writers put out in a year. Simply astounding. Take one of his recent posts comparing recruiting rankings to on-field success over the last 5 years. Now imagine posts like that every day of the week. The guy knows more about the Buckeyes than we do.

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BEST LOOKING BLOG: Orange and Blue Hue
We've stolen so many design ideas from these guys, it's not even funny. It's safe to say that the college football blogging community doesn't exactly live on the bleeding edge of interactive design, but a few blogs, like Orange and Blue Hue, manage to present themselves in a manner that doesn't cause retina damage.

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THE JOB AWARD: Lake The Posts
This award goes out to the blog that "has suffered through its chosen team’s dismal season with the most dignity." If that's the case, this fine Northwestern blog should automatically earn a lifetime achievement award. A lot of teams have had dismal seasons, especially so in the Big Ten. Michigan had the whole Appalachian State incident and then the Oregon beat-down. Tim Brewster waltzed into Minnesota with big talk only to see the Gophers go 1-11, but at least bloggers from those camps had hope heading into the season. To continually crank out solid work covering a team that's not going to go anywhere takes a special type of skill that Lake The Posts brings every day.

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BEST REGULAR FEATURE: MGoBlog: Upon Further Review
After every football game, Brian reviews and grades Michigan's offensive and defensive performances, essentially putting in more film study time than half of the Wolverine team. He's also not above subjecting himself to things that are not so pleasant to get the job done as seen in this review of the Michigan "Offense" vs. OSU. You know the players are reading this.

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BEST PHOTOSHOP: Loser With Socks: Tebow Wears Jorts
No comment required.

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BEST BIG TEN BLOG: Black Shoe Diaries
Despite having a strong urge to fight Malcolm Jenkins, Mike produces quality work day in and day out. He is the voice of the Penn State blogging community and is a good first choice to check out the pulse of Happy Valley. (Note: A rule preventing repeat winners kept this out of MGoBlog's hands and this was definitely the hardest pick to make because we know the Big Ten blogs so well. Other fine conference blogs include Buckeye Commentary, The M Zone, PJS, Lake The Posts, Black Heart Gold Pants, Run Up The Score and many others.)

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BEST BIG 12 BLOG: Big Red Network
This Nebraska blog is well designed, publishes insightful stuff daily and only figures to keep momentum going with the arrival of Bo Pelini. These guys were a super-close second for our nominee for "Best Looking Blog" as well.

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BEST SEC BLOG: Get The Picture
Senator Blutarsky does three things extremely well on his Georgia blog: he's topical, incredibly insightful and prolific as hell. Multiple posts a day and he's never afraid to deliver a verbal beat-down when it's warranted.

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MNC: Sunday Morning Quarterback
This being the one blog we usually read word for word, this is an easy choice. Now stop making the rest of us look so damn stupid!

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BEST NATIONAL BLOG: The Wizard of Odds
One of the few college football blogs that actually breaks (or at the very least, amplifies) news on a regular basis, the Wiz posts at a furious pace. His Reporter's Notebooks feature does all of the hard work for you by bubbling up what the beat writers are saying around the country.

The Buckeyes started strong and finished stronger exterminating the Gophers 76-60 in front of 19,049 at the Schott and another couple hundred watching on the Big Ten Network.

Looking hungry for Gopher stew, OSU jumped out to a 19-3 lead in the first 10 minutes with hot shooting (4/7 3FG) and a swarming defense that forced Minnesota into 5 turnovers and 1/15 from the floor. Tubby's crew would eventually settle in cutting the lead to 35-25 at the break.

The second half saw an increase in intensity and physical play which seemed to favor the Gophers as they used a 16-6 run to pull to 44-41 with 13 minutes left before the Buckeyes gathered themselves for the knockout blow.

Jamar Butler got it started with a short jumper from the left side before tossing a perfect lob to the High Flying Caucasian, aka Matt Terwilliger, pushing the lead to 48-42 with with 10 minutes remaining.

On the ensuing Buckeye possession, Jon Diebler missed a three (I should copyright those 5 words) but Minnesota's Travis Busch was whistled for traveling as he fell along the baseline attempting to secure the rebound from Terwilliger. Tubby proceeded to go ape shit, vehemently protesting the call on the floor near midcourt, resulting in a technical foul. It was close but my Buckeye glasses saw Busch already on his way to the deck before any contact with Terwilliger making it a tough call, but the correct one. Additionally, I'm not sure Tubby had the best view across the sideline 70 feet away.

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Regardless, Butler promptly buried both technical foul shots before the Buckeyes went on a dunking binge capped by two highlight reel efforts. First, Evan Turner made a sick behind the back pass to Jon Diebler (saving the ball from going out of bounds) for a two handed flush before Diebler returned the favor with a steal and feed to Turner for a dunk giving OSU a decisive 54-42 edge with 9 minutes to go.

The Tubby-fueled 10-1 proved to be the fatal blow as Minnesota failed to cut the lead to less than 7 scoring just 4 points over the final 4 minutes.

Butler was at his All-Conference best finishing with 27 points, 9 assists and 3 steals while Evan Turner continues to blossom into the league's 2nd best freshman. The smooth stat stuffer from Chitown went for 17 points, 8 rebounds and 4 dimes against just 2 turnovers giving him just 6 turnovers in his last 108 minutes (3 games). The Buckeyes also received 15 points, 8 boards and 3 swats from Kosta Koufos.

On the darker side of the news, David Lighty followed up back to back strong performances with a 5 point, 6 turnover stinkfest while Jon Diebler continued his struggles from the perimeter going 0/2 from deep making him 1 for his last 21 triple tries. Yikes.

What's even more frustrating is the story that Deebs hit 87/100 triples in a Thursday practice drill, including 29 in a row but he continues to look like a deer in headlights on the main stage. One has to wonder how much longer it's going to take for the games to slow down for him?

Check out From The Barn for an excellent recap from the Gopher perspective. My version's admittedly a little rough after I accidentally deleted my original last night in a drunken stupor. You know how we do it.

Ohio State 13-6, 4-2 Big Ten Roster | Schedule

January 26, 2008 8:00 PM ET —— The Schott Columbus, OH

Minnesota 12-5, 2-3 Big Ten Roster | Schedule

OPPONENT: Minnesota comes into Columbus tonight riding a two game losing streak, being defeated by Indiana and Michigan St. this past week. Two of the Gophers 3 conference losses are at the hands of the Spartans, by a total of 11 points. New coach Tubby Smith will have his boys ready to play and Ohio State needs to be ready for another high pressured defense, as Tubby preaches deflections on defense.

Minnesota is scoring more this year and is currently third in the conference with 74.4 points a game. They are fourth in shooting at 46.2 percent and rank third from 3land at 37.2 percent. As expected, the Gopher defense is improved leading the Big Ten in steals at 10.5 per game and only giving up 62.2 points.

The Gophers do hold a slight rebounding margin over their opponents, grabbing just over 37 rebounds a game and rank fifth in the conference with 12.6 of those boards coming on the offensive end. Minnesota also holds a positive assists to turnover margin at 17.2 and 14.4 respectively per game. The Gophers have forced at least 18 turnovers in each of their conference games.

KEY PLAYERS: Minnesota is an experienced bunch, who will be similar to Tennessee in terms of player rotation and minutes played. Dan Coleman (#13 6'9" Sr.), Lawrence Mckenzie (#1 6'2" Sr.), and Spencer Tollackson (#50 6'9" Sr.) lead this Gopher team in most statistical categories. Coleman is their leading scorer (13.9) and rebounder (6.4), while also leading his team in free throw percentage (80 percent) and minutes played (27.0/game). He recently became the 17th member of Minnesota's 1000 point and 500 rebound club, but is coming off a tough night against Sparty, with just 9 points and 3 boards.

Mckenzie on the other hand torched Michigan St. for a season high 20 points, connecting on 4 of 7 from downtown. On the season he is scoring 10.9 a game and is second on the team in assists (3.1/game), minutes (26.2) and 3pointers made (35). Tollackson is scoring 10.8 points a game and grabs 4.6 caroms per contest, while shooting 53 percent from the floor.

Jamal Abu-Shamala (#33 6'5" Jr.) and Lawrence Westbrook (#20 6'0" So.) should be the other two starters for the Gophers today. I think Jamal starts because of seniority, he only averages 4.6 points a game in just over 16 minutes of action. He is a dismal shooter at 35 percent and has taken over half of his shots from deep, making 12 of 38 on the year.

Westbrook is coming off a season high performance against Michigan St. with 12 points and averages 7 points a game overall. Westbrook is not a good shooter, connecting on just 41 percent of his shots.

Leading the Gophers off the bench is Blake Hoffarber (#24 6'4" Fr.), a hometown product who leads the conference in 3point shooting at fifty percent, 43-86. He is chipping in with 10.1 points a game and has made 14 of his 21 3point attempts within conference play. You may remember Blake as the kid who won an ESPY for making a game winning 18 footer from his butt during his high school state championship.

Two other Gophers will spark defensive pressure off the bench for Tubby Saturday night. Damian Johnson (#34 6'7" So.) and Al Nolen (#0 6'1" Fr.) lead this team in blocks and steals. Nolan leads the conference in steals at 2.4 per game and Johnson is sixth within the league at 1.5 blocks per game. Johnson is also second on the team in steals and third in rebounding, while chipping in with over seven points a game. Nolen won't score as much with only 5 points per contest, but his 63 assists on the season lead the Gophers and that has helped him to a 2.17 A/T ratio.

NOTES: Tubby Smith will be looking for his 400th career win Saturday (399-150), he has never coached against Ohio State... A minimum of 14 conference games will be televised on BTN for the Gophers... Minnesota's bench has outscored their opponents in 16 of 18 games this year... The Gophers lost to Ohio State last year, 67-85.

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BUCKEYE BREAKDOWN: Ohio State got back on the winning track in "breath taking" fashion on Tuesday against the Illini. The Buckeyes dominated most of the game, but their infamous scoring drought appeared again and Illinois used a late 20-8 run to get the final score closer than it should have been.

Ohio State sits fifth in the conference standings and Minnesota is going to provide a huge challenge to the Bucks tonight, but this win could propel them towards a five game winning streak. Their defense is still leading the way, as they are allowing 59.3 points a game within conference play.

Their suffocating zone is forcing teams to shoot 36 percent from the floor and 29 percent from deep in league play. Ohio State ranks tenth nationally in field goal defense and another impressive aspect is their lack of fouls, committing only 14.5 per game, also good for a top ten national ranking (9th).

Minnesota is going to bring another high intensity defense against Ohio State's often struggling offense. Chris and I have talked this week about the lack of post entry passes and set offensive plays, as compared to years past. The high pick and roll as been ineffective, as Keith pointed out this week, teams are hedging on Jamar to an extreme and they have not found a way to take advantage of it.

KEY PLAYERS: As expected, Jamar is the only Buckeye scoring in double digits since conference play started, although four other score nine or more a game. David Lighty and Evan Turner have emerged of late, combing for 61 points over the last two. We all know how much Ohio State needs this duo's continued emergence.

The best piece of evidence against the lack of post entry passes is Othello Hunter's 56.5 percent shooting (63 percent within league play), ranking him 3rd in the conference, but only scoring 9.5 points per tilt. Much has been made this week about Kosta Koufos's recent struggles and his slipping NBA stock. His scoring has dipped to 9.8 points in conference play and he is only shooting 45 percent from the floor in those games. He has 10 free throw attempts in six league games, again pointing to his softness and lack of inside looks.

I will spare any grief for Jon Diebler, P.J. Hill and Matt Turdwiggler today, as all three have slipped recently.

NOTES: Jamar Butler nows leads the nation in free throw shooting at 96 percent (46-48), he has made 31 straight... Ohio State has won 30 of their last 32 games when a player records a double double... Ohio State has won 17 straight home games against conference opponents... The Buckeyes are 49-11 when Butler has 4 or more assists.

I am one of the "lucky" few to have received the Big Ten Network since its inception, allowing me to become closer to wrestling, field hockey and gymnastics than ever before. The network itself is quite simply Big Ten overload and has some problems to fix in production, but when every event is in HD, it's hard to stay away.

If you have had the chance to watch Ohio State on the BTN, you know two things: the picture is going to be outstanding and the network would very much like you to call your local cable provider. After seeing Thad's plea to call or switch providers fifty times this season, I had to make my own plea to the Network.

While it is brief, a Zach Williams highlight appears in the OSU promos. For those of you who lack short term memory, Zach was last seen getting kicked out of a game his junior year by Jim O'B-Cheatin and transfered to Wright State to finish off his career.

I sat down and wrote a nice email to the network letting them know that trying to sell the network to a fanbase by showing a promo of player that was kicked off of the team was not, you know, the smartest thing in the world to do. To their credit they responded and said they'd look into it -- but I'm not holding out any hope.

So if you're one of the lucky dozen or so in the Columbus area to get the network, you've been warned: Ohio State's career leader in pump fakes and non-dunks that should have been would like you to call Time Warner so you can watch the team that he was dismissed from.

Loaded
This one's a little old, but Scout finalized their 2008 player rankings and Buckeye recruits are what you would call evenly distributed in their top 100:

• OT - Mike Adams (11)
• WR - DeVier Posey (15)
• C - Michael Brewster (23)
• OT - J.B. Shugarts (34)
• MLB - Etienne Sabino (39)
• DT - Garrett Goebel (51)
• TE - Jake Stoneburner (65)
• MLB - Andrew Sweat (98)

Adams, Posey, Brewster, Shugarts and Sabino all check in at 5-stars, while Goebel, Stoneburner and Sweat received 4 stars. Of course, holding down the #1 spot in the rankings is Pryor. Land him and this top three class moves into undisputed #1 territory. Oh, and 5-star guard Josh Jenkins, fresh off a visit to WVU is still lurking as well.

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Club Like Mike
Jamie Foxx Michael Wiley received some quality pub from The Other Paper recently.

Evidently in between his stunt double work for Miami Vice, he had time to launch a nightclub and it was named best new joint in Cbus. For those seeking their booty-on, "After 5" is getting good marks:

Best New Nightspot: After Five (482 S. Front St.). This bar garners top mention for possessing all of the characteristics that make a nightspot a worthy destination: crowd, aesthetics, location and libations. The bar, co-owned by former Buckeye running back Michael Wiley and his college buddy, Cameron Jackson, occupies the prime club real estate in the Brewery District formerly occupied by Gibby’s.

The bar’s unique layout includes two patios (one of which promises to be a choice live music stop come summer), and, inside, three staggered levels, including a somewhat segregated, candlelit dining room that—when there’s not a jazz or funk trio set up in it’s street-front windows—offers some privacy from the narrow, bustling bar. And all of this activity, of course, can be scoped out from the cozy third-floor loft.

Anyone have a field report?

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Urban Still Owns Tressel
Not wanting to be outdone by the Vest in the think-of-the-children-he's-recruiting-too-hard category, Urban Meyer is taking it up a notch.

First up is the news that LSU recruit Patrick Johnson had to take the written portion of the ACT again after Florida questioned his scores when he jumped from a 16 to 22.

It's safe to assume that Johnson is no Meyer fan:

"Florida made an issue about the ACT score. They're cowards. They had to go behind my back. But that's OK. We play them this year."

It gets better. He allegedly topped that by working the phones on behalf of the Gator gymnastics squad to secure a scholarship for the girlfriend of junior college recruit Carl Moore. The end result: two new Gators and more questions about how soon he's busted for something.