Tuesday's Buckeye Bits

Good Morning Buckeye fans. Hopefully the disappointment from Saturday is starting to wear off. I'm not the biggest basketball fan on earth but really took that loss to Kansas hard. OSU had more than enough chances to seal the deal and let it slip away in the last minute.

A final four appearance is nothing to laugh at but the thought of "what could have been" will be sticking around for awhile. Anyway, off to the bits.

Matta feels the heat- This story in the dispatch gave a clear indication of the disappointment in Thad Matta and the Buckeye's. I think that Thad is starting to feel a little pressure concerning his difficulties in the NCAA tournament. By no means is his job in jeopardy but the masses are getting a little restless. It will be interesting to see how is squad handles a virtually brand new team next season.

More sorrow- This was a well written article but lets face it. It was like twisting the knife in my heart even more. When OSU loses on the gridiron, I tend to go into "media blackout" mode for a few days. For whatever reason, I was seeking out stories today for the basketball bucks. I don't know why. I'm a glutton for punishment apparently.

Tuesday's Buckeye Bits

Good morning fellow Buckeye honks! Welcome to your Tuesday edition of the bits. There is lots going on this week so let's skip my regular "random link" and get right to it shall we?

Hey, I remember him!- All Buckeye fans, and most other fans, know Mark Titus by now. He was a benchwarmer for OSU a few years back but developed a cult-like following for his blog Club Trillion. That cult-like following quickly turned into millions of followers.

 The guy is a blog sensation at this point (if you can be such a thing). He has parlayed that success into a contributing role over at Bill Simmons' Grantland.

Whatever you think of Bill Simmons, Grantland is a good place to stop on your daily internet adventure. I stumbled upon this cool piece by Titus overviewing the first weekend of the tournament. It's pretty funny. Give it a look.


Good Overview- The tournament started out a little slow but picked up as the weekend approached. I know that thoroughly enjoyed watching Michigan go down in ball of flames. That game was quickly followed by another epic collapse as Duke went down at the hands of Lehigh. That was possibly the greatest 15 minutes of sports in the past 2 months for me. Eamonn Brennan had a great first look for this weekends games.

Tuesday's Buckeye Bits

Good morning fellow Buckeye honks! Welcome to yet another addition of Buckeye Bits.

Basketball Fever- It's tournament week! Well, it's the tournament before the real tournament but a tournament nonetheless. It was nice to win the showdown in East Lansing over the weekend but to secure a #1 seed next week, the Buckeyes will probably have to advance to the Big Ten title game.

 They might even have to win it to earn that coveted seed. Oh well. As long as Buford shows up like he did on Sunday, I'm fairly confident that the Buckeye's can make a run this March.

Are you going to the games?- Columbus will once again play host for a portion of the NCAA tournament. Attending one of these is definitely on my bucket list. I'm not sure I can concinve my boss that this is a good reason to call off this year but if your in a better situation, here is where you can find ticket info.

Tuesday's Buckeye Bits

Hello again fellow Buckeye fans. Welcome to another edition of "Buckeye Bit's". We are here to scour the Internet in an effort to pick out some interesting tidbits for you, our loyal reader. Hopefully you find our efforts worthwhile in this barren wasteland we call the offseason. Let's get to it. 

Armageddon? While wasting away at my office on Monday, I came across this scary little article. I am a total space, history and sports buff so anything that falls within those categories quickly catches my eye. What does it have to with the Buckeye's you might ask? 

Hell, I don't know but it's interesting nonetheless. If scientists just found this thing last year, imagine how many other threats exist out there in space. I'm going to need at least 2 championships from Urban before we all die in a hail of asteroids so let's get to it coach! Oh, looks like he has. 

Tuesday's Buckeye Bits

Surprise, Buckeye fans! You've got me again today. We've got a good round of Bits coming your way this morning but I first just wanted you all to take notice of a new house on the market that looks pretty damn nice. If you want to buy me a present for all of my hard work, I would gladly take our coach's former house. Anyways, back on to the task at hand. Let's get on with today's Buckeye Bits!

You Thought That Was The Only House Today? Ramzy over at Eleven Warriors continues to dominate the writing game, this time with a piece on a different view of Ohio State and Michigan. Also, he continues the house-theme today, with Tom Brady's super mansion. Also, if you haven't seen the fight of the century, it's way better than anything Pacquiao and Mayweather could do.

"The reason that Michigan has been isolated instead of, say, Northwestern (most Wildcats, like Buckeyes, are Communications majors) is because with Rich Rodriguez no longer in Ann Arbor, Michigan is back to recruiting the same players as Ohio State once again. There simply is no offseason in college football's greatest rivalry.

The likely reverberation will be Michigan coaches having to explain, again, why so many of its players end up as General Studies majors. It's an extremely answerable question that passes the red-face test without any challenges. That's not really the intent, though. This is a simple, short-attention span rebuttal to Michigan's value proposition."

To echo Ramzy, this rivalry really doesn't have an offseason. Let the hate flow.

Tuesday's Buckeye Bits

Welcome to your Tuesday version of Buckeye Bits, and Happy Valentines Day Buckeye fans! We are in the midst of what can only be described as a sports apocalypse. Fairly meaningless college basketball, NBA games and the NHL are the only things out there to quench your sporting thirst.

Hopefully these links can get you through another cold February day. I know this is the only thing getting me through another horrible February. I hopped on a plane last year to check out the Tribe in Arizona. I highly recommend checking out your team during the Spring some day if you get the chance. Just make sure you bulk up on the sunscreen if you head to warmer climates. I learned that lesson the hard way last year.

Anniversary Of A Legend. As you may or may not know, today is a special day in Buckeye lore. The anniversary of Wayne Woodrow Hayes birthday has been reached. During his 28 seasons as the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes football program, Hayes's teams won five national championships (1954, 1957, 1961, 1968, 1970), captured 13 Big Ten Conference titles, and amassed a record of 205–61–10. Woody also sparked a fire under the belly of what is now arguably one the greatest rivalries in all of sports. He would be 99 years old today, having died in 1987. Happy birthday to one of the greatest coaches in history. You will never be forgotten.

Shooty Hoops- The Buckeyes played an inspired and sloppy game against the Spartans last Saturday in Columbus. I realize it's hard to get up for every game on your schedule but this was the Spartans! The Buckeye's have to give a better showing than that. It's performances like this that have me worried about what may happen in March. There are only a handfull of games left on the schedule to work out the kinks.Let's hope Matta and the boys get serious about this season or they will be watching the Final Four on TV in early April. Here's my go to column at the start of the week for OSU Hoops.

Tuesday's Buckeye Bits

Good morning fellow Buckeye's and welcome to your Tuesday Buckeye Bits.

Super Bowl!!- This past weekend was a sad one as it marked the final football being played until the spring game in April. The Super Bowl lived up to the hype as the game in Indianapolis turned into a thriller at the end. Watching Tom Brady and company lose was pretty satisfying to me. As a Browns fan, I must use the misery of other's as fuel to make it through a football season. Mmmmm, that misery tasted good. I guess we can't expect anything more from a guy who couldn't beat out Drew Henson while in college.

Foot meet your friend Mouth- After the game, his billionaire girlfriend Gisele Bundchen tried to take some heat off her beau as she claimed it was Tom's receivers that let him down all night. Umm, Gisele honey, I don't think that was the right play. If anything that will intensify the heat on your boy toy. People in Boston aren't interested in your "professional" opinion about football. They would've been happy to bitch and moan about the Welker drop but you just threw your family's hat in the ring. I will just sit back and laugh at what becomes of this story in the coming days.

Tuesday's Buckeye Bits

Good morning Buckeye fans. Welcome to your Tuesday Buckeye Bits. Unfortunately we are entering the worst month on the sporting calendar tomorrow. February is the worst.

College basketball is still weeks away from the greatest tournament on earth, the NFL will be coming to a close with this weekend’s super bowl, pitchers and catchers are still a couple weeks away from reporting and it’s COLD.

Don’t fret Buckeye fans! I am here to scour the internet in hopes of finding some interesting tidbits for you to read. Let’s get to it.

Buckeyes continue their hot streak- National signing day is only a few days away and the Buckeyes continue to pull in the blue chippers. The latest commit was corner Armani Reeves out of West Roxbury, MA. Depending on what recruiting site you look at, Reeves is listed anywhere from the 17th to 8th best corner available. It came down to OSU and Michigan in the end and I think we all know he made the right choice. It probably didn’t hurt that his high school teammate Cam Williams signed on last week but we’ll take them any way we can get them.

Tuesday's Buckeye Bits

Happy Tuesday Buckeye fans! Glad to see you made it through another Monday. I know it’s still the dead of winter but we’re another week closer to Buckeye Football. Sure, we’re still closer to the last game of the 2011 season than the first game of next season but this is my column so leave me alone!

I’m sorry for yelling. As a token of good faith, I give you this. No need to thank me. The increased page views for ITS will suffice. I figured I already crossed into the “creepy old guy” zone last week with my comments about Urban’s daughter so might as well go all in right? Right. OK, enough of that. Let’s get to the bit’s baby!

Wismar: Recruiting Wizard. I often think about attempting to write a recruiting column but the sheer volume of research and pure insanity needed to do it right scares me off every time. The recruiting world is a dark and murky place where obsessive dudes hover over their laptops while perusing YouTube for the latest bits of shaky high school footage. I just can’t be one of those guys. Don’t get me wrong, I love those guys. I just can’t become one if I want to stay married.

There are many good bloggers out there with their finger on the pulse of this niche area of college football but none better than Dan Wismar over at The Cleveland Fan. The guy wrote a great piece the other day detailing the amazing turn around for the 2012 recruiting class. His writing is succinct, easy to read and has loads of information. If you can get past the serial killer profile picture (I kid Dan, I kid), I recommend you check out his stuff on a regular basis.

Tuesday's Buckeye Bits

So many Bits..

Welcome to your Tuesday morning Buckeye Bits here at ITS. During the painfully long College football offseason things can get pretty slow. 

The mythical national championship has been played with Bama outlasting LSU 21-0. As for non-SEC football, besides recruiting news, there isn’t much to discuss and or argue about until the spring game chatter heats up. Have no fear fellow bucknutters! ITS is here to scour the news wire for you to uncover any interesting tidbits to quench your thirst for Buckeye news (or anything else that we find funny/exciting/interesting). Let’s get to it!

The BCS Is A Joke.  I continually pile on to the current system we have for choosing a national champion every chance I get. I think most would agree that using computers and biased voting is the most un-American selection process out there. Once the current television deal is up, the college football brass will once again sit down and discuss tweaking the format. I guess it is a step in the right direction but there are many roadblocks ahead (cough.. Jim Delany.. cough) before we get the playoff that the nation has been clamoring for. Why can’t these fools see there is even more money to be made from a true playoff? Sigh…