The Buckeyes took their Spring Game show on the road to Cincinnati on Saturday, where 37,643 fans watched Braxton Miller lead his Scarlet team to a 31-14 win over the Gray squad at Paul Brown Stadium, in the final spring practice of the season.  

With Ohio Stadium under repair this spring, the staff chose to travel a couple hours down I-71 to spread some Buckeye good will in the state’s southwest corner, and the Queen City responded in kind. (In a similar game going on at the same time in Ann Arbor, OSU’s rivals drew an estimated 18,000 in their home town.)

Much of the fan interest centered on Miller, the Buckeyes’ junior quarterback. The coaches have been talking about the improvement evident this spring in the play of the 2012 Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, and Miller flashed some of it for them on Saturday. He connected on 16 of 25 passing for 217 yards and two touchdown passes, and rushed for a third TD, all while wearing the black, non-contact jersey.

Read more...

I’m getting reports out of Columbus that the Buckeyes team Easter Egg hunt resulted in very few baskets being filled for the first couple hours of the event. Those reports indicate that there was a panicked rush toward the end of the hunt for players to find their eggs and complete the mission, but that they never did quite get the job done and gather all the eggs.

I’m also hearing that despite excellent effort and the ability to see eggs everywhere, PG guard Aaron Craft couldn’t manage to get his eggs in a container all day and when all was said and done Craft had on filled about two of the twelve spaces in  the carton.

It’s the Weekend Wrap.

Read more...

I’ve been watching non-stop college hoops for pretty much the last 80 hours so forgive me if this Weekend Wrap is a little tournament-centric. From the predictable Georgetown and Gonzaga collapses to the Buckeyes heart-stopping win Sunday, the tournament’s first four days didn’t disappoint. Sure, you can tell me how the overall quality of play has regressed over the years given the best and brightest move on to the NBA after just a year in college, but the tournament is about excitement and there is still plenty of it each March.

So let’s talk some Buckeyes, some Aaron Craft and some NCAA Tournament before the calendar and sporting schedule demands something different.

Read more...

Spring football is underway in Columbus and the expectations of Ohio State football are the customary ones. As Urban Meyer begins his second season at OSU, the next game he loses will be his first, and the talk of a second consecutive unbeaten season is everywhere. Which is of course, nuts.

The 2013 schedule is manageable, if not embarrassingly soft on paper, but Buckeye fans anticipating 13-0 (counting a B1G title game win) should remind themselves just how difficult it is to pull off an unbeaten season in today’s game. The Alabama Crimson Tide, supposedly the greatest assemblage of football talent and coaching prowess since the ‘72 Dolphins, couldn’t manage it in either one of their back to back national championship years.

One out of 126 FBS programs went undefeated a year ago.

Read more...

After Urban Meyer’s 2013 recruiting stretch run culminated on national signing day with OSU landing all three of his prime out-of-state targets, Buckeye fans were officially on notice that the game had changed. Could this be the new normal?

Meyer finished with a flourish last year too, when he had only two short months to cap off the 2012 class after agreeing to coach the Buckeyes in late November. But for most of the previous decade, signing day was an anti-climax for Ohio State...with the best players in Ohio long since committed to Columbus, and all too often, OSU finishing second with the blue-chip late-deciders. Well...that stuff is so over.

Ohio State had put together a consensus Top 5 class in the weeks and months leading up to signing day, but when Meyer pulled in Florida wide receiver James Clark, Texas athlete Dontre Wilson, and finally, Georgia safety Vonn Bell at the wire, the experts vaulted the OSU class to the top of the rankings.

Read more...

Coming into Sunday’s game against Michigan State, Ohio State was just 1-7 against top 25 teams this year and in desperate need of a signature win.

The Buckeyes got that win Sunday evening in Columbus, using a 24-5 second-half run to overcome a nine-point deficit in a 68-60 victory over the Spartans.

Aaron Craft was fantastic, scoring a game-high (and career-high) 21 points to go along with six assists for the Buckeyes (20-7, 10-5 Big Ten). He helped Ohio State overcome a rough first half (where they missed 19 of their 29 shots) to shoot a blazing 57 percent from the field in the second half.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo talked about why Craft was so effective getting to the basket, "He beat us every way you could beat us. It was a joint effort. It wasn’t one guy who did not cover those ball screens very well.”

The Buckeyes were able to beat the Spartans despite a lackluster outing from Deshaun Thomas. The Big Ten’s leading scorer was just four of 16 from the field for 14 points, but because of Craft’s aggressiveness, Ohio State found offense outside of Thomas.

Read more...

Coming off consecutive losses to a pair of top-five teams in Michigan and Indiana last week, the No. 13 Ohio State Buckeyes were supposed to have an easy bounce-back game against the Northwestern Wildcats Thursday night.

Despite playing in front of its home crowd and facing an overmatched opponent with just seven healthy scholarship players, Ohio State struggled mightily against Northwestern. The Wildcats had the Buckeyes on the ropes for much of the game before a late 12-0 run boosted Ohio State to a 69-59 victory.

Ohio State (18-6, 8-4 Big Ten) struggled defensively, but the Buckeyes tightened up down the stretch,
"Our defense at the end was key,” Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. “We challenged shots a little better and the game came down to us contesting shots. At the end of the game we had one of our best defensive lineups."

Northwestern (13-12, 4,8) shot lights out on Thursday night, connecting on nine of its first 17 3-pointers against the Buckeyes. The hot shooting helped the Wildcats build a five-point lead midway through the second half, and it appeared as though Northwestern was on its way to pulling off a major upset.

Read more...

Fueled by 25 points from Deshaun Thomas, the No. 11 Ohio State Buckeyes (16-4, 6-2 Big Ten) cruised past the Wisconsin Badgers (14-7, 5-3) for a 58-49 victory in Columbus Tuesday night.

Through nearly 30 minutes of game action, the two teams went back-and-forth trying to gain an edge. Trailing by four points with 12 minutes to go, Thomas scored 10 of his 25 points in a 15-0 Ohio State run that blew the game wide open.

Wisconsin answered back with back-to-back 3-pointers, two of the 11 triples they connected on against the Buckeyes, but Ohio State was able to hold off the Badgers down the stretch for the nine-point victory.

When asked about the Buckeyes’ game-defining run, Badgers coach Bo Ryan blamed it on defensive breakdowns by his team, “Guys missed some assignments defensively and that allowed [Ohio State] to get some easy baskets.”

Read more...

After building a 24-point lead with just under 13 minutes to play, it’s safe to say Ohio State relaxed a bit down the stretch against Iowa Tuesday night.

That almost cost them the game.

The Hawkeyes chipped 19 points away from the deficit behind a 30-11 run that spanned over 11 minutes. Ohio State saw its huge lead evaporate after Iowa began using a full-court press against the Buckeyes, and with under two minutes to play, the Hawkeyes trailed just 63-59.

Iowa put Ohio State at the line, and despite struggling with free throws throughout the year, the Buckeyes connected on five straight freebies to effectively ice the game.

Ohio State went on to win 72-63.

Read more...

The No. 15 Ohio State Buckeyes blitzed the unbeaten and No. 2 Michigan Wolverines early Sunday afternoon, racing out to a seemingly insurmountable 21-point lead in the first half.

It was barely enough.

The Wolverines surged late, rallying from a huge deficit to tie the game in the second half, but the Buckeyes made enough plays down the stretch to earn a 56-53 victory.

The game played out a lot like Ohio State’s losses to Duke and Kansas, where the Buckeyes raced out to an early lead before faltering in the second half. This time around, though, the Buckeyes’ defense stepped up to provide Ohio State with its first win over a top-10 team this season.

“I hope we get confidence from this victory moving forward,” Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. “This game signifies the halfway point of the season, but we’ve still got a lot of games left and we have to continue to improve.”

The Buckeyes (13-3, 3-1 Big Ten) were fueled by another solid performance from Deshaun Thomas, who scored a game-high 20 points to go along with four rebounds. Both Aaron Craft and Sam Thompson chipped in nine points while big men Amir Williams and Evan Ravenel each scored six. The Buckeyes shot 44 percent from the field and 33 percent from behind the arch.

Read more...