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LGHL Ohio State men’s and women’s tennis are both dominating right now

Ohio State men’s and women’s tennis are both dominating right now
Megan.Husslein
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


Screen_Shot_2024_02_05_at_2.44.40_PM.0.png

@OhioStateMTEN Twitter

The men are undefeated, while the women have only suffered one loss.

Perhaps no program for the Buckeyes is currently faring better than tennis. Both the men and the women are killing it right now, as the men are ranked No. 1 in the country and the women are No. 12.

Let’s take a bit of a deeper look of how they are getting it done on the court.

Men’s Tennis

@OhioStateMTEN

The men have been unbeatable thus far — literally. They had a nice 4-0 start to the season before ITA Kickoff Weekend Jan. 27-28. The Bucks won both of their matches, which means they advanced to the ITA Indoor Team National Championship this month in New York. This is the 15th time the Buckeyes have advanced to the final site, having previously won the national title in 2014 and 2019.

They also had two HUGE wins this past weekend. First, Ohio State took down No. 3 Virginia in a rematch of last year’s national championship, a 7-0 SWEEP on Friday. They also set a new attendance record of 769, as the line to get into the Ty Tucker Tennis Center spawned an hour before the match started!


Capacity crowd and what and atmosphere!! pic.twitter.com/GAkxKiEPyu

— Ohio State M Tennis (@OhioStateMTEN) February 3, 2024

But, their tough weekend didn’t end Friday, as they had to play against No. 13 Wake Forest on Sunday. The Bucks were standing on business though, and took home a 6-1 victory. The win was the 55th-consecutive home victory for the Buckeyes, and it’s also the seventh-consecutive win over Wake Forest since falling in the 2018 NCAA Championship match.

The men now get a well-earned week of rest before facing No. 2 South Carolina Sunday at noon. If you live in Columbus, I highly recommend going before the Super Bowl — plus, admission is free!

Women’s Tennis

@OhioStateWTEN

The women opened the season as the No. 14 team in the nation, and upset No. 13 Oklahoma in their first match of the year. After that, they fell to No. 5 Oklahoma State, but they have not lost a match since.

As for their ITA Kickoff Weekend, they defeated both Notre Dame and Arizona State to advance to the Indoor Championship as well. However, the women’s championships are held in Seattle, while the men’s is in New York. The women will be playing this weekend.

The player to watch on this team is Irina Cantos Siemers. She is a graduate student and the captain of the Buckeyes, recently being named Big Ten Athlete of the Week. She now has 113 total singles wins, the most in program history.

The women’s team also had a big weekend, as they took down two top-20 opponents. First off, they defeated No. 17 Duke on Friday with a 4-0 sweep. Then, on Sunday, they swept No. 13 UCLA with another 4-0 victory. The win was No. 225 of head coach Melissa Schaub’s coaching career, making her the program’s all-time wins leader.

Tennis has quickly become a more popular sport, both professionally and collegiately. Ohio State has two of the best teams in the country, so I highly recommend you follow along and support them both!

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LGHL I-80 Football Show: Chiefs over Niners in the Super Bowl!

I-80 Football Show: Chiefs over Niners in the Super Bowl!
JordanW330
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


AFC Championship - Kansas City Chiefs v Baltimore Ravens

Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images

In this episode, we discuss NFL and collegiate coaching hires plus Super Bowl predictions.

Welcome to a new episode of Fans First Football Network’s I-80 Football Show. On this show, we travel down I-80 to talk all things Big Ten Football, covering all 18 teams. After every week of action, we will catch you up on all the conference’s games and look ahead at the matchups, storylines, and players you should be paying attention to for the next week. My name is Jordan Williams, and I am joined by my co-host Dante Morgan.

There has been a lot of news, specifically in the NFL, since we last recorded. In the Big Ten, Jim Harbaugh was announced as the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, taking Jesse Minter and Ben Herbert with him. The NFL coaching cycle finished without Bill Belichick landing a job, resulting in his son Steve being offered the defensive coordinator position at the Washington Huskies.

The guys also discuss Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore’s hiring philosophy. Jordan is skeptical that Moore will be able to maintain Michigan’s recent success. We’ve already seen Ryan Day struggle with only promoting internally, and Moore is following that path with his recent picks for most of the positions on his offensive staff.

The Chiefs face the 49ers in the Super Bowl! We’re both on the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes winning back-to-back Super Bowls. Can Kyle Shanahan overcome his struggles in big games and finally win a Lombardi Trophy?



Follow the show on YouTube: @JordanW330

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @I80FootballShow

Connect with us on Twitter: Jordan: @JordanW330 and Dante: @DanteM10216

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Indiana at Ohio State, Tuesday, February 6, 2024, 7 PM ET, Peacock

Buckeyes and Hoosier Meet for 200th Time on Tuesday​

Ohio State vs. Indiana
Date:
February 6, 2024
Time: 7 p.m.
Venue: Value City Arena – Columbus, Ohio
Watch: Peacock

Ohio State is back home to host a pair of home games this week, starting with a Tuesday evening matchup against Indiana. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. and the game will be streamed exclusively on Peacock. Jac Collinsworth and Robbie Hummel will call the action.
  • This will be the 200th all-time meeting between Ohio State and Indiana. Officially, the Hoosiers lead the series 109-84 after taking into account vacated games.
  • The teams met exactly one month ago, on Jan. 6 in Bloomington, and the Hoosiers came away with a 71-65 victory. Indiana built a 10-point lead with less than four minutes to play. A three-pointer by Jamison Battle and four points from Felix Okpara helped cut the deficit to just two at 67-65 with 1:44 left. But Indiana made enough plays down the stretch to hold on. Battle led the Buckeyes with 17 points on 5-of-10 from long range.
  • Ohio State battled Iowa in a back-and-forth game but fell on the road 79-77 last Friday night. Battle led four Buckeyes in double figures with 17 points on 3-of-5 from long range. Big man Felix Okpara tied a career-high with 14 points to go along with a game-high eight rebounds and two blocks. Bruce Thornton also had 14 points and five assists.
  • Thornton leads the country in assist-to-turnover ratio, dishing out 97 assists and committing just 21 turnovers. He has had at least two assists in every game and has had 18 assists and three turnovers over the last four games.
  • Okpara is one of two players in the country (with at least 15 games) to have one or more blocked shots in every game they have played. He is third in the Big Ten and 11th in the country with 52 blocked shots this season.
  • Freshman Devin Royal has come off the bench and provided a start over the past month. He has scored 35 points in roughly 52 minutes of action since Jan. 15 on 14-of-23 (.609) shooting. Royal is coming off of playing a season-high 17:21 at Iowa and finished with nine points and three rebounds.
  • Battle’s shooting 45 percent from long range, which is sixth-best in the country and tops in the Big Ten. The 6-7 forward is also the only Big Ten player on the Julius Erving Award late season watch list.
  • Indiana enters the game having lost four of its last five games, including an 85-71 loss at home to Penn State on Saturday. The Hoosiers are led in scoring by Malik Reneau at 16.0 ppg. Big man Kel’el Ware, who had a solid game against the Buckeyes in Bloomington, is averaging 15.3 points and a team-best 9.5 rebounds per game.
Just sayin': I did see that Ohio State was actually a 6 point favorite over Indiana.

High School Bowl Games

ALL-AMERICAN BOWL NOW ALLOWING JUNIORS TO PARTICIPATE​

The yearly All-American Bowl traditionally reserved for the top high school seniors in the nation to showcase their talents is making a significant change starting with next year’s game.

Per the All-American Bowl, high school juniors will now be allowed to participate in the event in addition to the seniors selected for the game. The change was implemented in hopes that more juniors would announce their commitments during the live broadcast on NBC and to mitigate opt-outs of the bowl from seniors who enroll in their college of choice in December.

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LGHL Ohio State’s tight ends should enjoy a spirited battle in spring practice

Ohio State’s tight ends should enjoy a spirited battle in spring practice
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

Brooke LaValley/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK

One of the most intriguing camp battles might be Cade Stover’s successor as the top guy on the depth chart.

While there seem to be several starting spots already settled heading into spring ball, there are a few positions that are more up for grabs. One such spot will be the starting tight end position.

Of course, there can be more than one “starting” tight end, depending on the personnel group that is sent out onto the field for the first play of the game. Cade Stover was the starter at tight end the last couple of seasons, but Gee Scott Jr. saw the field quite a bit as well, particularly in two tight end sets.

But heading into 2024, with Stover having no more eligibility, the starting spot and the second tight end position in certain sets is an open battle. Scott might seem to have a leg up on the competition, given how much he’s played in the past. However, He hasn’t quite materialized as either the receiver or the blocker from the position just yet — at least not to the level Ryan Day needs.

Stover tied for the second-most receptions on the Buckeyes in 2023, catching 41 passes for 576 yards and five touchdowns. Scott was second among the OSU tight ends last year, but pulled in just 10 receptions for 70 yards and one touchdown. Freshman Jelani Thurman caught two passes for 18 yards this past season.

Thurman looks the part, but can he make the leap and force his way onto the field more this season? That will be the biggest question.

Another question will be where Christian Bennett finds himself in the battle this spring. Bennett was suspended for the 2023 season due to testing positive for a banned substance. That suspension was announced in mid-August of last year. According to Bennett’s statement at the time, the former four-star prospect out of Georgia had been taking a supplement that contained a banned substance. He was ruled ineligible until January 2024.

But the starter might not be one of the Buckeyes’ returning tight ends.

Ohio University transfer Will Kacmarek arrived via the transfer portal and will look to claim the top spot with his willingness (and ability) to block. Kacmarek caught 22 passes last season at Ohio for 243 yards and two touchdowns. He was fourth on the Bobcats in all three of those categories.

Those aren’t eye-popping numbers, but Kacmarek’s value to the Buckeyes will be in helping protect the quarterback, assisting the run game with more effective in-line blocking than Ohio State has seen from the position in a couple of seasons, and springing his teammates with a timely block downfield after the ball has been caught.

So, how will this all shake out by the end of spring? It seems likely that Scott will be named the “starter,” but I expect a lot of Scott and Kacmarek on the field together. The duo can both catch the ball, and the OU transfer will be called upon to help clear the way for his teammates.

However, I don’t think it’s a slam dunk. Thurman is an intriguing athlete and could make some noise in the spring. The competition seems to be between those three and some combination of two of those three will be on the field a lot. Perhaps Bennett can make it a four-way race, but he’ll have to shake off the suspension year.

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