We had our annual Buck Back draft the other day, and I think I gagged big time.
Long-time readers may recall that I play in an alternative approach to NCAA pools called the Buck Back. Rather than trying to forecast the results of every game, eight of us put in eight bucks each, select eight teams in a serpentine draft, and then get $1 — i.e., a buck back — every time one of our teams wins. The Buck Back during March Madness is now a time-honored tradition.
This year the draft was the hardest ever, because it’s impossible to have great confidence that any team is going to do well in the tournament. Every school has struggled at some point during the season, and every team has weaknesses.
I drafted fourth, and I look at my teams and wonder whether I’ll win even a few games, much less break even. My first pick was Indiana, which stumbled to the finish line, and my second pick was Michigan, which also struggled in the last half of the season. Both have talented players, but which teams will show up — the early season world-beaters, or the battered squads that limped home? My third-round pick was Memphis, which plays in one of the weakest conferences in the country, and my fourth selection was Wichita State, which has to start the Tournament against a tough Pitt team. My later round picks — San Diego State, Cincinnati, Montana, and Iona — all are question marks.
So I sit, waiting for the Big Dance to start in earnest tomorrow, and I wonder whether my entire Buck Back draft was a choke. I’ll bet I’m not the only one who feels that way — and I can’t wait for the Tournament to start.
On January 13, however, Ohio State held the high-flying Michigan offense to 53 points and beat the Wolverines in Columbus. Since then, the other coaches in the Big Ten — which some people call the best-scouted league in the country — have tried to exploit the weaknesses first exposed by the Buckeyes. Michigan ended the regular season 25-7 and lost 5 of its last 10 games. Today Michigan got knocked out of the Big Ten Tournament by Wisconsin, losing 69-58. The Wolverines lost even though they held Wisconsin to only 17 points in the first half.
We fans, however, are pining for a weekend game. I enjoy the adrenalin rush the games provide, and I rationalize that the spikes in my blood pressure caused by bad calls from referees during an OSU game probably are good for my system. Every once in a while, you want to make sure that your body can withstand various stresses. Isn’t that what those doctor-supervised stress tests are all about? Getting seriously into a Buckeyes game is just the self-administered version.
It’s not uncommon, apparently, for the lake to create large ice balls during the winter. The ice forms along the shore of the freshwater lake, breaks off, and tumbles back and forth in the waves, growing in size as it does so. The churning action also knocks off the rough edges of the ice and leaves it looking uncannily like a white, smooth, round beach ball. It’s a pretty amazing sight — like white mothballs or marbles along the lakefront, or the round ice cubes you sometimes see at fancy cocktail parties.
Over the past few days, the top three teams in the conference — Indiana, Michigan State, and Michigan — all have lost. Ohio State’s victory over Michigan State on Sunday wasn’t that much of an upset, but Minnesota’s win over top-ranked Indiana last night was a real surprise, and Penn State’s victory tonight over Michigan, in a game in which Michigan frittered away a double-digit lead, is an absolute shocker. Before that game, Penn State hadn’t won a conference game all year. As a result of the upsets, Indiana leads the conference race with three losses, Michigan State and steady Wisconsin are right behind with four losses, and Ohio State and stumbling Michigan are one game farther back.
During most of Thad Matta’s highly successful tenure as the Ohio State coach, the Buckeyes have been at the top of the Big Ten. They’ve dominated the Wolverines and knocked them out of the Big Ten Tournament three years in a row. This year, though, the tables are turned. Michigan is unbeaten and, with Duke’s loss yesterday, will be ranked number 1 in the land if they can beat the Buckeyes today. Ohio State, on the other hand, has seen its offensive struggles continue and isn’t the overwhelming force of the past few years. The Buckeyes got crushed on the road at Illinois and will have to play their best game of the year to beat the Wolverines.
After the game, I was surprised to read some very harsh comments about this simple gesture. Fans of Michigan, Wisconsin, and other schools — many of whom think Ohio State’s domination of the Big Ten conference is the product of a dirty program that skirts the NCAA rules and cheats — depicted the ceremony as Ohio State thumbing its nose at the NCAA and displaying its contempt for the rules and sanctions that ultimately resulted in Jim Tressel’s resignation. I think that is a small, mean-spirited reaction to a desire to honor a storied Ohio State team on the 10th anniversary of its greatest achievement.
I give a lot of credit to Urban Meyer. He took a 6-7 team and turned it around. He got it playing with passion, and he got it to believe in itself. He had a great senior class and good coaches to help him, but Urban Meyer set the tone. Obviously, we hope that he continues to recruit and coach as well as he did this year. If he does, the future for Buckeye Nation is bright.
What’s Michigan Week without a jump into Mirror Lake — the scenic little puddle that OSU students jump into every year before The Game against That Team Up North? Tonight’s the night for the traditional Mirror Lake Jump.
It wasn’t a pretty game offensively. The Buckeye offense was pitiful during the second half, when it had multiple chances to put the game away. The low point came when, with time running out in the fourth quarter, the offense could have salted the game away with one first down — but was unable to pick it up. Wisconsin’s defense was terrific, and never let Braxton Miller shake loose. The Badgers covered the Ohio State receivers like a wet blanket, and Miller often seemed baffled about what to do. Ohio State’s coaching staff had better figure that out, because Michigan will be studying how Wisconsin defended the Buckeyes and will try to follow that approach next week.
The results of pre-conference play were not kind to the teams in the Old Conference. Michigan got pulverized by Alabama and then played badly in a loss to Notre Dame. Wisconsin lost to Oregon State and has struggled mightily against mediocre teams like Utah State and UNLV. Pre-season favorites Michigan State and Nebraska have fallen from the ranks of the unbeaten, with the Spartans getting pounded by Notre Dame and the Cornhuskers dropping a winnable game to UCLA. Iowa, Penn State, and Illinois already have two defeats. Minnesota is undefeated, but hasn’t played anybody. The best team in the conference could be Northwestern, which has knocked off Syracuse, Vanderbilt, and Boston College.
Don’t be swayed by the big plays; for much of the game the Buckeyes looked clueless on offense. Cal outgained the Buckeyes and easily won the time of possession battle. The offensive line isn’t very good right now, and the team seems to be incapable of moving the ball consistently on the ground through a traditional running game. The defense gave up a huge number of big plays and let a previously unknown, unused tailback make them look slow and stupid. The D experienced repeated failures at the most fundamental level — tackling. And the team as a whole played an undisciplined game, full of stupid penalties and cheap, embarrassingly chippy behavior. In short, the game was not a pretty sight for a Buckeyes fan.
