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LGHL “We are tough enough to handle this”: Ohio State men’s basketball must dig deep to salvage season

“We are tough enough to handle this”: Ohio State men’s basketball must dig deep to salvage season
Connor Lemons
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


NCAA Basketball: Indiana at Ohio State

Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images

The razor-thin margins of defeat aren’t relevant anymore.

A red-eyed, scratchy-voiced Jake Diebler sat at an elevated stage Friday night, speaking into various recorders and microphones one hour after his team took its third consecutive loss by two-points or less.

Diebler’s first Ohio State team has put two blowout losses in the rearview mirror, and has been competing in tight contests for basically a month straight.

The issue is, they’re not winning those tight contests.

With Friday night’s 77-76 overtime loss to Indiana officially etched into the scorebook, Ohio State is now 10-8 on the season and 2-5 in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes have Purdue coming up next in Mackey Arena — a venue the program has not won at in nearly eight years.

NCAA Basketball: Michigan State at Ohio State
Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images

“We’re tough enough to handle this,” Diebler said.

“As a program and across the board, we’re tough enough to handle this. And we’ve got a lot of opportunities left.”

It’s true — Ohio State has 13 Big Ten games remaining, plus an opportunity for extra credit in the Big Ten Tournament, if they qualify. With the conference expanding to 18 teams this season, the bottom three teams will no longer compete in the conference tournament. In essence, those three teams’ seasons will be over.

Right now, Ohio State is in 16th in the Big Ten. If the season ended today, the Buckeyes wouldn’t qualify for the NCAA Tournament or the Big Ten tournament.

Contrary to what you might think, Ohio State’s current state of misery is not reflective of a miserable brand of basketball. The Buckeyes lost by two points to a ranked Oregon team, by two points to a ranked Wisconsin team, and now by one point in overtime against Indiana.

Bruce Thornton has upped his level of play from a season ago, as has sophomore forward Devin Royal — who was not available Friday night as he recovered from a wrist sprain. Freshman guard John Mobley hit five three-pointers Friday night after hitting 13 in his last nine games combined.

The metrics that help determine NCAA Tournament seeding have loved Ohio State all year, and even with their eighth loss, still do. Friday night’s loss was OSU’s first non-Quad-1 loss of the season. They’re still No. 33 in KenPom, and don’t expect them to fall much deeper than 40 in the NET on Saturday morning.

Now that Ohio State is in 16th-place in the Big Ten, they cannot afford any more one-point or two-point losses. They can’t spend time after games explaining how “close” they are or how there are “positives to take away’ from yet another one-possession loss that was up in the air until the very final second of the game.

If Ohio State loses their next 13 games by two points, those who watched will know that the Buckeyes are a talented team that seems to make just one too many mental mistakes during each game, that ultimately costs them at the very end.

The people who don’t watch them very often will just know that they’re 2-18.

Is this Ohio State team resilient? Do they have the personalities on this roster to draw a line in the sand and recognize that even though it’s only January, the season is teetering? Diebler seems to think so, but the next two weeks will ultimately answer that.

Diebler was asked Friday night, point-blank: Is this team resilient, or is that still to be determined?

After a long pause, he cleared his throat.

“I do think we’re resilient, I do. Like I said, I think we fight, we play hard, we play tough, we need to play smarter. I think we are resilient, yes. And we’ll see that in the results column when we can play smarter. We’re not in these situations over and over and over again if we weren’t resilient.”

Purdue has not lost at home at all the last two seasons — the Boilermakers are 26-0 in their last 26 games at Mackey, which awaits Ohio State Tuesday. There’s a level of toughness that will be needed to win that game. Jake Diebler seems to think his team has it. Everyone else probably needs convinced.

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LGHL Three prop bets worth taking a look at in the national title game

Three prop bets worth taking a look at in the national title game
Matt Tamanini
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


NCAA Football: Cotton Bowl-Ohio State at Texas

Tim Heitman-Imagn Images

Quinshon Judkins seems like a reliable money maker on Monday night.

I don’t know about you, but I have been thoroughly enjoying the College Football Playoff thus far, especially all three of Ohio State’s games. And with only one game left in the season, I am planning on enjoying it as much as humanly possible. Obviously, the Buckeyes winning the national title would bring the most enjoyment, but to juice things up, I have a bit of money riding on the game.

In January, I placed a $100 bet on the Buckeyes to win the national total getting +450 odds. Not a bad payday if that one comes in. Then, I’ve also got a parlay that’s a bit of a longshot, but something I could see happening. I’ve got under 46 points, OSU -2.5 in the first quarter, -7.5 in the first half, and -8 for the game. That first half number has me the most worried, but I was definitely betting with my heart instead of my head. It’s got +525 odds, so if it pays off, I will turn my $50 bet into $312.50, which would be a nice bonus on top of a Buckeye victory.

However, if you are looking for a few more exotic bets to tickle your fancy, I was poking around FanDuel’s sportsbook and found some fun prop bets that might be worth putting some money down on to give you a little extra enjoyment from Monday night’s festivities.


Any Time Touchdown Scorer



It is fascinating to me that the Vegas bookmakers have three Buckeyes scoring touchdowns before the first Irish player on the board. Wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, who was thoroughly stymied by the Texas Longhorns in the semifinals, less the way at -135.

That means that if you want to win $100 on J.J. scoring a touchdown, you have to bet $135. Similarly, OSU’s goal-line running back Quinshon Judkins is at -105. However, Treveyon Henderson — who we know can score from anywhere — is at +105. That means that if you bet $100 and Trey does score, you will profit $105 (in addition to getting your initial bet back).

Notre Dame’s top player on the board is running back Jeremiyah Love at +135. While he makes the most sense if you are going to bet on an ND player, he has been beat up in recent weeks and only rushed for 46 yards on 11 carries against Penn State, although he did find the end zone once.

The quarterbacks in the game — both of whom can run — are in the next pack with Notre Dam QB Riley Leonard at +140, given how important his running abilities are in the Irish offense and OSU’s Will Howard is at +320. Now, keep in mind that touchdown passes do not count to win this bet. It has to be the person who possesses the ball in the end zone.

If I just wanted to win some money and didn’t care about how much or the implied value of the bet, I would go with Judkins. He has become the back that Ryan Day and Chip Kelly turn to in goal-to-go situations, and I feel confident that the Buckeyes will have at least a couple of those in this game.

But, if I was looking for something with a little longer odds to make the bet worth my financial while, I would go with the Ohio State defense at +650. Obviously, we remember Jack Sawyer’s game-sealing strip sack-fumble-recovery-touchdown run in the Cotton Bowl against Texas, but there’s more to it than that.

While Leonard has thrown a respectable eight interceptions this season, against Penn State’s stout defense in the Orange Bowl, he threw it away twice on fairly ugly plays. So, given how aggressive Jim Knowles’ defense has been in the playoffs at generating pressure on quarterbacks, I think there’s a bet to be made on that one, especially given the potential return on investment.


To Score 2+ Touchdowns



What I like about these props is that like the OSU defense scoring a touchdown prop above, all of the odds are long enough to make it interesting. Sure, you can take the safe bets like “Will Ohio State score a touchdown?”, but where’s the fun in that (ok, I will concede that making any money in sports betting is fun, but I want moooore fun).

Like above, if I was going to go with the player that I thought gave me the best chance of jus making money, I would stick with Judkins. I think Smith has a great shot as well, but we saw that a defense can effectively eliminate him from the game if they so choose, I don’t think the same can be said for Quinshon.

The Ole Miss transfer has scored two TDs in each of the last two games and is running with a ferocity that makes him invaluable in short-yardage situations.

But, again, if I’m looking to spice things up, I’d go with Carnell Tate. While Emeka Egbuka is probably a better bet to get two TDs against Notre Dame, Tate’s number is twice that of Egbuka’s. The senior wide receiver is set at +950 while the sophomore is +1900.

In the Cotton Bowl game against Texas, when the Horns put three guys on Smith on nearly every pass play, that opened things up for Tate to be the team’s leading receiver with seven targets for 87 yards. He didn’t find the end zone, but we know that if Al Golden’s Irish defense decides to key in on the freshman phenom, we know that Will Howard will feel very comfortable going to Tate; and that makes these odds intriguing. If you want to play it safe, you can bet just $10 to take home $200 (including your initial bet back). A $50 bet would get you a payout of $1,000.


Notre Dame’s First Drive Result



When it comes to what the Fighting Irish have been able to do on their early possessions in the postseason, a fairly obvious trend has emerged. Against the Indiana Hoosiers in the opening round in South Bend, Leonard threw an interception on the opening drive, before ND scored touchdowns on its next two possessions.

Then in the Sugar Bowl, Notre Dame punted on its first two drives before kicking a field goal, punting, and kicking another field goal. The Irish then closed out the first half with a touchdown. And finally, against Penn State, they went punt-interception-punt before getting on the board at the end of the first half with a field goal.

So, to me, it seems pretty clear that the play to make here is “Punt.” Again, at -145, that’s not going to bring you much profit unless you bet it big, but given that Ohio State has not allowed a touchdown in the first 25 minutes of any playoff game thus far, I’d feel fairly comfortable putting some dollar dolla bills, y’all on this one.

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LGHL Visiting Locker Room: The Daily Collegian discusses Penn State women’s basketball

Visiting Locker Room: The Daily Collegian discusses Penn State women’s basketball
ThomasCostello
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


NCAA Womens Basketball: Penn St. at Southern California

Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images

Penn State’s student newspaper takes time to talk a Nittany Lions team with a new focal point with offseason transfers out of University Park

The Penn State Nittany Lions lost a good bit in the personnel department in the offseason. Five-year Nittany Lion star guard Makenna Marisa ran out of eligibility, Ashley Owusu graduated without looking like she did as an All-American at Maryland and both Shay Czeki and Leilani Kapinus transferred to other power conference schools.

So, on Sunday when Ohio State women’s basketball arrives in Happy Valley, it won’t be the same kind of team that Buckeye fans are used to seeing, so Land-Grant Holy Land wanted to learn more from the experts at The Daily Collegian.

Noah Aberegg is the Collegian’s women’s basketball reporter and he talked about the emergence of transfer center Gracie Merkle, a familiar Big Ten name who swapped Michigan State green for Penn State blue, and if the currently winless in conference play Lions have any shot at the 15-team Big Ten Tournament field.



Land-Grant Holy Land: Head coach Carolyn Kieger had Marisa and Czeki for the past two seasons, and the Nittany Lions lived on their shooting, with Kapinus cleaning up rebounds and playing more inside. Now, Kieger’s team seems to focus on Gracie Merkle, the 6-foot-6 center who leads the team in scoring and rebounding. What does Merkle do for this side and how have teams slowed her down?

The Daily Collegian: Makenna Marisa and Shay Ciezki were two of the three leading scorers for the Lady Lions last year. Without them, Leilani Kapinus and a handful of others, there was a lot of uncertainty going into this season.

However, Bellarmine transfer Gracie Merkle was a big name to start the 2024-25 season with her massive 6-foot-6 frame – the tallest Lady Lion in several years. She picked up the slack earlier this season, scoring over 20 points per game and recording seven double-doubles. Her presence was felt immediately by the squad, and she terrorized opposing defenses in the team’s 8-0 start to the season.

Over the past month, however, opposing defenses have found ways to shut her down. In four of the past six games, Merkle has been held to single-digit scoring as compared to double-digits inthe first 12 games of the year.

While her scoring output was impressive to start the season, she has to find a way to get going again late with more aggressive moves under the basket, prioritizing on picks and fast break scoring.

LGHL: A by-product of having that kind of interior presence is Moriah Murray excelling from deep. The sophomore had a lot of guards in front of her last season with the aforementioned leaders of that past side. How has she grown in her role?

TDC: Redshirt sophomore Moriah Murray showed signs of being a star during her first year with the Lady Lions, finishing third on the team in 3-pointers made behind Marisa and Ciezki.

With only four returners, Murray has taken a starting role in all 18 games of the season so far after only one year of experience, leading the nation in 3-pointers through the first month and a half of the season.

The Dunmore, Pennsylvania, native shot only 35.3% from deep in her redshirt freshman campaign, but there were signs that was all in the past as she had five games with over five 3-pointers made early on in the season.

However, that wasn’t just a thing of the past, as Murray’s efficiency began to dwindle as December started, shooting fewer and fewer shots and making even less. Murray’s game has come to a complete stop unless she’s been left wide open – something that hasn’t happened since early on in the season before she was seen as a true threat.

In order to start successfully shooting 3’s again, Murray must evolve her offense, scoring more off screens, getting unique with plays and finding a spark wherever she can.
NCAA Womens Basketball: Penn St. at Maryland
Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

LGHL: Gabby Elliot has not had a chance to really shine in the last three seasons, due to injury. The former Spartan is playing the most minutes of her career starting for the Nittany Lions. How has she filled in gaps left by transfers and graduation?

TDC: Even though she started the season off relatively shaky for the blue and white, Michigan State transfer Gabby Elliott has become a dominant force after season-ending injuries in each of her last three seasons.

After Penn State lost Ashley Owusu and Leilani Kapinus – two strong and dominant attackers – Elliott emerged as a suitable replacement. Although much smaller, Elliott’s toughness and grit has proven herself as an attacker, coming out strong in the past month.

Right around the time Murray’s and Merkle’s productions began shrinking, Elliott has filled the gap, scoring double-digits since conference play started at the end of December.

When the time has mattered most, Elliott has been at her highest. Her personal production has been a comeback this year, and she’s only hoping the team can do the same.
NCAA Womens Basketball: Penn St. at UCLA
Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

LGHL: Penn State is one of the last remaining teams in the conference without a win, but to be fair they’re on a blistering stretch of games right now. They almost pulled out the comeback against the Oregon Ducks but then took the toughest road trip in college sports, going to Los Angeles to play two of the top five teams in the nation. Now they come back home only to get the No. 9 Buckeyes. Do you see Penn State picking up enough wins to earn a spot in the Big Ten tournament, with only 15 of the 18 sides going to Indianapolis? Which games are winnable from here on out for Penn State?

TDC: While Penn State has lost several difficult games, it’s also fallen short in a few games it should have won. Losses against Kansas and Nebraska are inexcusable, especially as a team who was two wins away from a WBIT championship last year.

If the Lady Lions want to play into March, whether it be the Big Ten Tournament or going dancing in the NCAA Tournament, they need to start winning, both the easy games and the hard games.

Starting with their Feb 4 matchup against Washington, the Lady Lions pretty much need to win out. Besides its matchup against Rutgers in January, Penn State will likely fall to Ohio State, Michigan State and Maryland.

From there, they can and should win at least three of the last games of the season, as Rutgers, Purdue and Northwestern all sit without wins in conference play.

Coach Carolyn Kieger can’t put off wins for much longer, but given another two weeks of ranked opponents, Penn State’s postseason aspirations may be more of a dream than a reality this season.

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LGHL Uncut: Jake Diebler after third consecutive close loss, “This is a resilient group.”

Uncut: Jake Diebler after third consecutive close loss, “This is a resilient group.”
Connor Lemons
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


NCAA Basketball: Holiday Hoopsgiving-Ohio State at Auburn

Jordan Godfree-Imagn Images

Mike Woodson also spoke to the media and how he hasn’t heard any of the “outside noise” about his job status.

Throughout the season, Land-Grant will be bringing you uncut audio primarily from Ohio State press conferences, but also from individual interview sessions.

Listen to the episode and subscribe:

Subscribe: RSS | Apple | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio



A little over an hour after Ohio State took its third consecutive loss by two points or fewer, a red-eyed and scratchy-voiced Jake Diebler spoke to the media about his team and the task at hand moving forward.

Diebler said that he does think that his team is resiliency, but that ultimately how resilient they are will show up in the win column in the coming weeks. He also said that he learned Devin Royal — Ohio State’s second-leading scorer — was not going to be available earlier on Friday. He said Ohio State missed his effort and tenacity on the glass.

Micah Parrish also spoke, saying that Ohio State has an opportunity on Tuesday to “show that we can win these types of games” when the Buckeyes go play Purdue at Mackey.

Indiana head coach Mike Woodson also spoke, dismissing criticism of his team’s recent results and saying he does not listen to the outside noise. He pointed to IU’s 14-5 record and said they’ve played “some good ball.”



Connect with Connor:
Twitter:
@lemons_connor

Theme music provided by www.bensound.com


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Google They shared a name and a spirit to fight. Now, Ohio State’s Jack Sawyer wears ‘JBS Strong’ - The Columbus Dispatch

They shared a name and a spirit to fight. Now, Ohio State’s Jack Sawyer wears ‘JBS Strong’ - The Columbus Dispatch
via Google News using key phrase "Buckeyes".

They shared a name and a spirit to fight. Now, Ohio State’s Jack Sawyer wears ‘JBS Strong’ The Columbus Dispatch

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