ColumbusSports.com : Your place to stay informed and talk about the sports scene and sports teams in and around Columbus.

BOMBS AWAY:

"If your idea of a good Ohio State basketball game is watching the other team make threes like that lady in California makes babies, then this might be the best Ohio State basketball team in your lifetime."

If your idea of a good Ohio State basketball game is watching the other team make threes like that lady in California makes babies, then this might be the best Ohio State basketball team in your lifetime. Every week some skinny white guy you never heard of steps up and bangs down eight or ten threes. We guard against threes like France guards the homeland. This week it was some guy from Iowa named Bawinkle. This season he has averaged four points a game. Against us he drops in eight threes for a cool twenty-four points. Legends are born from our three point line.

The fact that we are 19-9 (10-9) with the team we have in the conference we play just shows you what a great group of coaches we have. Thad Matta and his assistants spend years recruiting kids so they can come to Ohio State for six months and then crap all over them by bagging for the bucks. Two years ago it was Oden, Connely and Cook, last year it was Kufos and this year it will be Mullens. Everyone says you can't blame them for taking the money. Well, yeah, I can. I'm a fan and a selfish one at that. A great basketball season is more important to me than whether or not Kosta Kufos is riding the bench somewhere pretending to be an NBA player. I say if they come to Ohio State they should have to stay at LEAST two years. When the NBA said you couldn't play for them until after your nineteenth birthday they didn't do the colleges any favors. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, I think they've pretty much ruined college basketball, at least if you follow Ohio State.

So Kufos bags for the bucks. Then Eric Wallace transfers out. Then a walk-on quits when he apparently realizes that not being on a scholarship is probably not worth guarding Dallas Lauderdale in practice every day. That leaves 15 guys on the roster to start the season. Two of those are walk-ons that only play if it is late in the second half and we are up by thirty over Southeast Idaho State. That leaves 13 guys that can actually play Big Ten basketball. But wait, one of them is sitting out the year on a transfer rule and another one is sitting out 12 games because the NCAA didn't like who he knew in Serbia. That leaves 11 guys to start the season. That would include four freshmen, three sophomores, four juniors and no seniors. Nine games into the season the only junior starter, David Lighty, who also happens to be the best player on the team and the Team Captain, breaks a bone in his foot and, as it turned out, is out for the season. Then Noopy Crater has emotional problems and quits the team. Mood swings from one of the doobie brothers? Anyway, Matta didn't beg him to stay and didn't promise him more than the measly 13 minutes a game he was getting so he went off to South Florida where the "grass" is apparently greener. Then the guy that was suspended for 12 games comes in for one game and plays about ten minutes. The next day in practice he blows a knee and is also out for the season.

"So basically, Matta has seven guys that rotate and a couple of bench warmers, and for the most part, they are freshmen and sophomores. And somehow, some way, he is sitting at 19-9 and probably in the NCAA tournament."

That leaves Matta with nine guys. Lauderdale and Mullens share the post and Simmons and Hill share the point. Turner, Diebler and Buford pretty much play the whole game and Madsen and Offutt come in for a couple of minutes a game to give the regulars a much needed break. So basically, Matta has seven guys that rotate and a couple of bench warmers, and for the most part, they are freshmen and sophomores. And somehow, some way, he is sitting at 19-9 and probably in the NCAA tournament. A win this weekend against Northwestern in Columbus would assure the Buckeyes of an invite. Plus he's never coached a season in which he did not win at least 20 games. Come game time Saturday he will have more weight on his shoulders than Dolly Parton's bra straps.

What's the best way to watch the Buckeyes? I ask this because I tend to get a little emotional during Ohio State sporting events. I've kicked the television, thrown things, ranted and raved and spewed lines of curse words that would make a longshoreman blush. I'm not proud of this, but I once ran my own father out of the house during a Rose Bowl game. He left at halftime with some excuse about having something he had to do but my wife has made sure that I know what REALLY drove him away for about 30 years now.

Anyway, as bad as I admit that I am during a football game I am even worse during a basketball game. Every bad pass, every missed lay up, every moving screen, every missed free throw, every time a rebound bounces off of the hands of three Ohio State players and is scooped up by the other team I get into that whole word spewing thing. This is the first year I have been blessed to own a DVR. What a great invention! Now I DVR every game. If the game is scheduled to end at 9:00 I flip to the channel at about 8:50 and they are usually under two minutes. If it is clear we are going to lose I just delete it as I have no desire to watch a game we are going to lose. If it is clear we are going to win I start watching it from the beginning right then. If it could go either way I watch the end and then either delete it or start watching it from the beginning. Wow, the pressure is totally off. When Lauderdale gets called for a moving screen I just chuckle. When Turner makes his famous spin move and leaves the ball behind him or dribbles it off of his leg I just smirk. When Mullens and Lauderdale end the game with one rebound apiece, well, who cares, we're going to win anyway. I know that DVR has added five years to my life.

Sunday will be the last home game which makes it Senior Day. But we have no seniors. So is that like the tree falling in the woods and no one is there to hear it?

Northwestern just knocked off Purdue on their home court so the Buckeyes better be ready Sunday.

"If you're not watching Ohio State women's basketball you should. I know, I know, they don't dunk the ball and they throw bad passes and they run like a bunch of girls. But hey, they win!"

Women's Basketball. If you're not watching Ohio State women's basketball you should. I know, I know, they don't dunk the ball and they throw bad passes and they run like a bunch of girls. But hey, they win! Basketball is what gets us from the meeeshitagin game to the bowl game, from the bowl game to national signing day and from national signing day to spring practice. Why not double your fun? If you just watch men's basketball you might get to see 30 to 35 games. If you add in the ladies you get to see between 60 and 70 games. And they're good. Jantel Lavender was just named Big Ten Player of the Year, Shavelle Little was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and Sammy Prahalis was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Jim Foster was, once again, named Big Ten Coach of the Year. Foster has now won at least 20 games a year 20 years in a row.

The women now stand at 24-5 (15-3) and just won their fifth consecutive Big Ten title. As the number one seed they get a bye on Thursday and play Friday in the Big Ten Tournament. Foster's only disappointment at Ohio State is how his teams play in the Big Ten Tournament and The NCAA's. I think that changes this year. Sammy Prahalis has changed the face of Ohio State women's basketball. She is fast and smart and makes her team play at a higher level and she won't be leaving for the NBA. She is going to be fun to watch for the next three years.

The Coach

Tags: b.j. mullens, ohio state basketball, thad matta