Here is a list of all the players who have faxed in their letter to OSU today, as well as some of the players we are waiting on (decisions in italic at the bottom). Continue to check as we update the list as the faxes come in and feel free to discuss here or in the open thread below
UPDATE:Word is Morgan Moses will sign with UVA. (This may have to do with OSU wanting to see if he would be eligible, while Virginia willing to take his LOI today)
UPDATE: Seantrel Henderson is announcing at 5:30 ET and it is expected to be USC. Stay tuned for the announcement.
Chances are, by the time you read this, the first letter of intent will have screeched its way onto Woody Hayes Drive. Whether it’s from Jamel Turner, the first commit of the class, or one of the 17 other young men that have agreed to spend the next handful of years in Columbus is unknown, but as Dominic Clarke’s early morning submission from a year ago proves, some kids just can’t wait to become Buckeyes.
There are certainly two and possibly as many as four slots still open in the class and all that’s really left is to see who fills them. Two big fish will make their decisions today and if all goes well, they will push the class to 20. St. X’s Matt James will pick between Ohio State and Notre Dame when he announces at 11:45. Later, we’ll find out whether everybody’s number one, Seantrel Henderson, will be attending Ohio State, USC or perhaps another school when he makes his decision live on Tom Lemming’s Generation NEXT on CBS Sports at 5pm.
I can find an “expert” or “insider” that has each of these guys going to every single school on their final list, but I personally think Tressel gets James while Henderson breaks for the Trojans. I’d love to be wrong about Henderson, but indicators are starting to point west for the mammoth tackle.
We’ll keep this one short and sweet today, as the workday topic du jour will be the 2010 football recruiting class and not the 0-9 Nittany Lions coming to town Wednesday night.
The Buckeyes are looking for their 6th straight conference win and to keep pace with Wisconsin, who blew out Michigan State at home on Tuesday.
To offset the level of competition, the University will honor the Big Ten and Rose Bowl Champion football team at halftime. Hopefully the gridiron squad has as much influence on the hoopsters as the 1960 squad did on Sunday.
#
Name
PTS
REB
ASST
POS
#
Name
PTS
REB
ASST
21
Evan Turner
18.4
9.5
5.7
G
12
Talor Battle
18.8
5.3
3.6
33
Jon Diebler
13.3
3.0
1.8
G
15
David Jackson
8.6
4.5
1.2
44
William Buford
14.0
5.1
3.2
F
11
Bill Edwards
5.7
4.4
1.5
23
David Lighty
12.9
4.7
2.9
F
10
Chris Babb
8.2
3.7
2.0
52
Dallas Lauderdale
7.4
5.1
0.3
C
54
Andrew Ott
4.0
2.3
0.2
Opponent
Penn State comes in scoring 59.2 points a game in conference play, on 41 percent shooting overall and 30.9 from deep. On defense, they give up 68 points on 46 percent overall and 38.3 from 3-land. As expected, all those numbers rank towards the bottom of the Big Ten. On the plus side, PSU has done a decent job of cleaning the glass in league play, ranking second in rebounding margin at +3.8.
Coach Ed DeChellis will rotate 9-10 guys in, but he primarily uses 8 players, all of which have starting experience this season. Jeff Brooks, Andrew Jones III and Tim Frazier will lead the way off the bench, each logging about 17-18 minutes of play. Brooks is PSU’s fourth leading scorer at 7 points, Jones is second with 4.9 boards and Frazier is second with 2.5 dimes per contest.
Stay tuned to 11W through tomorrow as we (try to) bring you the latest on Seantrel Henderson and Matt James, as well as give you news of the committed players as their faxes come in. It seems now that Morgan Moses and Latwan Anderson will wait until after NLOID to announce, but we could have a very good reason to celebrate tomorrow if the other two come our way.
While we await the final decisions of the last three or four prospects the Buckeyes are looking to hear from, we can at least be happy about the players we already have verbally committed in this class of 2010.
One of those players is Bradley Roby, a recent addition for this class, and certainly one that will fill a spot of need. Roby, who was originally verbaled to Vanderbilt as a wide receiver, will play corner back for the Buckeyes after taking an official visit to Columbus in early January and announcing his decision to switch his commitment to the Scarlet and Gray shortly thereafter.
We were able to catch up with the Peach State speedster recently and discussed with him his relationship with Cameron Heyward, what the process was of switching from Vanderbilt to OSU was like, what he needs to work on before making it to campus, and more.
So now that your recruitment is wrapped up, how does it feel to be a Buckeye?
It feels great that it is finally over. It’s exciting because I have always dreamed of playing big time college football ever since I was little and now its finally here. I love Ohio State and being a Buckeye feels great
You seemed to be very honest with the Vandy staff the whole way. Can you walk us through your recruitment process with them and how you ended up at Ohio State? How did Coach Johnson and the staff take the news?
Well during the Christmas Break I called the Vandy coaches and told them that I was de-committing. It was hard to hear the disappointment in his [Coach Johnson’s] voice but it was something I had to do for me. They told me that I was one of their prized recruits and that they had plans to use me in certain ways but in the end, I felt Ohio State was a better fit for me.
Risk factors for heart disease: age, heredity, stress… (Photo by sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
As the “temporary leave” taken by Connecticut men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun lingers on, and questions remain about the return of Florida football coach Urban Meyer from his own “indefinite leave of absence“, sports fans might be starting to wonder if or when their favorite coach might end up in the same boat.
Calhoun is no stranger to health problems, as he recently emerged victorious from his third bout with cancer. The most recent issue is said to be “stress-related”, but the fact that his father died of a heart attack when he was 15 probably causes him to be more cautious with these types of issues than most. As for Meyer, he has suffered for years from headaches caused by an arachnoid cyst, and his trip to the hospital to treat dehydration following the SEC championship game was brought on by a lifestyle that Meyer admits is “self-destructive“.
It is well known that coaching a big-time college football team can be highly stressful. At a place like Ohio State, the pressure from alumni and fans of the program magnifies the perception of success or failure. Having a storied history and a winning tradition makes recruiting easier, but it also means that the expectations are high and every loss can be the cause of sleepless nights and meetings with the AD. Jim Tressel is already older than his father Lee Tressel was when he died of lung cancer. The younger Tressel seems to take pretty good care of himself, but the 16-hour days and endless recruiting season takes its toll.
Ohio State is mostly known as a football school, and so the pressure on Tressel will be heavier than what basketball coach Thad Matta deals with. But coaching basketball has an extra element of stress because the coach is expected to “work the officials” in addition to calling time-outs and drawing up plays. Officiating is much more critical to success in basketball and being on the wrong side of it in any given game can be the difference between victory and defeat. Coach Matta is known to get pretty animated on the sidelines, which will no doubt take its toll if repeated over time.
So what do you think? Are you concerned about the health of your favorite coaches? The case of Meyer is especially troubling to me, since he and I are the same age. Is it possible that we (i.e. fans and obsessive bloggers) are driving these guys to an early grave?
It was a busy senior season for Jim Cordle. He raised $18,000 for the Special Olympics in July, started the season at tackle before going down for a few weeks due to an ankle injury, returned as a utility guy that played everywhere on the line and finished strong with his mates by winning the Jim Parker Award.
After returning from the East-West Shrine game, he was gracious enough to answer a few of our questions.
Were you surprised at all when the pass-heavy gameplan was introduced ahead of the Rose Bowl matchup with the Ducks?
I was surprised at first and part of the surprise was the timing of when we learned the game plan. Coach Bollman told us in our final meeting before the game that we were going to come out throwing the ball. Obviously a good call by the coaches and even better execution by our skill guys. We linemen knew that we could always rely on the run if we had to and were confident in everyone else.
We’ve often heard Coach Tressel will show a little emotion within the confines of the locker room. How true is that?
Coach Tressel is a very emotion driven coach. He stays within the “Senator Tressel” swagger but I always tell people that you can see his fire in his eyes. He lets us in on his frustrations at times and uses them to motivate in a speech.
Looking to impress Knight, Havlicek and the rest of the 1960 national championship squad being honored at halftime, the current crop of Buckeyes rode scorching shooting to flame Minnesota 85-63 this afternoon in the Schott.
Once again flashing superior ball movement, the Buckeyes shot 73% in the first half, hit 15 of 17 shots during one stretch overlapping the halves and shot 63% for the game as they won their fifth straight conference tilt allowing them to move into a 2nd place tie (6-3) with Wisconsin, Illinois and likely Purdue as they entertain lowly Penn State at 3pm.
Ohio State jumped on Minnesota right from the start handling the trap much better than the first meeting triggering countless wide open looks at the rim. A balanced attack fueled a 15-4 run turning a 27-22 lead into a 42-26 bulge with 2:17 left in the half with Wil Buford scoring eight and David Lighty four. Evan Turner closed out the half with two buckets and an assist on a Jon Diebler three to give OSU a healthy 49-35 cushion at intermission.
The white hot first half attack saw Turner score 15 on 7/9 shooting with Buford adding 13 on 5/7 and Diebler chipping in 13 of his own on 3/5 from the floor. Turner and Diebler also had two steals apiece as OSU posted a 15-6 points off turnovers edge.
Impressively, the Buckeyes came out of the locker room with designs on burying the Gophers peeling off a 17-2 run giving them an insurmountable 68-41 lead with with 13:27 to play. Tubby’s boys would get no closer than 18 the rest of the way as the Buckeyes coasted to a lopsided victory.
