Ohio State Basketball Will Face Marquette On Carrier Next Season

Matta will bring the intensity to the sea

Word started about two days ago that the Buckeye basketball team was looking to play against Marquette on an aircraft carrier (a la North Carolina-Michigan State) when the new season started. 

Now it seems that the Ohio State men’s and women’s basketball teams plan to open their seasons on the same night at the deck of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier in Charleston, S.C as was rumored.

"A contract has been signed for the women’s team to play Notre Dame on Nov. 9 in the Carrier Classic, according to Mike Whalen, founder and managing partner of the nonprofit Morale Entertainment Foundation, the event promoter.

An agreement to match the Ohio State men the same night against Marquette, also on the deck of the USS Yorktown, is close to being completed, said Miechelle Willis, an executive associate athletic director at Ohio State who oversees both basketball programs.

The games will be televised by ESPN networks, Willis added. ESPN.com first reported yesterday that Ohio State and Marquette were negotiating to play the game."

The Carrier Classic made its debut last season when the Michigan State and North Carolina men squared off aboard the USS Carl Vinson in San Diego. This will be the first such women’s game promoted by Morale Entertainment, which conducts overseas tours for American armed forces.

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.

Sports Update

Volleyball. OSU Volleyball is playing well right now. Last Saturday night, I had the honor and pleasure of going to Loyola to watch the 8^th Ranked (at the time) Buckeyes take on the #14 (at the time) Loyola Ramblers play an important MIVA (Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) match. 

Both teams were coming off of losses. OSU lost its first MIVA match of the year at top 10 Lewis while Loyola suffered a defeat at the hand of IPFW (for those of you that are unaware IPFW is a hybrid school. It stands for Indiana Purdue at Fort Wayne, that is a mouthful to say). 

The match started off tight with Loyola taking a 3-1 lead in the first game before OSU stormed back to tie it at 7 all. From that point on OSU turned in a dominant match. Seniors Shawn Sangrey and Mike Berzins (who has a brother who plays for Loyola and one who coaches Loyola) led the Buckeyes with 16 and 11 kills respectively. Sangrey who has numerous awards including player of the week, All-NCAA Tournament as a Junior, and various Academic and All-Conference awards was just totally dominant. 

Monday's Buckeye Bits

Good morning Buckeye fans. It was another long weekend for our Buckeyes as yesterday they fell to Wisconsin for another loss at home this season.

After the Senior Day loss, the Buckeyes look to finish out the regular season with one more match up against Northwestern (at home) and Michigan State (at Michigan State).

Soon after that it's on to tournament madness! Let's get on with the Bits.

NFL Combine Is Surprising, At Least. Former Buckeyes Mike Adams, Michael Brewster, Dan Herron and DeVier Posey completed their work at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis over the weekend.

Adams, produced one of the most disappointing performances, with 19 reps on the bench press to go along with a terrible 5.40 mark in the 40-yard dash, even though it might not mean too much, being an offensive lineman. Brewster put up 29 reps on the bench and clocked a 5.35 40 at 6'2", 312.

Herron clocked a 4.66 in the 40, which is not as good as he was hoping for as a running back.

Posey turned in a 4.50, which doesn't really seem to be accurate in my opinion. Interestingly enough, Posey's unofficial time was a 4.37 40. You have to wonder which is his real true speed.

Friday's Buckeye Bits

Good Friday morning, Buckeye Nation! We're putting a nail in this week, another week without football. Not to worry. By my count, we are merely 57 days away from the Spring Game!

Hoopage News. First, the women's team. Last night was Senior night and Samantha Prahalis wrote one of the final chapters of an outstanding career, playing her last at the Schott. And it was a good one to go out on, with a 25-point thumping of the Gophers.

Prahalis ended the night scoring a school record with 42 points on her own. She hit 15 of 27 shots from the field including 7 of 12 3-pointers, and was 5 for 5 at the line. She also had six rebounds, four assists and three steals before leaving to a standing ovation with 2:27 left after breaking Katie Smith's 1994 record by hitting two free throws.

Friday's Buckeye Bits

Good Friday morning, Buckeye Nation! As we continue to slog our way through another monsoon season here in Seattle Columbus, we inch closer to what has become quite the eagerly awaited holiday around these parts.

No, Ned Ryerson, the day before that...National Signing Day! No new recruits have been picked up in the last day or so, but it doesn't mean that Coach Meyer and his staff haven't been out pounding the pavement.

Bill Sheridan Joins The Crew.  As Ian told you yesterday, Bill Sheridan is the Buckeye's newest coach. Likely leading the DB corps to replace the departed Taver Johnson, Sheridan most recently worked under Tony Sparano with the Miami Dolphins. He did work under Lloyd Carr in Michigan for a few seasons. Let's hope that he gets a new wardrobe quickly.

Women's B-Ball Dominating. The Buckeye women's team did a number on some Hoosiers last night, specifically the number 18. 18 point margin of victory. 18 points for Samantha Prahalis, 18 for Tayler Hill--all in the second half. Good thing her scoring came alive, as the Bucks were down by one at the half.

Thursday's Buckeye Bits

Good morning Buckeye fans! Welcome to your Thursday edition of the Buckeye Bits. Let's jump right in!

Non-Revenue Sports Update. Another week of Buckeye sports in the books. Let’s take a look around campus and see what we have. Let’s take a look at the Men’s Gymnastic team. The top 5 Men’s gymnastic team has had a strong start to the season. In their first meet of the year, they knocked off several top 10 teams and won the prestigious Windy City Invitational. This win secured their #2 ranking. 

However, they couldn’t ride that momentum to a win in their first dual meet of the year, losing in a tight battle to #3 ranked Oklahoma in Columbus. They will try to rebound at the Winter Cup in Las Vegas next week, followed by a dual meet against TSUN on 2/18. The Lady Buckeye Gymnasts are 2-1 on the year and currently ranked #11. They are a tough squad with their only loss coming by less then 1 point. In other sports, the Wrestling team is off to another great start. Already this year they have knocked off perennial super power Iowa, and won the always tough Cliff Keen Invitational. 

The drama has ended.

In what is most likely the last story for Seantrel Henderson's recruiting, today it was told by several sources, including USA Today, that reported that Seantrel Henderson put the ink on his fax, and is headed to USC. The monstrous OL said he had decided on USC about a month ago, and that the only reason he waited was for his ACT scores to go up, so he could attend school. Another reason was that he wanted to hear the verdict on the USC case, which nobody has yet, and we still won't for a couple of months, and obviously his father didn't want to wait that long for his record deal with Snoop Dawg. I really am disappointed in Seantrel, hoping he would maybe pull a Blind Side, throw his dad over the boundaries,  and go to Ohio State. Instead, he decided to go to USC, which has Lane Kiffin, where he cheats, and lies. Also, might want to add that we will leave a college for a better job, even after one year.

As the NFL season is not even close to beginning, I thought I might add some news. The Cincinnati Bengals are currently looking for three key things in the upcoming 2010 NFL Draft. A safety, wide receiver, and tight end. They are reportedly looking at Kurt Coleman, if still available, and Kurt has already said it would be an honor to be drafted by the Bengals. Mardy Gilyard is also being looked at, from Cinncinnati, for the wide receiver spot. I would like to see them check out Jake Ballard, since we all know he a great TE, if used right. If we end up getting 2 of those three, that would be impressive, and we could make this a possible Super Bowl run. Of course, we have a lot of things to work on before we get there, but I think it's a possibility.

Finally, the Woman's basketball team takes on Mississippi State tonight in their NCAA tournament, and we want to wish them the best of luck, as we are all rooting for them hard, and of course, to upset UConn. How sweet would that be??

Time for some High Expectations.

Some reasons for that would be next year's football team, known as the MNC team for tOSU, this year's basketball team, and now, the womens basketball team. All of them this year have won the Big Ten, and the las time that happend was in 2006. In 2006, the three teams won regular season championships with the women going on to win the Big Ten tourney, but the men losing to Iowa in the tournament championship game. The football team, obviously lost to Florida in the BCS Championship game, but that's only happend a couple of times. Now that we've done it again, people want results in trophies other than the Big Ten. For the Women's squad, I think they can go the distance, all the way to the final. There, they will most likely meet the Wo-Mans of UConn. They are undefeated, 30-0, and have beated almost all the teams by 20+. The closest someone has come to beating them has been 8 points. That is truly, reDONKulous. I think that would be not only a huge upset, but good for our women's basketball program as well. You don't see us posting nearly anything on the team, and tBBC posts a post done in the FanPosts, and Eleven Warriors posts mildy on them. That match up would do them some good, get exposure, and most likely get on ESPN.

Setting up for a run?

For Men's basketball, They are getting ready to take on their own Big Ten Tourny, as well as getting ready for some Madness in March. They are vying for a 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, but they need to win out, and have Duke lose 1 or 2 more. As far as Big Ten goes, I think it will end up being a re-match in the final with Michigan State, if the seeding complies. For the NCAA tournament, I see us as Sweet 16 potiental, and then maybe Elite 8. If we go to the Final Four, that would be great, as Evan Turner would really shine, (if he hasn't already, your blind). I would love to see us face off aganist John Wall and the Kentucky Wildcats, because ESPN would probably have a fit over it. The two top contenders for the POY trophy, Turner and Wall, facing off aganist each other. On the note of Turner going to the NBA or not, I can't say. I think he would like to stay here, but he want's the money, and I think he's ready, but will he? I don't know. We will most likely find out after the tourny sometime.

Teamwork will be key in both Tournys.

Both basketball teams are really good this year, and the men's, and even women's exeeded expectations already. Question will be is, can they continue it or not.