National signing day for 2012 football recruiting is just over a week away, and Urban Meyer is sprinting toward the Feb.1 finish line with a flurry of activity that has longtime observers of the recruiting game shaking their heads in amazement. In less than two months, Meyer has turned a so-so recruiting class into an elite group that ranks among the very best in the sport. And he’s not finished yet.

Meyer’s first recruiting projects at Ohio State were to get some key defensive line commitments solidified. Since then he has turned his attention to two other obvious areas of need on his Buckeye roster - depth on the offensive line, and speed and athleticism in the linebacker corps. With four new commitments in the last week, he is well on his way to addressing those needs. 

Read more...

Jared Sullinger wanted revenge against an Indiana team that defeated Ohio State 74-70 in Bloomington earlier this season.

It was Lenzelle Smith Jr. that helped Sullinger and the Buckeyes get even.

Smith Jr. scored a career high 28 points on 10-12 shooting (4-5 from three) while snagging seven rebounds -- fueling Ohio State in an 80-63 rout of the No. 7 Indiana Hoosiers.

Smith Jr’s man was doubling down on Jared Sullinger, much like they did in their first matchup two weeks ago, but this time Smith Jr. made them pay, "Throughout the game I just saw my man leave me every single time," Smith said. "The first game, I was complaining about that to my team. This game we capitalized that and we were able to get some easy buckets."

Read more...

Maybe it was too soon to stop worrying about Ohio State’s struggles on the road.

After looking lackluster in their first three road games of the year, it appeared as though the Buckeyes had bucked their recent, slumping trend away from Columbus with a 29 point victory over Iowa in Iowa city Saturday afternoon.

Just days after creeping back into the top five in both polls, the Buckeyes suffered a 79-74 loss to the Illinois Fighting Illini Tuesday night. It took a legendary performance from Illinois’ Brandon Paul, who scored a career high 43 points, to hand the Buckeyes their third loss of the season.

“Obviously, Brandon was special,” Illinois coach Bruce Weber said after the game -- but “special” doesn’t give nearly enough credit to Paul’s incredible outing. The junior guard came into the night with a season average of just 12 points on 33% shooting overall and 28% from three. But against Ohio State, Paul connected on eight of his 10 3-pointers while hitting 13 of 15 from the charity stripe (despite coming into the game averaging 68% on free throw attempts this year). In short -- Paul’s stat line was as amazing as it was uncharacteristic.

"I was laughing a couple times,” Paul said. “After the first couple three's, I just said I was going to keep shooting.”

Read more...

(Writer’s Note: this piece will serve double-duty as the wrap-up to my December Madness series as well as a preview-of-sorts of Monday night’s BCS Championship Game, right down to my prediction of the winner. Although the course of events in the actual game will obviously be different, I believe that for a number of reasons- special teams, big plays on defense and superior playmaking at quarterback- Louisiana State will beat Alabama for the second time and nail down its rightful claim as National Champion.)

Read more...