Knock, knock. Guess who brought the goons home?
Oh yeah, my bones needed a week of diabolical things like drinking unfiltered glacial runoff, encountering more grizzly and black bears than cops, and dipping french fries into vats of gravy. I don't even like gravy, but my legs look like Secretariat's now.
Early June seemed an opportunistic lull to visit the Canadian Rockies. And then I checked elevenwarriorsdotcom at Bear Street Tavern in Banff (yes, I took my phone due to my poxed brain) to see Ohio State fired Thad Matta three months after it should've fired Thad Matta.
The next time I got wifi, people were ready to self-immolate in Gene Smith's office over a potential hire (Buckeye Nation watched more Creighton games last year than I expected) before it switched to good with the hiring of Butler's Chris Holtmann.
This is on top of Ohio State hosting a recruiting camp and the commitment of three- (soon to be four-) star RB Master Teague.
And don't forget the return of the rotational Skully, which everyone from Tim to Chris killed. You might say, "I wish y'all would go back to that."
Yeah, buddy, you and me both.
But if anybody wants to muscle into my territory, they're going to have to earn it just like I did: With a fortuitous mixture of a fear of homelessness and a 24/7 smorgasbord of mental illness.
P.S. The Golden State Warriors better pray LarBon Jim and the Cleveland Cavaliers don't cancel the fifth Warriors title celebration in a row tonight in Oakland at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
If Cavs win, they're winning the series. Everyone from Joe Lacob to Matt Barnes knows it, too. If it goes to seven, I'm taking the day before, the day of, and the day after off work.
If the Buckeyes and the Browns hit the treble in 2018, I'm stripping naked and walking into Lake Erie because I beat life at age 30 and the rest of the game would bore me.
ICYMI:
- The impact of Teague's commitment to the Supreme '18.
- Urban Meyer spoke about ownership to recruits.
- Butler assistant Mike Schrage joins his old boss' new staff, as expected.
- Help put a life-size statue of Woody Hayes in his hometown of Newcomerstown, Ohio.
Word of the Day: Snaffle.
MEET THE NEW GUY. Buckeye fans get their first official look at new men's basketball coach Chris Holtmann today when Gene Smith will introduce him at a press conference at 11 a.m. ET.
OhioStateBuckeyes.com has your stream, and follow 11W, Tim Shoemaker, Eric Seger, and Andrew Lind on Twitter for up-to-the-minute analysis and photos from the Schott.
A full recap will stream on the home page starting seconds after its conclusion.
ADVICE FROM OLD GUARD. It won't directly matter on the court, but it will be interesting to see how Holtmann bridges the new culture with former players, especially those coached by the ousted Matta.
Those relationships will be built over time, but for now, Scoonie Penn and Jon Diebler offer advice to the guy who coached Gardner-Webb four years ago.
From Adam Jardy of dispatch.com:
“You just have to take pride in the fact that there’s something more to it than just you,” said Jon Diebler, who hit a Big Ten-record 374 three-pointers as a Buckeye from 2007-11. “It’s not just about you and saying that you went to Ohio State. This truly is a brotherhood.”
[...]
“He’s coming from Indiana and basketball is king in Indiana,” Penn said. “Just understanding the tremendous Buckeye pride, the long history and tradition, it’s something that any coach that comes in has to understand. You understand that and you understand the majority of kids grew up here and want to be a Buckeye.”
Holtmann is a relatively young up and on the ascension, which means he's either the next big thing or a talented grifter. I error on the side of the former, but either outcome ensures excitement—an obvious upgrade on the last few years of Matta's tenure.
Die-hards will always demand championships; an offensively fluid team with players with more than one facial expression sprinkled with an Elite 8 or Final Four run every so often would satisfy me.
THE MIGRATION CONTINUES. As noted in the intro, another supernatural Southern soldier sojourned north of the Mason-Dixon last night when Master Teague chose Ohio State over Georgia, Auburn, Tennessee, Notre Dame, and others.
It was another chip towards Big Ten dominance.
B1G recruiting chasm: Master Teague III is (for now) Ohio State's 13th-highest rated commit. He'd be top-3 for 9 of the other 13 schools.
— Corey Masisak (@cmasisak22) June 11, 2017
I've said it before, but recruiting will always be the trump card against any NFL offer a hapless NFL franchise could cobble together. And he has the machine rolling in Columbus right now. The only thing left would be a pay raise when he goes to the playoffs again this year (yeah, I typed that).
SOONERS STILL A THREAT. Sorry to be that guy at the water cooler asking if you've seen a meme that might as well be fossilized in amber... but did it make anybody else think real hard when Bob Stoops walked away from another ~$5.5 million and a preseason Top-5 team because he felt like it.
Regardless, the Sooners will probably be just as good (if not better) under Lincoln Riley.
From sbnation.com:
No matter the head man, OU will begin with expectations. The Sooners are projected fifth in S&P+ and likely would have begun the season somewhere around sixth before the coaching change. Stoops made them the surest thing in the Big 12 and retired having won his final 16 conference games. What changes now?
OU already had to replace three of its most talented skill guys of the Stoops era — running backs Joe Mixon and Semaje Perine and receiver Dede Westbrook — and is maybe coming off of its worst Stoops-era defensive performance.
Baker Mayfield’s presence will help. A two-year starter and one of the two preseason Heisman favorites, Mayfield could almost serve as offensive coordinator at this point. The Sooners will also have the best, most experienced offensive line in the conference. They have the defensive experience that they somewhat lacked last season. Even with turnover in the skill corps, they will probably remain an overwhelming favorite to win a third consecutive conference title.
Unless he finds a defense between now and September 9, the Sooners will need to score at least 100 points... and they still might not win.
THOSE WMDs. The addicts next door... Freud's only visit to the US made him hate America for the rest of his life... Compound words that used to make a lot more sense... I don't trust Batman... Inside the movie rating system... My favorite vacation photo.
