Last weekend D and I ran up to Columbus for the first football game of the season. The Buckeyes struggled much more against Navy than they should have, but it made for a great game.
Things went a little awry when, at 29-14, OSU missed an extra point early in the fourth quarter. A little later the Bucks failed to convert on a 4th and 2. On the very next play Navy jumped to within eight (29-21) after a huge completion for a score. On the next Ohio State drive, Pryor’s pass was intercepted and another Navy TD followed. With the score at 29-27, Navy elected to attempt the 2 point conversion. After a horrible forth quarter, the Buckeyes finally stepped up. Navy’s endzone pass was intercepted and ran all the way back to give OSU 2 points. With only a couple minutes remaining, OSU received the onside kick and ran out the clock, 31-27. Huge dissappointment averted!
Halftime was awesome, too, as TBDBITL was joined by the huge alumni band to perform the 4-way Script Ohio. At the end of the formation, John Glenn and his wife were led out as honorary i-dotters. From circling the Earth to dotting the “i”. Pretty sweet.
Posted Thursday, September 10th, 2009 5:39 PMNo Comments
I finally know what it’s like to see an NCAA tournament game first hand. Unfortunately, I also know what it’s like to pay a bunch of dough to see the Buckeyes lose (yet another) heartbreaker on the national stage.
Friday, D and I headed up to Dayton to see a couple first round NCAA games. Our seats were awesome, in the lowest section, just nine rows from the floor. The first was the overall #1 seed Louisville up against the #16 play-in winner Morehead State. Morehead gave the bigger and faster L’ville a good run in the first half and actually took the lead for a bit. The arena went crazy thinking this could be history in the making (a #16 beating a #1 for the first time ever).
But of course it didn’t last. In the second half, Pitino woke his team up and UofL finished the game up by 20 points. For a bit of the Louisville game, some of the Ohio State payers came in and sat across the aisle from us, no doubt scouting what Louisville would hold in store for them in the second round. Only it wouldn’t matter.
Game two was Ohio State versus the Siena Saints from upstate New York. Even though it was a 8-9 seeded matchup, the schools couldn’t be more different. Enrollment at OSU is over 50,000; at Siena, under 3,000. The University of Dayton arena is only an hour from Columbus, so essentially it was a home game for the Bucks, and the sea of scarlet in the stands showed it.
Things started well for the Buckeyes, gradually building a lead through the first half. Five minutes into the second half the lead had grown to eleven and fans were breathing easy. Then suddenly Siena came roaring back, scoring nine unanswered points to pull them back. The Bucks were visibly shaken. Their outside shooting was cold, and their inside players players were getting beat by the smaller Saints. The rest of the game is one, big, painful blur. The Saints pushed the game into overtime with a 3-pointer under the one minute mark. And then hit another 3 with under 4 seconds left to force a second overtime. And then hit another 3 again under 4 seconds to take a final two point lead.
It was the most incredible game I wish I never saw.
Posted Monday, March 23rd, 2009 10:36 PMNo Comments
D and I shot over to Indy last Saturday to watch a doubleheader of Men’s Basketball – the first basketball games to ever be played in Lucas Oil Stadium. Lucas Oil will be the site of the Midwest Regional NCAA finals later this season and the site of the Final Four in 2010, so it was kind of cool to get a sneak peak at what they may be like.
The first game was 5th ranked Gonzaga versus Indiana. IU, working with a new coach and nearly entirely new roster, kept it close in the first half. IU stayed within 10 most of the second half, but as soon as they’d crack into the single digit deficit, Gonzaga pulled out a three point play. IU sealed their fate with 24 turnovers and the Zags went on to win by 16 in front of the large Hoosier crowd.
The second game was 7th ranked Notre Dame taking on Ohio State. The Irish have a powerhouse on the team in the 6-8 freshman Luke Harangody. As expected, Luke had a strong game, but he also made their team fairly one dimensional. On the other side on the court, the Buckeyes’ Evan Turner surpassed Harangody’s 25 points with 28 of his own (a career high). Turner’s double-double made up for OSU’s horrible three point shooting (3-16) and the Bucks upset ND by five points.
After the game we headed over to Dave and Christian’s for a tree trimming party in which every guest brings the hosts a Christmas ornament, and in return, the hosts give the guests many drinks. In typical, inappropriate fashion, D and I gave them a full size zombie head (from Halloween a couple years ago) with a metal hook attached on top. It’s definitely an attention grabber on the tree and actually not the most inappropriate ornament they’ve gotten.
Posted Friday, December 12th, 2008 1:44 AM1 Comment
Slick lucked into a pair of free Indianapolis Colts tickets for last weekend and I lucked into one of them. It was a damn cold day outside, but pretty pleasant inside Lucas Oil Stadium with the roof closed. I’m impressed by the new stadium. Being closed in it feels more like a large basketball arena to me, but there’s barely a bad seat in the house.
It took Indy some time to get their offense moving, but eventually they did and Manning finished with 320 passing yards. Here are a few clips I took during the action:
Posted Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 4:23 PMNo Comments
Saturday we watched the Buckeyes cruise to a win in the season opener in Columbus. The score was 43 to nothin over Youngstown State. Games like this, where there is such a mismatch, are tough to watch, but I read Youngstown got $650k to get routed in the ‘shoe, so they definitely got something out of the trip. Athletically though it was an ugly matchup…495 total yards to 74…and worse yet, 251 rushing yards to -11.
Halftime was awesome as TBDBITL performed with the alumni band to create the rare 4-way Script Ohio. There were so many people on the field it was insane! I’ve marched a lot in my day and seen some big groups, but none compared to this. There must’ve been 500+ people out there.
And then the third quarter came along, and on a Buckeye drive that came all the way down to the 2 yard line, Heisman hopeful Beanie Wells collapsed on the field clutching his leg. Even two days later, reports are still vague as to his condition, but he was clearly in a lot of pain at the time. Every Buckeye fan is certainly hoping to see him back in action on the 13th as the Buckeyes head out to play USC in a HUGE game which largely will define the season for both teams.
That injury aside, it was a great day. We also got to watch Quarterback Terrell Pryor play well in his collegiate debut. Plus, as we slowly milled out of the stadium after the game, we saw several players, including Pryor and linebacker James Laurinaitis (and his Dad!) signing autographs. I didn’t push my way through to get anything signed, but I did snap a couple pics of them.
Posted Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 11:06 PMNo Comments
D and I are huge fans of the Olympic games – especially ever since making the trip to Atlanta 12(!) years ago. After being in the Virgin Islands and not catching much of the week 1 events, I’ve really been making up for it in week 2. We’re watching a good 4+ hours of coverage a night – all with a slight DVR delay so we can skip commercials of course.
I’ll admit, it took me a little bit to warm up to the games this time around with all the torch run shenanigans and human rights and environmental issues surrounding the host country. But sure enough, play that Olympic theme a few times and I’m ready to paint the five rings on my face.
Something very cool this time around is that with the popularity of blogging you can now follow a lot of athletes online and hear about their experiences first hand. It’s a fascinating glimpse at the day to day trials and triumphs of the athletes. You also get stories about life in the Olympic Village, meeting other athletes, and sights around Beijing. Here are a few:
D and I traveled to Nashville, Indiana this past weekend to catch a talk by Coach Bob Knight. The venue was a low key place, a 2000 seat auditorium, which usually hosts touring country acts. We had great seats – sixth row, center.
Before Bob came out, a projector replayed footage from the ceremony celebrating his 880th win back in 2007 (which made him the men’s div 1 college basketball wins leader). Then, after the seats filled up, Bob came out to a standing ovation – the Hoosier force is still strong in this one. After the applause quieted, Bob started, in typical point blank fashion, with some ribbing of the event organizers (long time friends of his) about the modest on-stage setup.
Bob went on to talk for over two hours. He retold stories dating back to his coaching start at West Point through to his recent work for ESPN. His first story was a 15 minute monologue about how upon arriving at Texas Tech he quickly learned of the expression, Son’bitch. One of my favorite lines was in this story in which he said “I don’t know much about computers. All I know is they weigh a hell of a lot when my wife puts one in our carry on.”
He spoke a lot about fellow coaches and past players. Although his tales twisted and turned with lots of tangents, his recall of names and scores was uncanny. Bob talked about coaching Mike Krzyzewski at West Point and how he instructed him to never shoot the ball (“if you shoot, you will die”), an order which the young Coach K followed. He talked about the satisfaction of beating Digger Phelps (94-29) who was in his first year coaching at Notre Dame while Bob was in his first year at Indiana. A lot of stories centered around the IU team who won his first National Championship in ’76, including one player he called his all-time MVP: Bobby Wilkerson. Although Wilkerson wasn’t as popular as Kent Benson, Scott May, or Quinn Buckner, Knight told of his dedication and versatility on the court.
At one point in the middle of the talk Bob’s cell phone began to ring. Bob stopped and answered it right on stage. He went on to talk to an unknown person at the other end for several minutes about the merits of hiring Dan Hipsher. After the call, Bob said we might’ve just seen a preview to a big announcement in the coming days.
Bob took a few passing digs at the IU administration that ended his tenure (nothing too pointed and names weren’t mentioned) including this one during his closing remarks:
After the main portion of the talk, Knight introduced long time friend and biographer Bob Hammel. Hammel, mic in hand, went into the audience and relayed questions from the crowd to Knight for a good 15 minutes. At one point, Knight invited his wife Karen on stage and she tearfully spoke about how she misses living in the area.
After all that, there was a short break and a Meet and Greet started up a few minutes later. D and I decided to pony up a few extra bucks for a couple signed souvies and a brief 1 on 1 (meeting, not game). During our handshake and photo op, Knight took the time to sign D’s plank from Assembly Hall and it’s since become even more cherished.
Holy Crap! With tonight’s 92-85 win in the NIT Championship game, perhaps the OSU men’s basketball team has finally broken the collective curse of Maurice Clarett, Jim O’Brien, Bo Schembechler, Willis McGahee’s knee, Ted Ginn’s ankle, NBA draft rules, or whatever else it was that put our teams in Karma’s outhouse. I’m not about to start bragging about it, but at least now maybe I can watch a Buckeye sporting event without feeling like I’m waiting for a swift punch to the junk.
Nicely done Scarlet and Gray sirs!
Posted Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 11:44 PMNo Comments
OK, yes, it’s not the tournament that anyone cares about. Yes, it’s not the tournament that determines the national champ. At best, maybe it’s the tournament that crowns the best of the worst. None the less, Ohio State will be playing in the NIT Championship game on Thursday night.
The Buckeyes have cruised to wins over every team in the NIT so far. Maybe convincingly enough to make the selection committee second guess leaving them out. But all in all missing the NCAA tournament was probably the best thing for the team. Instead of getting the quick first round (or a very unlikely second round) boot in the Big Dance, they will play five tournament games giving the young guys more much needed experience. The Bucks will lose a couple guys going into next year – most notably the under-rated senior point guard, Jamar Butler – but the sophomore class will be increasing impressive and there will be some key freshmen coming in.
Ohio State will face UMass for the NIT title. It’s not the Florida rematch every OSU fan (and sportswriter) was desperately craving, but it’s almost more satisfying to the Gators drop out before reaching the final. If you’re up for watching some ball on the big screen, come on over around 7 on Thurs.
Posted Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 2:51 PMNo Comments
After 42 years and 902 wins, Bobby Knight steps down from coaching. Love him or hate him, you can’t have grown up in Indiana like we did and not have some entertaining memories of him over the years. Here are some classic clips:
Vulgarities aside, keep in mind you probably can’t find a better example of a cleaner program with more graduating players than any of his teams.
Although the midseason timing was a surprise, this being his last season isn’t too shocking. In an very fortunate stoke of timing, about two weeks ago I bought D and I tickets to see him speak at a one-time engagement in Nashville, Indiana in April. Should be interesting.
Posted Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 2:42 PMNo Comments
