Seth's 50 Centers

I was able to watch the debut of the 2007-08 Ohio State basketball team tonight and have some good vibes from all the new players.

First, this was a preseason game against Division II Ashland University, so my enthusiasm is tempered a bit, but this was the first time all but four of OSU’s main players have played together in a competitive game.

Here’s what I saw out of the new guys:

Kosta Koufos: He played mostly inside, mostly because of the size advantage he had against the Eagles. I liked his post moves and he showed good hands and positioning on rebounds. I’ll be looking for him to do a bit more from the outside as the season goes along.

Jon Diebler: Mr. Basketball in Ohio last year, Diebler also broke my boyhood hero Jay Burson’s scoring record for high school players in the state of Ohio. Diebler looked a little tentative early, but he eventually got on track and showed an extremely smooth shooting stroke. I don’t know if it means much at this point, but when Thad Matta brought in four new players off the bench, Diebler remained on the court.

Eric Wallace: I’ve been interested in him since he committed out of Winston-Salem, NC. Wallace is 6-5 but weighs in around 215 pounds. Analyst Bill Hoskett called him more of an athlete than a basketball player at this point, but he showed no signs of nerves when he came off the bench and knocked down his first three shots, including a thunderous dunk. I was also impressed with his court awareness. He stabbed his long arm in the passing lane a few times and came away with the ball.

Dallas Lauderdale: This guy is huge! Listed at 6-8, 260, I really like the way he moves in the paint. I also liked his hands. Lauderdale put himself in a position in both rebounding and pass catching to make sure he got the ball in an ideal position to go straight to the hoop. I’d compare his body type to a Terrence Dials, who won Big Ten player of the year at OSU a few years ago. He’s not as big or talented as Greg Oden, but one comparison to him is the fact he’s already physically ready for the Big Ten’s rough style, which should be a plus, especially since Koufos, at 7-1, would really rather be a forward than a center.

P.J. Hill: No, not the gimpy Wisconsin running back. This guy is a sophomore junior college transfer who Matta unearthed during summer competition. He’ll play as a back up point guard and appears to be pretty quick. He knocked down a three pointer shortly after coming off the bench, but also looked like he was trying a bit too hard at times. He’ll need to relax a bit and let the talent Matta obviously thought he saw in him take over.

Evan Turner: Didn’t really get a good look at this guy from Chicago in the first half. He’s 6-6 and can play at the guard or forward. I don’t know how much he’ll be out there when crunch time comes. Maybe an ideal situation would be for him to play a role similar to the one David Lighty played last year as he adjusts to the college game.

Kyle Madsen: He transferred from Vanderbilt and sat out last year’s run to the championship game. Madsen’s from Dublin Coffman here in town and I’m not sure what he’ll bring to the table yet. He was in that group that came off the bench about five minutes into the first half, but that could just be an ice-breaker type situation. He’s 6-10 and adds depth inside. Ironically, this team actually has more bodies to throw at teams in the paint than last year’s team did. No, there isn’t an Oden, when else has there been?

Players we already know:

Jamar Butler: He’ll return to the lead guard spot after giving way to Mike Conley last year. Butler has lost some weight and gained strength and quickness in the process. Hopefully he decided to do so after seeing what a difference it made for Conley last year. He’s still a good shooter and hopefully his new physique can keep him strong throughout the dog days of February and into the tournament. He’ll be a key leader on this team in that he’s been a part of back-to-back league titles.

David Lighty: Lighty, while only a sophomore, may be the best leader on the floor the Buckeyes have. He really didn’t do much offensively last year until we really needed him in the tournament — see the Tennessee and Memphis games. That said, Lighty was part of a team that went overseas over the summer and he was constantly in double figures, even leading the way in scoring a lot of the time. I look for a lot out of him as he is the lone player returning from last year’s freshman class.

Othello Hunter: The other returning part of the “Thad Five”, Hunter was a junior college transfer last year. He’s a little quicker this year it seems and it looks like he’s more aggressive. He actually jumped center at 6-9, despite the fact the 7-1 Koufos was also on the floor. He played pretty well before Oden came back from his wrist injury last season and seemed to back into the woodwork a bit when Oden started turning it on. I’d say he’ll have the chance to be the man for the first time, especially since he didn’t start playing organized basketball until his senior year of high school. He put up a double-double against Ashland, as did Koufos.

Matt Terwilliger: What else can you say, it’s Twigs! He’s taken some lumps over the years from fans, but he was a valuable role player last year, especially in the tournament when he came off the bench on several occasions to spell Oden in the first half of games when he was in foul trouble. If he weren’t at least serviceable, I don’t know that the Bucks would’ve made it to the Final Four.

Overall, I’m very optimistic about this season. Matta has never coached a team that didn’t win 20 points and all of these new guys were on successful high school squads, with Diebler, Koufos and Lauderdale playing on teams that either went to the regionals or the state final four.

The media picked OSU to come in third behind Michigan State and Indiana. That’s a fair projection, although I think they have the ability to challenge for the crown. I certainly don’t agree with USA Today’s prediction that they’ll be as low as a nine-seed in the NCAA tournament. I look for a No. 5 seed or better.

Respect? Nah, I’ll just take the ring

Another Ohio State win in impressive fashion and yet all you hear about is how unimpressive the Buckeyes’ schedule has been.

That’s fine. I seem to remember a certain team in 2002 winning game after game only to find that no one gave it a chance. Things turned out fine for those guys, wouldn’t you say?

My friend Matt compared this year’s team to that ’02 squad before the season started. I began thinking about it on all phases of the game and came to agree with him somewhat.

This year’s team is headed by defense first and foremost, as was the ’02 championship bunch.

The ’07 version features a bruising running back, much like that team that had a kid wearing No. 13 — we don’t talk about him by name much anymore.

It turns out that Chris Wells, a few inches taller and looking more like a linebacker than a tailback, is as good if not better than the previous Big Kid. Oh, and he has a nagging injury — 13 had a shoulder stinger while Wells deals with ankle issues nearly every game. Oh, and 13′s nickname was “Reesie” while Wells goes by “Beanie”.

Both teams have solid punters and while going into the season we expected Aaron Pettrey to lead the way as place kicker, Ryan Pretorious has done a fine job.

The quarterback position is where the real questions begin, but the trick is to look at it from a preseason perspective. Prior to the ’02 season, did we know that Craig Krenzel would feature all the guts and guile it would take to win 14 straight games? No, we didn’t. Just as we didn’t know what Todd Boeckman would be like.

Boeckman has proven to be a better thrower of the spheroid than Krenzel, but can he remain cool under pressure like Craig did seemingly every week? Hopefully the rest of the squad gets the job done and Todd doesn’t have to put the weight of the game on his shoulder, but if he does, what will happen?

The funny thing about the offense is this: While we don’t know yet if it has what it takes to win every game in front of it, no one could argue that this year’s O is more explosive and complete than that one. That team saw 13 miss all or part of five games and when he was out the team won more because of its defense — see Chris Gamble scoring the lone TD against Penn State, on an interception rather than a reception.

Yes, there is still work to be done, but more and more Matt’s view of the season is looking right on.

As to whether the rest of the country respects this team, I don’t really care. The fact is OSU has beaten teams just like the ones that took down frontrunners like USC, Cal and LSU. I’ll stack Ohio State’s road win at Washington up against USC losing at home to Stanford and Cal dropping a home game to Oregon State, and no one can tell me that going to Penn State at night isn’t as tough as LSU going to an upstart Kentucky and losing.

NFL Results

The CPA proved to be solid in her projections as she missed just one game this week, once again putting the lot of us to shame.

The CPA 13-1
Jessica 10-3
Seth 8-5
Brian 8-5
Big Game 7-6
Diesel 11-2
firedoor11 11-2
Nick 9-4

Overall standings

Jessica 81-35
Brian 82-38
The CPA 76-41
Big Game 70-46
Seth 68-50
Diesel 52-33
Nick 42-29
firedoor11 40-28
Will Will 7-7

Week Nine

San Francisco (2-5) at Atlanta (1-6)
Cincinnati (2-5) at Buffalo (3-4)
Denver (3-4) at Detroit (5-2)
Carolina (4-3) at Tennessee (5-2)
Green Bay (6-1) at Kansas City (4-3)
San Diego (4-3) at Minnesota (2-5)
Jacksonville (5-2) at New Orleans (3-4)
Washington (4-3) at NY Jets (1-7)
Arizona (3-4) at Tampa Bay (4-4)
Seattle (4-3) at Cleveland (4-3)
New England (8-0) Indianapolis (7-0)
Houston (3-5) at Oakland (2-5)
Dallas (6-1) at Philadelphia (3-4)
Baltimore (4-3) at Pittsburgh (5-2) Pts._____

Picks

Brian
For the first time in nearly a month, my lead is quite tenuous. Time to kick it up a notch.
Falcons
Bengals
Lions
Titans
Packers
Chargers
Saints
Redskins
Seahawks
Patriots
Buccaneers
Raiders
Cowboys
Steelers: 32

The CPA
San Francisco
Cincinnati
Detroit
Tennessee
Green Bay
San Diego
Jacksonville
Washington
Tampa Bay
Seattle
New England
Houston
Dallas
Pittsburgh (42pts.)

Jessica
San Francisco
Cincinnati
Detroit
Carolina
Green Bay
San Diego
New Orleans
Washington
Arizona
Cleveland
New England
Oakland
Dallas
Pittsburgh Pts._45

Big Game
Atlanta
Buffalo
Denver
Carolina
Green Bay
San Diego
New Orleans
NY Jets
Tampa Bay
Cleveland
New England
Oakland
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh 40

Seth
Atlanta
Buffalo
Denver
Tennessee
Green Bay
San Diego
New Orleans
Washington
Tampa Bay
Seattle
New England
Houston
Dallas
Pittsburgh 38

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