Hello. You may notice that I am not Kevin.
As he noted on Friday, our dear newsdesk operator is currently with DJ and Starcat on an exotic retreat his extremely real and not fake girlfriend in Orlando at Universal, so he'll be out all week.
Thus, the rest of the contingent has been tasked to fill in, and I will be going first. Luckily, this means you won't remember mine by the end of the week.
ICYMI:
- Ohio State basketball falls to Houston, ending their season.
- C.J. Jackson capped his career by reaching 1,000 points.
- Redshirt freshman Kamryn Babb looks to carve out a role.
- Tom Ryan says Joey McKenna was robbed of a national title.
- Ohio State hockey is the No. 3 seed in the West Regional.
Word of the Day: Magniloquent
A HOUSTONIAN DEMISE. The 2018-19 Ohio State basketball season officially ended last night, as the Buckeyes fell to the Houston Cougars in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
This is a really nice thread which captures how most Ohio State fans probably feel about the season.
With 2 minutes and a double digit lead, I think Ohio States season is done. All in all, a great season for what was supposed to be a rebuilding year. This team had no business making the Dance. Holtmann, once again, proves hes going to make a lot of noise.
— Big Ten Geek (@bigtengeek) March 25, 2019
The Buckeyes definitely overachieved this year in pretty much every way possible. Making the Big Dance was one thing, but the fact that they were able to pull an upset speaks volumes to how the trajectory of the program is continuing upwards.
Also, the fact that Kelvin Sampson is the coach of the Cougars ensures that this victory will be vacated in the years to come. So that's a small consolation.
TOUCHDOWN TERRY'S CHALLENGE. Terry McLaurin exploded onto the scene for Ohio State football in recent years, ensuring that all of the fans who pegged him to do nothing during his career (I was never one of them, of course) would be wrong.
During his recruitment, Urban Meyer brought McLaurin into his office after a camp in which McLaurin performed quite well and issued him a challenge.
From Stack.com:
"I'm the fastest kid at the camp, I win pretty much all the one-on-ones," McLaurin says. "I went into Coach Meyer's office and he was like 'You're as fast as we like our players, you're smart, you're a good kid, but we want to take this recruiting process a little slower. Your ball skills are not necessarily where we want them to be…I want you to go home, catch 200 footballs a day, and come back (to our next camp) in two weeks and we'll see where you are.'"
McLaurin came back two weeks later, and impressed Meyer so much that he was offered on the spot. Touchdown Terry committed the next day, and the rest is history, as they say.
From Meyer's office to the NFL. That seemed to happen a lot, didn't it?
NICE GESTURE. It is always unfortunate when a young man's life is taken from him too soon. Former Ohio State baseball player Zach Farmer passed away in 2015 due to leukemia, but his former high school honored him by renaming their field after him.
From David Wysong of the Chillicothe Gazette:
“Zach had the really fortunate ability to be fun-loving and to be a nasty competitor, which is a combination that is really critical to be a great baseball player because it’s a tough game,” said Ohio State head baseball coach Greg Beals. “For us we have three-game series, so you pitch one day and you sit and watch two games. So, you’re watching two-thirds of the time so that fun-loving helped him through that but when it came time to compete he was really tough.”
Piketon also unveiled a monument for Farmer:
Piketon unveils a monument for former @OhioStateBASE player Zach Farmer.
— David Wysong (@DavidWysong_) March 23, 2019
Farmer, who played high school baseball at Piketon, passed away in 2015 after battling leukemia. pic.twitter.com/PtD4Jg7j75
Here's a closer look at the monument. This is a really great gesture by the Piketon school and baseball program.
JUST FAVORITES, BABY. You know, they say to never play favorites, but maybe you should play favorites.
For the first time since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams, all betting favorites covered in the Round of 32.
Betting favorites went 16-0 straight up in the Round of 32. Only time that has happened since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
— Bryan Ives (@awaytoworthy) March 25, 2019
It's honestly fascinating how this is even possible. For an event with as much wacky nonsense as the Big Dance, you'd think at least one team wouldn't cover. That was not the case though.
GRONK RETIRES. One of the best tight ends in NFL history has announced his retirement, as Rob Gronkowski posted Sunday on Instagram that he is done with football.
First, there is this: Ohio State (and several other programs) thought of Gronkowski as an offensive lineman, not as a tight end.
When I was a student reporter at the University of Arizona, I remember having a convo with Rob Gronkowski about his recruitment. He told me that Ohio State thought he was an offensive lineman, which, if true, is the most Jim Tressel thing I've heard, even to this day.
— Ari Wasserman (@AriWasserman) March 25, 2019
The retirement announcement also reminded us Buckeye-stans of this iconic picture of a hungover Gronk on his Ohio State visit back in 2009.
I interrupt the Ohio State game to post a picture of a hungover Gronk visiting the Horseshoe in 2006 (ft. Yung @JeffSvoboda on the right) pic.twitter.com/DXG44gAXOg
— D.J. Byrnes (@DJforOhio) March 25, 2019
Of course, that's Jeff Svoboda on the right. Jeff is now covering the Blue Jackets, and wrote about Ohio State for a long time.
Congratulations to Gronk on an incredible career and thanks for a picture that will last forever.
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