Buckeye Wednesday

Five Strange Things from Day One
By Brandon Castel www.theozone.net

COLUMBUS — The first day of spring camp came and went as it always does at Ohio State. The Buckeyes had beautiful weather for their first day of practice and things seemed to go according to plan for coach Jim Tressel.
And why wouldn’t they? He’s been at this a long time, but there were a few things from day one that just seemed a little out of place.

5. Terrelle Pryor is a junior. Is it just me or doesn’t it seem strange to think that Pryor is halfway through his career at Ohio State? A lot has transpired for the kid in the last two years, but it seems like just yesterday the entire country was hanging on his every word during one of the more high-profile high school recruitments in history.
“We’ve talked a lot about the fact that it’s hard to believe but more than half of your career is done. You know that’s, that’s real,” Tressel said Thursday.
In his two years in Columbus, Pryor has completed 267 of his 460 pass attempts (58 percent) for 3,405 yards. He has 30 touchdown passes to 15 interceptions and has racked up 1,410 yards and 13 touchdowns on the ground. Yet as he stood there on the field Thursday, it dawned on me that this would likely be the defining season of his collegiate career.

4. No Doug Worthington or Lawrence Wilson hooting and hollering during defensive line drills. As a former football player, I have always been drawn to the defensive lineman drills in practice. They tend to be the most intense on the team and the guys really seem to get after it in practice like they’re hunting down Colt McCoy in a real game. Over the past 3-4 years, you couldn’t walk within shouting distance of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center without hearing Worthington and Wilson hooting and hollering to get guys fired up during practice. Thursday there was a bit of an eerie silence as both seniors have moved on. As always, someone will step up to fill the vocal leadership role this fall, but no one can replace Worthington’s booming voice.

3. Not seeing walk-on tailbacks carrying the rock. In the past, guys like Bo DeLande, K.C. Christian and Marcus Williams have owned spring ball because of the thin number of scholarship backs at Ohio State. Even last year the Buckeyes were waiting on Jordan Hall and Jaamal Berry to arrive in the fall, which opened the door for the walk-ons to see serious reps in practice and scrimmages. That wasn’t the case at all Thursday. I don’t think I saw a walk-on carry the ball one time during 7-on-7s or 11-on-11s thanks to OSU’s newfound depth at tailback. Brandon Saine and Boom Herron split carries with the ones. Jordan Hall and Jaamal Berry went with the twos and newcomer Carlos Hyde took most of the reps with the threes. If Jermil Martin had been healthy enough to go, even he might have struggled to get carries in a rich backfield that Tressel called the deepest of his tenure.

2. A decade of Tressel. Speaking of tenure, it really set in Thursday that this will be the 10 th spring for Jim Tressel at Ohio State. A decade of Tressel. It doesn’t seem that long ago that he was talking about 310 days until his first trip to Ann Arbor. And yet the Buckeyes are 8-1 against Michigan under Tressel, gunning for their seventh straight victory against the Wolverines in 2010. That would make it nine wins over that school up north in a decade. That’s not too shabby.

1. A starting offensive line that is almost completely set on the first day of camp. Spring practice is all about position battles, young guys coming of age and holes in the lineup being filled. It seems like every year coach Jim Bollman is rolling bodies through the offensive line to see which guys work best with which other guys. There are usually 3-4 guys out of practice and typically a lot of competition for spots across the board. But not this spring. The Buckeyes return four starters on the offensive line and three other guys (Mike Adams, Andrew Miller and Marcus Hall) who started at least one game a year ago. With Adams taking most of the snaps at left tackle, there was a cohesiveness with the first unit that hasn’t been there in a while.






Why College Player of the Year Evan Turner May Struggle in the NBA
by Drew Gatewood Written on April 05, 2010

Evan Turner ran away with the AP Player of the Year honors, receiving 54 of the 65 votes. He adds more hardware to an already impressive Trophy cabinet, and that’s bad news for Buckeye fans.

Turner has yet to publicly make his decision about the NBA. It is almost certain, though, that he will forgo his senior year for the riches of the NBA as a top five pick in this upcoming draft. He has dominated the college game this year, averaging 20.9 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 6.1 assists per game.

The NBA, however, will prove daunting for the talented Evan Turner. His 6’7’’ frame is a great size for a point guard or small forward, and his leaderships skills could help him on what surely will be one of the leagues worst teams.

Turner does have several weaknesses, which will be the main focus of NBA scouts in these next few months. For example, his perimeter shooting has struggled for most of his career. This season he averaged 36 percent from behind the arc, which is respectable, but he needs to find consistency with his shot.

Ball control can also hamper Turner during games. He was expected to do everything for the Buckeyes this season, and with those expectations, he had the ball in his hands a large part of the game. Handling the ball so much will naturally lead to turnovers, but in Turner’s case it lead to an average of 4.4 turnovers a game and 136 on the season.

As Turner’s playing time and responsibilities increased, so did his turnovers. This is something he’s going to have to fix quickly once he gets into the NBA. He had over five turnovers in a game 12 times this season, and twice he had at least 10 turnovers. Loose ball-handling will lead to even more turnovers at the next level for Turner.

Turner’s defense has been suspect at times during his Buckeye career. This soft play will get him eaten alive by the NBA’s elite guards. Turner will have to shelf the “Ole” defense and become a lock down guard, something he has yet to master during his college career.

Turner’s weaknesses aside, he is the best mid-shooter in this draft and has an uncanny ability to get offensive production in unorthodox ways. His slashing ability leads to more points than turnovers, and he's very unselfish with the ball. He has shown improvement in his perimeter shooting as well; with a continued focus on his shooting, he has the ability to develop into one of the NBA’s elite players.


Turner wins Naismith Trophy
The Columbus Dispatch reports that Ohio State's swingman Evan Turner has won the Naismith Trophy, presented annually to the best college basketball player in the nation by the Atlanta Tipoff club.
Evan Turner is Ohio State's first player to win the Naismith, the first of which was awarded in 1969.
Earlier in the evening, Turner also won the Coaches Association player of the year award bringing his total of post-season POTY awards to 5. That number could become six in a couple days when the Wooden Award is announced - Turner is a finalist for that award.
This is also the first time that the High School and College Naismith trophies were awarded to two players who are or will be attending the same school. It was announced several days ago that top rated recruit Jared Sullinger had won the High School version of the award. Sullinger will be playing for the Buckeyes next season, coming in with five others who have made up one of the best recruiting classes in the nation.

Turner Win's Naismith and is Named NABC Player of the Year !!!!
www.theozone.net
Men's Basketball: Ohio State junior guard Evan Turner has picked up two of the most prestigious individual honors awarded to college basketball players.
Turner was named NABC (National Association of Basketball Coaches) player of the year today.
Tonight he was named the winner of the Naismith Award considered by most to be the basketball equivalent of the Heisman. The Naismmith is awarded by the Tipoff club of Atltanta and is considered by many as college basketball's highest individual honor.
The Naismith Trophy has been awarded since 1969. The only other Big Ten players to receive it were Scott May of Indiana in 1976, Calbert Cheaney of Indiana in 1993 and Glenn Robinson of Purdue in 1994.



Ohio State Baseball
If a ball is hit out of the Rocky Miller Park in Evanston, but no one in Columbus hears it, did it still happen?

With Buckeye fans focused on Evan Turner leading the basketball team to the Sweet 16 and Terrelle Pryor starting spring practice at Ohio State, the baseball team quietly opened their Big Ten season over the weekend.

After rallying for a come-from-behind win over Toledo in the home opener at Bill Davis Stadium last Wednesday, Bob Todd and the Buckeyes (16-8, 2-1 Big Ten) took to the road for a three-game stretch at Northwestern (7-20, 1-2).

The Bucks took care of business Friday with an 11-1 win in their conference opener. They scored four in the first against Wildcat starter Francis Brooke and that was more than enough for OSU ace Alex Wimmers, who allowed one run over seven innings to earn his sixth win of the season. He struck out five while allowing six hits in an 11-1 pounding that made him the first Buckeye starter to start the season 6-0 since Cory Luebke began 7-0 in 2007.

Wimmers has been nearly unhittable as he has been over the last two years. The Wildcats knew that and opted to save their ace for Saturday’s game, which brought the series to a rubber-match Sunday after Northwestern’s 8-2 victory in game two of the series. For the second time in the three days, the Bucks put an 11-spot on the scoreboard as they handled the feeble Cats 11-6 in their own ballpark.

The 2-1 start puts Ohio State in a five-way tie for first place in the Big Ten, as no team earned a sweep over the weekend. Only Michigan State (19-5) possesses a better overall record than the Buckeyes.

Ohio State will host Xavier Wednesday (6:35 p.m.) at Bill Davis Stadium.

At a Glance: Game 3 (11-6 OSU)

The third game of the weekend turned out to be the closest battle, with the Buckeyes taking it by five runs. They led 6-4 after five innings and 9-6 after six innings before tacking on big insurance runs in the seventh inning and another in the ninth. Left fielder Zach Hurley and catcher Dan Burkhart where the heroes offensively for the Buckeyes with Hurley scoring four runs and Burkhart driving in three. Along with Hurley and Burkhart, centerfielder Michael Stephens and third baseman Cory Rupert each tallied a pair of hits in the game.

The Bucks took the early lead behind three straight two-out hits that made it 3-0 in the top of the second inning. The Wildcats tied the game with three runs of starter Dean Wolosiansky in the bottom of the third inning. Wolosiansky would give up the go-ahead run in the fourth after one of OSU’s two errors, and he left the game after five innings having allowed four runs (three earned) on five hits while striking out five.

Ohio State’s bullpen allowed two more runs over the next 3.2 innings as Brett McKinney and Theron Minium finished out the game. Meanwhile first baseman Ryan Dew provided the fireworks for OSU with a towering two-run shot in the seventh inning that gave the Buckeyes a 9-5 lead.

At a Glance: Game 2 (8-2 NW)

The decision to save ace Eric Jokisch for the second game paid huge dividends for Northwestern. Jokisch stymied the Buckeyes for two runs on eight hits in eight innings of work.

The Bucks scored both of their runs off Jokisch in the top of the first. Stephens and Brian DeLucia came through with RBI’s in the inning, but that was it for the OSU bats. After spotting the Bucks a pair of runs, Jokisch settled in for seven innings of shutout baseball before closer Paul Snieder finished them off with a perfect ninth.

Right-hander Drew Rucinski (3-1) picked up his first defeat of the season in the loss. He allowed four runs (three earned) on seven hits in 5.1 innings of work. Left-hander Eric Best came out of the bullpen to allow just one earned run over 2.2 innings, but he gave up three unearned runs thanks to three Ohio State errors.

The Wildcats outhit OSU 14-8 that game.

At a Glance: Game 1 (11-1 OSU)

Coach Todd may have thrown Wimmers in the first game, but we saved the best for last because, well, he is the best. At least Ohio State’s best and probably the best in the Big Ten. His 1.98 ERA is second-best in the conference behind Indiana’s Drew Leininger (1.66), and his 46 strikeouts in 41 innings are three more than anyone else in the Big Ten.

His five-strikeout, one-run performance Friday was another example of why teams are starting to save their No. 1 guy for Saturday. With Wimmers dealing, Dew and DeLucia each drove in three runs with Dew also crossing the plate three times himself. Rupert led the team with four hits while both Dew and Burkhart tallied three of OSU’s 17 hits.