Skull Session: Dwayne Haskins Could Be the Best Draft QB Since Andrew Luck, Ohio State Face NCAA Tournament Play-In Game, and Buckeye Basketball Brings in the Bucks

By Kevin Harrish on March 13, 2019 at 7:45 am
Chris Holtmann is urging folks to stay calm in today's Skull Session.
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I seek your forgiveness. I fell asleep and forgot to schedule the Skull Session, so you're getting it a little late. You deserve better and I will be better.

Speaking of being better though, how 'bout them Browns, am I right? They got rid of a Michigan Man and nabbed the best receiver in the NFL in one fell swoop. I'd never seen so many Ohio State players and fans reacting positively in unison to something the Cleveland Browns did. Everyone seems legitimately stoked.

Well, except maybe the quarterback who's about to play for the team that just dealt away the top receiver in the league:

Poor Dwayne, but the Super Bowl run is about to be wild. 

ICYMI

Word of the Day: Metonia.

 DWAYNE LOOKING GOOD. As is the case with most top-level quarterbacks in the draft, nobody seems able to agree on Dwayne Haskins. Some folks insist he's no better than a second-round prospect, especially given his lone year of experience, but others see a can't miss quarterback.

I have obvious biases, but I tend to associate myself with the latter, and things like this are the reasons why:

For comparison's sake, here's future first overall pick Kyler Murray's chart, which Ian Wharton says shows his "boom or bust" potential:

To me, that seems to be the story of the draft. Murray may very well be an elite NFL quarterback and possibly even the best in the draft, but Haskins seems more and more like a can't-miss prospect.

If I'm a team in need of a quarterback and am willing to draft one in the top-10, I sure ain't rolling the dice on Murray when I know I could have Haskins, but the Arizona can do what they they think they need to do. Like I've said before, it's just the Cardinals.

 PLAY-IN GAME. Ohio State's NCAA Tournament situation just got a bit more dire last night. With St. Mary’s win over Gonzaga, there's now one less at-large spot in the field.

To be honest though, I'm not sure how much it changes, because both before and after that game, I got the vibe that the only thing that mattered for Ohio State's NCAA Tournament life was beating Indiana. And Joey Brackets tends to agree.

I'm not sure Ohio State vs. Indiana should be an NCAA Tournament play in game, but it's certainly looking like it will be. I'm also not sure Ohio State should make the Tournament even with a win in that game, but I'm absolutely going to root like hell that they will, especially if it comes at the expense of Indiana and Archie Miller.

 SOMEHOW, BASKETBALL BRINGS IN TOP MONEY. Mark me down as "perplexed" by this news, but apparently Ohio State had the No. 6 most profitable basketball program in the country over the 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons.

This is an extreme head-scratcher to me, given that Ohio State won a single NCAA Tournament game in that span. Hell, they only made the NCAA Tournament as many times as they missed any sort of postseason completely, including the NIT.

But apparently that didn't cost them much fan support.

Here's how Chris Smith of Forbes how they arrived at that list:

Our ranking of college basketball’s most-valuable teams is based on three-year average revenues across the 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons (ties in revenue were broken using average profits). To determine team revenues and expenses, we relied on annual filings made by each school’s athletic department to the NCAA and the Department of Education. We also made adjustments to individual line items like contributions, media rights and sponsorships to adjust for differences in accounting practices among athletic departments. (The three private schools on our list—Duke, Syracuse and Marquette—declined to share financial details beyond those published by the Department of Education.)

Each team’s conference earns a tournament unit for every game played, excluding the championship and any first-round games played by conference champions. Those units have a six-year shelf life, and they’re currently worth around $275,000 per year (the value increases slightly each year).

Lord knows how this will look in the next few years when Ohio State is able to consistently field a competitive and exciting team.

 WRESLTEBUCKS LOOKING GOOD. I'm not going to pretend to be a wrestling expert, but written and read enough words about Buckeye wrestling over my four years here that I know this is very good.

I'll be frank: I don't love Ohio State's chances at a national title simply because Penn State exists. However, qualifying 10 is certainly a great start.

If the Bucks can win the matches (and titles) they should win, pull some upsets and hope the Nittany Lions stumble a bit, then who knows? I'm sure going to tune in.

 STEELERS STILL RIDING WITH SHAZIER. There's little to no chance Ryan Shazier is going to play a snap for the Steelers in 2019, but he's going to stay aboard the Steelers roster anyway.

For one, I think this is an extremely classy move by the Steelers, but I also still wouldn't count Shazier out from trying to make a return to the NFL. And if he does it, I know he'd want to do it in a Steelers uniform.

 LINK LOCKER. Serial sperm donor who calls himself a "modern day Jesus" only has sex when donating... Ohio man giving up food, drinking only beer during Lent... Man arrested for choking a driver who wouldn't stop singing Christmas songs... How artificial intelligence is changing science... Pilot lived a mysterious double life, then a plane crash exposed aliases, falsehoods and questions...

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