The Cavs have much more class than I do

So now it's over for the first round. Cavs win 4 games to 2 and advance on to face the.....?

After watching the Washington Witnesses run their mouths and throw punches for six straight games, I so desperately wanted to see some back-talk from my Cavaliers. Seriously, I wanted to see Dwayne Jones come in off the bench, kick Brenda Haywood's knee from a side-angle, and stand over him doing that obnoxious "can't see my face" bullshit.

The league would have suspended Jones, but he's our 14th or 15th option off the bench. That's why God made the Scot Pollards of the world.

Alas, my Cleveland Cavaliers have way too much class for all that. They did their damage on the court, and while some fat guy kept getting shown on TV wearing a crybaby shirt, all Clevelanders could do is laugh at the perennial bitches we have made the Washington Witnesses into.

This morning, I was happy that LeBron and the rest of the Cavs took the high road. Leave the sorry attitude in DC and move on to the elite teams of the NBA. But last night, I wanted to see some REAL payback (and you KNOW I wanted that....hell, I'm the guy who makes videos based entirely on mocking Michigan, Texas, Michigan, Iowa, Chad Henne, Michigan, and Michigan). My emotions were running high and I wanted vengeance. But like the title says, the Cavs are much classier than I am. Kudos to them for proving it.

About the game itself, the Cavaliers put together a beautiful performance. Any NBA team that puts together a stat sheet like this....forget it, you won't beat them on that given night.

- 50 percent shooting from the field (40 for 81)
- 46 percent shooting from 3-point range (11 for 24)
- 29 assists
- 6 turnovers
- 32 points off the bench (to Washington's 16)

Eight Cavaliers played meaningful minutes in the game. Six of them shot 50 percent or better. The other two players? Delonte West, who did what point guards are supposed to do....7 assists, 0 turnovers, and LeBron James. Yeah, he shot under 50%. He scored 27 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, and dished out 13 assists. But he only hit 47 percent of his attempts. What a jerk, huh?

In the end, the Cavaliers are a great team. Washington ran their mouths, hoping somebody would mistake them for a good team. They are not.

I wonder if Gilbert Arenas regrets the following statement;

“I think everybody wants Cleveland in that first round,” he said. “They’ve
been a .500 team ever since they made that trade and everybody wants a chance at that matchup. We want Cleveland for our own reasons, we don’t think they can
beat us in the playoffs three years straight. It’s hard to beat a team three
years straight. We want to try our luck.”

No, Gilbert....maybe it's hard for YOU to beat a team three years in a row. It's not so difficult from our perspective.

So thank you Gilbert Arenas for waking up the Cavaliers. Thank you for reminding us that it is playoff time, and you are merely worthy of being the answer to our annual trivia question.

Thank you Brenda Haywood for consistently trash-talking and not backing it up with anything but a closed fist. Dude, you're 7 feet tall and you barely got 6 rebounds per game. 27 boards for the whole series? LeBron had 35 rebounds in the past three games. Remember that.

Thank you eShawn Stevenson. Thank you for showing us what an overrated player can do when he's challenged. The guy just AVERAGED 29.8 points, 9.2 rebounds and 7.6 assists against you. Thank you, eShawn (yes, I said eShawn....because there's clearly no D).

But Arenas was right about one thing. The Cavaliers, after the trade that brought Ben Wallace, Wally Szczerbiak, Delonte West and Joe Smith to our building, were a struggling team. Prior to the playoffs, they were 14-13 with the new players in uniform. This was a team that you could have knocked off, based on our record.

But have you forgotten, Gilbert? Have you forgotten that it was YOUR Washington Wizards who faced us the day before those players got into uniform?

Four players in street clothes, having arrived during the game. Three more shipped off to other teams. Hell, we had to sign two players from the NBA developmental league just to keep from forfeiting the game. Eric Snow was in the fucking starting lineup.

And we BEAT you.

So maybe we were only .500 down the stretch. But YOU certainly were not going to be the team capable of pulling off the series win.

But you did wake us up. Boston or Atlanta might want to have a word with you about that.

Im back...briefly....

First, the personal information, then the business of blogging.

The past few weeks have been very busy. I'm preparing to leave the comforts of home and go do a mobile training session for my company. I apologize for the lack of posts, but as always, I leave you in the more-than-capable hands of my fellow bloggers listed to the right.

Recently, I've been promoted and have spent a lot of time learning an entire new system of service at my restaurant. We are doing an opening of a new building (complete with a new menu) in Akron, and I have to train about 165 new employees. There's 10 of us doing the training, but my share actually boils down to about 25 trainees by myself.

So sometime after Monday the 12th of May, if you're in the downtown Akron area, come to 222 South Main Street and visit the grand opening of my new restaurant, Damon's Grill/Ohio Brewing Company. It's freaking huge, and you will love it. I've never seen so many huge plasma screens in my life. It's gonna be a blast to be there for Buckeye Saturdays!

On Sunday, I leave for the spacious layout of the Stow Marriott, where I will bask in luxuriousness in between 12-hour work days. Oh, and i'll be bringing several cases of alcohol, the DVD player, and the Nintendo Wii. Plus, wait til you see my fellow trainers, Alicia and Clare. Seriously, don't cry for me, Argentina.

Maybe, if you're lucky, by the time I get back I might even have a few new SBF photos to share with Boiled Sports.

On to the topic of sports;

Everything I can tell you, you've read elsewhere. The Indians are underperforming three to four times a week, the Browns didn't draft anybody (but didn't need to draft anybody), the Buckeyes held their spring practice, and Chad Henne is still a joke, and so is the team he has to play for.

But the Cavaliers....ah, yes, it's playoff time. You know the storyline, so I'll spare you the details, but let me ask this one question;

Washington Wizards.....what the hell were you thinking? You decided that it would be wise to taunt LeBron James? You actually thought it was a GOOD idea to try and piss off the best player in the NBA?

Get this straight....LeBron James is going to score 29 points a game. You do not have the consistent talent to prevent that from happening. Taunt Daniel Gibson or Delonte West or Wally Szczerbiak. Get THEM off their game, and prevent LeBron's assist numbers from going way up. But you cannot stop LeBron James, you can only hope to contain him.

But it may be too late now. You officially became our bitches two years ago, but thanks for reminding us WHY you're our bitches.

The best things about April

It's finally April. In my household, it means two things.

1) The Spring Game is fast approaching!
2) It's my birthday!

Let's get this out of the way...the birthday is Monday, so get off your damn asses and say something. A guy gets lonely, you know. Gratuitous plug over.

We are less than 2 weeks away from the annual spring game. It takes a special kind of fan to get into the Scarlet-Gray game, and most of those people have their own blog named after a lyric from a fight song. We here at the BBC are no exception. So if you know somebody on the Ohio State Lacrosse team, tell them to NOT go into overtime that day, or they'll get a punch to the noggin. We gots football to watch!

The excitement for the 2008 season has technically already begun (Terrelle Pryor kinda kicked that off strong), but the Scarlet-Gray game is the non-official-official beginning of it all. And with 20 returning starters to a 11-2 squad...well, that's pretty damn thrilling.

Meanwhile, we can take quick looks at what 2008 will bring us.

First, there's the news that Beanie Wells' junior season will NOT be his last. He told the Dispatch that he's staying four years. Folks, THIS is what you get with Jim Tressel at the helm. He has made this University a place where players WANT to finish their careers, no matter what their prospect may look like. Sure, we get the occasional loss (or three like 2006), but this is the exception, rather than the rule that prevailed in the late 80s and all through the 90s.

Did I mention that I hated John Cooper?

Also, if you haven't heard, your Cris Carter jersey is in style again. Mike Doss made it fashionable, and now Terrelle Pryor will do the same thing.

Meanwhile, the Michigan blogs are getting all excited about 3-star recruits, just because they're from Ohio. Yeah, that proves you still have the elite stuff. Justin Boren and Pryor? You didn't want them anyway.

Bo Schembechler is crying in his grave. And Lloyd Carr is snickering at you....just wait and see, you'll plead for the days when you only lost three at home.

So it'll be VERY hard to sleep the night before each game this season. But I've got Ambien if anybody needs it. Let's get it started, baby!

-----------------------------------

Finally, tomorrow night's game for the National Championship? Meh.

I'll take Kansas, but only because there's this cool guy who comes into the restaurant for every Kansas game (even if it's on ESPN at his home), and he deserves some happiness.

But if Memphis wins, we can say we were the only team in 2 years to beat them in a tournament.

Like I said, meh.

"This is what happens when you put an NCAA team in the NIT"

Yes, that's right. Ohio State won the NIT last night with a 56-point explosion in the second half. Final score - Ohio State 92, UMass 85. You can read excellent recaps of the game at Eleven Warriors, Around The Oval, Buckeye Commentary, and tons of other Buckeye blogs.

But the best line I heard all night came from the throat of Jamar Butler after the game, as he unleashed his attitude on the press.

"This is what happens when you put an NCAA team in the NIT," Butler
said. "Write that down and send that to the committee."

Truly brilliant, Jamar. Brilliant. We'll miss you, buddy. Thanks for all the fish.

As for the notion that Ohio State is now the 66th-best team in the NCAA, I take exception to that.

We would beat the fuck out of Coppin State. Bring 'em on!

200,000 - thanks!

A quick update - Thanks for pushing "Ohio State Owns Michigan" over the 200,000 view mark! It currently stands at 200,334 views. I couldn't have done it without you. And you. And you.

And also...I love that YouTube has given me a place to show my creations, but damn I hate their system for counting views. It only updates everyonce in a while, and my number sat at 199,991 for a LONG time. Last night when I got home around 3am, it was still at that number. This morning, it leapt to the current stat. I with it updated more frequently, but whatcha gonna do?

Oh, and to the anonymous Michigan fan who left a comment calling me names for deleting anti-OSU comments and blocking users from my YouTube videos.....hell, yeah I do that! My video, my admin abilities. I'm not letting it become a playground for Buckeye-bashing. Suck on it.

69, dude!

So far, a total of 199,931 people have viewed one of my classic videos, "Ohio State Owns Michigan". Honestly, I'm honored that anybody has seen it or commented on it. But I see that it is very very close to having 200,000 views.

So, yeah, I'm asking for you to push it over 200,000.

That means we need just 69 people to go watch it. Click on any one the links I've put up in this posting, and it'll take you to the right video.

Incidentally, YouTube doesn't count off-site views, so go watch it there to have your view added to the total.

Also, "Chad Henne Is A Joke" has had 184,549 views. Sometime in June or July, we'll have a push for 200K (which would be hilarious if it comes right around draft day).

SEC currently shitting the bed

Entering tonight, college basketball enthusiasts saw two interesting possibilities.

1) Florida vs. Ohio State in a re-re-rematch of championship games.
2) Florida vs. Ole Miss in an All-SEC NIT title game.

Then the SEC realized that they suck. Florida choked and Ole Miss looks like a team that couldn't beat a barely-.500 squad in their own conference tournament....

Ohio State leads by 23 points late in the first half, and shows no signs of slowing down.

It should be a good final on Thursday night.

By the way, I agree with Eleven Warriors...playing for three extra weeks was MUCH better for these kids than a first-weekend exit in the NCAAs (which would have been their fate).

"Those who stay will be champions - Hey, where ya going? Please stay!"

As mentioned earlier today, at least one Michigan offensive lineman has left the football team. Justin Boren has quit the Wolverines, and he was their best lineman for the upcoming season.

The Michigan offense is going to be filled with holes (and laughter) all season. They lost their only QB, their only RB, their best WR, several key members of the offensive line, and they have to learn a new system with a QB that has never taken a snap. Oh, and they failed to recruit the guy who was "made for Rodriguez' system".

Rumor also has it that Boren's departure may not be the last one of the spring.

At this point, it's not looking pretty for Michigan. Appalachian State may cancel their game against Michigan to open the 2008 season to look for tougher competition (OK, that part is satire)

We at The BBC couldn't be happier at Michigan's current incompetence.

Foregone conclusion

No, it's not just the name of David Brent's band (bonus points to anyone who gets that reference).

The Cleveland Cavaliers never really had a doubt about making the NBA Playoffs this year. But it'll be made official sometime this week. The Cavs stand at 40-31 right now and there's 11 games left in their regular season. If they win two more games, they're in. Their next two games, however, are against a couple of the NBAs best, New Orleans (Wed) and Detroit (Sat). Winning both of those would be a big boost towards post-season confidence, and it would secure late April basketball at The Q.

New Jersey could also make it easier on us. Two losses from the Nets and the Cavs get the playoff berth. They play Indiana twice (Wed and Fri) and then Phoenix on Saturday. By next Monday, we'll have clinched.

And the Chicago Bulls still suck. They're the 11th best team in the East. Ha ha.

-----------------------

Michigan blogs are in panic mode this afternoon. Apparently a couple of offensive linemen are getting ready to quit and/or transfer. Only speculation on names and other specifics, but this has indded been a lot of fun to watch.

Nice job, Rich Rod. You're doing a heckuva job up there.

----------------------

Oh, and another thing....

In 2006-07, Michigan men's basketball goes 20-11
In 2006-07, West Virginia men's basketball goes 27-9, winning the NIT.

In late March, Michigan fires their Head Coach, Tommy Amaker and hires John Beilein away from West Virginia.

This year, Michigan's record was 9-21. 11 and a half games worse than they were under Amaker.
West Virginia hired Bob Huggins to lead their team. West Virginia is now 26-10 and will play Thursday night in the NCAA's Sweet Sixteen.

Beilein's old team is slightly better than they were with him as their coach.
Beilein's new team sucks a lot more with him as their head coach.

My God, that's hilarious.

-------------------------

Oh, yeah. I forgot. The Buckeyes will play Dayton tomorrow night in Columbus for the chance to go to New Yortk City and the Final Four of the NIT. We crushed Cal last night, but we should have done that. The Flyers are a good but not great team, but they'll be REALLY motivated to try and knock off the giant school in their own state. Should be a good game.

Citizens of Michigan, bow down to your owners.....

Oh, yeah....let me taste those tears.....

First, the bigger news. Yes, Terrelle Pryor signed with us. Yes, it was the most likely scenario, based on a month or so of speculation and "insider rumors".

But don't let the Michiganders fool you, they wanted him BAD, and it is eating up at their very fragile egos that he snubbed them. Regardless of what you may hear elsewhere (i.e. "we didn't want him anyway"), Blue fans were singing a MUCH different tune a few short months ago.

For example, Brian (who always has an excuse) was telling his readers in December that the hiring of Rich Rodriguez may have been told to Pryor first, and that immediately Terrelle told a friend to "put them on my list". MgoBlog reported back then that Pryor was "likely to commit", but shied away from any actual source on that.

In February, he was begging Charlie Batch to send his prodigy to Michigan. He even did it in all caps so you would know he was reeeeealllllly serious. And he even mentioned that "there's no one to throw to at Penn State". But at Michigan, he was sure to have a wide array of targets....like, ummmmm, uhhhhh.....Antonio Bass? Or Greg Mathews? Oh, yeah, there's Adrian Arrington if he doesn't get caught beating up women again.

So it's no surprise that MGoBlog is now trying to bury its' proverbial oversized head in the sand now that Pryor will not set foot in Ann Arbor for another 19 months. Expect Brian to post a few diatribes soon about how his presence in scarlet and gray will mean very little and that he will be a big bust. The cat may know how to use a thesaurus, but his prognostications and his ability to properly dissect are often very very suspect. For proof of that, I take you to this delightful piece, written in August of 2007, when MGoBlog was previewing the Big Ten teams for the 2007 campaign;

It's hard to extrapolate from a freshman year in which (Beanie) Wells was a
backup who got most of his carries against Northwestern, Minnesota, Michigan
State, and the like. He is unlikely to average 5.5 yards per carry as the
primary threat, especially without Smith, Ginn, and Gonzalez drawing all sorts of attention.

MGB was correct. Wells did not average 5.5 yards per carry on the season.

He averaged 5.9 yards per carry.

And I'm pretty sure that he got a LOT of attention all by himself, especially when he ran for 222 yards against Michigan (by the way, that's 129 yards more than the entire Wolverine offense that day).

Oh, and one more thing. The Cleveland Cavaliers embarrassed the Detroit Pistons tonight 89-73. Bow down, bitches.

Suck it, Michigan fans

Rich Rod supposedly had the system that was PERRRRRFECT for Terrelle Pryor. Michigan proimised him he'd start from Day One.

And yet....

Rich Rodriguez - a failure before his very first game.

All hail Jim Tressel, the king of Big Ten recruiting.

Pryor to announce Wednesday at Noon

Expect two things to happen.

1) A bunch of people to get really excited over their new prospect.
2) A bunch of other people to begin screaming about how they never really wanted him and he sucks and he's a troublemaker.

Everyone in the media is reporting that it's between Ohio State and Penn State, except for the media that has the word "Detroit" in their titles....they still believe that Michigan will get him (where he'll immediately start at quarterback, wide receiver, tailback and defensive end because nobody else will).

Pryor was expected to announce about 6 weeks ago, but balked at the last minute, stating he wanted to visit Oregon and Penn State. He never visited Oregon, and the only time he even set foot in Happy Valley was to win the state basketball championship, and he didn't get the "official" visit out of that weekend.

Also, since his delay began, he did not return to Michigan's campus. He did go back to Columbus once more though.

Nothing has changed, except the calendar. He'll be in scarlet and gray in about 12 hours.
------------------------
UPDATE - Apparently Michigan fans need their diapers changed. Rumor has it that this posting is "entirely inaccurate". Let's see about that, shall we? I've given footnotes to the facts here....

- Oregon visit? Nope, Pryor never made it out west*. BBC 1, Anonymous Pussy 0
- Penn State visit? Nope, he never visited Penn State**. BBC 2, Anonymous Pussy 0
- Hasn't returned to Michigan campus since delaying his announcement? Nope, he never went back to Ann Arbor***. BBC 3, Anonymous Pussy 0
- Pryor went to Columbus since his delay? Yes, he did****. BBC 4, Anonymous Pussy 0
- Michigan fans starting the "he sucks anyway" excuse?***** Yep, they started it about 7 hours ago in the mainstream press. BBC 5, Anonymous Pussy 0

That's five points in a row that I win.

Get used to hearing about five in a row. You'll be feeling that pain again in November.


* - Jan. 15, 2008: The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports Pryor schedules a visit to Oregon. Because of scheduling conflicts with basketball, the visit never happens.
** - Pryor delayed his decision on signing day last month because he wanted to take official visits to Oregon and Penn State. Neither of those visits happened.
*** - Pryor was at Ohio State on Feb. 24 — apparently, his only campus trip since his last news conference.
**** - See above referenced article.
***** - Article in the Detroit Free Press entitled "Terrelle Pryor could be a bust like past No. 1s"

Buckeyes win an easy one, Akron shocks Florida State

Weird game at The Schott tonight. Weird indeed.

Thad Matta got his 20th win tonight, extending his streak, and the Buckeyes won an easy one 84-66 in the opening round of the NIT over North Carolina (Asheville). Check out some of these stats;

Ohio State's leading rebounder had four boards. Yes, I said four.
The Buckeyes hit two free throws on the entire night.
We were outrebounded 33-25, and committed 6 more fouls.

And yet, we won easily....why? Because of this stat;

The Buckeyes starting five shot nearly 60 percent from the field.

That was the key, no doubt about it.

Ohio State will play at home again on Monday night, as they await the winner of tomorrow's game between New Mexico and California.

Meanwhile, Akron took a hurried flight to Florida State yesterday and showed no signs of being road-weary as they knocked off the Seminoles 65-60 in overtime. Nick Dials scored something like 35 points in the OT alone. OK, so he actually scored 13 of the Zips 14 points in the extra period, but it was a sight to behold. The kid was on fire, burying three 3-pointers and hitting on all four of his free throw attempts.

Akron will now travel back up north and go play at Massachusetts, but as of this moment, we don't know exactly when that game will be. The decision will be made shortly, but not as of "press time".

Holy shit, I just wrote an NIT recap post.....

Ladies and gentlemen, your TOP-SEEDED Ohio State Buckeyes!!!!

Well, it's at least true. Only it's not the tournament we wanted.

As was expected, Ohio State was left out of the NCAA Tournament. One victory shy. No, I can't say "they got screwed", because they had a BIG chance down the stretch and fell apart. Going 4-7 at the end wasn't good, even if half of those wins were against ranked teams.

However, let me just say this....OREGON??? ARIZONA???? KENTUCKY???? There's 18 wins for each of those teams and THEY get in?

The previous moment of outrage was brought to you on behalf of the fans of Akron (23-10), Cleveland State (21-10), Illinois State (23-9), VCU (24-7), and Dayton (21-10).

Ohio State had their chance and didn't get the job done. In my opinion, the NCAA went with bigger names rather than reward 21-24 win schools with what they indeed deserve.

As for the Buckeyes, they get another chance to extend Thad Matta's 20-win season streak on Tuesday night at home against North Carolina. OK, so it's North Carolina-Asheville. Gimme a break, I'm clinging to relevancy here.

Terrelle Pryor says no to Michigan

We've been waiting for a long time to hear where superstar quarterback prospect Terrelle Pryor was going to attend college. It was down to two schools (Ohio State and Michigan) as of signing day, but Pryor held off on his announcement and even added two schools to the list (Oregon and Penn State).

If Pryor doesn't announce and sign with a school by April 1st, he's ineligible to play college football in 2008. Obviously, that's not going to happen, but it looked as if Pryor was waiting until the 11th hour to announce.

Until now.

Last night, Pryor's Jennette High School won the PA Class AA state basketball championship. Following the victory, he gave us this tidbit;

"Next week, I’m going to say the school I’m going to, sign it and get it over
with.”

One would correctly assume that we'll have our winner by Friday night.

Even better, Pryor whittled his choices down to OSU and PSU. Which means that Michigan Head Coach Rich Rodriguez is already a colossal loser. His "spread offense" that was supposedly "tailored to fit Pryor's style of play" failed to attract the one component that could make it work....Pryor. Nice job, Rich Rod. Enjoy a long lifetime of getting punked by your rivals.

As for Pryor, it's down to two choices; Go with Ohio State and a proven winner, or stay with your hometown at Penn State and be guaranteed a coaching change at some point in your collegiate career. Yeah, I'm biased....but tell me what part of my previous sentence is wrong, if you can.

One last note - if Pryor announces this week, he'd better do it on Tuesday or Wednesday. Otherwise, the kid has a LOT to learn about manipulating the news cycle to his advantage.

-If he announces Monday, he's drowned out by the sports world's excessive discussion of the NCAA Tournament selection....who got in, who got screwed, etc etc etc.
- If he announces Thursday, he's drowned out by a day's worth of first-round tournament action.
- If he announces Friday, ditto.

Do the smart thing, Pryor. Announce on Tuesday afternoon. You'll get more action out of it.

UPDATE - Men Of The Scarlet And Gray reminds me that the "official signing deadline" is indeed April 1st, but it's not a deadline for ineligibility. So why the hell is it a deadline at all? Whateva. Either way, Rich Rod still blows donkey balls for failing miserably, and the Michigan blogs have begun an entire "we didn't want Pryor anyway" excuse. That's what you have to do when you lose 37 out of your 22 starters of a team that lost nearly half their home games, and you're facing a season where you wish for a whole slew of cupcake teams like Appalach-----.....ummmm.....never mind.

God hates the SEC

As Mississippi State led 64-61 with 2:11 left in overtime, a loud blast was
heard inside the dome. The girders near the dome's roof began to swing, and a
gaping section of the north part of the roof was ripped open, dropping debris
that included nuts and bolts.

The severe storm ripped a hole in the roof of the Georgia Dome during
the Southeastern Conference tournament Friday, delaying Mississippi State's
69-67 overtime win over Alabama for more than an hour and postponing a game
between Georgia and Kentucky.

God hates the SEC, and is therefore a Buckeye fan.

There can be no other explanation.

Dammit

The pundits say we might get in anyway. I doubt it.

Dammit.

Big Ten teams in the NCAA - 4 or 5....or 6?

Well, whaddya know......yesterday's "warm-up" round of the Big Ten tournament was actually entertaining. We nearly had a full slate of upsets.

First, 9th-seed Michigan (10-21) knocked off 8th-seed Iowa (13-19) by a surprising score of 55-47. Not that much of an upset, but when you head into the tournament with 9 wins, you're sure as hell not the favored team. Congratulations Wolverines. You actually can claim that you won the season series from SOMEBODY (unless you want to count winning the season series over Eastern Washington 1 game to 0).

Mid-day action gave us another upset when 10th-seed Illinois (14-18) beat 7th-seed Penn State(15-16) on a final shot, 64-63. This one will sting Penn State badly. They had a shot at making the NIT, but falling below .500 will keep them out of post-season play. Winning this game would have put them into the "Field of 97". JoePa must be rolling over in his grave right now.

Finally in the nightcap, 11th-seed Northwetern (8-22) shit their pants in the second half and fell to 6th-seed Minnesota (19-12) 55-52. With a little over 2 minutes to play in the first half, Northwestern led by 16 points at 34-18. Then they realized that there was a reason they had lost 85% of their games in 2008. From that point on, they couldn't have hit water if they fell out of a boat.

Minnesota escaped with the win and many people may now see a win against Indiana as the springboard into the NCAAs.

I disagree. I think beating the Hoosiers is not enough. They need to win tonight, and then also beat either Purdue or Illinois in the semifinals. 20 wins will not get Minnesota in. They HAVE to have 21 and here's why;

It's time for Gopher Trivia!

Minnesota has 19 wins right now. How many of those wins came against a team that will play in the NCAA Tournament?

Answer - zero, maybe one. If Ohio State is selected, that will be the ONLY win the Gophers have against a team in the Big Dance.

After reading that, do you still think a win tonight is enough? Neither do I.

That brings us to Ohio State. Two weeks ago, they were unpacking their bags and preparing for the NIT. Since then, two wins against ranked opponents has put them back on the bubble. Beating Michigan State again tonight will add a third team to that, and it'll get them in. 20 wins will do the trick for the Buckeyes, but only because of those final three.

Hopes are high again in the Buckeye State, especially after seeing the boys win big games recently. But this is not a home game, and we've had a long time since our last game. Do we still have momentum?

We'll find out in about 3 hours.

NIT-bound? Not yet.....

Damn, the Buckeyes just don't want to accept their NIT fate just yet.

After losing 6 out of 8 games (including two to a pair of goin'-nowhere teams), Ohio State appeared to be headed towards an NIT bid. Then something funny happened on the way to Madison Square Garden....Ohio State found a way to beat TWO ranked teams in a row. They just finished up the regular season with a 63-54 win over 17th-ranked Michigan State.

Poor shooting did in the Spartans. Senior Drew Neitzel scored just 6 points in 30 minutes on 2-9 shooting. Four Buckeyes scored double figures, led by Jamar Butler's 20. Evan Turner only put in 3 points, but it didn't matter....Ohio State shot 50% for the game, and won it going away. 40 points in the second half really did the trick.

So now we need to win one game....just one...to get into the NCAA Tournament. At 19-12, we're not getting in. But a 20th win (accomplished by having three consecutive quality wins) would do it.

Friday afternoon at 230pm, Ohio State plays Michigan State again in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament.

It's that simple. Win and you're in. Lose and you host an NIT game early the following week.

Either way, it looks like Thad Matta's 20-win season streak is still possible.