Photo: ESPN.COM

"Sloppy Hang On." The Buckeyes did just enough to come away with the win today against Navy. Kirk and I were in attendance at the 'Shoe for what turned out to be a very disappointing win. It leaves a bad taste in our mouths exposing several gaping holes that must immediately be addressed before next week's showdown against USC at the 'Shoe. Here are our thoughts from the game:

Tight Ends Can Catch?

The Buckeyes did something today that has not ever been seen under the Tressel Regime: They utilized the tight end as the eligible receiver that he is on the field rather than as an extra blocker on the line. Senior Jake Ballard caught 3 passes for 51 yards including one of the more spectacular catches you will ever see on a football field as he leaped in the air with his arms fully-extended to catch a very ugly pass from Terrelle Pryor. Freshman Jake Stoneburner also contributed as he recorded the first catch of his Buckeye career on a 17 yard reception.

Photo courtesy jwinslow.com

IT’S GAME WEEK! - Which means it’s time to announce the remaining players on my list of Top 25 Buckeyes of 2009. I would like to preface this final installment by saying I have amazed myself in making this list. Despite creating this list less than 25 days ago, if I remade the list again today, it would look quite a bit different. With that being said, without further adieu, I present to you the top Buckeyes of this season.

Photo courtesy of the-Ozone.net

So it’s time for the next installment of ThunderBuck’s Top 25 Buckeyes of 2009. Last week I revealed #21-25 and my 5 picks for honorable mention. Since then the Buckeyes have experienced a major loss for the season as junior OLB Tyler Moeller appears to be out for the entirety of the 2009 season. He was a lock as one of the top Buckeyes of 2009, so I am tossing a different linebacker in at his location on the list that will be counted on with Moeller out.

Photo courtesy of WNUR Sports

With less than a month until the season kicks off for the Buckeyes, it's time to update you on who to watch in the Scarlet and Gray this season. I have determined the top 25 Buckeyes (as it stands now) and I will be revealing a portion of the list this weekend.

Go Buckeyes!

ThunderBuck

(PKA Chris)

The Buckeye basketball team landed a top prospect for next season earlier today. His name: Evan Turner. Evan made it officially known today that he will be wearing an Ohio State uniform next winter. Apparently he did not want to end his Buckeye career with his last memory being a missed shot at the end of a double-overtime loss to Siena in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Excuse me if I got your hopes up of a promising young talent being the “top recruit,” but in my mind, the return of Evan Turner to this basketball team will mean much more than the commitment of any high school kid in the nation. Not only did Turner average 17.3 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game, but he provided irreplaceable court leadership to a talented, young team. Having Turner back next year will allow this team to improve as a unit and position themselves to make a legitimate run in the 2010 NCAA tournament.

These are easily two of my favorite days of the year.  Nothing compares to the first two days of March Madness; the Cinderella stories, the buzzer beaters, the PTPers; it's fantastic.  What happens when two of the most intriguing games of the first round are on at once? Cleveland State and Ohio State both squared off at about the same time, and I was in a dilemma.  So, a bit of rigging on my dad's part along with the decision of WOIO in Cleveland to push Cleveland State to WUAB, and we had televisions stacked on top of each other, and I was on my way to blogging about two games at once.  Here is the result.

No. 13 Cleveland State 74, No. 4 Wake Forest 59

Cinderella must have had her flight delayed because she nearly missed the dance entirely.  But, she made it just in time to put on a green Viking shooting shirt and storm the court with the rest of Cleveland nation.  They knocked off a solid ACC team in Wake Forest that was #1 during the regular season and some were picking for a march to Detroit and the Final Four via the 4 seed route.

Cleveland State came out firing from behind the arc in this one, which I really think caught the Demon Deacons off guard.  CSU is just 8th in the Horizon League in 3 point shooting percentage, and they hit 4 of their first 5 treys in the early going.  The Vikings in fact had all the energy early, forcing 13 points off turnovers, and they were able to push the lead to 27-12.

Jeff Teague is a Second-Team All-ACC player, but he really had an off night tonight.  Teague was just 4-of-7 from the field for 10 points, well below his average.  Give all the credit to Norris Cole, who made Teague's life difficult all night long.  The one guy for Wake Forest that seemed to give the Vikings fits was James Johnson who finished with 22 points and 8 boards.  Johnson found himself open several times on the three point line, and he converted 4 of those 5 opportunities.  He was 8-of-13 from the floor in all.

Cleveland State was led by the triumvirate of J'Nathan Bullock, Cedric Jackson, and Norris Cole.  The three combined for 62 of the team's 84 points, 13 of the 25 CSU boards, and 13 of the 15 assists.  Jackson was able to hit open threes while slicing into the interior defense and finding Cole and Bullock at different times.  Jackson finished with 19 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals, and he was instrumental in the quick CSU sprint out of the gates.  Bullock was a beast inside as he used a rather odd post-move to spin and bank multiple shots in off the glass.  J'Nathan was 8-of-16 for 21 points and 6 rebounds (4 offensive).  Cole, on top of defending Teague so well, had a good deal of offense of his own.  Norris Cole was 8-of-18 from the field for 22 points while dishing out 4 assists.  Cole had 13 of his 22 in the second half.

The fifth-seeded Buckeyes came up just short of pulling off three wins in three days to capture the Big Ten crown as the third-seeded Purdue Boilermakers won the 2009 Big Ten tournament.

This was a classic Big Ten battle heavy on defense and physical play.  The Buckeye defense was able to hold the Boilers to 28 percent shooting in the first half.  They also got big offensive contributions in the first half from sharpshooter Jon Diebler (9 points) and freshman William Buford (10 points).  Evan Turner also added 8 points.

The Buckeyes once again surrenderred way too many offensive boards.  The Boilers had an astounding 14 offensive rebounds, and the Badgers, Spartans, and Boilers all exploited that area of the stat sheet against OSU this weekend.  If the Buckeyes want to play into the second weekend of the tournament, they will need to work on checking out the offensive rebounders.

Evan Turner, being one of the best two or three players in the Big Ten, should expect and get a certain number of foul calls.  Today, not only did he not get his fair share of calls, but he was on the unfortunate end of a few crucial foul calls (or non-calls).  The biggest one was with about 16 minutes to go in the game when E.T. was called for his third foul, a charging foul where the Purdue defender was set up underneath the hoop and got the call.  While that is technically a foul, I have seen many of the officials in college basketball let that one go as a no-call, especially when the offensive player is gathering to go up toward the basket.  Even though it technically wasn't the wrong call, I think a no-call for one of the best in the conference would have been the right thing to do there.  As a result, coach Thad Matta tried to steal a couple of minutes with Turner off the floor at the 13:30 mark, but the Bucks went scoreless and the Boilers drilled an open three on a late rotation from Turner's replacement, Kyle Madsen.  By the time Turner came back in, Purdue had captured the lead for good.

The Buckeyes continued their march toward the big dance with a 12-point victory over the top-seeded Michigan State Spartans as they look to solidify their spot in the tournament and improve their seed.

• Ohio State's leader Evan Turner was held scoreless in the first half, but OSU got huge scoring production from freshman William Buford and sophomore Jon Diebler in the first twenty minutes.  Buford had 13 of his 14 points in the first half, and Diebler contributed 8 of his 17 total points in the first half as well.  In fact, the Bucks had four in double figures and at least six points from seven of the nine who played.  When the Buckeyes can get two others in double figures besides Turner, they are usually able to provide enough offense to win games through their zone defense and defensive pressure.

• The Buckeyes led by just five at halftime, but they were able to push the lead to as much as 17 because the Spartans went on a seven minute drought where they did not make a shot from the field.  During that time, OSU continued to shoot it at a 50% clip and got some big buckets from B.J. Mullens and Dallas Lauderdale.  The Spartans were able to close the gap to single digits as a result of pressing the Bucks and getting a couple of steals along with hitting the offensive glass.  Michigan State had an astonishing 17 offensive rebounds in the game today, and that is something that constantly hurts OSU.  Guard Korie Lucious provided a spark for MSU during that stretch, notching 16 points in just 18 minutes of game action.

Thad Matta’s Buckeyes edged Bo Ryan’s Badgers in this afternoon’s second Big Ten quarterfinal matchup.  Ohio State utilized big runs at the end of each half to will their way to victory in this one.  The Buckeyes closed the first half on a 7-0 run and closed the game with a 14-3 run after trailing Wisconsin 47-54 with less than 5 minutes to play.  It seemed that the home crowd was in Indianapolis for this one as you could hear chants of “OH-IO” and “LET’S GO BUCKS!” throughout the game.

·         For anyone watching the game, it was quite obvious that the Buckeyes were forcing Wisconsin out of their rhythm early and often.  Matta kept pressure on the ball with double teams while the Buckeyes were in their regular zone defense.  This allowed the Badgers to hit open shots when they were able to break the pressure of the Buckeye defense, but it also created turnovers and kept Wisconsin from playing their brand of basketball.

·         The key matchup of the game was Evan Turner against Marcus Landry.  Both players are the MVPs of their respective squads, both had large impacts on the flow of the game, and both finished with the game with 4 fouls.  Turner finished the game with 19 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals.  Landry got into foul trouble early and ended the game with just 9 points and 4 rebounds.

·         Despite outshooting the Badgers from the floor (50% to 36% for the game and 52% to 37% at half), the Buckeyes trailed Wisconsin for the majority of the game.  The main reason for this was poor free throw shooting on behalf of Ohio State.  The Buckeyes hit just 3 of 8 free throws in the first half and the Badgers hit 7 of 9. 

12 scholarship players

7 returning from last year

3 starting positions

2 future NFL players to replace

That is the situation the Ohio State University faces at the linebacker position for next season.  Not often does a team rebound at a position as important as linebacker after graduating players with talent like James Laurinaitis and Marcus Freeman.  Both former Buckeyes are expected to be taken in the first two rounds of the NFL Draft.  (Freeman had an excellent combine that elevated his draft stock.)

Though we will surely miss the tenacity and leadership James and Marcus brought to our defense, there is much hope for the future.  If you remember a few years back (in the aftermath of the 2006 Fiesta Bowl trouncing of Notre Dame), Buckeye fans were skeptical of our defense that would be graduating linebackers A.J. Hawk, Bobby Carpenter, and Anthony Schlegel.  The 2006 Buckeye team rebounded quite well, en route to a disappointing loss in the national championship (but a chance at a championship, nonetheless). 

I expect a similar situation in 2009.  So Buckeye fans, I’ll say it now:  The level of play of our linebackers next year will highlight our talented defense.