Things we take for granted

As I watch all of these bowl games and the teams I picked to win go down faster than a blah blah blah sorority girl something something, I find it frustrating to cheer for these losers. As Ohio State fans, sure our team is far from perfect, but damn there are some things we can at least count on that not everyone gets to.

Examples...

A 39 yard field goal is a chip shot...Not since Stoltz have we held our breathe for simple field goals. Year after year our kickers are almost as reliable as an NFL kicker. I appreciate that.

The ability to stop the run....These teams give up 7 yards a carry but the offenses then insist on passing on 2nd and 3rd and short.

More special teams...Kickoffs that get past the 20. These weak ass kickers keep floating balls to the upbacks.

An intelligent coach...4th and 4 around midfield and Air Force just ran the option. How about Miami's clock management in the last minute of their game? This isn't PS3 (or whatever the kids play now).

A crowd...no one travels better. These empty stands rival those of the WNBA. They must just give away seats at these things.

A respectable mascot who isn't a jackass. 3 words, The Auburn Tiger.

Cornerbacks who aren't white walk-ons...Again, I'm watching you Air Force.

A commercial about our university produced after 1997.

Announcers who know what they're talking about Honestly if that Huard guy says, "Dialed Up" one more time...And did anyone else hear him say Historisticity? I could have sworn I heard him use that "word."


All of those things have frustrated me. Northwestern, "The Smart School" couldn't pick up a blitz or intercept any of those terrible Favre-esh passes.

One little note about our game. I think Tressel, being the underdog, might try some trick plays. Maybe just one or two and no, the reverse on the kickoff return doesn't count.

And now a word from our sponser

Look, I slept with a man in a commercial that will never air on TV. The Dur's acting career is really taking off!

Countdown to the NFL draft

I will not attempt words, you've already heard them...the Bears wouldn't have gone anywhere in the playoffs anyway...They would face the Eagles who they already beat...then Carolina who they should have beaten but blew a lead to, and then either the Falcons, who they blew a lead to in the last 6 seconds, or the Giants who have the task of trying to repeat...yeah, wouldn't have mattered.

So here's my pick...mark my word...

Panthers over the Ravens 28-20. Other teams to watch, the Colts will get another home game as a #5 seed, and the Falcons will be the losing team in the NFC Championship. I also guarentee the opposite of most of my remaining Bowl pick'em.

Sports Video Games And Their Tricks

In my constant failing attempts to get some feedback on this blog I'm inviting your contributions.
I was talking with a friend yesterday about the little tricks or bugs in the old video games. Please feel free to add yours and we'll compile a giant list.

Double Dribble: It was possible to hit a 3 pointer at the top corner of the screen by somehow banking in a running 3.

Tecmo Basketball: Miami Heat, John Sunvold's 3 point % was .996. He was pretty automatic.

Tecmo Bowl: Use Bo Jackson to run backward, get the whole defense to miss and then take off.

Giants "curl route" was impossible to stop.

Bears, could block almost every extra point with left tackle.

Tecmo Super Bowl: Any good nosetackle (Jerry Ball worked best), push down and slide to instant sack on most QB's (not Cunningham though!)

Atari Baseball: With multiple baserunners, do a hit and run, and baserunners will disappear and reappear safely on the next base (this always pissed my brother off).

There's a small start...please add your tricks. I know Elway had some weird one in a game I didn't have.

Perhaps this was the problem...

I'm not sure what the average practice length for a college basketball team is. I would think 2 1/2 to 3 hours maybe? I knew a guy that played for Akron in the 90's and he said the 3 hour practices were more than enough. I just think it's too much time with the same people and can result in burning out. Breaks aren't an option so I expect the practice every day, but today's stats totaled 3 team assists. 3. So on the 18 field goals, 15 were created by something other than the regular offense.
So I go to www.clubtrillion.blogspot.com for some insight as to what the problem may have been today. Again, this is OSU's 12th man writing about what it's like being on the team.

He writes...

We practiced on Christmas Eve from 9 p.m. to about 11:30 p.m. We practiced on Christmas from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. There is no joke in this paragraph. I have sat here for an hour trying to think of a way to make the fact that we practiced for about 4 hours on Christmas funny, and I just can't do it. Let's collectively put this behind us and move on to the next paragraph.

I forgets to make baskets!

Good lord! What the hell was that? Let's go straight to the stats starting with Diebler...and I'm NOT counting his last minute scrub time layup at the end of the game...

Diebler 1-9
Turner 4-17

...and hell, the team was 2-18 on 3's. Hmm, does that stat remind you of a certain important championship game?

Overall 31% from the field today and 10-19, 52% from the line, it's inexcusable. But I'll let the bad game slide. We had the nation's longest winning streak and sometimes I mess up (if you were on earlier you may have noticed how I stuck the wrong blog up here).

Florida State is beating the Badgers (yawn) in a blah blah blah speed, blah blah blah power game. Noteworthy...the SEC officials have screwed up multiple times in this one. Big big screwups, and I'm not even talking about the ignored holding.

So we're pretty much all suck at our picks too. The leaders are 1 game over .500 and I haven't had Internet in 3 days. We'll all get back on track this week.

One last thing I'd like to comment on. Apparently Tressel is going to use Boeckman and Pryor at the same time on certain plays. Now they might not be trick plays, or the main gameplan but why is that little nugget of information FLASHING ACROSS ESPN'S BOTTOM LINE EVER 2 MINUTES! WTF?! KEEP A SECRET! DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT WHEN YOU'RE THE UNDERDOG BUT KEEP IT A FUCKING SECRET, AT LEAST UNTIL YOU MAKE THE TRIP THERE!!! NOW TEXAS HAS 2 MORE WEEKS TO PREPARE AGAINST THIS ONLY CHANCE OF OUTSMARTING THEM!

Suck it and Shut it

If Texas > Texas Christian,
and Texas Christian > Boise State,
Texas >>> Boise State
though it seems Texas will be > or even >> Ohio State that still means
Ohio State > Boise State
Boise State = poop.

That's you Big Ten!

Sparty won at Texas! Minnesota beat Louisville! Purdue has held Curry THE ENTIRE DAVIDSON TEAM SCORELESS! It's 21-0 after 7 minutes. And yes, the announcers have now made 2 football score references. Davidson finally scores and the Purdue fans sarcastically cheer.

What if this Christmas miracle happened--Hear me out...Diebler and Curry somehow crossed paths during a thunderstorm and their shooting abilities switched bodies. I'm just saying Curry is 0-5 right now and Diebler was 11-12 from the free throw line. It's 25-2 after the 2nd TV timeout. Curry misses again, is being shut down by a white guy, and I'm blogging a Purdue game.

Onto other topics. The Bowl Challenge has started and it seems 5 of you women didn't take the time to adjust your confidence points (or did you really know Navy was going to lose?). I think everyone should root for me in the Bowl Challenge. Think about it. 6:00 Sportscenter is pointing out who's at the top of the national challenge scores. "Well it comes down to Florida against Oklahoma, and in your espn.com challenge...It's "GoSooner2009" against...sigh, "Joel Aborts Kittens."

Sorry, Curry is now 1-9 and it's 25-11, Purdue calls a timeout. If they blow this I will take the blame...In fact, I'll call it now. They're going to lose.

At least the Buckeyes won, Michigan seems to be on their way to a win, and Iowa is playing Drake so I can only assume that...nevermind. Stupid Iowa.

I'm switching back over to No Tackle State vs. We have too much shit on our helmets State.

Yet another blog much better than this one...

Ohio State player team member Mark Titus has produced a blog about "The Other Side of College Basketball" and after one entry I've declared it the funniest thing anyone has ever written. (See he makes fun of himself for not playing, etc.)

http://www.clubtrillion.blogspot.com/

I'll see what I can do later on in the season about contacting him. Read it. Now.

You still have a few more days to join...

Go to: http://games.espn.go.com/bowlmania/frontpage

Search for the group name: fighters of the night man
Password: boban

Jack-Fu has also included this link (sound NSFW)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o5-qmdLCbw&feature=related

...to get things stirred up.

This is the first year I'm picking us to lose. Fool me once...fool me twice...our receivers and lines will suck...

I tried to base my picks on the fact that if I'm wrong, I'll be happy that that team at least won. Example, should Penn State somehow win (they won't), I'll be happy about it so losing all those points won't bother me.

The Maggie Simpson of Basketball Teams

I'm in a hotel in Ft. Wayne, Indiana and I've discovered the Big Ten Network for the last 7 minutes of the game against Butler. Apparently we blew a 13 point lead and let Butler cut it to 5. Neither team has lost this season so even at home this is a tough win to get. I'm sick of watching freshman mistakes for the 3rd straight year.

Observations:

Lauderdale just banked in a free throw and then blocked a shot at the other end. His free throws look like Charles Barkley's golf swing.

Turning point, with a 7 point lead we miss the front end of a 1 and 1, give up and offensive rebound on the other end which they convert to a 3 pointer. We're only up 2 now. I haven't seen a game swing like that since the Bears vs. Vikings 99 yard pass.

OK who is this Hayward guy can go ahead and miss at any point. He's 7-8 on 3 pointers which Diebler is rumored to have done once in practice. Again, we blew a 13 point second half lead at home. I'll blame free throw shooting, Hayward having the game of his life, and oh we'll say...Diebler. I want to like him, but seeing as how he's not a freshman, I'll need more from him.

Turner puts us back ahead and will shoot for a 3 point play...and miss again. 15-24 on FT's today...and Hayward finally misses! It's going to come down to free throws, ugh. Lighty misses to put us at 60%. Misses both we're now <60%. Butler refuses to shoot anything but 3's.

Lauderdale to shoot 2...and makes one!...but not both. 3 point lead with a minute. Hayward misses again, we're a basket from putting this one away. Turner misses and we have to prevent them from making a 3 pointer. Do you foul? Do you faceguard Hayward? Do you get Lauderdale the hell out of there?

HE MISSES! BUCKEYES WIN!!! That should bump us up a few more spots before the Big Ten season kicks off.

Time to Prepare

Here's a fun drinking game. Anytime you hear the media say, "Texas will be playing with a chip on their shoulder," drop what you're doing and take a shot. 6:00 a.m. Sportscenter has Mark May blabbing...shot time! Late night Fox Sports playing while you're drifting into sleep, oops, they said it...shot time again.

I'll post more arguments in a blog titled something like "Shut up," or "We know but..." until then, we're going to feel like Notre Dame, the Yankees, etc.

So here's who we root for. Penn State, Oklahoma, Virginia Tech (I'll explain that too if I must) and Utah. Also, anyone other than Teabow to win Heisman.

Other things I enjoyed today...The fact that no one gave USC enough credit though I'll admit they probably deserved more talk. Stoopes answer where he mentioned Texas Tech got screwed too. Brett Favre's Jets starting to show their true colors. The Bears win and some guy named Walter on Houston who saved my fantasy team.

I will also call on Jack-Fu to setup this year's bowl challenge. Let's see if Reader Wise still puts the most confidence points in Ohio State this year.

Not the biggest win in the Big 10 today

Somehow Michigan has defeated Duke 81-73. It's a point for the Big Ten at least. Anywho, the Buckeyes have defeated Notre Dame on the road.

Turner had 28 and was responsible for the win by himself. As I've been known to do, I will list shooting stats by the others.

Diebler...1-7
Simmons...1-8
Lighty...2-10.

A combined 4-25 which is an 8th grade girl-esque 16%.

I don't have ESPN-U so I didn't get to see the game, but I eagerly await the highlights which are sure to be about 10 seconds long after today's football action.
After 2 big road wins against ranked teams we had better be listed in the top 15-20 teams.

Guh

As the Buckeyes tipoff at Miami I had to get ready for a show and head to the shower. It was 2-2. I shaved and took my shower (rinsing and repeating), dried off and went back to the TV. We still had 2, they had 11. Diebler is already 0-2.

Good job team! Way to pull out a big win!