 The lights will be on October 6th against Nebraska Dave Thurman and Ken Kohl (9:16 am)
Night Games: Get ready to stay up late as Ohio State will be playing three night games in 2012. The Department of Athletics has announced that the Buckeyes will appear on prime time television a trio of times in the month of October:
October 6 – Ohio State will host Nebraska at 8 p.m. in a game that will be televised on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2. The game will be Ohio State’s Homecoming and it will be the Cornhusker’s first visit to Columbus since playing at Ohio Stadium in 1956.
October 13 – Ohio State’s road game at Indiana in Memorial Stadium will be at 8 p.m. on the Big Ten Network. I wonder if the late night will keep OSU fan's from overtaking the stadium as usual.
October 27 – Ohio State’s game against Penn State in State College will be a 6 p.m. start with either ABC, ESPN or ESPN2 broadcasting the contest.
Although night games are good in the sense of attracting a national audience I hate them, because it means nervously waiting all day for kickoff. Oh well, the B1G didn't ask my opinion!
 How full will Ohio Stadium be on Saturday? Dave Thurman (10:22 am)
Well I have spent the last few days with my sister and her husband in Coshocton, Ohio, and it has been great to leave Hoosier-land for a while and return to the greatest state in the union. There really is no place quite like Ohio when it comes to football, and the best of the best takes place in Columbus on crisp autumn Saturdays. There have been a few interesting news items surfacing this week, although not all of it has been related to football.
Transfer Time: Nobody was too shocked with news from the hardwood this week, that both Jordan Sibert and J.D. Weatherspoon have decided to leave. Sibert is heading to Dayton, while Weatherspoon has yet to make his future destination known, though some think it may be Xavier, which recruited him out of high school. Both guys could have helped next season. Sibert came in with the reputation of being a shooter, and though he didn't play well this year, I thought he could be a valuable weapon off the bench in the future.
"Spoon" will be missed if for no other reason than his monster dunks, which made him a fan favorite. Certainly he could score points, and I thought he would get more minutes in 2012-13. There are still plenty of frontcourt candidates to fill the roster, but J.D.'s energy and leaping will be missed.
With Sully going pro, and Buford having used up his eligibility, the Buckeyes are now very thin heading into next season. Thad won't have much bench at his disposal (cue the jokes and laughter), not that he would have used it anyway. However, an injury or two could derail this team. I keep thinking that Matta will still sign someone in the class of '12, but at this point he has come up empty. Stay posted!
 Well, the Buckeyes just got a major boost for the 2012-13 season, as Deshaun Thomas has decided to stay for his junior year. Per the university press release: "We have a great team returning next season and I want to be a part of another championship run," Thomas said. "My family, my coaches and I looked at my future as a professional but I love being a Buckeye and want to continue my education and development as a player and as a person at Ohio State."If I do have an opportunity to play basketball professionally, I want to have an immediate impact," Thomas said. "Working with my teammates and coaches at Ohio State will help me achieve my future goals."Thomas is one of three returning starters from this year's Final Four run, joining Aaron Craft and Lenzelle Smith Jr. He averaged 15.9 points, 5.4 rebounds this last season as a sophomore.
 Sully looks towards the NBA Dave Thurman (6:39 pm)
It has been a busy first half of the week with lots of Buckeye news coming out of Columbus. Let's hit a few of the high points with a little commentary thrown in by yours truly:
Who is staying and going: Well, one thing we know for sure - Jared Sullinger is headed to the NBA after a stellar two year career in scarlet and gray. He is more than ready in my opinion, and the only thing coming back could do is: 1) Lead to injury, or 2) Cause his stock to go down. In the present climate it is actually best for a player who has a great freshman season to go pro. I hate it, but that is the reality. If you come back the scouts start to pick your game apart, and rival coaches work to figure out a way to stop you. This season Sully clearly missed Diebler, Lighty and Lauderdale, each for a different reason, and you could tell he wasn't having as much fun as he did in 2010-11. In fact I thought he had moments when he became selfish and sullen. But the fact is, Jared is a class kid from a great family, and he provided a lot of thrills to Buckeye fans. It is time for him to move on, and I wish him the best. Projections have him being taken between the 7th and 10th pick of the first round, and Sully is about to make a whole lot of money.
On the other hand, I believe Deshaun Thomas needs to return for one more year. He improved greatly this season, and became a scoring machine down the stretch. But the other parts of his game need fine-tuning. Thomas struggles at times on defense, and is still not much of a ball handler or passer. In the NBA he will need to play small forward, and I don't think he is ready to guard the amazing athletes that play that position for pay. He will never have great lateral quickness, but Deshaun can work hard to become a more complete player and improve his draft position, in my opinion. At the end of the day I think he will go pro, but I hope I'm wrong.
 Ken Kohl (1:20 pm)
Apologies to T. S. Eliot:
This is how the world ends,
Not with a bang but a whimper.
This will be a relatively short recap, since we all were witness to the crime scene against Kansas. I can sum this up in three phrases; “poor 2nd half shooting”, “getting beat in transition baskets”, and “not much contribution from the bench”. I wish I were posting this as an April Fool's joke, but, alas....
First, congratulations to the Kansas Jayhawks on their win. They may or may not have been the better team, but they were when it counted. The Buckeyes stunned them in the first half, but, as they’ve been doing throughout the tournament, Kansas played much better ball in the 2nd half. Much better than Ohio State did, in fact.
 Robinson killed OSU back in December. Drew Thurman (12:09 pm)
It's hard to believe the Buckeye find themselves here. Not only are they playing in the Final Four for a shot at a national title, a place very few thought this team would be just a month ago, but they get a second chance to knock off a Kansas team that defeated them early this season.
In that game back in December, a Sully-less OSU squad battled hard in Allen Fieldhouse, but would ultimately come up short 78-67. William Buford went 8 for 23 in that game (1/6 from three) while Amir Williams and Evan Ravenel got beat up by Robinson, who went for 21 points and seven rebounds. He and the Jayhawks shot a staggering 58% from the floor that afternoon and 52% from behind the three point stripe.
Now nearly four months later they meet again in the Final Four, a place the Jayhawks haven't been since winning the title back in 2008. For Thad Matta, he returns for this first time since 2007 when he and the Buckeyes fell short to Florida in the championship game.
 Michael Chung (1:34 am) Most Ohio State fans will say that William Buford has not had the season everyone expected him to have. As a sophomore, Buford could have left for the NBA, and probably would have been a relatively high draft pick. Last year, his 2-16 shooting was a major contributor in the Buckeyes' inability to advance beyond the Sweet 16. With the Final Four upon us, Buford’s contribution will become more and more important as teams try to take away Jared Sullinger and Deshaun Thomas. Syracuse played well, but did not account for Lenzelle Smith Jr.’s 18 points. The Buckeyes may have not marched onto the Final Four without his stellar performance, making clutch baskets to thwart any momentum mounted by the Orange. Buckeye nation cannot expect Smith to duplicate this against Kansas, though it would be really nice.
 Dave Thurman (5:17 pm)
With a couple impressive wins in the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight, Ohio State stamped its ticket to New Orleans and the coveted Final Four, which could be one of the most exciting in history. There are no small schools, Cinderella stories or underdogs in this year's last few days of the Big Dance. Instead, four schools with great tradition and rabid fans are headed to the Big Easy. In fact, despite one of the best fan bases in college sports, there is no doubt that the Buckeyes are the team with the least impressive resume from a basketball history standpoint. Kentucky, Kansas and Louisville have storied hoops programs, possibly only paralleled by North Carolina, UCLA, Indiana and Duke. This is an incredible foursome, and somewhere in New York CBS executives are high fiving over champagne, because television viewership should be at an all-time high.
Quick Recap: So how did Ohio State get here? Well, last week they had to knock off a pesky instate rival in Cincinnati and a high profile juggernaut in Syracuse. The Bearcats never struck me as a huge threat, because of their lack of length. I thought Sully would eat Yancey Gates for supper, and he did, outscoring him 23-7, and out rebounding him 11-5. Although there were some anxious moments in the early moments of the second half, the better team prevailed, despite terrible play from senior William Buford. Both Deshaun Thomas and Lenzelle Smith provided the extra scoring punch, and Aaron Craft's defense may have been his finest of the season. In the end, OSU walked off with an 81-66 victory that wasn't quite as easy as the final score would indicate.
 Ken Kohl (10:45 pm) Saturday’s OSU-Syracuse match-up was probably as toe-to-toe as you’d expect when a #1 seed and #2 seed take the floor. Most of you probably watched the game, and can catch much more detailed recaps here and here. I just have a few stray observations… And again, the photo in the previous post sums up things nicely. The officiating was interesting. It had elements of being tightly called, yet at times had “anticipated” fouls called. At least the officiating appeared to be consistent for both teams throughout the game. Which brings me to OSU’s ability to draw and convert fouls. In the preview, I felt that OSU’s higher FT rate might provide the winning edge, but; wow, 40% of the points from the foul line? And the Buckeyes needed them all. Which leads me to Ohio State’s offense against Syracuse. We saw a glimpse of it in the first half against Cincinnati, but the Thomas/Sullinger combination in the high/low post seems to be a valid scheme to attack the 2-3 zone. The entry pass to either post followed by quick shot/dump pass opened good scoring opportunities. This was complimented by occasions when the weak side (Buford/Smith) would work free. This was just well designed and well executed.
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