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LGHL You’re Nuts: Where would be your most surprising transfer portal destination?
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You’re Nuts: Where would be your most surprising transfer portal destination?
Brett Ludwiczak via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Ryan Hunt/Getty Images
Your (almost) daily dose of good-natured, Ohio State banter.
Over the weekend news came out that former Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord had decided on where he would be taking his talents after entering the transfer portal earlier this month. After flirting with Nebraska a bit, McCord surprised a lot of people by choosing to move on to Syracuse. By joining the Orange, not only will McCord not have to worry about a competition to win the starting quarterback position, he also will be playing for a head coach with some ties to where McCord grew up, as new Syracuse head coach Fran Brown has ties to Philadelphia and South Jersey.
Since McCord’s transfer destination was to a school that really wasn’t on anyone’s radar, today we figured we would get a little crazy with where we would transfer to if we entered the transfer portal. Not saying that McCord deciding to go to Syracuse was right or wrong, it is just very interesting since it has been a while since the Orange were relevant in college football. In the end, we hope this move turns out to be exactly what McCord was looking for.
Back to the question we posed about where your most surprising transfer portal destination would be. Today’s question doesn’t have to only take into consideration entering the transfer portal in football. Maybe your favorite college sport is basketball, hockey, volleyball, or any other collegiate sport that is played. With limits to your answers being low, there should be a bunch of interesting responses to today’s question!
I don’t know a lot about Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry, but I’m not really basing my decision much on the coaches of the Hokies. What has always stood out to me about Virginia Tech has been its passionate fans and the atmosphere in Blacksburg. I can’t even describe how amped I would be if I was able to run out onto the field at Lane Stadium while “Enter Sandman” by Metallica was blasting over the PA system. I’ve been a Metallica fan for decades so I’ll never pass on an opportunity to jam out to one of their most iconic songs.
Along with a fun setting to play football at, Virginia Tech fans would be great to play in front of. When supporters of the Hokies descended upon Columbus in 2014 for the game between Ohio State and Virginia Tech, fans of the Hokies were pleasant. For some reason since I joined Twitter more than a decade ago, I’ve become friends with a number of Virginia Tech fans, so I’ve always had a soft spot for the Hokies. Can we replace Penn State fans in the Big Ten with Virginia Tech fans since Nittany Lions fans are mostly unbearable?
Even though Virginia Tech isn’t quite what it used to be on the football field, I would relish the challenge of trying to turn them back into a contender in the time I would be there. Since they are in the ACC, it’s not like there are a ton of obstacles in the way of winning the conference. Just look at Louisville, they brought in a new head coach and quarterback this year and made it all the way to the conference championship game.
Don’t worry any Hokie fans reading this, I’m 38 and even if I had any college eligibility, no coach would be interested in bringing me in. Just wanted you to know how much I admire your fan base and atmosphere!
Look, I’m not afraid to get up early or to push myself physically (as I like to remind all of my Instagram followers with regular, fairly pathetic videos from CrossFit classes), but there is just no possible way that I would ever survive four years at a service academy, be it at West Point, Annapolis, the Air Force Academy, the Coast Guard Academy, the Merchant Marine Academy, the Citadel, VMI, or even those uber-intense ROTC programs or whatever they are at Virginia Tech and Texas A&M.
Why you ask? The answer is simple: Math. All of those military academies want you to major in something like engineering or economics or robotics and every single one of those courses of study requires an understanding of math that not only surpasses my brain’s capabilities but exponentially exceeds it... the only problem is that — because it has to do with numbers — I’m not 100% sure that I’m using the term “exponentially” correctly in this context.
Now, I know that you don’t have to major in a numbers-based subject at all of the academies, and the options vary between which one you attend, but they still want you to take those courses and have a basic understanding of how they work, and, friends, that’s just not for me. When I was at Ohio State, I did everything I could to take the bare minimum math and science classes and found any loophole I could to take the least mathy and sciency versions possible.
I certainly want people flying military aircraft to have an advanced understanding of aerospace engineering and for everyone in the Army Corps of Engineers to have years of training in all things civil engineering, but I could take a decade’s worth of classes and I still wouldn’t understand the first page of those textbooks.
So, as I pace my name in the transfer portal, I am open to any school that has a good liberal arts degree track and something that doesn’t require me to use a calculator more advanced than the one that comes on my iPhone when I hold it vertically — because when I turn it sideways, that’s way too complicated for me.
Continue reading...
Brett Ludwiczak via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Ryan Hunt/Getty Images
Your (almost) daily dose of good-natured, Ohio State banter.
Over the weekend news came out that former Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord had decided on where he would be taking his talents after entering the transfer portal earlier this month. After flirting with Nebraska a bit, McCord surprised a lot of people by choosing to move on to Syracuse. By joining the Orange, not only will McCord not have to worry about a competition to win the starting quarterback position, he also will be playing for a head coach with some ties to where McCord grew up, as new Syracuse head coach Fran Brown has ties to Philadelphia and South Jersey.
Since McCord’s transfer destination was to a school that really wasn’t on anyone’s radar, today we figured we would get a little crazy with where we would transfer to if we entered the transfer portal. Not saying that McCord deciding to go to Syracuse was right or wrong, it is just very interesting since it has been a while since the Orange were relevant in college football. In the end, we hope this move turns out to be exactly what McCord was looking for.
Back to the question we posed about where your most surprising transfer portal destination would be. Today’s question doesn’t have to only take into consideration entering the transfer portal in football. Maybe your favorite college sport is basketball, hockey, volleyball, or any other collegiate sport that is played. With limits to your answers being low, there should be a bunch of interesting responses to today’s question!
Today’s question: Where would be your most surprising destination in the transfer portal?
We’d love to hear your choices. Either respond to us on Twitter at @Landgrant33 or leave your choice in the comments.
Brett’s answer: Virginia Tech
I don’t know a lot about Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry, but I’m not really basing my decision much on the coaches of the Hokies. What has always stood out to me about Virginia Tech has been its passionate fans and the atmosphere in Blacksburg. I can’t even describe how amped I would be if I was able to run out onto the field at Lane Stadium while “Enter Sandman” by Metallica was blasting over the PA system. I’ve been a Metallica fan for decades so I’ll never pass on an opportunity to jam out to one of their most iconic songs.
Along with a fun setting to play football at, Virginia Tech fans would be great to play in front of. When supporters of the Hokies descended upon Columbus in 2014 for the game between Ohio State and Virginia Tech, fans of the Hokies were pleasant. For some reason since I joined Twitter more than a decade ago, I’ve become friends with a number of Virginia Tech fans, so I’ve always had a soft spot for the Hokies. Can we replace Penn State fans in the Big Ten with Virginia Tech fans since Nittany Lions fans are mostly unbearable?
Even though Virginia Tech isn’t quite what it used to be on the football field, I would relish the challenge of trying to turn them back into a contender in the time I would be there. Since they are in the ACC, it’s not like there are a ton of obstacles in the way of winning the conference. Just look at Louisville, they brought in a new head coach and quarterback this year and made it all the way to the conference championship game.
Don’t worry any Hokie fans reading this, I’m 38 and even if I had any college eligibility, no coach would be interested in bringing me in. Just wanted you to know how much I admire your fan base and atmosphere!
Matt’s answer: Any service academy
Look, I’m not afraid to get up early or to push myself physically (as I like to remind all of my Instagram followers with regular, fairly pathetic videos from CrossFit classes), but there is just no possible way that I would ever survive four years at a service academy, be it at West Point, Annapolis, the Air Force Academy, the Coast Guard Academy, the Merchant Marine Academy, the Citadel, VMI, or even those uber-intense ROTC programs or whatever they are at Virginia Tech and Texas A&M.
Why you ask? The answer is simple: Math. All of those military academies want you to major in something like engineering or economics or robotics and every single one of those courses of study requires an understanding of math that not only surpasses my brain’s capabilities but exponentially exceeds it... the only problem is that — because it has to do with numbers — I’m not 100% sure that I’m using the term “exponentially” correctly in this context.
Now, I know that you don’t have to major in a numbers-based subject at all of the academies, and the options vary between which one you attend, but they still want you to take those courses and have a basic understanding of how they work, and, friends, that’s just not for me. When I was at Ohio State, I did everything I could to take the bare minimum math and science classes and found any loophole I could to take the least mathy and sciency versions possible.
I certainly want people flying military aircraft to have an advanced understanding of aerospace engineering and for everyone in the Army Corps of Engineers to have years of training in all things civil engineering, but I could take a decade’s worth of classes and I still wouldn’t understand the first page of those textbooks.
So, as I pace my name in the transfer portal, I am open to any school that has a good liberal arts degree track and something that doesn’t require me to use a calculator more advanced than the one that comes on my iPhone when I hold it vertically — because when I turn it sideways, that’s way too complicated for me.
Continue reading...
LGHL Focused, aggressive Jacy Sheldon leading Ohio State women’s basketball into Big Ten play
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Focused, aggressive Jacy Sheldon leading Ohio State women’s basketball into Big Ten play
ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images
The graduate senior is scoring at unseen personal levels in five NCAA seasons
The 2023 offseason for Ohio State women’s basketball featured a lot of talk around the departure of guard Taylor Mikesell, and rightfully so. In two seasons in scarlet and gray, Mikesell was known for scoring and hitting big shots. Leaving the NCAA for professional basketball left the Buckeyes with a scoring deficit, and so far in the 2023-24 season, it’s been guard Jacy Sheldon filling it.
Although, that’s really no surprise because Sheldon’s done this before.
Looking past a bit of recency bias with the play of Mikesell from last season, leading the Buckeyes with 17.2 points per game, the Dublin, Ohio guard’s been the most consistent scorer for the scarlet and gray over the past four years.
During the 2021-22 season, the first with Mikesell as a Buckeye, Sheldon led Ohio State with 19.7 points and 4.2 assists per game. That season included three games where Sheldon scored at least 30 points across 32 games.
This year, Sheldon is arguably better.
“She’s really focused,” said head coach Kevin McGuff following Friday’s win over Belmont University. “She’s playing really aggressively, but within the system, and it’s really producing great results for us right now.”
In the Buckeyes’ 84-55 victory, Sheldon led the Buckeyes with 31 points, her second game in a row scoring at least 30 points. It’s already the third time hitting that milestone in only 12 games of the 23-24 season.
Sheldon’s slid into a Mikesell-like role where she’s become the benefactor of teammate movement and passing.
“We played really well together and once we started swinging it to each other, kind of got things going there in the second half,” Sheldon said.
Ohio State’s best work began in the second quarter. After a slow start where Belmont erased a six-point deficit and turned it into a two-point lead, Sheldon led the way; scoring nine points of the Buckeyes’ 17 points heading into halftime.
Getting the ball to the guard was clear on Friday. Sheldon’s performance included going 5-for-9 from beyond the arc, only the second time in her career that the guard hit at least five in a contest. However, that was only the half of it. Sheldon continued to do what she does best and drove into the paint.
When asked about her offense hitting a new level, Sheldon did what Sheldon does when individual attention comes her way: It’s deflected toward her teammates.
“I talk about our chemistry all the time, but it’s really working itself out,” said Sheldon. “We’re really learning how to play together.”
Sheldon’s led the Buckeyes in scoring in each of the last four games, and around her is a rotating group of teammates picking up baskets. Friday it was fellow graduate senior Celeste Taylor. Outside of the handful of dynamic defensive moments Taylor provides nightly, the Duke transfer had her best scoring game as a Buckeye with 15 points.
Against Penn State on Dec. 10, it was forward Cotie McMahon following Sheldon’s 31 points with a 27-point, eight-rebound, performance of her own. Against UCLA, despite the final outcome not going the Buckeyes’ way, guard/forward Taylor Thierry added 20 points, helping Sheldon and Ohio State almost erase a 22-point deficit in eight minutes.
The scarlet and gray are still improving, and that should be frightening for Big Ten opponents as the full remaining slate of conference games tips off on Dec. 30, in a trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan.
“Still got work to do, which I think is a good thing,” said Sheldon. “We haven’t reached our peak yet and we probably won’t for a while.”
As Ohio State ascends closer to that peak, it’ll be with Sheldon leading the way.
Continue reading...
ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images
The graduate senior is scoring at unseen personal levels in five NCAA seasons
The 2023 offseason for Ohio State women’s basketball featured a lot of talk around the departure of guard Taylor Mikesell, and rightfully so. In two seasons in scarlet and gray, Mikesell was known for scoring and hitting big shots. Leaving the NCAA for professional basketball left the Buckeyes with a scoring deficit, and so far in the 2023-24 season, it’s been guard Jacy Sheldon filling it.
Although, that’s really no surprise because Sheldon’s done this before.
Looking past a bit of recency bias with the play of Mikesell from last season, leading the Buckeyes with 17.2 points per game, the Dublin, Ohio guard’s been the most consistent scorer for the scarlet and gray over the past four years.
During the 2021-22 season, the first with Mikesell as a Buckeye, Sheldon led Ohio State with 19.7 points and 4.2 assists per game. That season included three games where Sheldon scored at least 30 points across 32 games.
This year, Sheldon is arguably better.
“She’s really focused,” said head coach Kevin McGuff following Friday’s win over Belmont University. “She’s playing really aggressively, but within the system, and it’s really producing great results for us right now.”
In the Buckeyes’ 84-55 victory, Sheldon led the Buckeyes with 31 points, her second game in a row scoring at least 30 points. It’s already the third time hitting that milestone in only 12 games of the 23-24 season.
Sheldon’s slid into a Mikesell-like role where she’s become the benefactor of teammate movement and passing.
“We played really well together and once we started swinging it to each other, kind of got things going there in the second half,” Sheldon said.
Ohio State’s best work began in the second quarter. After a slow start where Belmont erased a six-point deficit and turned it into a two-point lead, Sheldon led the way; scoring nine points of the Buckeyes’ 17 points heading into halftime.
Getting the ball to the guard was clear on Friday. Sheldon’s performance included going 5-for-9 from beyond the arc, only the second time in her career that the guard hit at least five in a contest. However, that was only the half of it. Sheldon continued to do what she does best and drove into the paint.
@JacySheldon was on in the first half with 18 points!#GoBucks pic.twitter.com/CN0krtdQZR
— Ohio State WBB (@OhioStateWBB) December 22, 2023
When asked about her offense hitting a new level, Sheldon did what Sheldon does when individual attention comes her way: It’s deflected toward her teammates.
“I talk about our chemistry all the time, but it’s really working itself out,” said Sheldon. “We’re really learning how to play together.”
Sheldon’s led the Buckeyes in scoring in each of the last four games, and around her is a rotating group of teammates picking up baskets. Friday it was fellow graduate senior Celeste Taylor. Outside of the handful of dynamic defensive moments Taylor provides nightly, the Duke transfer had her best scoring game as a Buckeye with 15 points.
Against Penn State on Dec. 10, it was forward Cotie McMahon following Sheldon’s 31 points with a 27-point, eight-rebound, performance of her own. Against UCLA, despite the final outcome not going the Buckeyes’ way, guard/forward Taylor Thierry added 20 points, helping Sheldon and Ohio State almost erase a 22-point deficit in eight minutes.
The scarlet and gray are still improving, and that should be frightening for Big Ten opponents as the full remaining slate of conference games tips off on Dec. 30, in a trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan.
“Still got work to do, which I think is a good thing,” said Sheldon. “We haven’t reached our peak yet and we probably won’t for a while.”
As Ohio State ascends closer to that peak, it’ll be with Sheldon leading the way.
Continue reading...
LGHL You’re Nuts: What Christmas gift would you give the Ohio State women’s basketball team?
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You’re Nuts: What Christmas gift would you give the Ohio State women’s basketball team?
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
Your (almost) daily dose of good-natured, Ohio State banter.
Everybody knows that one of the best parts of being a sports fan is debating and dissecting the most (and least) important questions in the sporting world with your friends. So, we’re bringing that to the pages of LGHL with our favorite head-to-head column: You’re Nuts.
In You’re Nuts, two LGHL staff members will take differing sides of one question and argue their opinions passionately. Then, in the end, it’s up to you to determine who’s right and who’s nuts.
It’s the festive time of the year and that means giving gifts. Ohio State women’s basketball is well known for its ability to take things from opponents, namely steals through a high-intensity press. However, this season the Buckeyes have been generous against its biggest opponents: Giving them opportunities to rebound.
Now, I’d give more rebounding to the group, but that isn’t something that the scarlet and gray have needed over the past two seasons to come away with wins.
Monday night, against the UCLA Bruins, there was a strong likelihood that the away side was going to come out on top in the rebound margin, and they did. After all, the Bruins featured 6-foot-7 center Lauren Betts and four additional players averaging at least five rebounds per game. UCLA outrebounded Ohio State 40-30.
Even so, the Buckeyes were within two possessions at the final whistle. What would have gotten Ohio State the victory? Better shooting.
This offseason, the scarlet and gray were left with a huge hole from beyond the arc with the graduation and move to the professional ranks for guard Taylor Mikesell. The Northeast Ohio native left the NCAA with three seasons leading the Big Ten in made three-point shots and her final season in second (although the 116 made was a career-high in a season, only eclipsed last year by Iowa’s Caitlin Clark). Mikesell’s impact wasn’t only felt on the scoreboard, in the three-point stat line.
No, Mikesell gave everyone more room to move. The shooting gave defenses fits, forcing double-teams on the guard. Mikesell hit the most in a single season with the opposition throwing not only its best defender but often a second to help because of the lightning-quick release.
This isn’t a dig at the Buckeyes today because the players in the 23-24 season have different strengths than Mikesell, in areas where the shooting guard wasn’t the strongest. For example, even though it's a down year hitting shots from deep, Ohio State is second in the conference in stopping opponents from hitting threes. The gift is a few more makes a game.
Currently, Ohio State sits 12th out of 14 Big Ten teams in three-point average, and ninth in makes per game. After the game Monday, against UCLA, Betts spoke with the media and said that the lack of shooting from deep allowed her to play closer to the paint. Playing closer to the paint meant players like guard Jacy Sheldon and forwards Taylor Thierry and Cotie McMahon had less success going to the rim.
McMahon had seven points, and six came from beyond the arc. Sheldon and Thierry, who led the game with 30 and 20 points respectively, scored a combined five from beyond the arc. When those shots were falling, Ohio State was either winning or cutting away at leads.
The more threes go in, the more the defense has to move. The more the defense moves, the more other players have room to maneuver.
This holiday wish is replacing the classic, “You’ll shoot your eye out” with a Buckeyes rendition of, “You’ll shoot the lights out.”
Football? What’s a football?
Far be it for me to disagree with anything Thomas says about the Ohio State women’s basketball team, because not only is he our resident expert, but he is also the best there is at covering the team, but based on my much less expert viewing of the team so far this season, I am asking Santa to slip an elite post player under the tree tonight.
The Buckeyes’ top-rebounder is currently 6-foot wing Taylor Thierry. She heads into Christmas with 73 boards, which is good for only 18th in the conference. Second on the team is 6-foot-1 forward Cotie McMahon, who has 64, outside of the conference’s top 25. As a team, Ohio State ranked 11th in the conference in total rebounding. And I recognize that because of the suffocating style of defense that the Buckeyes play, their opponents don’t get off as many shots as they often do otherwise (OSU has allowed the fourth fewest field goal attempts in the B1G this season), but that doesn’t account for the full rebounding disparity.
As Thomas mentioned above, in the Buckeyes loss to UCLA, they were outrebounded 40-30 by their future conference foe. That is just a few weeks after OSU lost to another soon-to-be B1G colleague as they fell to USC by a score of 83-74. In that game, the Buckeyes lost the rebounding battle 43-28.
Now, I am not saying that Kevin McGuff’s team lost both of those games strictly because they were beaten on the glass, but it certainly feels that there is more causation than correlation there.
So far this season, the Buckeyes are also 11th in the conference in blocked shots, so at the top of my Christmas list for the team is that in 2024, a dominant post presence is developed, whether that is someone currently on the roster like veteran Rebeka Mikulášiková or true-freshman Faith Carson, or if Santa wants to work some of his holiday magic to bypass NCAA rules and gift an All-American center to the team on Christmas morning.
Continue reading...
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
Your (almost) daily dose of good-natured, Ohio State banter.
Everybody knows that one of the best parts of being a sports fan is debating and dissecting the most (and least) important questions in the sporting world with your friends. So, we’re bringing that to the pages of LGHL with our favorite head-to-head column: You’re Nuts.
In You’re Nuts, two LGHL staff members will take differing sides of one question and argue their opinions passionately. Then, in the end, it’s up to you to determine who’s right and who’s nuts.
Today’s Question: What Christmas gift would you give the Ohio State women’s basketball team?
Thomas’ Take: Consistent Three-Point Shooting
It’s the festive time of the year and that means giving gifts. Ohio State women’s basketball is well known for its ability to take things from opponents, namely steals through a high-intensity press. However, this season the Buckeyes have been generous against its biggest opponents: Giving them opportunities to rebound.
Now, I’d give more rebounding to the group, but that isn’t something that the scarlet and gray have needed over the past two seasons to come away with wins.
Monday night, against the UCLA Bruins, there was a strong likelihood that the away side was going to come out on top in the rebound margin, and they did. After all, the Bruins featured 6-foot-7 center Lauren Betts and four additional players averaging at least five rebounds per game. UCLA outrebounded Ohio State 40-30.
Even so, the Buckeyes were within two possessions at the final whistle. What would have gotten Ohio State the victory? Better shooting.
This offseason, the scarlet and gray were left with a huge hole from beyond the arc with the graduation and move to the professional ranks for guard Taylor Mikesell. The Northeast Ohio native left the NCAA with three seasons leading the Big Ten in made three-point shots and her final season in second (although the 116 made was a career-high in a season, only eclipsed last year by Iowa’s Caitlin Clark). Mikesell’s impact wasn’t only felt on the scoreboard, in the three-point stat line.
No, Mikesell gave everyone more room to move. The shooting gave defenses fits, forcing double-teams on the guard. Mikesell hit the most in a single season with the opposition throwing not only its best defender but often a second to help because of the lightning-quick release.
This isn’t a dig at the Buckeyes today because the players in the 23-24 season have different strengths than Mikesell, in areas where the shooting guard wasn’t the strongest. For example, even though it's a down year hitting shots from deep, Ohio State is second in the conference in stopping opponents from hitting threes. The gift is a few more makes a game.
Currently, Ohio State sits 12th out of 14 Big Ten teams in three-point average, and ninth in makes per game. After the game Monday, against UCLA, Betts spoke with the media and said that the lack of shooting from deep allowed her to play closer to the paint. Playing closer to the paint meant players like guard Jacy Sheldon and forwards Taylor Thierry and Cotie McMahon had less success going to the rim.
McMahon had seven points, and six came from beyond the arc. Sheldon and Thierry, who led the game with 30 and 20 points respectively, scored a combined five from beyond the arc. When those shots were falling, Ohio State was either winning or cutting away at leads.
The more threes go in, the more the defense has to move. The more the defense moves, the more other players have room to maneuver.
This holiday wish is replacing the classic, “You’ll shoot your eye out” with a Buckeyes rendition of, “You’ll shoot the lights out.”
Football? What’s a football?
Matt’s Take: A Dominant Post Presence
Far be it for me to disagree with anything Thomas says about the Ohio State women’s basketball team, because not only is he our resident expert, but he is also the best there is at covering the team, but based on my much less expert viewing of the team so far this season, I am asking Santa to slip an elite post player under the tree tonight.
The Buckeyes’ top-rebounder is currently 6-foot wing Taylor Thierry. She heads into Christmas with 73 boards, which is good for only 18th in the conference. Second on the team is 6-foot-1 forward Cotie McMahon, who has 64, outside of the conference’s top 25. As a team, Ohio State ranked 11th in the conference in total rebounding. And I recognize that because of the suffocating style of defense that the Buckeyes play, their opponents don’t get off as many shots as they often do otherwise (OSU has allowed the fourth fewest field goal attempts in the B1G this season), but that doesn’t account for the full rebounding disparity.
As Thomas mentioned above, in the Buckeyes loss to UCLA, they were outrebounded 40-30 by their future conference foe. That is just a few weeks after OSU lost to another soon-to-be B1G colleague as they fell to USC by a score of 83-74. In that game, the Buckeyes lost the rebounding battle 43-28.
Now, I am not saying that Kevin McGuff’s team lost both of those games strictly because they were beaten on the glass, but it certainly feels that there is more causation than correlation there.
So far this season, the Buckeyes are also 11th in the conference in blocked shots, so at the top of my Christmas list for the team is that in 2024, a dominant post presence is developed, whether that is someone currently on the roster like veteran Rebeka Mikulášiková or true-freshman Faith Carson, or if Santa wants to work some of his holiday magic to bypass NCAA rules and gift an All-American center to the team on Christmas morning.
Continue reading...
LGHL Buckeye fans are expecting big things from Devin Brown in the Cotton Bowl
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Buckeye fans are expecting big things from Devin Brown in the Cotton Bowl
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
Even without knowing all of the guys who will be playing, Buckeye Nation is confident in the team’s chances to win.
Throughout the Ohio State football season, we will be asking and answering questions about the team, college football, and anything else on our collective minds of varying degrees of importance. If you have a question that you would like to ask, you can tweet us @LandGrant33 or if you need more than 280 characters, send an email HERE.
As today is Christmas Eve, that means that we are now officially in Cotton Bowl Week, so it’s time to turn our attention from recruiting and the transfer portal back to action actually on the field. So, in the most recent LGHL fan survey, we asked Buckeye Nation for their thoughts on what will happen in Arlington on Friday, Dec. 29. With all of the roster changes, we asked about who will be the Bukeyes’ offensive star against the Missouri Tigers and what the final outcome will be.
Below are their answers, and I threw in my thoughts on the topics as well. So, take a look at what your Buckeye brethren said, and if you want to throw in your two cents, hit up the comments at the bottom of the page.
Check out DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sportsbook partner of SB Nation.
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The quarterback is always going to get the edge in polls like this, but I am still a little bit surprised that Devin Brown won this one. I realize that some of that might be because of the uncertainty that we are all still having around who will and will not be playing in the game, but still. We have seen precious little of Brown this season actually running the offense, so for practically a quarter of the respondents to side with him is telling.
I know that I personally have felt a significant shift in my anticipation of the athletic sophomore standing behind center in recent weeks. Since Kyle McCord entered the transfer portal, we have seen the OSU coaches — and the players — seem to be incredibly excited about the prospect of Brown being the quarterback, and I admit it, I am easily swayed by their opinion. They see him in practice, they know the progress that he has made since his early season quarterback battle.
It seemed fairly obvious to me that Ryan Day and company were working him up to something by having him run the red-zone package in the middle of the season, and I am fairly confident that had he not been injured against Penn State, we would have seen him do far more down the stretch of the season.
So, perhaps that indicates that the coaching staff saw significant growth from him during the season, and maybe that’s why the Buckeyes were essentially inactive in the quarterback transfer portal. All of these tea leaves could indicate that Devin Brown is ready to step up as a deserving starting quarterback and take his rightful spot aside amongst the pantheon of elite Ohio State signal callers ... or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.
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I struggle with this one because we don’t yet know all of the players that Ohio State will have playing in the Cotton Bowl. We learned on Saturday that the leg injury that kept Lathan Ransom out of the last month of the season will prevent him from playing against Mizzou, but what about Marvin Harrison Jr., TreVeyon Henderson, and J.T. Tuimoloau? If any or all of those guys played, that would obviously make a significant difference in terms of how I viewed the final score of this game.
But, since we don’t have those answers as of this writing, I am going to make a guess, based solely on rumors, speculation, and vibes, and say that Marv doesn’t play (and honestly good for him), but Trey and J.T. do (personally, I would be headed to the NFL if I was either of them, but obviously more than happy for them to delay that decision by another week or another year).
So, if that’s the case, I am going to agree with the 43% of survey respondents and say that Ohio State will win by 8 to 14 points. In fact, I will take the Scarlet and Gray by 10, 31-21 (I reserve the right to change that prediction up until we I release our “Tailgate” podcast on the morning of game day).
Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Ohio State fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
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Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
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Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
Even without knowing all of the guys who will be playing, Buckeye Nation is confident in the team’s chances to win.
Throughout the Ohio State football season, we will be asking and answering questions about the team, college football, and anything else on our collective minds of varying degrees of importance. If you have a question that you would like to ask, you can tweet us @LandGrant33 or if you need more than 280 characters, send an email HERE.
As today is Christmas Eve, that means that we are now officially in Cotton Bowl Week, so it’s time to turn our attention from recruiting and the transfer portal back to action actually on the field. So, in the most recent LGHL fan survey, we asked Buckeye Nation for their thoughts on what will happen in Arlington on Friday, Dec. 29. With all of the roster changes, we asked about who will be the Bukeyes’ offensive star against the Missouri Tigers and what the final outcome will be.
Below are their answers, and I threw in my thoughts on the topics as well. So, take a look at what your Buckeye brethren said, and if you want to throw in your two cents, hit up the comments at the bottom of the page.
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Question 1: Who will be the Buckeyes’ offensive star in the Cotton Bowl?
The quarterback is always going to get the edge in polls like this, but I am still a little bit surprised that Devin Brown won this one. I realize that some of that might be because of the uncertainty that we are all still having around who will and will not be playing in the game, but still. We have seen precious little of Brown this season actually running the offense, so for practically a quarter of the respondents to side with him is telling.
I know that I personally have felt a significant shift in my anticipation of the athletic sophomore standing behind center in recent weeks. Since Kyle McCord entered the transfer portal, we have seen the OSU coaches — and the players — seem to be incredibly excited about the prospect of Brown being the quarterback, and I admit it, I am easily swayed by their opinion. They see him in practice, they know the progress that he has made since his early season quarterback battle.
It seemed fairly obvious to me that Ryan Day and company were working him up to something by having him run the red-zone package in the middle of the season, and I am fairly confident that had he not been injured against Penn State, we would have seen him do far more down the stretch of the season.
So, perhaps that indicates that the coaching staff saw significant growth from him during the season, and maybe that’s why the Buckeyes were essentially inactive in the quarterback transfer portal. All of these tea leaves could indicate that Devin Brown is ready to step up as a deserving starting quarterback and take his rightful spot aside amongst the pantheon of elite Ohio State signal callers ... or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.
Question 2: What will be the result of the Cotton Bowl?
I struggle with this one because we don’t yet know all of the players that Ohio State will have playing in the Cotton Bowl. We learned on Saturday that the leg injury that kept Lathan Ransom out of the last month of the season will prevent him from playing against Mizzou, but what about Marvin Harrison Jr., TreVeyon Henderson, and J.T. Tuimoloau? If any or all of those guys played, that would obviously make a significant difference in terms of how I viewed the final score of this game.
But, since we don’t have those answers as of this writing, I am going to make a guess, based solely on rumors, speculation, and vibes, and say that Marv doesn’t play (and honestly good for him), but Trey and J.T. do (personally, I would be headed to the NFL if I was either of them, but obviously more than happy for them to delay that decision by another week or another year).
So, if that’s the case, I am going to agree with the 43% of survey respondents and say that Ohio State will win by 8 to 14 points. In fact, I will take the Scarlet and Gray by 10, 31-21 (I reserve the right to change that prediction up until we I release our “Tailgate” podcast on the morning of game day).
Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Ohio State fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
Continue reading...