WLAX: Rachel Hawes National Player Of Week

Five goals in upset of No. 10 Vanderbilt
Continue reading at Ohio State Women’s Basketball Headline News

WLAX: Hawes National Player Of Week

Five goals in upset of No. 10 Vanderbilt
Continue reading at Ohio State Women’s Basketball Headline News

WLAX: Buckeyes Over No. 10 Vanderbilt 15-13

Hawes keys Senior Day win with five goals
Continue reading at Ohio State Women’s Basketball Headline News

WLAX: Ohio State Finishes Home Slate with Conference Matchup vs. Vanderbilt

Seniors Kristen Gilwee, Libby Graf, Kendall Gysin, Rachel Hawes, Mallory Mayhew and Margaret Prunte will be honored in a ceremony before the match.
Continue reading at Ohio State Women’s Basketball Headline News

Big Ten recruiting nuggets

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg

As national signing day approaches, I'll try to post Big Ten-related information from Tom Luginbill, the national recruiting director for ESPN's Scouts Inc. 

Here's the latest from Luginbill on both 2009 and 2010 recruits. 

Corner Mike Wallace headed to Penn State

Name: Mike Wallace, CB
Wheaton, Md.
Good Counsel H.S.
Scouts Grade: 73
Position Rank: 84

After making an official visit to Penn State over the weekend, defensive back Mike Wallace committed to the Nittany Lions Wednesday night, NittanyNetwork.com's Bill Kurelic reports.

Wallace had scholarship offers from Penn State, New Mexico, Stanford, Army, Maine, New Hampshire and Towson University. However, after landing a scholarship offer from Penn State over the weekend it did not take Wallace long to accept.

"The recruiting process is pretty hard," Wallace said. "But I just felt comfortable at Penn State. God just told me it's the right decision."

Wallace' cousin Terry Killens played linebacker for Penn State in the 1990's.

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Offensive tackle Nolan MacMillan names finalists

Name: Nolan MacMilan, OT
Princeton, N.J.
The Hun School Of Princeton (N.J.)
Scouts Grade: 77

Nolan MacMillan will decide between Boston College, Georgia Tech, Iowa and Virginia, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

He said, "I wouldn't say I have a frontrunner, but things are starting to work themselves out in my mind."

The 6-foot-6 prospect is slated to make his final official visit this weekend to Boston College.

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Sooners right behind Fighting Illini for Hawthorne

Name: Terry Hawthorne, WR
East St. Louis, Ill.
East Saint Louis Sr. H.S.
Scouts Grade: 82
ESPNU150 Rank: 88
Position Rank: 10

Under Armour All-American wide receiver Terry Hawthorne spoke with ESPN affiliate Web site OUInsider.com about the latest regarding his recruitment.

He said, "(Oklahoma is) second right now behind Illinois." Hawthorne added that he's still committed to the Fighting Illini but when asked if he's an Illinois lock, the East St. Louis product responded, "I am not sure. I want to wait and see when I visit there and see how it is."

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Northwestern gains Nevada linebacker

Name: Damien Proby, OLB
Las Vegas, Nev.
Cheyenne H.S.
Scouts Grade: 73
Position Rank: 127

Damien Proby of Cheyenne (Las Vegas, Nev.) is headed to the Wildcats.

The 210-pound linebacker was also offered by Oregon State, San Diego State, UNLV, Washington State, Wyoming and Utah State.

---

Junior Blake Lueders already holding nine offers

Name: Blake Lueders, DE
Zionsville, Ind.
Zionsville Community H.S.

Class of 2010 ESPNU 150 Watch List defensive lineman Blake Lueders has been offered by nine programs, according to his father Dan Lueders.

Boston College, Indiana, Iowa, Northwestern, North Carolina, Purdue, Stanford, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest are already after the Zionsville, Ind., prospect.

Lueders registered 128 total tackles and three sacks as a junior, earning Class 4A All-State recognition.

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Jumping Ship: Who’s leaving early for the NFL?

The good folks at ESPN’s data center have the updates on which college football underclassmen are leaving school in search of huge bags of money a career in the NFL. Here’s the updated list, with a few notable talents highlighted.

Asher Allen CB 5-1 198 Georgia
Chris Baker DT 6-2 298 Hampton
Kenny Britt WR 6-4 215 Rutgers
Eben Britton OT 6-5½ 310 Arizona
Donald Brown RB 5-10 210 Connecticut
Everette Brown DE 6-4 252 Florida State
James Casey TE 6-4 245 Rice
Jeremy Childs WR 6-0 196 Boise State
Glen Coffee RB 6-1 198 Alabama
Austin Collie WR 6-2 206 BYU
Emanuel Cook S 5-10 203 South Carolina
Jared Cook TE 6-5 243 South Carolina
Michael Crabtree WR 6-3 214 Texas Tech
Andrew Davie TE 6-5 266 Arkansas
Nate Davis QB 6-1¾ 217 Ball State
Vontae Davis CB 5-11⅞ 203 Illinois
Josh Freeman QB 6-5½ 238 Kansas State
Shonn Green RB 5-10¾ 233 Iowa
Percy Harvin WR 5-10¾ 187 Florida
Darrius Heyward-Bey WR 6-1⅞ 203 Maryland
P.J. Hill RB 5-11 236 Wisconsin
Greg Isdaner OG 6-4 322 West Virginia
Ricky Jean-Francois DL 6-3 289 LSU
Paul Kruger DE 6-5 265 Utah
Jeremy Maclin WR 6-0 198 Missouri
Sen’Derrick Marks DT 6-0⅞ 289 Auburn
Aaron Maybin DE 6-3½ 250 Penn State
LeSean McCoy RB 5-11 205 Pittsburgh
Gerald McRath LB 6-3 220 Southern Miss
D.J. Moore CB 5-10 184 Vanderbilt
Knowshon Moreno RB 5-10¾ 207 Georgia
Captain Munnerlyn CB 5-9 185 South Carolina
Hakeem Nicks WR 6-1 215 North Carolina
Kevin Ogletree WR 6-2 189 Virginia
Jerraud Powers CB 5-9 191 Auburn
Mark Sanchez QB 6-2½ 225 USC
Andre Smith DT 6-4⅞ 341 Alabama
Sean Smith CB 6-2½ 212 Utah
Matthew Stafford QB 6-2½ 235 Georgia
Brandon Williams DE 6-5 246 Texas Tech
Chris “Beanie” Wells RB 6-1 235 Ohio State

Of course, it’s worth mentioning a few standout players who are not going pro this year:

Tim Tebow, QB, Florida
Sam Bradford, QB, Oklahoma
Colt McCoy, QB, Texas
Jermaine Gresham, TE, Oklahoma
Brandon Spikes, LB, Florida
C.J. Spiller, RB, Clemson
Greg Hardy, DE, Mississippi

Equally notable, FSU S Myron Rolle will leave the Noles, but isn’t going to the NFL… yet. Rolle accepted a Rhodes Scholarship and will study medical anthropology at Oxford. Rolle was expected to be a top 50 or better pick, but will instead look to enter the 2010 NFL draft.

The NFL Draft is scheduled for April 26th and 27th in New York City.

© www.fanblogs.com

Comment on Jumping Ship: Who’s leaving early for the NFL?…

Story By Ohio State Football – Fanblogs.com

Bet your house on Florida, and other things to discuss;

Lots to discuss, wasting no time here…..

Let’s start off with the big event in sports.  Tomorrow night’s BCS National Championship Game, Florida vs. Oklahoma.

There’s only one way to put this.  Bet everything you have on Florida right now.  It’s going to be a massive blowout.  I have about thirty reasons why this will happen, but here’s just the best reasons;

1) The Big 12 has been exposed as EXTREMELY overrated this year

Say what you will about the Big Ten and the ACC and the Big East all sucking, but the Big 12 should be VERY embarrassed with their overexposure and underwhelming bowl performances.

At one point, there were multiple teams from the Big 12 ranked in the Top 10.  It was getting ridiculous, and the AP voters and TV announcers ate it up like Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream.  “Every week is like a bowl game in the Big 12″ they would say.  Bullshit, I say.  They were all pretty average.  Here’s how their bowl games turned out;

Texas 24, Ohio State 21 – In a game that EVERYBODY said would be a 20-point blowout, it took a miracle drive, bad tackling, and some questionable officiating to put Texas in the end zone to win the game.  Somehow along the way, hitting a Longhorn QB in the shoulder pads became a 15-yard penalty.  In the end, the team that cried their eyes out claiming they were robbed out of the title game proved that they did not deserve any titles at all.  Texas went in thinking they would run up the score and pick up some first-place votes found themselves without a TD (and only 3 total points) for the entire first half.

Overrated?  Texas was ranked #1 in the nation at one point this year, Ohio State was given a 9% chance to win the game.  Yes, Texas was overrated.

Ole Miss 47, Texas Tech 34 – Ole Miss is an average SEC team, always finishing in the middle of the pack.  Texas Tech was another team looking to destroy their bowl opponent, this time to prove that they should have gotten in a BCS game.  Mission failed.  Badly.  After getting off to a fast start, the Red Raiders proved that they deserved absolutely nothing when they allowed Ole Miss to go on a 38-7 run and blow out their Big 12 foe.

Overrated?  Texas Tech was ranked #2 in the nation earlier this year.  Ole Miss lost to Vanderbilt and South Carolina…both at home.  Yes, Tech was overrated.

Missouri 30, Northwestern 23 (OT) – Despite the wishes of the Big 12’s most popular brother-sister team (otherwise known as Chase Daniel’s parents), Missouri looked like crap against the Big Ten’s 8th-best pass defense.  Northwestern should have won this game, but some late miscues handed the game to Mizzou.

Overrated?  Missouri was once ranked #3 in the NCAA.  Northwestern lost a game by 35 points this year.  Yes, Missouri was overrated.

Oregon 42, Oklahoma State 31 - Okie State started off fast, but couldn’t maintain themselves against a rushing attack from the Ducks.  Two Oregon players would break the 100-yard mark on their way to 307 yards team rushing.  Oregon also racked up a total of 565 yards aginst Okie State.

Overrated?  Oklahoma State was once ranked #7 in the nation.  Yes, Okie State was overrated.

Nebraska 26, Clemson 21 – In the Gator Bowl, Nebraska was trying to recapture some of their historic greatness, and their prospects were large, playing against a team that only won 7 games in the pathetic ACC….a team so bad, they fired their coach mid-season.  And they barely escaped with the win, when a Tigers TD was overturned by instant review.

Overrated?  Well, Nebraska was never rated.  But they barely beat a bad, bad team.

Kansas 42, Minnesota 21 – The lone bright spot for the conference so far, Kansas doubled up on Minnesota, who were bowling to the shock of everyone not in a Gopher uniform at the start of the season.  As the season wore on, Minnesota’s weak schedule was exposed by the Big Ten, and the regular season ended mercifully with a 55-0 Minny loss.

Overrated?  Kansas was actually ranked as high as #13 this year.  Minny lost a game 55-0.  Yes, Kansas was overrated.

The point of all this is simple – the Big 12 was NOT the meat-grinder that the media told us it was over and over and over again.  Oklahoma’s not ready for this game.

#2) Florida IS ready for this game

A bad performance by Tim Tebow once this year nearly cost Florida a shot, but they came back in a dominating way.  Since their loss in Week 4, they have been unstoppable.  Take a look at this;

• Week 5 – 31-point win against Arkansas
• Week 6 – 30-point win over then-#4 LSU
• Week 7 – 58-point win over bowl-bound Kentucky
• Week 8 – 39-point win over then-#6 Georgia
• Week 9 – 28-point win over bowl-bound Vanderbilt
• Week 10 – 50-point win over bowl-bound and then-#25 South Carolina
• Week 11 – 51-point win over The Citadel
• Week 12 – 30-point win over bowl-bound Florida State
• Week 13 – 11-point win over then-#1 and BCS-Bowl bound Alabama

Yeah, they’re ready.

3) The Heisman Curse

Sam Bradford won the Heisman this year.  Heisman winners usually suck in bowl games, especially National Championships (we know, we know).  Only twice in the past 30 years has the Heisman winner gone on to win a National Championship.  No, Tebow didn’t win it the year Florida took the title (Troy Smith won it).

4) Oklahoma pretty much sucks at BCS bowl games

For all the whining and crying you hear about Ohio State’s recent bowl losses, you just don’t hear those kind of attacks leveled at the Sooners.  And believe me, they’re much worse.  In their last 4 BCS bowls, they are 0-4 and have been blown out more than once.

• 2008 – Lost to West Virginia 48-28
• 2007 – Lost to Boise State 43-42
• 2005 – Lost to USC 55-19
• 2004 – Lost to LSU 21-14

If they make it 0-5, we’d better NEVER hear about our own shortcomings again.  Especially since they’ll have lost two national championships in that time frame.

Convinced?  Call Vegas ASAP.

——————————–

Last night, the Cavaliers overtook the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference when Boston lost.  The Cavs now have the best record in the NBA.

Tonight, the Cavaliers beat the living daylights out of Charlotte, 111-81.  Boston’s loss last night?  It was to that same Charlotte team.

The Celtics come to The Q Friday night.  It should be insaaaaaane!

——————–

Speaking of the Cavaliers game, there were many highlights to go over.  But the best was watching former Michigan Fab-Fiver Juwan Howard get tossed from the game while sitting on the bench.

By the way, did you know that the Fab Five never won a single title in college?  No national titles, no Big Ten titles, nothing.  Just thought I’d mention that.

———————

In the “what the hell” category, Boobie Gibson also got a technical foul tonight.  For having an untucked shirt.  No, I’m not kidding.

———————-

The Cleveland Browns hired their new coach tonight.  Eric Mangini, former Jets coach, and former ball boy for the Browns, will call the plays next year.

Makes sense to me.  Hell, there were CURRENT ball boys that could have done better with the Browns this season.

———————–

Last week, it was announced that Michigan’s only offensive threat, Sam McGuffie, has left Ann Arbor and will enroll at Rice next year.  McGuffie was rumored to have been struggling with depression and on medication.  Being closer to home will be better for the kid.

Also better for him will be not having to deal with decapitation at the hands of Ohio State special teams players.

——————–

Finally, in the most laughable news you’ll ever hear, Michigan Head Coach Rich Rodriquez recently said he has “always taken the approach that you should look at each job as your last.”

Yeah, he actually said that.  With a straight face, no less.

Story By The Buckeye Battle Cry

Texas’ Brown in top form as countdown begins

Posted by ESPN.com’s Adam Rittenberg

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Mack Brown still gets nervous, even if he doesn’t show it. 

When Brown met the media this morning, the Texas head coach recalled a conversation he had with coaching legend Darrell K. Royal about managing anxiety before games. 

	Joe Robbins/Getty Images
	Mack Brown doesn’t see a playoff system coming to college football anytime soon.

“I asked coach Royal once, ‘Did you have trouble sleeping the night before a big game?’” Brown said. “And at Texas they are all big. If you lose one, it gets real big. He said that unless you gag before you brush your teeth on Saturday morning, you are not ready to play.

“I gagged this morning. So I think I’m fine.”

Brown will coach in a BCS bowl for the first time since guiding Texas to the national championship when his team takes the field Monday against No. 10 Ohio State in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl (Fox, 8 p.m. ET). Despite his nerves in front of the bathroom sink, Brown showed none in front of reporters as he discussed Texas’ final preparations for the game. 

Here are some highlights:

• Brown doesn’t see a playoff system coming to college football, but he acknowledged that the impressive wins by USC and Utah strengthen the argument for one. A Texas blowout of Ohio State certainly would add to the playoff push, which Brown certainly advocates. With many coaches supporting a playoff, Brown encouraged media members to continue the fight. And while he covets a playoff, Brown doesn’t want the bowl system to suffer.

“I played at Vanderbilt for two years, and when I saw Vanderbilt kick a last-second field goal to win their first Bowl game since 1955, there will be no team or coaching staff any happier than that Vanderbilt staff was,” Brown said. “We do not need to take that away from college football. It is an exciting time. I see 7-5 teams throwing Gatorade on their coach. At Texas, if we were 7-5, they’d be throwing something on me but it wouldn’t be Gatorade.”

• The Big 12 has been average at best during the bowl season, with Texas Tech and Oklahoma State losing, and a heavily favored Missouri team struggling mightily against Northwestern. But Brown thinks a conference and its teams shouldn’t be evaluated solely on one game, especially a game that might bring lukewarm enthusiasm. 

“We’ve had some teams that weren’t as excited about their game because they didn’t get the draw they wanted and they got disappointed at the end of the year,” Brown said. “That’s the biggest thing in the bowl games: Who has the edge? Who is motivated? Who wants to be there? … If you look at the games and see who wants to be there and who is motivated because none of us have played for a month, I think that usually tells you the story more than anything else.”

• Brown recounted the process of telling his players that they didn’t reach the Big 12 championship game and likely wouldn’t be heading to the national championship in Miami. His first directive was to refrain from commenting publicly about the snub and instead let him do the talking. Rather than allowing the players to learn their fate on TV, Brown and his staff sent text messages minutes before the announcement and then scheduled a team meeting several hours later. In the meeting, Brown explained why Texas was left out (the computer rankings weigh road wins more than neutral-site ones), reiterated that the system is flawed and told players not to start throwing a pity party.

“Some people like it,” Brown said. “It is better than what we had 10 years ago. But in this case, it didn’t work out for you. But one year it didn’t work out for [USC]. One year it didn’t work out for Auburn. In 2004 it worked out for you when you went to the Rose Bowl to play Michigan. Don’t say ‘Oh, poor me’ and don’t say the system was poor to you just this time. It has been poor to a lot of people. This year it was good to Oklahoma instead of us.”

• Texas has tried to strike a balance between fun and serious preparation this week in Arizona. Players were given an 11 p.m. curfew most nights, and Texas hasn’t had any disciplinary infractions. Director of player development Ken Rucker gave the players an added incentive not to mess up.

“[Rucker] said if he smelled any alcohol on them, he would kiss them,” Brown said. “That took care of that. As far as I know, nobody has been kissed by coach Rucker before they went to bed. If you see coach Rucker, only [his wife] Nancy wants to kiss coach Rucker. It is not a group of guys.”

• Like Ohio State’s 28 seniors, Texas’ seniors have made a unique impact on the program and the coaches. Longhorns All-American defensive end Brian Orakpo said Thursday that the team might be closer than the 2005 squad that won a national title. They built that foundation as juniors before the 2007 Holiday Bowl, when they spoke up about helping the coaches maintain the right focus.

“A lot of people say this team will be great next year, and that’s not necessarily true because when you lose some ingredients, like Orakpo and his leadership and what he has meant to this program or Roy Miller,” Brown said. “My experience has been you don’t wave the wand and say we have a lot of good players coming back so it works again. For whatever reason it didn’t work as well for 2006 and [2007], and it’s has worked this year.”

• Brown on the prospect of Ohio State using quarterbacks Terrelle Pryor and Todd Boeckman on the field together: “We hope it works as well as ours. I think ours had five plays for minus-12 yards.”

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The Big Ten has a rough bowl season ahead

The Big Ten Bloggers are currently entering their picks for bowl season, and it’s not pretty.  In only one instance, the Big Ten team is favored to win.  We have our work cut out for us, and as a conference, we could be hurting by the end of the BCS bowls.  Let’s take a look and see what the potential damage is;

Champs Sports Bowl
Saturday, December 27th – 4:30pm
Wisconsin vs. Florida State

The ACC was the most piss-poor conference in all of the NCAA, and FSU lost three times in-conference.  But then again, EVERYBODY lost three times in-conference.  Hell, going 4-4 in the ACC was considered a major accomplishment this season.  10 of the 12 ACC teams finished either 5-3 or 4-4.  Like I said, piss-poor.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin was by far the biggest disappointment of the Big Ten (Michigan fans get a pass because NOBODY expected Wisky to be this bad, at least true college sports fans with brains thought UM would lose 4-7 games).  Wisconsin has been exposed quite a lot this season, and an OT win over Cal Poly is the only reason Badger players aren’t in Madison this very moment.

With such little promise from the players on both sides, this game is going to come down to the coaches.  And very few fans of the sport will give Bret Bielema an edge over Bobby Bowden.

However, I’m putting my faith in PJ Hill.  He was the most overrated RB in the Big Ten over the past two years, but I have a feeling he’s going to show something on Saturday.

Wisconsin 31
Florida State 21

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Alamo Bowl
Monday, December 29th – 8pm
Northwestern vs. Missouri

I like Northwestern, I really do. I think they’ve got a quality team that is rising up in their Big ten status. But any Wildcat fan will tell you, they’re not ready for prime-time, and the Ohio State game shows that every year (save for a disaster 2004). Northwestern has the capability to beat teams in close games, but they cannot put away the truly great squads. Their two best opponents this year (Ohio State and Michigan State) knocked them off by a total of 82-30. They can’t seem to slow down offenses like the ones better schools possess.

Now here comes Chase Daniel and Missouri. They’re averaging over 43 points per game. This could get ugly in a hurry.

Missouri 61
Northwestern 28

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Insight Bowl
Wednesday, December 31st – 5:30pm
Minnesota vs. Kansas

Good lord, look where these two teams were 12 months ago. Kansas was coming off a phenomenal 11-1 season and marching into a BCS Bowl, while Minnesota was looking for a cave to hide in after a 1-11 season.  Both schools have returned to normalcy (as far as their common fates should dictate) and this game actually may be the best match-up of a Big Ten school in bowl season.

The result, in my mind, will depend on which Minnesota team shows up.  But I don’t give the Gophers much credit….their 3 Big Ten wins came against three of the league’s four worst teams, and they closed out the year with a 55-0 ass-handing from Iowa.  Do they bounce back from that, much like they bounced back from their 1-win season in 2007?

I say yes.

Minnesota 27
Kansas 24

—————-

Outback Bowl
Thursday, January 1st – 11am
Iowa vs. South Carolina

If nobody gets arrested or rapes anybody in the next week, Iowa should have a field day in this game. South Carolina’s defense is not going to match up well with the rush attack that Shonn Greene has. He’s been the most consistent RB in the Big Ten this season, and there is nothing in the Cocks’ arsenal that shows any promise of keeping up with him.

Plus, SCs QB is named Smelley, and I really want to see the headline that says “Iowa rejects Smelley, Cocks”

Iowa 45
South Carolina 21

—————–

Capitol One Bowl
Thursday, January 1st – 1pm
Michigan State vs. Georgia

Georgia once held their heads high this season and declared themselves the next national champion, and it was only because they play in the SEC, who seems to think they have a natural right to the title. Then the season started, and the Dawgs just didn’t look too good.

The only two good teams Georgia played (Florida and Alabama) whipped their asses. They even lost to Georgia Tech for good measure. Close wins against a bad Tennessee team and average South Carolina/Vanderbilt teams just don’t cut it.

Meanwhile, Michigan State surprised a lot of teams. They blew it big time against Ohio State and Penn State (BIG time), but they proved a lot to themselves with big wins at Big Brother’s house, and against Iowa.

I’m taking Sparty in the upset….and for one reason only.

Michigan State is THRILLED to be in this game, and Georgia is disappointed in playing Cap One. It’ll show in the two teams demeanor at kickoff.

Michigan State 34
Georgia 27

—————-

Rose Bowl
Thursday, January 1st – 4:30pm
Penn State vs. USC

Short and sweet. My team has played them both. I know who’s better. It ain’t you, Lions.

Plus, when was the last time USC didn’t dominate a bowl game? Other than against the best Texas team ever, USC just plain blows out schools in January.

USC 31
Penn State 14

——————

Fiesta Bowl
Monday, January 5th – 8pm
Ohio State vs. Texas

I’m going to get into this in greater detail later this week, but let me just give a hint now. The Big Twelve does not have anything in the way of a rushing team. Texas has not had to face an RB like Beanie Wells. They are used to defending the pass, and they do not have the necessary skills to stop a bruiser like Beanie.

We may end up in a shootout, and if that’s the case, I like our offense enough to run with the Horns. But it’s going to be a battle. Whoever holds onto the ball better comes away with the win.

Ohio State 41
Texas 38

———–

Oh, and by the way…TCU will win tonight. They’re more motivated, in my opinion.

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Buckeye ladies run over Michigan, 70-50

Scoff if you must for me covering women’s basketball, but there’s probably a few things you know about this blog if you’ve followed it for any length of time¹. First, this is Title IX compliant blog and I find myself (earnestly) interested in the women’s hoops team though I don’t always have the time to follow the team faithfully.  Second, I hate Michigan.  I hate Michigan with every aching muscle in this tired body of mine.  I hate Michigan and will exhaust all avenues of action until that great menace of our time is eventually conquered.

Evidently, our ladies hoops team felt the same way.  Earlier this day in front of a not-so-packed Schottenstein Center crowd of ~4,000 fans², the lady Buckeyes manhandled smited-in-a-gender-neutral-tone Michigan 70-50. The tone for the beatdown was set early into the matchup.  Michigan scored the game’s first 4 points in the game’s first two minutes.  The Buckeyes countered by scoring the next 22 over the next 8 minutes.  Up 22-4, the Buckeyes eventually settled with a 44-22 lead at intermission. With the enemy demoralized at halftime, the ~20pt lead held for a 70-50 victory.  The 22-0 run in question came from some opportunistic defense by the Buckeyes.  During that period, the Buckeyes tallied six steals from Shavelle Little (x2), Star Allen, Samantha Prahalis, Brittany Johnson, and Sarah Schulze.  The team finished with 9 steals for the game.

Jantel Lavender ain’t the lady you mess with, a point made particularly strongly with her performance this game.  Her 28 points (13/19fg) and 8 rebounds were game highs for all players involved in this contest.  11 of those points came in the second half with the Buckeyes principally in cruise control, but they were necessary as she and Ashlee Trebilcock were the only consistent sources of offense for the Buckeyes after intermission.  Trebilcock chipped in 7 second half points, finishing with 16 points for the game.  Trebilcock and Lavender combined for all but 8 of the Buckeyes’ 26 second half points.  Of those 8, 4 points came in the final minutes from reserves with garbage time in full gear.  Further, of those 8, only two came from a field goal (a Prahalis jumper with about 6 minutes left to play).

With the victory in the conference opener, the #17 lady Buckeyes improve to 10-2 overall.  In spite of the great record entering conference play, the tale of the lady Buckeyes seems to mirror the trajectory of the football team: good, but not great.  Great, but not elite.  Whatever terms you want to use, the ladies are consistently good enough to thrive in the Big Ten and enter the NCAA tournament every year.  Yet, it’s just not Tennessee, Stanford or Duke.  The Buckeyes have played 4 marquee games this young season by my measure, though I certainly don’t claim to be an expert on women’s basketball.  Of those 4, the Buckeyes have won 2.  The Buckeyes hosted now 9-2 Syracuse in their third game of the season and won 78-71.  Earlier this month, the Buckeyes traveled to Lincoln, Nebraska and handed the ‘Huskers their third loss of the season, though it was certainly no easy task to do so (see: above point made about Jantel Lavender not being the lady you should mess with).  Both were tournament teams last year.

The losses, however, stick out.  4 days after the Syracuse game, the Buckeyes traveled to Auburn³ and lost to the #10 Tigers in overtime 87-80.  In their biggest matchup of the season, the Buckeyes were smothered all game by #2 North Carolina in front of a home crowd in Columbus.  This doesn’t bode entirely well for what I want to see most from this team: a tournament run in March.  Jim Foster has had great success in Columbus since coming over from Vanderbilt.  Sadly, in spite of some great teams — one that even reached the 30 win plateau — the furthest he’s gone in the tournament with the Buckeyes is the Sweet 16 (with said 30 win team).  Worse yet, the past two seasons have ended in the first round.

Perhaps a strong tournament push is feasible for this year’s Buckeyes, though this team lacks the completeness of the 2005, 2006 and 2007 teams.  After all, this year’s team has who I think is far and away the best conference player (Jantel Lavender, conference leader in points and rebounds).  Samantha Prahalis, the freshman all-everything from New York and probably the most important 2008 recruit in Buckeye athletics not named Terrelle Pryor, could be the difference here.  Presently, she’s struggling with her 3pt shot (2-7 against Michigan, ~35% on the season) and with turning the ball over (6 TOs against Michigan, ~4 a game on the season).  Should the college game slow down for her, this team could be pretty lethal at the end of the season.  With Lavender in the interior, Trebilcock on the outside (~50% from 3) and Prahalis setting it all up, the Buckeyes should have the necessary prerequisites for success.

This might be just my little spiel, but I encourage anyone in and around Columbus who has some spare time and money to burn to attend these games.  If costs prohibit you from following the Buckeyes out to Glendale this winter, it shouldn’t prohibit you from showing up to the Schott and supporting our lady hoopsters.  Of course, I say that right as the Buckeyes take the next 10 days off for the holidays and play their next game on New Year’s Eve against Northwestern (in Evanston).  The next home game is on January 4th as the Buckeyes host 8-4 traditional conference contenders Michigan State.  Tickets never cost more than for these things, and that’s for the lower bowl at the Schott.  Odds are, you can buy a ticket and just “upgrade” during the game.

Show up, make some noise, and cheer on our lady ballers.

1. Most importantly, I need to do something to justify having this shitty blog in the Big Ten Bloggers RSS feed
2. who were making as much noise and fanfare as they do for the men’s team, no doubt…
3. Auburn is an IMPOSSIBLE place to travel to unless you can drive there within a couple hours.  Why the Buckeyes agreed to trek down to Auburn is beyond me.

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