Current television power rankings:
- Fargo
- Better Call Saul
- The Americans
Could be persuaded into any order of those three, honestly.
ICYMI:
- Police say JaQuan Lyle, who apparently quit the basketball team on April 11, got drunk and punched a police car. Everything is fine. This is good, actually. I enjoy Buckeye basketball.
- What's next for Thad Matta's program?
- The 2015 basketball recruiting class is dust in the wind.
- Men's lacrosse beat Loyola to move to the NCAA quarterfinals.
- New NFL numbers for Buckeye rookies.
- Three-star OL Jake Kradel could figure into Ohio State's future plans at center.
- Help put a life-size statue of Woody Hayes in his hometown of Newcomerstown, Ohio.
Word of the Day: Sybarite.
LATTIMORE GETS DRAFTED. Marshon Lattimore linked up with UNINTERRUPTED, LeBron James' media company, for a video draft diary that gave a behind-the-scenes look at Lattimore's preparation for a professional career.
This is the final installment that ends with the New Orleans Saints selecting Lattimore with the 11th overall pick of the 2017 NFL Draft:
I will never tire watching families celebrate their sons, dads, brothers, nephews, cousins, etc. realize their professional dreams.
Lattimore is going to be a good one for the Saints, too. Not many greater places to be a professional athlete than New Orleans, either. (I look forward to a commenter suplexing me through a flaming table for this whimsical take.)
SPENCE EYES BREAKOUT YEAR. Some fans don't consider Noah Spence a Buckeye considering how his career ended in Columbus. I don't roll that way.
Spence served out his consequences and made it to the NFL with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Always a physical freak, Spence hopes to take his game to the next level after putting a shoulder injury behind him and losing weight.
From tampabay.org:
The great expectations for Bucs defensive end Noah Spence started last month, when Gerald McCoy said he had a "breakout year" ahead in his second NFL season. Then teammate Robert Ayers said Wednesday that Spence could be "a 15-plus sack guy," an impressive leap from his 6.5-sack rookie year.
[...]
Spence was limited by a shoulder injury much of his rookie year, wearing a harness to lessen the chance of another separation, and he had surgery after the season to repair a torn labrum. Not only will he be fully recovered for his second season, he's made major strides in conditioning as well. Spence was listed at 251 pounds last year, but said he's "240, 243" right now, and more importantly, he's dropped from 14-15 percent body fat to 9-10.
Look for big things from Spence this year. As long as he makes good decisions (easier typed than done), the only thing that can prevent him from success and a lucrative second professional contract is his health.
And yes, I will always be somewhat bitter we didn't get to see Noah Spence and Joey Bosa on the same line more often.
PAY THOSE MEN THEIR MONEY. The Big Ten paid Jim Delany $20 million this weekend, which is all well and fine. That's how America works and the B1G enjoyed unprecedented success at his tenure.
But that success came on the backs of unpaid (I use that word in the sense most workers would be mad if coupons to the company story replaced their weekly paychecks) labor.
From footballscoop.com:
At the same time, this is terrible optics for college sports at a whole in a time where the public becomes less and less accepting of the current college sports economic arrangement by the day. Can’t you see the headlines now? “69-year-old millionaire nets another $20 million, unpaid labor force still gets nothing.
Does that bother Delany? Absolutely not. This is a guy who famously bluffed he’d take the Big Ten to Division III before sharing a penny of the loot with the players. Dude does not care
Everybody knows where I stand on this issue, and I have no interest in arguing about it in the comments. My only question: Where does it end? Nick Saban will make $11 million this year. Jim Delany just cashed out $20 million. Season ticket prices ain't going down, either.
But giving players a monetary slice is an unpalatable professionalization for some people? The arbitrary drawing of that line makes you think, for sure.
Good on Delany, though. Football Scoop is right; he doesn't give a shit. As they say: Don't hate the player, hate the game.
CARTER MAKES A MOVE. If you wake up craving #hot #sports #debate, FOX Sports 1 has a new show featuring former Ohio State wide receiver Cris Carter.
From awfulannouncing.com:
FS1 is finally getting its long-awaited morning show, and a couple of familiar names will be involved. The new show, which will air weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Eastern, be based in New York, and debut Sept. 5, is called First Things First with Cris Carter and Nick Wright. Former Houston radio host Wright, who joined Fox in March 2016, but has mostly served as a guest and fill-in host for Colin Cowherd so far, while former NFL star Carter officially joined Fox in December after ESPN parted ways with him earlier last year, but has mostly been a guest on debate shows Undisputed and Speak For Yourself so far.
Judging from Facebook comments, it doesn't seem like this show will be the thing that turns around FS1's fortunes:
Our Facebook commentors who always skew cynical are definitely dumping on the newly announced FS1 morning show. https://t.co/kU5lIducpa
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 13, 2017
Hey, if this doesn't work out for Carter he will always have this, via @GoBucks2204:
Stat of the Day:
— NFL Stats (@NFL_Stats) May 13, 2017
Cris Carter is the only player in #NFL History to record a 150 yard receiving game in 3 different decades pic.twitter.com/qnCRGnJaz1
SEEMS DICKY, BUCKY. Ben Bryant, a three-star QB from La Grange, Illinois, committed to the Wisconsin Badgers in December.
As other programs are wont to do, Georgia offered the Wisconsin commit. As prospects are wont to do, he tweeted about the offer.
Bryant will no longer be a Badger.
From scout.com:
Committing to the Badgers since December, Bryant told BadgerNation that his offer was pulled by the coaching staff after posting on Twitter that he was offered a scholarship by Georgia.
“I got a call this morning from Wisconsin saying that there’s no longer a spot for me there because I posted that I got another offer,” Bryant said in a message. “Very disappointed.”
Two sides to every story, but if this is how it went down that's a monstrously dickish move from Wisconsin's staff.
Lucky for them, there's inevitably another three-star QB, which Wisconsin law apparently dictates as the only kind they can recruit, will leap at the opportunity to lose a couple Big Ten championship games under the conference's most boring coach.
THOSE WMDs. (It's great to) suck at something... China is building a Disney World for wine... Confederates of the Nile... When a Manhattan iguana needs a doctor... Mexico after El Chapo.
