The big news to come out of Ohio State's practice yesterday was wide receiver Jalin Marshall tearing his meniscus. He's poised to have surgery on Friday and is expected to miss 4-6 weeks.
This blow compounds an earlier MCL tear by safety Vonn Bell, but thankfully both players should be ready to go in the fall.
SIBERT CAN'T PLAY DEFENSE. You'll hear a lot about Jordan Sibert when Ohio State plays Dayton (12:15, CBS) because — I hope you are sitting down — Jordan Sibert used to play for Ohio State. (I know, it's shocking but true.)
Sibert is averaging 12 points a game this season and shooting a 44% clip from three-point range. He would have been a valuable tool for a team that struggled to score at times, but Lanzelle Smith has an idea of why Sibert didn't work out at Ohio State. From Scout's Ben Axelrod:
“You have to be able to play a certain level of defense to play on this team,” Smith said. “As well as [Sibert] has done on offense, I don’t know if he has the capability of playing the same type of caliber defense that we need.”
Asked about Sibert’s time in Columbus, Buckeyes head coach Thad Matta echoed Smith’s sentiment.
“That was probably one of the things thinking back on it,” Matta said of Sibert’s defense and decreased playing time. “Defensively back then, Sam Thompson coming in as a freshman at the end of that year was really becoming a athletic defender. We used him down the stretch for defensive purposes.”
Smith, for one, doesn't seem too impressed with Sibert's defense to this day; just something to keep an eye on in case Sibert hits a couple of three-pointers later today.
STUDENT RACE. For Ohio State football's "student appreciation practice" on April 5th, Urban Meyer wants to find out who is the fastest regular student on campus. The winner will get to race Ohio State's fastest players (like Devin Smith and Dontre Wilson) at halftime of the spring game. Here are the details, and yes, you must be an active student at Ohio State:
- Report to the Biggs Lobby of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center next Wednesday, March 26, at 5 p.m. for an informational session and preliminary rounds of testing.
- The fastest individuals who emerge from this session will compete in a series of semifinal races during our student appreciation practice on April. 5.
- The semifinals winner will then have a date one week later to race the fastest Ohio State Buckeye at halftime of the spring game.
So yeah, c'mon out, kids! Grand prize is getting humiliated by D-I athletes in front of thousands of Buckeye fans!
TORRANCE GIBSON WANTS TO PLAY WITH DAMIEN HARRIS. 2015's No. 1 Dual-Threat QB wants to play with 2015's No. 1 running back, Damien Harris:
Me and @Damien_D1Harris in the back field would be sick!!!! #NeedToMakeItHappen
— Torrance Gibson (@quick_tg6) March 18, 2014
Damien Harris seemed to be cool with that idea. Ohio State is in on both Harris and Gibson, so these tweets are probably going to elicit visions of grandeur in the minds of Ohio State fans.
I'll be watching Torrance Gibson's recruitment probably more than any other in the 2015 class. I hope Ohio State lands him ― because let's face it, the kid is electric — but it will also offer an interesting case study in how recruits handle their commitment.
These kids have earned the right to frolic in the limelight, but I'm always a tad skeptical those who seem to enjoy the limelight a little too much. Most of these kids haven't proven shit outside of being the best athlete on their high school field, and kids who drag out their recruitment generally annoy me.
Is Torrance Gibson one of those kids? I guess we'll find out soon enough.
SO IS A HOKIE LIKE AN EMBEZZLER OR WHAT? Just where does all the money ginned by big-time college football go? Apparently to the pockets of Virginia Tech's director of broadcasting and media. From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Kevin Hicks, the director of broadcasting and media, became the subject of an investigation into his private business and its possible embezzlement of money between February, 2010 and last month after an internal audit by the school revealed “suspicious activity involving (Hicks).”
[...]
In affidavits for search warrants for Hicks’ home and office filed on Feb. 26, detective E.T. Montgomery wrote that he was informed by Virginia Tech’s internal auditing department that an internal investigation had discovered that Hicks was running a private business “billing clients for broadcasting, producing and other media services of Virginia Tech sporting events as well as other interviews of Virginia Tech employees.”
Police executed the warrants later that day and searched both locations for computers, laptops, tablets and financial records, among other things, seizing nearly 40 items, according to the warrants.
Crime is all fun and games until the police kick down your door and walk out with your 40 computers. Then next thing you know you're living in an 8" x 11" cell with a broken tooth brush sharpened into a shiv under your pillow while wondering if your cellmate is actually asleep.
BYRON MULLENS GETS BUSY. King Byron Mullens, who has been in the NBA for two contracts now and has amassed millions of dollars through playing basketball, did this last night. I'm as stunned as you are:
This is Byron Mullens' world right now and we're all just living in it!
— Philadelphia 76ers (@Sixers) March 20, 2014
THOSE WMDs. The Devil and the Art Dealer... A picture of George Washington dunking on Kim Jong Un... Marvel released a bunch of concept art for its upcoming movies... Meet the most expensive dog in the world... 1995 interview with Gangster Disciples leader Larry Hoover... The Game that Saved March Madness... Life of a Police Officer: Medically and Psychologically Ruinous... #ThatDude Hulk... Why you don't drag race in school zones, idiot...
