Michigan needed them to get back into the game and Evan Turner turned around and used one to stab them straight through their under .500 hearts. Sorry guys, it was just meant to be.

This was only a second round Big Ten tournament game. I know this. That being said, this shot has to rank in the top two three-pointers of all time (I’m still partial to Ron Lewis’ three against Tennessee in 2007). But man, what a shot. I hope this game is a wake-up call for the Buckeyes going in to tomorrow’s game against Illinois and the rest of the tournament. You can’t sleep on anyone at this point. Michigan had nothing to lose and everything to gain from beating Ohio State. It’s going to be that way from here on out.

It’s a good thing we’ve got the Player of the Year on our side.

Twitter has been around for a while now, but let’s be honest: it didn’t get interesting until the Big Aristotle started tweeting. Since then, athletes have been one of the reasons Twitter has become interesting and mainstream. I’m not saying the following Buckeye Tweeters are interesting, but some most certainly are. There are times when I don’t understand a word these kids are saying. Seriously, can’t understand a word. Sometimes, their insights and thoughts are rather deep and provoking. It’s interesting to see how the other half lives. Also: athletes nap A LOT.

With that in mind, here are the following Buckeyes you can follow (with mixed results) on Twitter. As far as I can tell, these guys are who they say they are:

Current Football Players:

Thaddeus Maximus (who happens to be following John McCain, Oprah and Kevin Rose, FWIW)
Rob Rose Jr.
Ray Small
Michael Brewster
Brian Rolle
Jack Mewhort
Jermale Hines
Andrew Sweat
Kurt Coleman
Keith Wells
Jake McQuaide
Duron Carter
Chimdi Chekwa

Former Buckeye Football Players:

Antonio Pittman
Curtis Terry
Chris Beanie Wells
Roy Hall Jr.
Donte Whitner
Troy Smith
Dee Miller
Ted Ginn Jr.
Rob Sims
A.J. Trapasso
Nate Clements
Nick Mangold
Maurice wells
Maurice Hall
Matt Keller
Santonio Holmes

Current Ohio State Basketball Players:

Jon Diebler
Dave Lighty
Evan Turner
Dallas Lauderdale
Mark Titus

Former Ohio State Basketball Players:

Daequan Cook
Mike Conley
Ron Lewis
Jay Sullinger
Jim Jackson
Ron Stokes
Jamar Butler
Je’Kel Foster

Future Buckeyes:

Jared Sullinger
Christian Bryant

So there you have it. Lots of Twittering Buckeyes. This post will eventually become a static page that will be updated as more Twitter accounts become available, but this is the first draft. If we’re missing someone that you know is on Twitter, please leave us a comment.

Also, just to do a little self-promoting, a few of us at MotSaG are on Twitter. I’m i_aint_yer_pa, sportsMonkey is monkeyPi, and YNBA is teamyzerman. Are you on Twitter? Let us know who you are!

The basketball coverage around these parts has been sparse this year, due to a lack of time and definitely not a lack of interest. This season has been a treat to watch Evan Turner develop into (according to ESPN College BB analysts) the consensus National Player of the Year.

Just yesterday, Slyvester Yon-Rambo and I where discussing were ET fits in the pantheon of OSU Basketball Greats. Right now, I would rank him #3, behind John Havlicek and Jimmy Jackson. Evan’s performance in the Tournament will determine his final ceiling. If he takes this team deep into the tournament this year, he’s #2. (JJ had a better team but never made a real run in March). If (and that’s a pretty huge if) he comes back next year, averages nearly a triple-double again and leads the Buckeyes to the Final Four, we may have to rank him #1. He would certainly will have been the best player my generation has ever seen play.

So congrats again to the Buckeyes, good luck in the Big Ten Tournament and finally in the NCAA Tournament.

Coach Rex Ryan doesn’t even bother to try to talk him up anymore and the media doesn’t even bother to ask. It’s getting harder and harder not to stamp linebacker Vernon Gholston a bust and move on.

Ouch.

Then just the other day I saw our buddies at Eleven Warriors had linked to this article from our own Ken Gordon at the Dispatch reiterating the same things.

“That’s still a work in progress, but I will say this: When we’re going back and looking at our cutups and things like that, I think this young man deserves a better chance,” Ryan said. “We need to give him more playing time.

That’s not quite as dire as a couple months ago, but it’s still disappointing.

I often wonder where motivation and drive come from for someone blessed with physical gifts beyond mere mortals (see: LeBron, Tiger, MJ, Vernon). It came so easy to Vernon at OSU (exhibit A, exhibit B). I wonder what has happened this far with Vernon. There’s no bigger fan of his than me and it pains me to see the current trajectory of his professional career. He doesn’t seem to have the drive he once had.

It’s obvious that at his point, at the highest level of competition, the blessed one has not produced. Not even a little bit. There’s no way to interpret his current production as anything other than major letdown. I’ve watched him play as a Jet when I could and never saw the fire or domination he had as a Buckeye. Maybe it was the system (going from a basic 4-3 in college to Rex Ryan’s confusing 3-4 blitz mania). Maybe it’s something else. At this point, we can just hope Ryan is able to light a fire under his rear end and he silences the critics in 2010.

What’s your take?

A lot of times we get caught up in following these young kids, these young athletes, building them up to the point of expecting too much of them. For some reason we gleefully rejoice in their failings and scoff at the “nice guys” (see: Tim Tebow, in both cases). We often dehumanize them at the same time we deify them.

This is just a quick story showing these guys can be really good people. I don’t remember Malcolm ever getting into much trouble as a Buckeye, and it’s good to see he’s still such a good, classy kind of guy:

Malcolm Jenkins came in late to the Jim Thorpe Award banquet Monday. On purpose. He didn’t want to upstage Eric Berry, the man of the hour and the 2009 Thorpe Award winner. Jenkins, the 2008 Thorpe winner, knocked down a Peyton Manning pass in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. Some 22 hours later, he was at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, to help honor his successor.

Make sure you read the whole thing. Kudos to Malcolm for being a stand-up guy, congrats for winning the Super Bowl and thanks for being a great example of what a Buckeye truly is.

Here’s the scary thing: On a gimpy leg, Terrelle Pryor went out against Oregon in the Rose Bowl and had the best statistical performance of his Buckeye career, winning the MVP of the game and setting the Buckeyes up for a run in 2010. All on a busted wheel.

Now that the mental aspect of the game is coming in to focus for Terrelle, imagine what he’s going to do now that he’s at 100% physically. It should be enough to keep Big Ten coaches up at night.

I’m currently working on a post about the recruiting haul, so in the meantime, let’s caption this picture of Senator Tressel visiting with super-recruit Seantrel Henderson.

Jeremiah (Pittsburgh)

With all the expansion talk I have been trying my best to figure out how they would split the divisions. My best guess is East and West. But this completely makes the divisions unfair IMO. Is there a way to make the divisions where OSU and PSU and Michigan aren’t in the same division? Is there something I am missing where making 2 divisions wont be unbalanced to one side?

Adam Rittenberg (4:28 PM)

Jeremiah, I’m glad you asked this. Everyone needs to put the geography thing aside when trying to form the divisions. It’d be great if everything was neat and nice, but I’m more interested in competitive balance. Putting Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State in the same division would be a major mistake. I would either put Penn State in a division with Wisconsin, Iowa, etc., or split Ohio State and Michigan and maintain a protected crossover rivalry like the SEC does. You still run the risk of rematches in the championship game, but it’s not a terrible option.

We haven’t talked much about expansion around these parts (outside of the occasional rumor) but we all have our preferences (I’d prefer to see Pitt, SYR would like to see UConn) but when things eventually do happen, we’ll be ready.

It’s no secret we have a special place in our hearts for Troy Smith and most of us are pretty bummed out that he hasn’t had a chance to show his stuff in the NFL. One little medical condition is what stands between Troy Smith starting for the Baltimore Ravens in 2008 and riding the pine except for some rare occasions. And while we feel no ill-will toward Joe Flacco (other than those awful Delaware helmets) we’d really like to see Troy Smith on the field. So we are all patitently waiting for Troy’s turn.

A couple things have happened this past week that have rekindled hope in a rebirth of Troy in 2010:

I watched last week as Donte Whitner lobbied for the Buffalo Bills to take a chance on Troy Smith as their QB. It’s good to know fellow Buckeyes look out for each other.

Recently Troy was Mark “Munch” Bishop’s radio show expressing a desire for a shot with Cleveland.

Needless to say, I’m okay with either of these things happening, but I’d rather see Troy return home to Cleveland (and yes, I know we’ve been down this road before). As a Browns fan, I am on Team Brady (that’s the correct Twilight terminology, right?) but I would switch allegiances to Team Troy if he were given a chance. In a heartbeat.