The Ohio State-Kansas game lived up to its billing — a tough slugging match between two heavyweights. Unfortunately for Ohio State (and me), Kansas took the Buckeyes’ best shot and came back strong to win. All credit to the Jayhawks for hustling and scrapping and getting the rebounds and loose balls that allowed them to turn the tide in the second half.
Obviously, I’m sorry that the Buckeyes could not hold their lead and could not make their goal of the national championship game. Their loss, however, does not take away from what has been a wonderful season for the team and its fans. This is a group that battled through adversity and tough stretches and came back to play extremely well down the stretch and in the NCAA Tournament. Much as I would like to have seen the Buckeyes win and get the chance to knock off Kentucky, there is no shame in losing by two points in a hard-fought game to a basketball powerhouse like Kansas.
I’d like to thank William Buford and Jared Sullinger for coming back to play another year, when they could have gone to the NBA and made a lot of money this year instead. I’ve relished watching Aaron Craft play, and Deshaun Thomas develop into a much more well-rounded player, and Lenzelle Smith Jr. make crucial shots when the team needed them most. I’ve enjoyed watching Shannon Scott and Amir Williams and Sam Thompson and catching glimpses of their bright futures. And, I’ve appreciated the hard work of Thad Matta and his coaching staff as they have gotten the team ready to play, game after game.
An evenly matched contest like the one played tonight is a game of inches; the fact that things didn’t bounce the Buckeyes’ way at the end doesn’t detract from a great year. I know it’s tough for the players and coaches, who were hoping for something even more; it will be some time before the sting eases. In the meantime, I just want to say thanks for lots of great basketball, Buckeyes!
A lot has been written about the match-ups in the game. How will Jared Sullinger, who missed the first game between the Buckeyes and Jayhawks in December, fare against shot-blocking center Jeff Withey? Will cat-quick Jayhawk Tyshawn Taylor be able to play his game notwithstanding the suffocating defensive efforts of Aaron Craft? Who will guard the Buckeyes’ versatile Deshaun Thomas, and who will try to stop Jayhawk Elijah Johnson?
I don’t get this criticism, and think this year’s NCAA Tournament demonstrates that Coach Matta can match up with anybody. He has this year’s team motivated and ready to perform, also also has shown a lot of flexibility in how Ohio State has played its opponents. Against Gonzaga, which had a strong 7-footer in the middle, he moved Sullinger around and away from the basket for some uncontested jumpers. Against the fabled Syracuse zone, he changed the positions of Thomas and Sullinger and Ohio State made interior passes that led to some easy baskets; he also recognized that Lenzelle Smith, Jr. was not the focus of Syracuse defensive plans, and in the second half Smith helped to lead the Buckeyes to victory. In every game, Coach Matta and his staff have put the Buckeyes in the position to win — and that is what you want from a coach.
Yesterday I went to lunch with two young female colleagues, one of whom is in her second trimester. They talked about “babymoons,” whether she expected a “push gift,” and other topics that made me feel like I had been dropped into an alternate world where people speak what seems to be English but the words have no meaning.
How else to explain the bizarre story of Jesse Joe Hernandez, who was moments away from being executed in Texas for the murder of a 10-month-old boy he had been babysitting? As Hernandez was being prepared for his lethal injection, was he reflecting on his life or his crime, or contemplating what lies beyond? Nope. Instead, he laughed and smiled looked at the audience of witnesses to the execution and said: “Go Cowboys!” Apparently, the Dallas Cowboys are his favorite team.
Most Americans know of Earl Scruggs’ music through his performance on the theme from The Beverly Hillbillies. Many people beyond a certain age feel pangs of guilt about the fact that they love that rousing ballad about Jed and his discovery of black gold, which is one of the most memorable TV theme songs ever. Scruggs’ unique three-finger picking style helped to make that song iconic, and also introduced a generation of musically curious people to bluegrass music and the joys of songs like Foggy Mountain Breakdown. If you liked the sound track of the movie Bonnie and Clyde, you liked the music of Earl Scruggs.
There’s a lot of buzz in Columbus about the Urban Era. In many ways, he has been very different from Coach Tressel. He seems to be more open to media appearances than Coach Tressel was, he’s a lot more direct in his communications, and he’s not afraid to upset the apple cart and change how things are being done. His overarching focus seems to be on competition, competition, and competition, whether it is in winter conditioning or anything else related to football success, and he’s always thinking of ways he can motivate his players to be more competitive, more focused, and more dedicated to winning. That might mean making players who underperform in conditioning wear a special colored shirt that reflects that status, or it might mean dictating that the underperformers must drink water from a garden hose rather than quaffing chilled Gatorade. For every publicly disclosed motivational tool, there are probably dozens known only to OSU football insiders.
I always say that her choices look good — because, in fact, they always do. The unfortunate reality, however, is that my opinion is without value because I have absolutely no fashion sense. I can’t distinguish between subtle shades of black. I don’t know when — if ever — it’s appropriate to wear plaid. I have no clue which colors “go together” and which colors “clash.” (“Clash” seems like pretty violent imagery for a clothing-related issue, incidentally.) Indeed, I can’t even figure out how to hang up most of Kish’s clothes, what with all of the mysterious straps and outsized or undersized holes, much less express a meaningful view of whether they logically should be worn together.
