SB Nation - Ohio St. Buckeyes

That's one cupcake down

Sam @ WWAHT — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:06:29 -0000

4 days ago: Presbyterian's Zach Faircloth, right, goes up for a shot aginst Ohio State's Jon Diebler during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Columbus, Ohio, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009. (AP Photo/Paul Vernon)

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I missed the first ten or so minutes of today's game returning from a trip out of town, but here are my thoughts on what I heard/saw (after I finally found a TV with the game on):

While the game was still "in question", the Buckeyes were playing excellent man-to-man defense. There were a few lapses towards the end of the first half, but even with those lapses, the Blue ~~Ho's~~ Hose had only scored 21 points at the break. It was nice seeing Ohio State fly to the ball with some defensive intensity, which is often missing when we move to a man-to-man approach on defense.
53 points in the first half ,even against Presbyterian, is a nice thing to see with Evan Turner out of the lineup. What I found encouraging was how balanced the scoring distribution was; IIRC, at halftime, 5 players had 8 or more points, with Lauderdale chipping in with another 6. This team had to move into a nice, sharin'-and-carin' mindset with ET gone, and it seems to have done a pretty good job of it. Yes, I know, Presbyterian, but it's an encouraging start.
The Presbyterian coach (I don't know his name, so let's just call him Some Poor Soul) described Lighty as the best "driver" of anyone they have played so far. That's an impressive roster of teams which feature some pretty good guard play, incuding UNC and Clemson. I'm not sure if that's overzealous coachspeak or earnest praise, but Lighty showed some of that skill tonight, including one impressive drive from the right side that resulted in a quick bunny that made up 2 of his 20 total points on the night.
Matta wanted Jeremie Simmons to step up his game this week and he kinda did, for like a half. I'm guessing he got some rest after putting up 8 points to go with 3 boards and 3 assists.
Of course, less Simmons meant more PJ Hill, and PJ's eternal highwire bouncing-around-to-make-up-for-a-general-lack-of-talent act worked fairly well, as you'd expect it to against a team with nine losses in eleven games. He only totaled 9 points, 3 boards and 2 assists but he kept some plays alive that other players wouldn't have and did a good job drawing fouls.
Diebler had an okay night playing exclusively behind the arc again, hitting 3 of 8 shots and totaling 12 points.
I'm a little worried by the lack of William Buford in today's game. Yes, Ohio State had 53 points at the half, but only scored 25 afterward (when admittedly, the game was well out of reach), and I am greedy and Buford took the exact same amount of shots as Lightly and hit three fewer and that makes me sad. Buford looked great in stretches at Butler, but was kinda non-existent tonight. For now, these performances fight to a relative draw in the Thunderdome of my mind. Let's see how he does against DSU and CSU before we start getting concerned.

Don't forget to help Toby with his blog survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WSQGPZ2

Expansionism, Ho! Revisited!

Sam @ WWAHT — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:00:19 -0000

This past summer, I discussed, at great length, the possibility of Big Ten expansion. I then examined the following candidates and the likelihood that they would actually pack things up and move to a new conference (or to a conference in the first place)

- and MilCardFan chipped in with an out-of-the-box suggestion, Nebraska

Surprise surprise, on the eve of what will likely be yet another disappointing bowl season, the issue has come up again:

Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez says the Big Ten will soon make a more aggressive push toward adding a 12th member.

Speaking to Wisconsin's athletic board on Friday, Alvarez, the former longtime Badgers football coach, said the conference already has investigated possibilities for expansion "from all over the country." And though he places no timetable on the search, Alvarez thinks conference commissioner Jim Delany will respond to a group of athletic directors and coaches who want expansion.

My initial thoughts upon hearing this were "Gee, can't we put off the usual offseason blog fodder until, you know, the actual offseason?" This is an issue that has been brought up incessantly ever since the Penn State addition worked out so well, and along with the usual offseason coachspeak, recruiting hype and pre-preseason previewing that fills the Big Ten's banana republic corner of Blogfrica after the bowl season, it's consistently one of the top three or four annual stories concerning the conference. But this time around it appears to have steam; Jim Delany stepped out of his SEC-fueled two-minutes' hate echo chamber for a brief press conference, footage of which can be seen here (Delany begins the conference with a cigar, oddly):

No, no, wait: that's a scene from the movie Blazing Saddles. Huh. Had me fooled.

Ah, yes, here it is. Right. Anyway, Jim Delany helped put together a press release which said what any needlessly shrewd moneygrubbing business entity would by issuing a very definitive maybe:

"The COP/C believes that the timing is right for the conference to once again conduct a thorough evaluation of options for conference structure and expansion," the statement reads.

After the evaluation period, Delany and his staff, in conjunction with the league's athletic directors and presidents, will decide whether to make a recommendation for expansion. At that point, they will inform Michigan State president Lou Ann K. Simon, the chair of the Council of Presidents/Chancellors, as well as the commissioner of the affected conference before pursuing a specific school.

I am told that Delany did in fact exclaim after that he "didn't get a harrumph out of that guy!" before telling said guy to watch his ass.

In all seriousness, I'm glad the conference is at least sending out feelers. The Big Ten was a well-deserved reputation as a dinosaur conference that is home to (unfortunately) multiple "dinosaur" programs. While adding Notre Dame wouldn't exactly be an infusion of young blood - in fact, it'd be piling old blood on top of old blood - it'd still give the conference the "new look" it desperately needs by necessitating a move to divisional play and, of course, a conference championship game. There are positives and negatives to this direction, as always, but for the most part, things that make us more like the Big 12 and the SEC are good things, and should be viewed as such.

Now, a move to divisions is a complicated one - geographically, the good folks at BHGP are right in that it can't easily be done when one considers the likely, largely eastern-oriented set of candidates. It'll still be difficult for the Big Ten to implement a "historical" division guideline in which all (or even most) rivalries are "protected", as almost every team has multiple rivals and it's difficult to keep those rivals in the same division. Why is that a problem? I'll put it this way: Ohio State and Michigan fans want the Game to be played at some point in the regular season, yes? I don't think anyone wants to get rid of it altogether. Now, who, outside (perhaps) of those fanbases, really wants to see them play each year in the conference championship game, which could, in fact, end up happening if Michigan finds its sea legs again? Exactly no one. So keeping rivals within each others' divisions is important, but with the number of rivalries in the Big Ten, it just isn't feasible. Especially when Penn State has a new main rival every other week. ZING!

These may seem like minor considerations, but they're not; there are a lot of obstacles to Big Ten expansion simply from a minimum-goals standpoint - academic reputation, location, etc. - that are going to be considered far in advance of "Uh, how do we actually split this thing up?", but the latter is just as big of an obstacle as the former. Really, the former is whatever the "Eggheads" - as BHGP put it so appropriately yesterday - deem to be a vital components of a Big Ten expansion target, and the latter will only be discussed after the former has been decided.

So, assuming this expansion does happen, how do I think things should be divided up?

Let's let Hawkeye State set the stage again:

The Big Ten is not about to give up tradition for the sake of expansion. That means Michigan will play Ohio State and Michigan State, Indiana will play Purdue, Illinois will play Northwestern, and the Iowa-Minnesota-Wisconsin troika will take place annually. This puts a serious kink in any plan to split the conference geographically should another eastern team be added. Some have suggested an ACC-style split, based less on geography and more on historical power, but such a split would still demand UM-OSU-MSU be placed in the same division, requiring Penn State to either join them and tilt the scales in the east's favor (and, as entertaining as the thought may be to Iowa fans envisioning annual championship game trips, would initially create a Big XII North situation) or give up the land grant trophy (I know that's not a dealbreaker) and join the western teams (which might well be one, given the potential travel issues).

First off, I'm fine with an unbalanced conference set-up. Perhaps that's because I'd be a beneficiary of playing in the tougher division, but I also am not sure how much it really maters. For years, the Big 12 has had a fairly sub-par Northern division and has got along just fine. In fact, three-loss Big 12 North champion Nebraska gave undefeated Texas a world of guff before finally falling on a last-second game-winning field goal just a couple weekends ago. Even in the SEC, the West was largely powerless to stop the East until Alabama's recent return to glory; from 2002-2007, it was basically LSU and everyone else, and that more or less contains the beginnings of the conference's glory days. Perhaps this is too truncated a view of things in these other conferences, however.

I'm not sure there'd be quite the disparity between the divisions if Penn State were to stay in the East; Michigan is down - and, barring some defensive miracle work from Greg Robinson - might not be the Michigan of old again any time soon. Wisconsin and Iowa routinely churn out teams who are perfectly capable of beating both Ohio State and Penn State, and while both have had their troubles doing it, they'd be very good, very competitive foils in the event of a conference championship game. Unfortunately, for this scenario to really hold water, however, Notre Dame will have to be in the West division. Assuming Brian Kelly gets the Irish back on track, Notre Dame would the West's Ohio State; yes, there are other teams perfectly capable of beating them and usurping the division throne, but the preseason divisional championship hype will consistently start and end with the Irish. That said, it throws the Irish's rivalry with Purdue - not a particularly storied one, but a fierce one nonetheless - into question.

In the end, I'm hammering on points I probably shouldn't hammer on until something actually happens. Knowing the Big Ten, this expansion endeavor will again be fruitless, and the discussion as a whole will be tabled for another later date. This will happen for a variety of reasons, most of them having something to do with "the Eggheads" and the fact that the conference as a whole is about as cohesive of an entity as Congress. I, personally, really have no dog in this fight, other than wanting to see this conference become nationally relevant again.

In a Perfect World (Conference Realignment)

Evan Pfaff — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:30:13 -0000

by Tony Gutierrez - AP

Could a University of Houston QB be soon hoisting the Big 12 Championship trophy? (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

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Today the Big Ten conference issued a statement that they are exploring the possibility of expanding.

Every few years we hear the same rumblings and every few years there are articles published about what realignment would look like. But not since Penn State was admitted into the Big Ten has anything official been released. With that, below is the definitive article on the topic.

And even though this is a basketball blog, I will focus on the BCS aspect of realignment to argue my points. I will discuss basketball, though, and all points held for football can loosely translate over to hoops as well.

Currently there are six BCS conferences and those 6 all get automatic BCS-bowl bids. Those conferences are Big East, SEC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-10, ACC. Of those six, three of the conferences have enough football teams to have a conference championship game (the Big East would have enough if more of their charter schools had D1 football programs).

Part of the BCS issue is that you have some conferences without 12 schools, who don't currently have conference championship games. Adding conference championship games will ultimately help the BCS by crowing, on a field, a true conference champ. This will help with BCS bowl bids, and especially the BCS championship game. (Think of a rule where you have to at least win your division to get a BCS bid.

The other BCS issue is of the non-BCS schools and where they should lie. My realignment program take that into account.

Without further ado, after The Jump is the Big12Hoops.com Realignment plan.

MIZZOU MOVES TO THE BIG 10.

Why is this good for the Big 10? By admitting Mizzou into the Big 10, the Big 10 would secure a coveted TV market, namely St Louis. They would also get a share of the Kansas City TV market. By expanding westward, revenues from the Big 10 Network and apparel sales would grow. The Big 10 would also secure a 12^th team and legitimize a conference championship game. The divisions would be as follow:

Big 10 East: Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, Penn State

Big 10 West: Mizzou, Illinois, Northwestern, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa

Under this scenario all regional rivalries remain in tact

Why is this good for Mizzou? The Big 12 seems to forget about schools not named Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas (basketball). There is no television network, so Mizzou's games are generally only regionally shown. There is Big Monday for basketball, but that is mainly reserved for Texas and KU. Under this, Mizzou's football games could be carried on the Big 10 Network and basketball games will be tied into the Big 10 ESPN deal. All this leads to a major recruiting advantage in both revenue generating sports.

Mizzou also has a rival in Illinois that would heat up instantly and the heated rivalry with Kansas will replace the Illinois basketball and football games on the schedules. Instead of St Louis, though, the KU games will be played at the Sprint Center and Arrowhead in KC.

But what about... Iowa State? The Cyclones seem to also be a natural fit and could easily add fuel to the rivalry with in-state foe Iowa Hawkeyes. The problem is that the Big 10 gains little from that arrangement. They are already pretty entrenched in the Hawkeye State and the addition of ISU wouldn't help their regional or national reputation.

THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON JOINS THE BIG XII

Why is this good for the Big 12? The University of Houston is a large campus, in a region of Texas that is currently underdeveloped with college sports. Houston is the 4^th largest city in the country, and by planting a team there, the Big 12 will get even more Texas viewership.

The big question would be on alignment, since there will now be 5 Texas schools. My proposal is for

Big 12 "North": Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State

Big 12 "South": Texas, Houston, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Baylor, Colorado

The division names will have to be rebranded, but adding Colorado to the South is acceptable because Coloradoans joke that there are more Texans in the state than natives.

Why is this good for Houston? Historically, the Cougars have had a good football team, and have won a basketball national championship. Having a Big XII logo on their court will increase their recruiting presence in the city and state and potentially turn them into powerhouse.

But what about... TCU? TCU would be a good choice, if they were bigger. Their 8000 student just wouldn't cut it if the conference wishes to remain the BIG 12. Houston's enrollment is approximately 30,000 students. Commuter school or not, Houston would help retain the "Big" in Big 12.

BYU AND UTAH GO TO THE PAC-10

Why is this good for the Pac-10? By including Utah and BYU into the Pac-10, the conference will have the 12 schools needed for an automatic conference championship games. Both programs have historically legitimate football and basketball programs, and they will bring their rivalry with them. Geographically, they are far enough West to warrant admission into the conference.

The division would be as follows

Pac-10 North: Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, BYU, Utah

Pac-10 South: Arizona, Arizona State, California, Stanford, UCLA, USC

Why is this good for BYU and Utah? Both recruit well from the West, and inclusion into the conference will aid that. And by coming over as a pair (and as rivals) they bring legitimacy to the expansion eastward.

But what about... geography? The state of Utah doesn't border any states of current Pac-10 members, and that may cause some issues, but distance isn't really something the conference has ever regarded. Consider that Tucson, AZ to Seattle, WA is 1100 miles, or 400 miles farther than Tucson to Provo, UT.

ADD MORE TEAMS TO THE MOUNTAIN WEST

Why is this good for the Mountain West? As it stands under this scenario, the Mountain West is down to 7 members (the current 9, minus BYU and Utah). To get up with the big boys, the MWC needs to add 5 schools. The 5 that should move to the MWC should be: Boise State, Nevada, New Mexico State, Rice, SMU.

There is already talk of Boise coming over to the MWC, so that is a no brainer. The others are coming over as "rivals" to existing MWC schools. Nevada will face UNLV, New Mexico State will pair with New Mexico, Rice and SMU will pit against TCU is a three-way battle for Texas.

Having 12 schools will allow the conference to host a championship game, matching the winners of each division, which would be as follows:

MWC North: UNLV, Nevada, Air Force, Wyoming, Colorado State, Boise State

MWC South: San Diego State, New Mexico, New Mexico State, TCU, Rice, SMU

Why is this good for the 5 programs? The shift from either the C-USA or WAC will legitimize the programs (see the next point). All will also enter the new MWC with a foe. Everyone wins.

But what about... the MWC still remaining relatively minute as compared to their BCS brethren? Why would these schools shift from one conference to another, just for shits and giggles? See next point.

ADMIT THE MOUNTAIN WEST INTO THE BCS

Why is this good for the BCS? Controversy will mainly be avoided. By admitting the redesigned MWC into the BCS you are accepting the current BCS gate crashers. You are bringing in the current at-large schools causing heartache and giving yourself another conference champion that the country can latch onto.

Why is this good for the MWC? Why isn't it good for the MWC?

But what about... the C-USA and WAC? These two conferences are now in shambles. What to do? See next item.

MERGE THE C-USA AND WAC

Why is this good for the two conferences? Because of the success of some of their schools, and regional ability to move, the Conference USA and WAC are currently left in shambles (under this proposal). Essentially afterthoughts as they are, now they are left with 15 schools between them. They could either split them up 8 and 7 or combine forces and form a 15 league mega conference. In terms of basketball, as we have seen with the Big East, and their 16 school hoops conference, too many schools doesn't water down the pool.

But what about... regionality? The C-USA is currently a conglomerate of throw-ins from around the country. Under this plan, that would just increase to a truly national conference. The members of it would be: Fresno St, Hawaii, Idaho, La Tech, San Jose St, Utah St, UTEP, Tulane, Tulsa, UAB, Cent Florida, ECU, Marshall, Memphis, Southern Miss

Using the scenario outlined above, 18 schools will change conferences. This sounds like a lot, but as you can see many will be moving as groups and either with or to a rival.

But what about the Big East? Well, the Big East is the one conference I am leaving alone. In their football world, they are lacking the 12 members to create a championship game. But when you include their basketball members, they are a 16-team powerhouse.

One final thought. I reserve the right to claim this entire scenario null and void if Notre Dame ever decides to join the Big 10. If that were to happen, I would still endorse some shifting, but nothing to the extent of this proposal. More on that if a Notre Dame to the Big 10 rumor starts getting some legitimate traction.

Presbylandware State: Questions. Questions that need answering.

Sam @ WWAHT — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:00:24 -0000

by Michael Conroy - AP

8 days ago: Ohio State's William Buford, left, and Butler's Willie Veasley battle for a loose ball during the first half of a NCAA college basketball game in Indianapolis, Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

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With an upcoming stretch of Presbyterian (2-8), Delaware State (4-4) and Cleveland State (4-6), the Ohio State basketball team faces a crossroads not unlike the one the football team faced following the USC loss. This team needs to find a number of things: an ability to score consistently enough from different parts of the hardwood, a vocal leader outside of Evan Turner, and an ability to consistently defend something aside from an opponents' intermediate-range game.

While Ohio State will not solve its problems by squaring off against the Poor Sisters of Mercy programs 1, 2 and 3, it can at least hone some skills that are definitely going to be needed to have a good Big Ten stretch run. Here are the key areas that I feel need work if we want to beat most Big Ten teams, let alone the Badgers:

Not to hammer the obvious too much here, but it's going to take more than Will Buford to make up for Turner's absence, and that's especially true for Ohio State's limited inside game. No one currently can offer the penetration threat that Turner did, but someone will have to at least attempt a reasonable approximation off of it to take a little bit of pressure off of Jon Diebler. Presently, Ohio State's offense is this: move the ball around as much as possible on the perimeter, feed the ball to Lauderdale only if there is no one within twenty miles of him, and hope Diebler eventually gets something resembling an uncontested shot. True, this isn't all that different from the "wait until Turner does something spectacular" approach of the first eight or so games, but it's even more of a high-risk, low-reward scenario because Diebler isn't nearly as consistent of a scorer as Turner. Relying solely on this guy is a recipe for disaster. If the guy's shot is even remotely contested, it's not going to fall. That's just a sad fact of life. Lighty and Buford both have the ability to be the Turner-esque inside foil to Diebler's outside game, and I hope we see this develop over the course of the next few games.
A little bit more concerning the offensive gameplan. I'm not under the illusion that a powerful, consistent inside game off of penetration is ever going to develop, so there needs to be a Plan B. And that Plan B is getting Jon Diebler to grow a set. Dude just can't chuck up treys, contested or uncontested, and expect just that to be his contribution to his offense. I know the kid's a sharpshooter at heart, but the threat at least has to be there. Hanging out on the perimeter all game will get him erased by opposing defensive gameplans early and often, just as we saw against the Bulldogs.
Defensively, I realize there aren't a lot of changes that can be made personnel-wise, but schematically, I'd favor some more looks at that 1-2-2 press. It showed up way, way too late at Butler and clearly throttled the Bulldog offense. If Ohio State finds itself struggling against these jabronis we have coming in, or even if it's experiencing the expected amount of success, it wouldn't hurt to give this look some more practice.
I'd like to see Dallas Lauderdale get some more help. I know we're not very deep on the inside, and I'd rather have him out there than Kyle Madsen and Zisis Sarikopolous, but the guy has limitations that no amount of experience will overcome. I shudder to think of him alone against any Big Ten Power Forward/Center combo you can name, and I'd like to see a few new non-1-2-2-affiliated wrinkles to our post defense that allow some others to help shoulder the burden.

Of course, I'm not "expecting" all, or even half of these things to actually happen. Matta's a man with a plan, and I may just be talking out of my ass as an amateur observer. Nevertheless, I'd like to see this team make some readily-apparent strides, even if I know they're coming against the college basketball equivalent of jobbers. Improving on at least a few of these things will help tremendously by the time conference season kicks in.

ed. note: Don't forget to help Toby with his blog survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WSQGPZ2

Illini did not make top 25 this week, in AP or Coaches.

Joe Kutsunis — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:53:57 -0000

Well, my bad. The Illini are left out in the cold for one more week, and given that we only play a fairly lowly Georgia team before the next rankings come out, I don't see them getting traction enough to make it in next week either. I thought this week offered the best opportunity for the Illini to get back in, given their recent games against ranked opponents, but the otherwise pretty watery schedule is not helping, nor are the two losses in Vegas, (to Bradley. little brother of all little brothers.) Ah well, we can always root for lots of losses in the 20-25 area, as we are I believe now the non technical 28th or so in voting.

Rank	Team	Points
1	Kansas Jayhawks	1620
2	Texas Longhorns	1512
3	Kentucky Wildcats	1486
4	Purdue Boilermakers	1426
5	Syracuse Orange	1388
6	West Virginia Mountaineers	1315
7	Duke Blue Devils	1137
8	Villanova Wildcats	1107
9	Tennessee Volunteers	1104
10	North Carolina Tar Heels	1039
11	Georgetown Hoyas	1008
12	Michigan St. Spartans	922
13	Florida Gators	864
14	Connecticut Huskies	762
15	Gonzaga Bulldogs	505
16	Texas Tech Red Raiders	492
17	Kansas St. Wildcats	391
18	Ohio St. Buckeyes	383
19	New Mexico Lobos	364
20	Mississippi Rebels	334
21	Butler Bulldogs	257
22	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	253
23	Texas A&M Aggies	221
24	Washington Huskies	179
25	Cincinnati Bearcats	174

Rank	Team	Points
1	Kansas Jayhawks	774
2	Texas Longhorns	735
3	Kentucky Wildcats	701
4	Purdue Boilermakers	675
5	Syracuse Orange	658
6	West Virginia Mountaineers	631
7	Duke Blue Devils	547
8	Tennessee Volunteers	528
9	Villanova Wildcats	524
10	North Carolina Tar Heels	497
11	Georgetown Hoyas	494
12	Michigan St. Spartans	423
13	Florida Gators	367
14	Connecticut Huskies	358
15	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	229
16	Gonzaga Bulldogs	229
17	Butler Bulldogs	184
18	Ohio St. Buckeyes	176
19	New Mexico Lobos	164
20	Texas Tech Red Raiders	150
21	Washington Huskies	146
22	Kansas St. Wildcats	136
23		112
24	Clemson Tigers	110
25	Mississippi Rebels	77

Blog Research Project

Sam @ WWAHT — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:00:24 -0000

A friend of mine is doing a sports blog research project and he needs your help:

My name is Toby Hopp and I’m a longtime college sports blogger/blog
reader. I’m also a graduate communications student at San Diego State
University who is interested in studying how and why Internet users
generate content online. What precisely, you may be asking, is
"user-generated content?" Well, "user-generated content" includes
comment sections at the end of news/blog articles, messageboards,
diaries, polls, and the like.

To me, one of the great parts of the blogosphere is the interaction it
enables between readers. As a community, we’re able to provide
feedback and discuss issues in real time. However, the concept of
"user-generated content" and its subsequent social applications has
not, at this point, been thoroughly studied by communications
researchers and is, in my estimation, completely misunderstood by the
mass media.

So, if you have 10-15 minutes to spare and support empirical media
research (and the social sciences in general), please click the survey
link below. Even if you NEVER create/read content on blog or newspaper
websites, PLEASE consider taking the survey as your answers are as
important to me as the answers supplied by individuals who DO
regularly create content. Rest assured that all answers and provided
information will be strictly anonymous and kept totally confidential.

Survey Link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WSQGPZ2

For those of you interested in statistics, all collected information
will be scientifically analyzed and utilized to create an inherently
unique structural equation model. To that end, I’ll send a report out
to each participating blog which details general trends and reader
utilization issues of note.

Again, please consider taking this survey (Survey Link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WSQGPZ2) whether or not you ever create
or read "user –generated content" on blogs or newspaper sites. The
survey itself will take 10 – 15 minutes and, I promise, will be quite
painless. As stated above, research on the topic of "user-generated
content" is incredibly sparse and your participation will go a long
way in understanding the environmental factors that encourage
meaningful intra-community participation. And, of course, you’ll be
doing me a great and immeasurable favor.

The survey will be active from Monday, December 14 through Friday,
December 18. Please feel free to e-mail me at thopp@mail.sdsu.edu. if
you have any questions relating to the survey or my over-arching
methodology/conceptual framework (obviously, there’s a lot more to the
study that can be reasonably described here).

Thank you for your time and please know that your participation really
does mean a great deal to me on both a professional and personal
level.

Survey Link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WSQGPZ2

I'm not sure he gave us the survey link enough times, so here it is: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WSQGPZ2 [/sarcasm]

In all seriousness, please do participate; the survey's very brief and straightforward, and the results should be pretty compelling upon release. Thanks in advance.

12/12 Game Links

SFBE.NF — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:23:51 -0000

More photos » by Darron Cummings - AP

Browse more photos »

Purdue rallies to beat 'Bama, remains undefeated

Hoosier revival? Not yet as UK downs IU. But Mo Creek is pretty good

Loyola Marymount shocks Notre Dame in South Bend

Butler holds court, gets first notable win of season

No Bouldin no problem, Gonzaga hangs 103 on Davidson in win

Pitino is pissed; Louisville loses (at home!!!) to Western Carolina

It's an ACC/BIg 10 Challenge redux; Va Tech takes down Penn State

OU survives Utah in OT

Kansas State is pretty good, knock down 14 three-pointers to give UNLV first loss

Today's Picks

SFBE.NF — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:39:16 -0000

Indiana (+9) over #4 Kentucky: The Hoosiers just came off a big neutral court win over Pittsburgh and now face a Wildcat team that allows too many games to go down to the wire. IU may not win but look for Tom Crean's bunch, led by super freshmen Maurice Creek and Christian Watford, to make it close enough to raise the collective heart-rates of the Kentucky faithful.
#13 Georgetown (-2) over #16 Washington: The Hoyas travel out to Anaheim to face the Huskies in a battle of Top 25 squads. Both teams have followed different paths to get here. Georgetown is in the thick of a difficult nonconference schedule (5 T-25 teams), rolling into this game with a big victory over Butler on Tuesday. On the other hand, Lorenzo Romar's squad will have one of their biggest challenges this season tonight and then against #16 Texas A&M next week. Look for Greg Monroe to continue his recent assertiveness and lead the Hoyas to their eighth consecutive victory.
#20 Butler (-4) over #15 Ohio St.: I like Butler in this matchup against the Buckeyes at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Butler should bounce back after their loss to Georgetown, behind the charge led by Matt Howard, who played very poorly against the Hoyas. If he and Gordon Hawyard can play consistently, Ohio's State's Evan Turner -less team should fall to the "high-major."

Yesterday 2-1

Overall 17-9

Why John Wall could be bad for college basketball

SFBE.NF — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:39:02 -0000

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When Carmelo Anthony was a freshman at Syracuse, and captivated the nation by single-handedly bringing the 2003 NCAA National Championship to upstate New York, there were no blogs, Billy Edelin was a budding star, and my thoughts on the state of college basketball took a back seat to my careful planning of clandestine meetings replete with hard alcohol to be shared among my high school friends.

But now I am older, blog on an aging laptop, get drunk with my parents, and am realizing that John Wall is severely exposing a sad truth: the overall talent on display in college basketball is unimpressive.

Tonight Wall put up 25 points along with six steals in a fantastic win over UCONN, all part of an electrifying atmosphere at MSG. The problem here is Wall has come in to poop on his peers for one season, all with the intent of peacing to the pros come springtime, forgetting that college basketball even exists. It stinks, but has just become part of the deal for us fans.

Do you remember that incredible class of 2007? Freshman Michael Beasley and Kevin Love were first-team All-Americans, Derrick Rose dominated the second and third weekends of the tournament, and Eric Gordon led the Big 10 in scoring. Just one year before that, Kevin Durant casually averaged 29 points-per-game during conference play and logged 20 games of 30 points or more. Meanwhile, Greg Oden showed up in Columbus for just two-thirds of the season and led the Buckeyes to the title game against Florida. Each one of these players, as you know, came to college for one season with no interest in returning for a second taste. And the whole gig was far too easy for them.

We're relying on 17- and 18-year-old players to generate the majority of excitement and hype for this great sport. You know there was another explosive point guard on the floor tonight? His name was Kemba Walker, a sophomore. Nobody seemed to care. After being ignored by his teammates for the first 25 minutes of the game, Patrick Patterson showed he's one of the country's best big men. But he's a junior, which is so "out" this season. Why aren't we looking to market the players we know are in this relationship for the long run?

If the NCAA bigwigs are watching, I hope they recognize their brand of basketball is in trouble. They need to get on the phone with The League and have a say in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Somehow, someway, we need to ensure that blue chip freshman committing to play college basketball stick around for two seasons. That's all I ask. If they can't summon themselves to do that, then effyou! Go play in Europe, wait to turn 20 and get drafted by the Sacramento Kings, a dismal franchise never seen on national television.

We need help, because Blue Jesus and his disciples will continue to betray fans of the college game.

Your 2009 offensive Bammy Award winner is...

Sam @ WWAHT — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:00:25 -0000

Before the season, I decided to come up with an award to help commemorate the contributions (or lack thereof) of one Bam Childress in the following way:

I'd name [this] award for a guy who, for four straight years at Ohio State, overcame overwhelming preseason hype spurred by mesmerizing spring game and practice performances to.... do next to nothing in the regular season. I decided that this award would go to those "other", non-headliner guys at the skill positions - not Pryor, Herron, Posey etc. - who actually deliver on preseason hype, unlike the award's namesake.

Thus, the Bam Childress Award was born. With so many new faces on offense as well as defense, I decided to split the award up into offensive and defensive categories with nominees from both units.

The offensive nominees (along with my preseason thoughts on their chances) were...

Dane Sanzenbacher

I have my concerns about Sanzenbacher - to wit, his size, and his penchant for exposing himself to the big hit - but I am still as high on him as I was when I wrote this back in May:

He doesn't have elite speed, but he's still dangerous in space with his athleticism and ability to make defenders miss (jukification?) and will eventually grow into the role of the reliable third down option for Terrelle Pryor.

Since then, opinions of Dane have gone through a bit of an evolution, with Kurt Coleman at one point considering him potentially the guy:

"Dane is the guy, any way he has to, he's going to get it done, he's going to get the first down," Coleman said. "I think Dane is coming in being the No. 1 receiver, but DeVier is definitely that deep threat, that guy you always have to have someone guarding."

In camp, "Sanzo" (or, as I call him, "Bloody Sanzio") has struggled with injury and hasn't made a massive dent in the depth chart, but most still consider him to be, at the very least, the probable number two behind Posey. What he brings to the game is not all the different from what Anthony Gonzales brought to the team in 2006: a player who's willing to go across the middle and make the tough catches in heavy traffic on passing downs, even with his lack of size. He will be critical to Pryor's development as a quarterback, and he just might be the most likely breakout player at his position this year.

Official WWAHT Breakout Year Hype-O-Meter: 8 Bam Childresses out of 10

Brandon Saine

Probably the guy that most needs a breakout season, he's going to have to earn it while sharing duties with Boom Herron. Saine came to OSU as a football player who happened to play track, but has spent most of his time looking like a track guy who happened to play football; nursing injuries, avoiding hits, and generally struggling massively as a spell back behind Beanie Wells. This spring, I liked what I saw:

Saine has looked a bit more confident, abandoning his fear of hits and hitting the hole (TWSS) with tenacity, quickness and excellent vision.

Reports from practice on Saine are few and far between, but there was this from the jersey scrimmage:

Brandon Saine didn't get a lot of work, and was 5/20.

So the Saine Hype Train that was steaming along early in the spring appears to have slowed down just a bit, but last I checked, Tressel still plans on rotating Saine with Herron, and since the spring game was the closest thing he has seen to genuine game action since early last fall and he looked excellent in it, I'm not too worried. It's hard to have a "breakout" year as part of a rotation, but I think all the things he brings to the table as a runner are different enough from Herron that he'll continue getting reps throughout the season. 700 yards on the ground may not be out of the question.

Official WWAHT Breakout Year Hype-O-Meter: 6 Bam Childresses out of 10

Ray Small

I know, I know: everyone says this is his year, ever year. This year might be the least likely year that the Motormouth will break out, in fact. But I'm still holding out hope. Tressel apparently is too:

Senior Ray Small, who started the month in Tressel's doghouse again, got plenty of time running routes and returning punts (his job a year ago) Wednesday. He appears to be back in the mix.

Small's recruiting numbers were not excellent without reason: the potential is still there. He has shown how dangerous he can be in space. He also knows that this is his last shot, and he hopefully knows that outside of that punt return, he will be most remembered for this:

Which is not ideal. If these facts, along with all the (somewhat deserved) hate from the fanbase, serve to motivate him just a bit, he might end up partially redeeming his checkered (to put it lightly) career.

Official WWAHT Breakout Year Hype-O-Meter: 5 Bam Childresses out of 10

Taurian Washington

Deacon of the Church of Latter-day Bam himself, Washington has blown up in two straight spring games - catching 8 passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns in the past two years. He would have 9 for 226 had a flag not taken away a 63-yarder in the 2008 edition of the game. Sounds like a star in the making right? I give you his career regular season stat line:

G Rec. Yards Avg. TD Rec./G Yards/G

6 3 46 15.33 1 0.5 7.7

Somewhere, Bam Childress knows that he still has a good man spreading the word and doing his work in Columbus. After this year's electrifying 92-yard spring game performance, Washington finds himself again down on the depth chart, presumably behind Posey and Sanzenbacher. There were previously rumblings that he may get looks in the slot should Ray Small find trouble yet again.

Official WWAHT Breakout Year Hype-O-Meter: 5 Bam Childresses out of Ten

G	Rec.	Yards	Avg.	TD	Rec./G	Yards/G
6	3	46	15.33	1	0.5	7.7

Duron Carter

Reports from practice and the scrimmage have been almost exclusively praise for the scion of Cris Carter. Assuming Ohio State mostly operates out of 3-wide sets this year, Posey, Sanzenbacher and Ray Small all have a considerable leg up on Carter when it comes to playing time. He's too big to play the slot and not quite a burner. One way I could see him having a breakout season is if he's deployed mostly in red zone situations, where defenses would have to work just a bit harder to cover him as they field as many linebackers as they can to stop the rushing attack. They just might not be able to cover someone with his size and speed.

Official WWAHT Breakout Year Hype-O-Meter: 6 Bam Childresses out of 10

with honorable mentions Jake Stoneburner

A converted WR at TE is always an exciting prospect, but to buy the notion that 2009 is Stoney's breakout year is to buy that a) he'll make the transition gracefully as a redshirt-freshman, b) Ohio State starts making a serious effort at utilizing the tight end in the passing game and c) he actually catches anything as the second tight end provided that b) actually happens. Thus, he just remains a darkhorse.

Official WWAHT Breakout Year Hype-O-Meter: 3 Bam Childresses out of 10

and Jaamal Berry

Berry has bounced back excellently from his June marijuana arrest, impressing in camp before succumbing to injury and struggling in the scrimmage. He wasn't here for the spring, so it's safe to say he's a bit behind. Nevertheless, he's the fastest back on Ohio State's roster, and probably the most dangerous in space. But I have my doubts: see here and here on why I think he might struggle.

Official WWAHT Breakout Year Hype-O-Meter: 4 Bam Childresses out of 10

And the winner is...

First, some notes on those who didn't win:

Berry redshirted due to recurring injury problems
Stoneburner ended up getting treated just like every other TE in this offense, sadly, with 2 catches for 30 yards on the year.
Duron Carter is a beast, but only caught 13 balls for 176 yards in OSU's hamstrung passing offense.
Ray Small had an excellent year on special teams, but again was mostly an afterthought in the OSU offense.
Sanzenbacher had a rip-roaring start to the season, catching multiple long bombs in the game against Toledo, as well as an excellent 50-yarder against Southern Cal, but cooled off in Ohio State's finally three game stretch, just as the winner was getting heated up.
Taurian Washington flamed out after the first week - in true Bam fashion, no doubt - following a few dropped first down passes against Navy. As Deacon in the LDCOB, you can't say he isn't incredibly poious
So your winner is, who, unlike the trophy's namesake, followed through after a preseason of massive hype, is....

Tailback Brandon Saine! When the running attack needed a spark - which, after the Purdue game wasn't all that often, though this guy still contributed - Brandon Saine provided it, and was absolutely key to this offense throughout the year. His scoring runs against Michigan and Iowa were the stuff dreams are made of, and his game-sealing TD catch against Penn State capped off the best big game win this program has had since Texas '06. His success this year sets up, provided he stay injury-free, the potential for a massive senior year in what will hopefully be the most dangerous backfield in America, combining the size and power of Saine and Herron with the darting moves of Jaamal Berry and Jordan Hall. Watching his play this year, it's tough to not get excited for next. Congrats on finally arriving, "Brand: Insane."