Yesteday, I learned that 52-year-old Ken Griffey Jr. is currently the sixth-highest paid Cincinnati Reds player this season and he would be the fifth-highest paid Cleveland Guardians player.
Baseball season in the Buckeye State is going to RULE.
Word of the Day: Beleaguer.
BRANHAM VS. WILLIAMSON. Before the season started, I doubt many NBA folks had a game between Ohio State and Loyola as one of the best matchups of NBA Draft prospects in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, but with Malaki Branham facing off with Lucas Williamson, that's exactly what we've got.
2. Malaki Branham, Ohio State | 6-foot-5, 180-pound freshman wing | Rank: 20 vs. Lucas Williamson, Loyola Chicago | 6-foot-4, 205-pound senior wing | Rank: NR
This is probably my favorite, pure one-on-one matchup of the first round. Branham, the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year, has been an outstanding offensive guard since the start of conference play, averaging 16 points per game while shooting 52.3 percent from the field and 47 percent from 3. More of a slasher than pull-up artist, Branham isn’t a wildly explosive athlete, but he does a great job of getting defenders off balance and driving in a straight line using long strides and finishing at the rim with his length. Part of why he’s able to get to the rim is that opponents now really have to account for the threat of his jumper, especially off the catch. Scouts love his mix of length and scoring prowess and see him as an eventual first-round pick, be it in 2022 or 2023.
Having said that, Branham really needs to improve at a drastic level on defense. Ohio State is about seven points per 100 possessions worse defensively, per Pivot Analysis, when Branham is on the court versus when he’s off it, and you can actually really feel why that’s the case. The tape matches the numbers. Branham’s focus on defense can waver, especially off the ball. He needs to be fully engaged against Loyola Chicago because Ohio State desperately needs whatever defense it can get on the floor.
That’s a particular problem against Williamson, one of the toughest, most experienced guards in college basketball. He was on the Loyola Final Four team back in 2018 as a sixth-man freshman, and he’s still here doing exactly what his team asks of him. Williamson is never going to beat himself, and he’s really developed over the years as a pull-up shot creator, averaging 14 points and shooting nearly 40 percent from 3. On top of that, he’s going to get right in your face and make your life miserable on the defensive end. He’s aggressive, and he’s about as disruptive a guy as you’ll find. The back-to-back Missouri Valley Defensive Player of the Year, Williamson has been right on the edge of my top 100 for the entire season despite being a 23-year-old senior and will assuredly be on that list by the time players decide to return to school as opposed to entering the 2022 draft. I think Williamson is one of the most underappreciated players in the country, a genuine star whose numbers would look way better if he didn’t play on one of the slowest-paced teams in the tourney.
If Branham can score on Williamson, it would say a lot to scouts about how ready he is on the offensive end to be a contributor and potentially set him up with a first-round grade from many teams before the pre-draft process starts. This is an enormous test for him and will tell scouts a lot of what they need to know.
Banking on Branham to lock Williamson down on defense feels like betting on water not to be wet at this point, but I have no problems believing Branham will get his on offense. Williamson has had a fantastic season, no doubt. But he hasn't played anybody like Branham.
Here's hoping Branham finds that sweet spot of *just* good enough to get the Buckeyes the win, but not quite good enough to vault into the first round or something. Cool? Cool.
GETTING IN, BUT NOT GETTING WINS. It's absolutely, undeniably fair for Chris Holtmann to be taking some heat these days with the way the team finished the season this year and how the Buckeyes have fared in the NCAA Tournament since he arrived.
But as you seethe in anger, here's some perspective: Ohio State is one of just *eight* teams in the entire country to have an NCAA Tournament caliber team each of the past five seasons. And that list doesn't include Duke or Kentucky.
When the NCAA Tournament was canceled by COVID two years ago, Ohio State basketball definitely would have been in, likely as a No. 5 seed. That means Chris Holtmann has fielded a tournament team for all five of his seasons leading the Buckeyes, which is no small thing.
It won’t show up in the official records, where the 2020 never-was tournament doesn’t count, but that cancellation saved teams like North Carolina from breaking their tournament streaks. They wouldn’t have been in.
We’re talking Holtmann, so we’re talking his five seasons. Using a bracket done by 10 experts when the tourney was canceled to stand in for 2020, here’s how many programs have fielded NCAA-quality teams in each of the last five years.
Eight of them.
Gonzaga, Kansas, Villanova, Texas Tech, Houston, Michigan State, Michigan and Ohio State.
Under Holtmann, there have been some extremely frustrating teams and the way the Buckeyes have performed in the NCAA Tournament has been even more frustrating. But you know what's worse than losing early in the tournament? Missing the tournament completely.
Remember, Ohio State had missed the NCAA Tournament for back-to-back seasons before Holtmann took over. And in the two seasons before that, they hadn't made it out of the round of 32. So it's not like things have gotten worse!
That said, how Ohio State has actually performed in the tournament under Holtmann is still a problem, especially compared to those other seven teams.
Here’s the issue for Ohio State once we leave the very valid getting in talk. Those other seven teams in the five-straight club? Not only have they all made a Sweet Sixteen in the last three tournaments (remembering 2020 didn’t happen), they’ve each made a Final Four in the last three tournaments. Meanwhile, Team 8, Ohio State, hasn’t won more than one tournament game.
Putting together five consecutive NCAA Tournament teams is praiseworthy – that's fair. But the reality is, nobody's going to care about that even a little bit until a Holtmann team makes at least the Sweet 16. And you know what? That's also fair!
DON'T TEASE ME. The NIL era has already given us a work-in-progress college football game.
But maybe there's more?
MADNESS LOADING
— Electronic Arts (@EA) March 14, 2022
To give you an idea of how long it's been since there was a college basketball video game, Blake Griffin was on the cover of the most recent edition.
I'm trying very hard not to get my hopes up. I mean, even if this is real, the College Football Game isn't coming until at least three years after it was initially announced – and this isn't even an official announcement.
On the plus side, this gives Ohio State time to turn itself into a national powerhouse so I can properly own 12-year-olds online.
GIVE ME THAT THANOSCAST. Michigan State football players Payton Throne and Jayden Reed are doing a special broadcast of the Spartan's NCAA Tournament games this season.
It's a fantastic idea that got me thinking – why the hell are we not getting a Dawand Jones Big ThanosCast?
Michigan State QB Payton Thorne and WR Jayden Reed will host a ManningCast-style live broadcast during MSUs NCAA tournament games pic.twitter.com/R0SN1gF8Y9
— Colton Pouncy (@colton_pouncy) March 14, 2022
Honestly, the real question is, why the hell has Chris Holtmann not given him a call to address Ohio State's big man crisis?
SONG OF THE DAY. "Symphony of Destruction" by Megadeth.
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