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This is a good time of year to put in a new lawn or clean up the boat or open the pool or go golfing. But if you are obsessed with college football and basketball like I know you are, then this time of year is the black hole of your sporting world. Sure, there are the Cavs and if they actually reach the finals in about July or August you just might turn them on to see who is on this year's team besides LeBron. And there is professional baseball until November if you have absolutely no life and need a nap. And I have no idea what they are doing in hockey, soccer and NASCAR these days because I am already thinking about how many yards Terrelle Pryor will get on that Thursday night opener. And I am already worried about whether Miami will be as good in their first five games as they were last year. And how about those away games at Wisconsin and Iowa? Oh, there are tapes and DVD's of all of the past games but I've already watched all of them about twenty times. I've watched that 42-39 win over meeeshitagin in 2006 so many times that when I get it out my eyes begin to bleed. So I am going to sleep, just wake me up in August.

I have a few thoughts on the Spring game. I think it is neat that 65,000 people showed up in the rain and I think that is neat that there were no injuries. But other than the first quarter and the last minute of the game it was pretty much a ho-hummer with a lot of third string walk-ons banging into each other trying to get their fifteen minutes of fame.

Basketball. What a fun year to follow Buckeye basketball. Ohio State had a team that was picked to be about third or fourth in the Big Ten and maybe have an outside shot at making the NCAA's. They ended up sharing the regular season championship and won the Big Ten tournament championship and had 29 wins. And that was with Evan Turner, the National Player of the Year, out for six games with a broken back. The most exciting moment was certainly when Turner let go of that 37 footer with one tenth of a second left to put one more dagger in the heart of the Wolverettes. That play will be etched in my brain when I go to my grave. Ohio State is so lucky to have Thad Matta as a coach. He loses the college Naismith Award winner and is going to replace him with the high school Naismith Award winner, Jared Sullinger. And Sullinger brings with him the top recruiting class in the country. Wow, just wow, what a coach.

And then there is the other gender. The women's team is as good as anyone in the country during the regular season but can't get past the second round of the NCAA's without being upset by a much lower seeded team. Jim Foster's teams win over thirty games a year, win the Big Ten every year, are loaded with talent and All Americans and somehow go brain dead at the big dance. He will never be fired as long as he is winning Big Ten championships, and shouldn't be. But the fact is, at the end of the year with the whole season on the line, no coach has ever done less with more.

Nis & Nat & Narytane. So, is meeeshitagin a better team since my last newsletter? Well, they did manage to get about 30,000 to attend their Spring game. Of course, that's the only way their fans can go to the stadium and see a win. DickRod absolutely must win eight games this year to remain the head coach. They have eight home games so that helps. The only sure thing is a home game with Massachusetts and that is because its not basketball. Then there are three should wins against UConn, Bowling Green and Indiana but I emphasize "should." There are four more "possible" wins against $Notre Dame, Michigan State, Illinois and Purdue. Don't even think about the other four, home to Iowa, at Penn State, home to Wisconsin and at the Horseshoe against the Buckeyes. Sorry, I just don't see any way they can sweep $ND, MSU, Illinois and Purdue. I'm thinking six or seven wins at best and I don't think that will save his job. Too bad, I like him right where he is.

It seems that Oregon believes that Ohio State may have known the plays they were going to run. Right. Jim Tressel is the kind of guy that would steal a play book or signals to cheat in a Rose Bowl. And Gandhi was a serial killer too. If they think there was some stealing going on they may want to check out their quarterback, Masoli, who was caught and charged with burglary of a frat house. Maybe they think Ohio State knew the plays because they had been playing PAC Ten defenses all year and couldn't explain why their awesome offense could only keep the ball for a total of thirteen minutes.

When Evan Turner canned that 37 footer to beat meeeshitagin Thad Matta was screaming at the scorers table. What was he screaming? "Count it, count it." Letting meeeshitagin think they won the game until the last one tenth of a second is kind of like teasing your little brother with a cookie. Or handing a prisoner his release papers and then pulling them back at the last second. Or pretending to throw the stick for your dog.

Speaking of wolverines, the last known actual living wolverine in the state of Michigan died a couple of weeks ago. With the seasons they've had lately it only seems fit. That's probably what killed it. Maybe they should become the Michigan Skunks. There are plenty of them in their state, they smell as bad as their football program and they won't have to change their helmets.

Did you notice who was missing from the NCAA tournament? North Carolina, UConn, Indiana, Arizona and UCLA. That's like having a trailer park race and not inviting the SEC.

Illinois charges $45 for a football ticket. But this year they are charging $60 for the Ohio State game. I guess they figure if the place is going to be wall to wall scarlet and gray they might as well get top dollar for the top team. That'll just make us kick their ass a little harder.

I noticed when the NCAA's got to the final four that Ohio State had played three of the four and all on their home court.

The NCAA played with the idea of expanding the tournament from 65 to 96 teams. That would have meant over 300 time outs in the first round. They settled on 68 for next year. They will eventually get to that 96 but they have to wait for the technology of printing a readable 96 team bracket to be developed. By the way, I was happy with 64. This is, as always, about money. ESPN was hoping to out bid CBS and needed those extra 32 games aired with about 50 commercials per quarter per game.

Ohio State did not have a player taken in the first three rounds of the NFL draft. That is very unusual. And although it sounds bad, it is really good news. For the first time since 1998 we didn't lose anybody good enough to go in the first three rounds. We are LOADED for 2010. Wait until you see how many get drafted next year. And think about that great defense Ohio State had and none of the seniors were good enough to go early in the draft. At 11-2 and a Big Ten title and a Rose Bowl win I would say Jim Tressel and Jim Heacock did one hell of a coaching job with a very young team. And after 10 years of this Tress still hasn't been elected Big Ten Coach of the Year.

Big Ten expansion. After reading countless articles about this let me give you my humble opinion. The Big Ten is going to expand, the only question is do they go to 12, 14 or 16 teams? Finding five teams that want to join the Big Ten is certainly no problem with the money being generated by the Big Ten Network. Each team received around $22,000,000 last year in TV revenues so teams are already lining up like five year olds at Chucky Cheese. "Gimme,gimme,gimme."

Obviously, the best fit for the conference in terms of geography and academics is Notre Dame. However, a lot of the alumni want to keep their football independence. Of course, that's the same alumni that said Notre Dame would never accept playing in a bowl game that wouldn't improve their end of the season ranking in the top twenty and the same group that said Notre Dame would never red-shirt like the other schools and the same group that insisted on playing the toughest schedule in the country every year. So they have changed when they had to and its time for another big change. Again, in my humble opinion, if they don't join a conference soon they are going to be left behind and the Big Ten is their best option. Now, if they turn down the offer again I say it is time for the Big Ten to move on without them. And I think it would also be time for Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue to take them off of their schedule and play the teams that do join the conference.

So, who will that be? Well, like I said, my first choice is Notre Dame. My second choice would be Nebraska, my third would be Boston College and if the conference went to 16 teams I think Missouri and either Syracuse or Pitt. I think Nebraska and Missouri would open up new areas for the conference and both schools meet all of the qualifications. Add those two geographically with Iowa, and you have a nice grouping in the heartland. Boston College has not been mentioned but if you added them along with Notre Dame you would wrap up the New York and Boston markets. Syracuse would help with that but wouldn't have the impact of Boston College. It will be very interesting to see what shakes out.

The PAC Ten is also talking about expansion and are thought to be looking at Colorado and Utah and Texas. I'm sure the SEC would follow and would be looking at Texas and Texas A&M as well. That would leave the Big Twelve decimated and Oklahoma looking for a spot somewhere. Yes, it will be very interesting to see how all of this filters down.

Well, I'm going to sleep for a couple of months, Go Bucks.

The Coach

Tags: jim tressel, ohio state basketball, ohio state football