Buckeye Bits

Bad news for George Mason before facing Buckeyes

George Mason, Ohio State's opponent in the second game of the NCAA tournament, received bad news shortly before Sunday's game tipped off. Starter and primary offensive threat Luke Hancock was back at the team hotel sick as his team warmed up. Hancock, who hit the game-winning three-pointer against Villanova on Friday, was not expected to join the team at Quicken Loans Arena.  

Tattoo-gate fallout continues

For some reason, the football Buckeyes keep upstaging the basketball Buckeyes, at a time when the hoops guys are No. 1 in the nation and should be basking in the spotlight. But they are not. On the eve of Ohio State's first NCAA tournament game, OSU got word that the NCAA had denied its appeal to lessen the five-game suspensions on five Buckeyes. Coach Jim Tressel then announced he would hike his university-imposed suspension from two games to five. At this point, the 2011 season looks chaotic -- one team for five games, another team for the next seven. Tressel will miss the game at Miami, and the Big Ten opener while serving his sentence. He is looking at the most challenging season of his long career. And the NCAA might not be done with him.

Tressel fallout significant at Big Ten tourney

It's odd that in the middle of March, with the No. 1 ranked basketball team in the country, most of the Ohio State talk during the first couple days of the Big Ten Tournament was focused on football coach Jim Tressel and the recent disclosure that he was aware of his players' involvement in the great tattoo caper long before everyone was led to believe he knew. The consensus opinion among Big Ten folks is that the press conference called to address the matter was a farce, and that Ohio State damaged itself with the NCAA by what went on. You also can be certain there is a fair degree of the dreaded schadenfreude at work here. That is a great German word used to describe those times when people get enjoyment out of the suffering of others. The Tressel-haters -- and there are plenty of them around the Big Ten -- are reaping an excess of glee over this mess. When the NCAA comes to town to ask more questions, the scene won't be a pretty one.

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NFL Combine puts former Buckeyes in different world

After four or five years inside the Ohio State football program where their every move and every moment was carefully orchestrated and structured, the nine former Buckeyes who took part in the NFL Combine in Indy were suddenly operating as independent contractors -- and it was an odd experience.  The players had a tight schedule to follow, dictated by the NFL, but they were on their own to manage their time and preparations, and meet the obligations in Indy. The Combine is a strange event -- it is a job interview, disguised as a beauty pageant, wrapped in a tough man contest, and is also part playground Olympics, part punt, pass and kick, with a pseudo alien kidnapping and psychological probe thrown in there. When it's over, the NFL brass is supposed to have a much better idea which guys will make good pros.