Courtesy of the Mid-American Conference

Cleveland, Ohio -- Today the Mid-American Conference announced that Kent State's Justin Greene and Head Coach Geno Ford have earned top honors for the 2010-11 men's basketball season. Greene was named Player of Year, while Ford was tabbed Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season. The Player of the Year and Coach of the Year awards were voted on by a 20-member MAC News Media Association panel.

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With the regular season coming to a close, the Big Ten passed out all-conference accolades and individual awards to players and coaches around the league. With multiple Buckeyes being considered for top honors, Monday night had the potential to be a great night for Ohio State. Unfortunately, the Buckeyes fell short in the conferences biggest individual awards -- losing the Big Ten player of the year and coach of the year to members of the Purdue Boilermakers. Here are your 2011 Big Ten individual award winners and All-Conference teams:

Player of the Year -- Jujuan Johnson, Purdue

Coach of the Year -- Matt Painter, Purdue

Freshman of the Year -- Jared Sullinger, Ohio State (Unanimous Selection)

Sixth Man of the Year -- Aaron Craft, Ohio State

Defensive Player of the Year -- Jujuan Johnson, Purdue

First Team All-Big Ten Selections (Coaches):

• Jared Sullinger, Ohio State
• Jajuan Johnson, Purdue (Unanimous Selection)
• E’Twaun Moore, Purdue
• Jon Leuer, Wisconsin
• Jordan Taylor, Wisconsin

Second Team All-Big Ten Selections (Coaches):

• Kalin Lucas, Michigan State
• Trevor Mbakwe, Minnesota
• William Buford, Ohio State
• David Lighty, Ohio State
• Talor Battle, Penn State

Third Team All-Big Ten Selections (Coaches):

• Demetri McCamey, Illinois
• Darius Morris, Michigan
• Draymond Green, Michigan State
• John Shurna, Northwestern
• Michael Thompson, Northwestern
• Jon Diebler, Ohio State

*Multiple selections due to tie...

First Team All-Big Ten Selections (Media):

• Jared Sullinger, Ohio State
• Talor Battle, Penn State
• Jajuan Johnson, Purdue (Unanimous Selection)
• E’Twaun Moore, Purdue
• Jordan Talyor, Wisconsin (Unanimous Selection)

Second Team All-Big Ten Selections (Media):

• Kalin Lucas, Michigan State
• Trevor Mbakwe, Minnesota
• William Buford, Ohio State
• David Lighty, Ohio State
• Jon Leuer, Wisconsin

Third Team All-Big Ten Selections (Media):

• Demetri McCamey, Illinois
• Darius Morris, Michigan
• Draymond Green, Michigan State
• Michael Thompson, Northwestern
• Jon Diebler, Ohio State

All-Big Ten Freshman Team (Coaches):

• Jereme Richmond, Illinois
• Melsahn Basabe, Iowa
• Tim Hardaway Jr., Michigan (Unanimous Selection)
• Aaron Craft, Ohio State
• Jared Sullinger, Ohio State (Unanimous Selection)

All-Big Ten Defensive Team (Coaches):

• Delvon Roe, Michigan State
• Aaron Craft, Ohio State (Unanimous Selection)
• David Lighty, Ohio State
• JaJuan Johnson, Purdue
• Jordan Taylor, Wisconsin

The Buckeyes beat the Badgers into a bloody, unrecognizable mess last night. In fact, posters are popping up all over Madison with pictures of what the team used to look like with the caption, "Have you seen this team?"...

After Ohio State was done setting records and whatnot, the Big Ten released the 2011 tournament bracket.

The Buckeyes are the No. 1 seed and appear to have the easiest road to the Big Ten title game among the “favorites” (Ohio State, Purdue and Wisconsin). Ohio State is in the top half of the bracket and will face either Northwestern or Minnesota in the first game, and in the event that they win, they’ll have to beat either Michigan or Illinois to make it to the conference championship game.

On the other side of the bracket -- second seeded Purdue, third seeded Wisconsin and a still-alive-because-they’re-never-dead (OMG-ZOMBIES!!!) Michigan State team will battle each other in their road to the championship game.

The tournament tips-off this Thursday, March 10 in Indianapolis, Indiana (Conseco Fieldhouse).

The Ohio State Buckeyes set two NCAA records for 3-point shooting in today's 93-65 blowout of No. 10 Wisconsin.

Their 14 for 15 set a record for 3-point percentage at 93.3%. After Jon Diebler missed on his first attempt, the Buckeyes hit 14 straight 3's, also an NCAA record.

Diebler hit his next seven straight 3-point attempts, giving him 17 for 20 in his last two games. William Buford was 3 for 3, David Lighty 2 for 2, and Deshaun Thomas and Jordan Sibert had one apiece without a miss.

The Buckeyes will play Friday at noon in their first Big Ten Tournament game against the Northwestern-Minnesota winner, and if they advance, will meet the winner of Michigan-Illinois on Saturday in the semifinals.

The animosity between Ohio State and Wisconsin has been steadily growing for quite a while now. Over the last five months, that animosity has seemingly reached its boiling point. Going back to October when Wisconsin’s stupid football team beat the top ranked Buckeyes, and stretching to February when Wisconsin’s stupid basketball team beat the top ranked Buckeyes... the schools/fan-bases have developed a near rival-hate for each other.

After the Badgers beat the Buckeyes 71-67 in Madison, there were reports stating one of the students who stormed the court spit in Jared Sullinger’s face. Shortly after the game, Sullinger tweeted:

“To be spit on is just nasty. On top of that in my Face. Before and after the game. Smh [shaking my head]. I just kept walking. More fuel to the fire.”

When this information was presented to Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan, he offered no sympathy, ““There's absolutely nothing that has come to my attention,”  Ryan said. “All I know is we won the game, deal with it.”

Ryan’s comments didn’t sit well with Ohio State fans, and the Wisconsin coach (and his team) will likely pay for his harsh and arrogant words when the Badgers visit Columbus for the regular season finale on Sunday. Value City Arena is expected to be packed, loud and hostile for the visiting Badgers as students are urging fans attending the game to wear gray for a “Grayout”. In addition to this, the first 1,400 students at the game will receive a free “Deal With It” rag (pictured above) to wave during the game. Considering the students are lined up right behind both benches, Ryan will likely be in for two hours of unbridled venom.

Ohio State coach Thad Matta is anticipating the loudest, most electric crowd ever in Value City Arena this Sunday. Oh Bo Ryan, you brought this on yourself.

Doom, awful, impending doom awaits the NFL tonight at midnight as the CBA expires and the lockout presumably begins.

Most "in the know" seem to feel that a deal is far from being reached, and the lockout will likely drag on until late August or early September.  NFL teams won't be able to trade players, sign free agents, practice, hold OTA's, hold Training Camp, even provide their players with playbooks.  This will, of course, affect all the NFL teams, but it will hurt teams like the Browns the most.

Let's say you have a new Head Coach who's also the Offensive Coordinator, and he's going to implement an entirely new Offensive system.  Let's say you have a new Defensive Coordinator who is switching from a 3-4 to a 4-3.  Let's say you have a raw and flawed 2nd year QB as your starter, and he'll be unable to use his greatest weapon - preparedness.  Let's say you have a young team with a bunch of new players that need to learn the schemes and get reps.

Now let's say you get 2 weeks to put all that together.

If you think that would be anything but a disaster for teams like Cleveland, you have a much greater capacity for hope than I do.

Even the national media thinks we're F'd in the A without V.  From an NBC article about the teams that would be hurt the most by a lockout:

3. Browns
Browns football czar Mike Holmgren will pay for delaying the end of the Eric Mangini era. Presumptive starting quarterback Colt McCoy won’t get to learn his new scheme and the defensive players don’t fit the team’s new 3-4 defense. With a first-time coach in Pat Shurmur, it’s like they are starting all over again.

They have Tennessee and Denver as the teams that will be most F'd by the lockout, but it's hard to see where even they are worse off than the Browns.  Really, if you had to rank the teams that would be most affected, you should really just list them 1A-F for about 6 teams.  There will be some ugly football in some cities this Fall.

Prepare thyself for Cleveland Browns: The Return II. 

Let's hope they do it right this time.

While it lasts, it's okay to bask in the Buckeyes being No. 1 in the nation, right?  In the game notes from last night's dismantling of Penn State are some statistics that help show why they're No. 1. For starters, they play great defense, and they don't foul.

OSU is 11th in the country in scoring defense (59.5), and they entered the PSU game ranked second in the country in fewest fouls per game, at a 14.4 average (but committed 18 vs PSU). The Buckeyes are leading the Big Ten, and are second nationally, in turnover margin at plus 5.7 per game. As a team, the Buckeyes lead the Big Ten in steals by a wide margin, at 7.7 pg.

True freshman Aaron Craft leads the Big Ten Conference in steals, at 2.1 per game. And even that doesn't tell the story of how good this kid has been on defense. Craft has had four games now with 5 steals or more, with a high of 7. And he's getting better. Craft has 64 steals on the season, but 23 of them have come in the last five games. 

Offensively, the Bucks are scoring at 77.4 ppg., and are fourth nationally in scoring margin at 17.7 ppg, and third in the nation in field goal percentage (49.3). Jared Sullinger leads the Big Ten in offensive rebounds per game at 3.17.

The Buckeyes freshmen (mainly Sullinger, Craft and Deshaun Thomas) have scored 45% of OSU's points.

I know they don't have stats going back very far on consecutive field goals, but Diebler's nine 3's in a row last night has to be a record of some sort in itself. Someone from OSU will let us know eventually. I'm not sure I've ever seen a 3-point shooter hotter than Diebler was last night.. As Gus Johnson noted on BTN, he only grazed the rim once or twice on his 10 triples. 

Diebler had looked a little out of sorts Sunday against Indiana, when his shot was flat and was hitting front rim most of the night, as he went 2 for 7 from long range. Guess he got the bugs ironed out. The man is shooting 49.4% from 3-point range for the season, which leads the conference by plenty, and will probably place him second in the NCAA in 3-point accuracy when the new numbers come out this week.  It's a good time of year to get hot and stay hot.

The Indians solved their dilemma in needing to find a 40-man roster spot for newly-signed Chad Durbin. They did it by sending LHP Aaron Laffey to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for IF/OF Matt Lawson. Yes, I initially read Matt Lawton as well. Thankfully, it is not the stocky OF, but a 25-year-old who had an .811 OPS between AA Frisco (TEX) and AA West Tennessee (SEA) last season.

Manny Acta had originally said that Laffey would be extended as a starter in Spring Training to potentially have his hat in the ring of fifth starter candidates. Likely, Laffey would have been extended to be the long reliever in the bullpen.

Lawson has spent most of his minor league games at 2B, committing 47 errors in 366 games and hitting .283. He was drafted out of Missouri State in the 14th round of the 2007 draft.

Lawson will not need to be added to the 40-man, thus creating Durbin's roster. spot, sparing Shelley Duncan, who was the most likely DFA candidate.

As I'm sure you've heard, Bengals QB Carson Palmer has gone out of his way to let the team know that he has no interest in playing for them anymore and would rather retire.  The latest from a CBS Sportsline blog:

Palmer told a confidant that “I will never set foot in Paul Brown Stadium again. … I have $80 million in the bank. I don't have to play football for money. I'll play it for the love of the game but that would have to be elsewhere. I'm prepared to live my life."

Indications are that Mike Brown and the Bengals have actually realized the sincerity of these proclamations and might very well take steps to move the disgruntled QB and get some return rather than a big fat Zero.  That, sports fans, would mean that Cincy would definitely be in the market for a QB, and sits pretty at #4 overall with a shot at either Cam Newton or Blaine Gabbert.

Rumblings have the Bengals inftuated with the raw talent that Newton brings to the table, but there's still a good chance either Carolina or Buffalo will nab him before the FraidyCats do.

Regardless, this likely pushes a prime player like AJ Green, Patrick Peterson, Nick Fairley, or Marcel Dareus a little further down the line... to where they might be available at #6 to Cleveland.

Norris Cole added another historic achievement to his glorious career at Cleveland State.

On Monday, the senior from Dayton became the first player in Horizon League history to be named both the Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season.

But he would trade those awards in for another Horizon League tournament championship and a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament again.

"It's a special award [being named Player of the Year]," said Cole at a press conference on Monday. "I think it shows that hard work pays off, but I rather win a championship and get back to the NCAA's. That's the primarily goal for me right now."

Cole led the Horizon League in scoring (21.6), assists (5.5) and steals (2.2), carrying CSU to a share of its first Horizon League regular season title in school history. He joins Darius Clemons (Loyola, 1980-81) as the only players to lead the Horizon League in all three categories in the same season.

He says winning the Defensive Player of the Year is most gratifying to him.

"Winning the Defensive Player of the Year, I think it says something," said Cole. "It shows that our program plays defense. And that if you put the combination of both you can be a very special player."

The 6-foot-2, 170-pound guard had one of the most memorable performances in recent NCAA history recording a 40-point, 20-rebound and nine assist performance against Youngstown State on Feb. 12. He joined Blake Griffin (Oklahoma) as the only players in the past 15 years to have achieved a 40-point and 20-rebound game.

"I was really overjoyed that Norris was Defensive Player of the Year, " said CSU coach Gary Waters at his media gathering on Monday. "Norris shut people down and they finally recognized him.

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