It's the weekend. Ohio State basketball does not have a game today or tomorrow, instead focusing its energies on a Tuesday trip to Bloomington to play the league-leading Hoosiers. Chris will have a basketball feature tomorrow. You all get a Skull Session today.
Today's session won't focus on much in particular, but will lead off with a discussion of court-storming in college basketball.
WHITHER COURT-STORMING? On Thursday, the Virginia Cavaliers/Hoos staged somewhat of a mild upset of the Duke Blue Devils, knocking off the #3 team in America in Charlottesville. In celebration, Virginia's students stormed the court and the party started.
It was old hat for Mike Kyrskljdfoiowfjaslki (sp? Don't bother; don't care). Two weeks ago, Maryland beat the Blue Devils in College Park and the students partied on the court. On January 23, the Miami Hurricanes routed the Duke Blue Devils in Miami and their students stormed the court. A week and a half before that, Duke drove to North Carolina State to play the Wolfpack. Duke lost. North Carolina State students stormed the court. In wheelchairs and all.
It's almost a rite of passage in the ACC, and an accomplishment worthy of the act itself. Duke is routinely top of the league and at, or near, the top of the country when they lose conference road games. In its four road losses in the ACC this season, Duke was ranked no lower than #3 in the AP poll (the most recent loss to Virginia). Most of its opponents are unranked or are a fringe top 25 team. In short, beat Duke, and celebrate at midcourt after the final buzzer. The team and the cheering students have earned it.
Maybe because it's the fourth such occasion in the past five weeks, Mike Kjfijwefj023jfskldjfi has expressed how tiring this is. He couched his frustration of having to wade through the celebrating masses by mentioning concerns to player security (also ignoring his own poor behavior in the wake of that loss), but it's clear he's had enough of this routine.
Apparently, an unnamed athletic director in the ACC agrees:
"If they don't bring it up, I promise you I will resurrect the discussion,'' the AD said.
In short, this unnamed athletic director, as well as Duke's head basketball coach (I imagine), would like something akin to the SEC's rule. In 2004, the SEC introduced a fine hierarchy to court-storming in basketball, and pitch-storming in football. The first "offense" is a $5,000 fine for the home athletic department. It builds for each additional offense.
Thus, the SEC passes the buck to the individual athletic department, which ensures compliance with the rule because the athletic department would bear the cost. After observing this, the ACC brought up the issue internally and though of implementing a similar system. There was no support for it at the time, and the issue eventually lost traction. The blue bloods in the ACC, who are routinely on the receiving end of these court-stormings, would like the issue to be revisited.
My stance on this is a simple one. Court-storming (and pitch-storming in football) distinguishes the rigid banalities of professional sports from the chaotic bliss of the "amateur" game. It should be celebrated as unique about college sports. Concerns for player safety miss the point. No one storms the court because they want to stab the other team's star basketball player, or melee the opposing head coach. Expressed in social identity theory language, it's a case of in-group positive distinction and not one of out-group hostilities. Leave it at that.
But alas, I'm still in my vicenarian years for another year or so and clinging to my youth. I wouldn't consider myself a blue blood who feels like everyone else should "act like they've been there before".
If you're curious about who was the last team to beat Duke at home and not storm the court in celebration? It was Ohio State in 2011 in their ACC/B1G TEN Challenge game. Go Bucks.
THE "CATHOLIC 7" ARE TAKING THE BIG EAST NAME WITH THEM. This one threw me for a loop. We have known for some time that the non-football-playing programs in the Big East, which all happen to be private Catholic institutions of higher learning, were reticent about the direction of the Big East amid the ongoing realignment of college sports around college football.
Uncertain of the Big East's future and realignment strategies to promote football over basketball, these seven schools — DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall and Villanova — were wanting to form their own sports league and move all their sports there. It would essentially be West Coast Conference for Catholic schools east of the Mississippi River. This we knew.
Over the past few days, though, we learned that not only were these seven schools leaving to start their own sports league next year, but they might actually take the name of the Big East with them. This is mildly fascinating, as it leaves the football remnant of the future Big East — and God knows what that conference looks like now or tomorrow — to search for a new brand and a new identity.
This is amid a changing landscape of college football where your lay consumer may not even recall who is in the conference, but may not be able to link that association with the "Big (L)East" brand it would no longer own.
While fascinating to that extent, it's also a bit disappointing. I was kind of hoping the "Catholic 7" would just take that name with them and call their conference "Catholic 7". With this group courting Butler and Xavier to jump ship from the A-10, the conference could be renamed "Catholic 9" for all I care. As long as the "Catholic" qualifier is retained, the conference could be whatever integer it found useful.
In related news, Notre Dame is thinking about joining the new "Big East" next year, leaving the old Big East a year early. It may also negotiate early entry into the ACC, its future home.
Illinois couldn't handle Ashley Adams on Thursday.WOMEN'S BASKETBALL UPDATE. While Ohio State fans watched nervously as the men's team put away Northwestern in Evanston, the women's team was playing two and half hours south on I-57 in Champaign against the Fighting Illini. As Grant told you yesterday, the Lady Buckeyes won on Illinois' senior night, winning only its fourth road game of the entire season.
The Buckeyes were led by the familiar names of Tayler Hill and Ashley Adams. Hill finished with a team-high 21 points, scoring 18 of them in the second half. With only three points in the first half for Ohio State's best player, the Buckeyes nevertheless had a 5-point lead at intermission. Unlike past games, where Ohio State has squandered leads, the Buckeyes played only better in the second period. The team left Champaign with only its sixth conference win.
Tayler Hill led the Buckeyes, but Ashley Adams was needed to get points inside. Ohio State's bruising center finished 17 points on 7/12 shooting. She also grabbed ten points and had four blocks.
Ohio State's regular season concludes tomorrow with senior night in Value City Arena against Michigan. You should go to that. Michigan will enter the game as favorites, sitting right now at fourth in the B1G TEN behind Penn State, Nebraska, and Michigan State. A win for the Wolverines at Columbus, with a Michigan State loss, would be the difference of seeding for Michigan. It could jump from a 4 seed to a 3 seed in the upcoming B1G TEN Tournament.
A win for Ohio State could jump the Buckeyes from a 9 seed to an 8 seed in that same tournament, but beating Michigan is what matters.
Seriously, Ohio State students, you should go to the game.
MISCELLANY (AKA, ALL COLLEGE ATHLETICS ARE DRUNK). Go home Arizona State; you're drunk... go home Adidas schools; you're drunk... go home Michigan State; you're drunk... go home Alabama and Louisiana State; you're drunk and that's creepy... go home NCAA; you're drunk. Everyone go home; you're all drunk. I'm calling you all a cab.
