Does this look like a blogger to you?Good morning Dubsketeers and welcome to this edition of your Thursday Skull Session. It certainly hasn't been great weather of late, making the lull of the "off-season" even tougher to deal with when my only escape of Major League Baseball isn't even available some nights due to postponements.
I don't know how many of you have been following the NBA Playoffs this year, but we are now in the conference finals where the Thunder is facing the Mavs and the Bulls are taking on the Heat. Buckeye fans should have lots of interest in both series, as nearly the entire state of Ohio surely has a right to root against "The Queen" (to D-Wade's King), and the Thunder's squad features two Buckeyes in Daequan Cook and Byron "artist formerly known as BJ" Mullens.
My theory on hating LeBron doesn't stem from his decision to leave an already depressed city in shambles for the next 5-10 years with their only hope coming in the big man-small man combo of Enes Kanter and Kyrie Irving in the lottery this year. It's HOW he made that decision to leave the city of Cleveland, which was totally classless and unprofessional, and that's not even taking into consideration his hour long "Decision" that toiled Dan Gilbert and the wine and gold faithful on a string for a solid 48 minutes. Finally, LeBron's inability to understand why his actions continue to leave the Cavs fans angry at him is the most puzzling of all, and probably will make him a great sociology study one day.
As for our Buckeye bretheren kicking it in OKC, I am very happy for Cook who has become a solid role player in this year's championship run, but Mullens on the other hand, I don't consider a member of the OSU family. Yes, they both spent a year in the program and had their focus solely on jumping to the "league" but there was just something about the way Mullens carried himself that made him extremely unlikeable. What are your thoughts?
Anyway, I'll stop rambling for now and bring you the event you all came here to see, today's Skull Session.
So you think you can blog? Yes, I'm talking to you Kyle Kalis. All 6 feet, 5 inches, and 305 pounds of you. The reason for my beef with Kalis, is that he apparently thinks he can take on 11W in the blogosphere. In all seriousness, Kalis will be blogging for the Sporting News this month, mainly focusing on his life as a recruit and growing up with a legacy to fulfill of his father who played in the NFL. I didn't even know Kalis's father played in the NFL, but that's certainly good to know as a Buckeye fan, being that it can only help in preparing him to deal with both on and off the field issues. Kalis seems to carry himself well and I have a good feeling he will be a special player at OSU during his time in Columbus.
Speaking of LeBron. Please just see this video if you want to laugh.
James Jackson, we hardly knew thee. The wide receiver position is thin for the Bucks this year, but one player who seemed to have no chance of playing this year despite having some tenure under his belt was James Jackson. The Michigan speedster was never able to translate his blazing 40-time to on field production and rumors circulated about a month ago that he'd be taking his talents up to Grand Valley State. While Jackson will transfer, it looks like it will be to Michigan State, rather than GVSU according to Scout.com's Allen Trieu. Thanks to Justin Boren, we know if Jackson wants to play football he will have to pay his own way per conference transfer rules. There could be one loophole though, as there are rumblings Jackson will enroll at MSU on a track scholarship, which could open the doors for him to "walk-on" to the football team. We shall see if anything comes of James Jackson, but if history is any indicator, the Spartans will be lucky to get just a kick returner out of the home state product.
From the Big Ten spring meetings. ESPN's Adam Rittenberg caught up with Gene Smith at the Big Ten meetings this week and the OSU head man voiced his support for Jim Tressel. Despite some comments last month in which it seemed Smith was not in JT's corner, he says that is not the case and his stance on his coach's future of staying in Columbus has not changed. Smith would not go further into the on-going NCAA case on the program, but it was nice to see the AD setting the record straight. Oh, also from the B1G meetings is video from John Belushi and Bo Pelini.
Everything isn't bigger in Ohio. Texas may have ventured on it's own to merge with ESPN and form a super Longhorn Network, but you won't see the Buckeyes doing that. At least not in the near future. I think a Buckeye Network could definitely work as the fan base is large enough on a national level and the interest would certainly be there from a network like ESPN, but making such a move would damage relations with the Big Ten conference. Based on how he speaks in the article, Gene Smith certainly understands this, and while we'd all love a channel in which we can see OSU programming 24/7, don't expect it to happen while the Big Ten Network is in existence. The conference's lower revenue team's need powers like OSU, Michigan, and now Nebraska to survive, so any move to effect that shared revenue would definitely strain program to conference relations. Now if there was a way to provide a Buckeye Network and still share revenue, would that be something you might be interested in Gene?
