• New here? Register here now for access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Plus, stay connected and follow BP on Instagram @buckeyeplanet and Facebook.

LGHL LGHL Uncut Podcast: Justice Sueing, Bruce Thornton, Chris Holtmann discuss Ohio State’s most recent setback

LGHL Uncut Podcast: Justice Sueing, Bruce Thornton, Chris Holtmann discuss Ohio State’s most recent setback
Connor Lemons
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


Ohio State v Michigan

Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Ohio State’s freefall has yet to bottom out.

Throughout the season, Land-Grant Holy Land 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


Following Ohio State’s 77-69 loss to Michigan in Ann Arbor, the media was able to speak with Bruce Thornton, Justice Sueing, and Chris Holtmann about the loss, the losing streak, and what needs to improve to finish the season on a positive note.

Thornton spoke more than Sueing and was asked about the career-high 22 he scored in the loss. Thornton said he felt like he and the team were able to play “more free” than before, but that did not lead to a victory. Sueing insisted that this is a talented team that just keeps coming up a bit short.

Holtmann spoke about his team’s defense — or lack thereof — saying that his team was in a position several times to tie the game or make it a one-possession game and could not. He said there were several stretches of really good play, and the team brought good energy and motivation into this game. Despite that, the Buckeyes were not able to make the final push at any point in this game.



Connect with Connor:
Twitter:
@lemons_connor

Theme music provided by www.bensound.com


Continue reading...

LGHL Ohio State men’s basketball in midst of historically poor run

Ohio State men’s basketball in midst of historically poor run
Michael Citro
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch

Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK

It’s been a quarter century since the last time Ohio State struggled this badly.

The Ohio State’s men’s basketball team has lost nine of its last 10 games, which is the team’s worst run of any form since the 1997-98 season. Things seemed to be going well until this swoon began with a late blown lead over No. 1 Purdue back on Jan. 5. The Buckeyes basically had only to hit free throws to seal the upset win at home, but a turnover deep in their own back court allowed the Boilermakers to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

That painful loss knocked the wheels off the season, and things unraveled quickly. Ohio State entered that game with a 10-3 record, losing only to a good San Diego State team in the Maui Invitational, to Duke on the road, and in overtime against North Carolina at the CBS Sports Classic in New York.

After that loss to the Tar Heels, the Buckeyes reeled off three-straight wins, then let that late lead slip away against the Boilermakers. Ever since, Ohio State has been in free fall, adding four more consecutive losses to the wrong side of the win-loss column after the Purdue defeat, and then getting just the briefest respite with a 93-77 dismantling of Iowa before dropping four more in a row.

The Buckeyes entered the weekend already easily in the worst run of form of the Chris Holtmann era, and then suffered a humiliating lopsided defeat to rival Michigan on Sunday.

Justice Sueing missed an easy shot from just a few feet out late in the first half that would have cut the Wolverines’ lead to just one point, but that miss led to a run that saw Michigan extend its lead to eight. Ohio State ultimately trailed by five at the break after settling for a terrible shot at the buzzer — a contested three from Sueing.

Extended ineffective minutes in the second half by Eugene Brown and Felix Opara allowed Michigan to maintain its lead throughout the second half, and the Buckeyes’ plummet continued with a 77-69 loss in Ann Arbor that wasn’t as close as the final score indicates.

Previously, the worst runs under Holtmann for the Buckeyes were back-to-back seasons with 1-6 stretches in both 2018-19 and 2019-20. Dropping nine of 10 after that start is unacceptable. That Holtmann hasn’t found any combination of lineups or tactics to halt the slide is concerning.

Did Ohio State miss that badly on talent evaluation and recruiting? Is the current roster unteachable or tuning out the instruction being given? Are the coaches failing the players? It is likely some combination of that.

Ohio State’s five consecutive losses prior to the win over Iowa equaled the worst stretch of Holtmann’s OSU tenure. His Buckeyes lost five consecutive games from Jan. 5-23, 2019, and four of those losses were by double figures. These losses have mostly been closer, but that’s only made them more frustrating.

This year’s poor stretch under Holtmann is also worse than any the Buckeyes had in 13 seasons under Thad Matta. One must go back to the Jim O’Brien era to find anything resembling this current run. Ohio State lost six out of seven under O’Brien in his final season from Jan. 4-28, 2004, but even that is better than what this year’s team has done since that late meltdown against the Boilermakers.

To find a worse stretch, you have to go way back to O’Brien’s first year with the Buckeyes in 1997-98, when Ohio State lost 17 consecutive games from Dec. 28 to Feb. 1. That team finished the year losing 19 of its last 20.

The Buckeyes weren’t very good in Randy Ayers’ final season of 1996-97, but they were much better than O’Brien’s first team. Ayers’ final OSU team finished the season with six consecutive losses and lost eight of its last nine games, ending the season with a dreadful 15-17 record. Sitting at 11-12 this year, the Buckeyes have some work to do to be as good as the last Ayers team.

There is a segment of the OSU fanbase that assumes Ohio State’s ceiling is where the team was under Matta — and that Holtmann is a better coach than fans should reasonably expect at the helm of the Buckeyes. I don’t support that viewpoint. While I genuinely like Holtmann as a person, and up to this point as Ohio State’s coach, I’m not sure if this is fixable.

Ohio State shouldn’t take a backseat to anyone in the country, and should be able to compete at a high level in men’s basketball. For many years, Ohio State has been much closer to becoming an elite men’s basketball program than it has been to reverting to what is largely perceived as the mediocrity of the Eldon Miller era.

For the record, Miller had only one losing season in Columbus — his first, when the Buckeyes were 11-16 (6-12 in the B1G) in 1976-77. After that, Miller’s worst season in conference play was 8-10.

Holtmann’s 2022-2023 Buckeyes are below .500 now and don’t seem capable — at the moment, at least — of turning things around and finishing with a winning record, even though there is plenty of time to do so.

Getting back to where this program can and should realistically be, even in a rebuilding year, fans should reasonably be able to expect a winning record. The non-conference schedule is full of beatable teams, and even though the league is a tough one, there’s no reason not to expect the team to be able to compete to the point of being somewhere in the neighborhood of the .500 mark in conference play. This year’s team dropped to 3-9 in the Big Ten this season on Sunday.

When Matta was at the helm, there were good years and rebuilds, but he never allowed things to reach this current nadir, even if his final two seasons were his worst (21-14 in 2015-2016 (11-7 in the B1G) and 17-15 in 2016-2017 (7-11 in the conference)). This year’s team must win half of its remaining games to get to seven league wins. It’s possible, but that’s going to require a new mentality and a lot more execution on the court.

An abnormally poor three-point shooting night against Kentucky in 2011 — for a team that was usually good from the arc — and a 2007 Florida team that had enough talented big men to throw at Greg Oden, absorbing lots of fouls, are likely all that stood between Matta and two national titles at Ohio State. While the Buckeyes are members of a difficult hoops conference, there is precedent that the team can have sustained success at a higher level than it has shown in recent years under Holtmann.

It’s difficult to say where Ohio State’s men’s basketball team would be if it had held on to beat Purdue in early January. It seemed like a club closer to the top of the Big Ten than the bottom, but perhaps this current funk was always coming. It’s not apparent how this team can end the year on a positive, but maybe it has some surprises left to show us.

To my fellow Buckeyes who live where sports gambling is legal, I recommend not betting on it.

Continue reading...

LGHL We’ll talk about this later: The Pro Bowl, a true underdog story

We’ll talk about this later: The Pro Bowl, a true underdog story
Meredith Hein
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


SPORTS-FBN-PROBOWL-FORMAT-LV

Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Your dose of lighthearted takes from this week’s happenings.

Each week, we’ll break down something that happened during the
Ohio State game (and occasionally other games and events) that we’ll be talking about for a while—you know, the silly sideline interactions, the awful announcing and the weird storylines that stick with us for years to come. We’ll also compare each of these happenings to memorable moments in pop culture, because who doesn’t love a good Office reference?

When I was a kid, the Pro Bowl was simply a football scrimmage in Hawaii. There weren’t that many Cleveland Browns players selected, but it was exciting at least to know that some aspect of the organization was working when players were taken. And it was cool to see former Buckeyes head to the Pro Bowl.

Now, the Pro Bowl looks a lot different. The events of the extended weekend included a skills competition, dodgeball and flag football.

The #ProBowlGames Dodgeball Arena

Epic Pro Bowl Dodgeball presented by @BudLight tonight 7pm ET on ESPN! pic.twitter.com/D9nMQtuiRW

— NFL (@NFL) February 2, 2023

There are legitimate reasons for shifting the format. After a grueling 17-week regular season and several more games for players from playoff teams, the last thing anyone wants to do (I’m guessing, having never played professional football) is put on pads and play another game as a reward for a good season. The players might know each other, but they haven’t practiced together. Folks nursing injuries won’t participate. And players from Super Bowl teams won’t make it.

It seemed that years ago, the Pro Bowl tried to straddle the line between incentive and spectacle, which meant it didn’t do either the incentive thing or the spectacle well. Broadcasting a glorified scrimmage at the end of a season when fans are fatigued from the regular season doesn’t generate a lot of excitement, especially as much of the nation is looking ahead to the Super Bowl. And it didn’t feel much like an incentive for the aforementioned reasons (again, speaking as someone who hasn’t played professional football or been selected to a Pro Bowl).

Now, while the events of the last week have been televised and promoted, it seems like there is at least more of the reward factor for being selected to the Pro Bowl other than getting to play in a scrimmage to end the season. From an outsider’s perspective, it feels more social and engaging.

Plus, as we’ve seen over the last year, flag football in particular has been growing in popularity among girls and women — and playing a flag football game as part of the Pro Bowl is one more way to engage more fans.

A lot of new changes with this year’s Pro Bowl but Jets rookie CB Sauce Gardner (@iamSauceGardner) gave me his perspective of new flag football Sunday of Pro Bowl Games and particularly what flag football can do for girls & women.

For @nflnetwork: pic.twitter.com/HuWeiisZkn

— Cameron Wolfe (@CameronWolfe) February 5, 2023

And while I can’t say I’m any more liable to watch the events themselves than I was when it was a scrimmage, it’s been cool to see the social content from the different skills challenges. Plus, who doesn’t want to see highlights of some of the best athletes in the world playing dodgeball with each other?

Saquon with the ELITE dodgeball moves at the Pro Bowl Games

(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/s9InkhEHG1

— Giants Videos (@SNYGiants) February 3, 2023

Continue reading...

LGHL Why is this News? All the articles and tweets Buckeye fans need for February 6, 2023

Why is this News? All the articles and tweets Buckeye fans need for February 6, 2023
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 Basketball: Ohio State at Michigan

Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

All the Buckeye news thats fit to re-print.

Look, we get it. Your days are busy and you don’t have time to read all of the stories and tweets from the three dozen websites dedicated to covering Ohio State athletics, or the 237 Buckeye beat writers churning out hot takes and #content on a daily basis. But that’s ok, that’s what your friends at Land-Grant Holy Land are here for.

Monday through Friday, we’ll be collecting all of the articles, tweets, features, interviews, videos, podcasts, memes, photos, and whatever else we stumble across on the interwebz and putting them in our daily “Why is this News?” article. That way, you’ll have a one-stop shop for all of the most important Buckeye news, jokes, and analysis.

You’re welcome!


For your Earholes...


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


On the Gridiron


How Much Remaining Eligibility Each Ohio State Scholarship Player Has Entering the 2023 Season
Dan Hope, Eleven Warriors

Three goals for Ohio State’s 2024 recruiting efforts
Chip Minnich, Land-Grant Holy Land

How James Laurinaitis will attack role with vision to be ‘best linebackers coach in the country’ (paywall)
Spencer Holbrook, Lettermen Row

Noah deserves nothing but the best:


Trial to begin for two former OSU football players accused of 2020 rape
Jordan Laird, The Columbus Dispatch

College football’s 30 best uniforms ranked ahead of 2023 season
Brad Crawford, 247Sports

This tracks:

Tuf Borland has joined Luke Fickell’s staff at Wisconsin as a graduate assistant. https://t.co/fc33cMRM3p

— Eleven Warriors (@11W) February 3, 2023

On the Hardwood


Ohio State’s nightmare season continues with 77-69 loss to Michigan in Ann Arbor
Connor Lemons, Land-Grant Holy Land

Ohio State plays more freely but still loses at Michigan
Adam Jardy, The Columbus Dispatch

Just talked with Justice Sueing and Bruce Thornton. Interesting point from Thornton: disagreed that the #Buckeyes necessarily played better today but did say they played more freely. Said things have been pretty tight during this streak, which obviously adds to it.

— Adam Jardy (@AdamJardy) February 5, 2023

Ohio State Has No Answer for Hunter Dickinson as Michigan Big Man Outscores Both Buckeye Centers by 20
Griffin Strom, Eleven Warriors

No. 10 Ohio State women fall big to No. 8 Maryland, 90-54
Thomas Costello, Land-Grant Holy Land

Ohio State Suffers Lopsided Loss to Maryland, 90-54, for Fourth Defeat in Five Games Despite Jacy Sheldon’s Return
Dan Hope, Eleven Warriors

Also, it's going to take time to get Jacy Sheldon adjusted back into the lineup, but she's already had moments that shows what Ohio State's been missing.

Leads the Buckeyes with five rebounds too.

— Thomas Costello (@1ThomasCostello) February 5, 2023

Outside the Shoe and Schott


Catching up with where Ohio State’s men’s and women’s hockey teams stand
Brett Ludwiczak, Land-Grant Holy Land

Ohio State Lacrosse Teams Already Seeing Benefits of Finally Having Their Own Stadium Entering 2023 Season
Dan Hope, Eleven Warriors

Wrestling: No. 5 Buckeyes Win at No. 14 Northwestern, 21-12
Ohio State Athletics

The No. 5 Buckeyes earned a 21-12 win at No. 14 Northwestern Sunday with three true freshmen earning wins along the way. For the recap, results and highlights go to:https://t.co/uKNZiQiJHF#GoBucks

— Ohio State Wrestling (@wrestlingbucks) February 5, 2023

Fencing: Ohio State Undefeated at Northwestern Duals
Ohio State Athletics

Women’s Gymnastics: Buckeyes Dominate Longhorns 4-0 in Top-10 Matchup
Ohio State Athletics

Men’s Tennis: Buckeyes Dominate Longhorns 4-0 in Top-10 Matchup
Ohio State Athletics


And now for something completely different...


I am enthusiastic about his sadness, does that count?

Dabo Swinney is ‘sad’ over Clemson fans’ recent lack of enthusiasm https://t.co/ZQGGlUED6b

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) February 4, 2023

Continue reading...

Filter

Back
Top