Our Honor Defend

In the Hive

GOOD MORNING VIET-HIVE! We hope you stayed up late enough to see the Lady Buckeyes complete a huge 48-19 second half, destroying the Indiana Lady Hoosiers, 73-55 last night in Bloomington. The OSU shooty lady hoops team continued its outstanding start to the 2011-12 season, improving to 20-1 on the season (7-1 in the B1G). Charles brought you all the details last night. Sammy Prahalis and Tayler Hill are quite a pair, each scoring 18 last night. Sammy added nine assists, five rebounds, three steals and a block. Just filling the stat sheet, that’s all. Ashley Adams went double-double with 15 points and 12 rips. This women’s team is fierce, y’all. Show them some love if you’re in the 614 and go to some games.

Shooty hoops Hate Week is here, with the Buckeyes hosting TTUN on Sunday at 1 p.m. You can catch the game on CBS. This is the start of a true gauntlet for Ohio State to close out the regular season. There are two games each remaining against TTUN, Wisconsin and Sparty, as well as home tilts against Purdue and Illinois, a visit to Minnesota, and a trip to Evanston to play Nerdwestern. The Wolvereenies will be without reserve guard Eso Akunne for both contests. Akunne will miss 6-8 weeks following surgery on his left foot scheduled for today. Speaking of the shooty hoops, take a moment each day to vote for William Buford for the Senior Class Award, won’t you? OK, let’s get Hiveward.

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Samantha Prahalis shows that you cannot stop her dribble drive.

After overcoming a tough test on Sunday against an Illinois team that was winless in the conference at the time, the Illini got their first Big Ten win of the year when they beat MSU tonight, Ohio State traveled to Bloomington to face the only other team who came into tonight without a conference win.  The Buckeyes last visited Bloomington two years ago and were ranked #6 in the country at the time but that did not stop the Hoosiers from pulling off the upset.  Tonight the #9 Buckeyes looked to do a better job.

Indiana jumped out to a quick 7-2 and flashbacks to that game two years ago, or the Illinois-MSU game earlier tonight, immediately came to mind.  Both teams struggled to score but the Hoosiers managed to slowly extend their lead, going up 20-12 with six and half minutes remaining in the half.  After looking a step slow and out of rhythm to start the game, the Buckeyes finally showed a bit of a spark, going on an 8 to 2 run to cut the Indiana lead to 22-20 with two minutes on the clock.  An Indiana basket followed by an empty OSU possession halted the run but a Hoosier turnover on the ensuing possession led to open three-pointer from the corner by freshman guard Raven Ferguson which cut the lead to 24-23.  Each team would hit one more basket in the half and the two teams headed into the locker room with Indiana leading 26-25.

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In the Hive

Welcome Hivers!  I hope that you’re all having an excellent morning. Myself,  I’m doing fantastic. As I type this, the Basketball Buckeyes are leading Penn State by a score that is somewhere in the neighborhood of 56-12 despite the fact that some young lion just managed to elbow Aaron Craft in the face twice on the same play. The horror! You just don’t do that to the dreamy one. Alas, with the game now comfortably in hand, I can focus all of my efforts on once again bringing you the best regular Thursday morning  column on this site—the Thursday Morning Hive!

Bowl Eligibility Threshold to be Raised?
I’m a fan of bowl games. Scratch that, I’m a huge fan of bowl games. Be it Beef O’ Brady’s, Kraft Fight Hunger, Taxslayer.com or any other ridiculously named contest, I’m in. But even a staunch bowl game devotee such as me has to admit that the bar to qualify for a bowl game is pretty low.  For instance, this year a team with a losing record made a bowl game (UCLA). Why? It was because despite their seven losses, the Bruins still managed to rack up six wins. Furthermore, there were a whole host of teams that, due to losses in bowl games, finished the season with a losing record. As we all know, our beloved Buckeyes were one of them.

Well, it looks like the NCAA is poised to do something about it. According to Brent McMurphy of CBSSports.com, the bowl-eligibility threshold is likely to be increased to seven wins.

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Sully brought the thunder with 20 points, 13 boards, 2 blocks and 2 assists.

No. 3 Ohio State used stifling defense and balanced scoring to frustrate Penn Shtate in a 78-54 win that couldn’t possibly have been as easy as it looked. The Buckeyes (18-3, 6-2) scored the game’s first eight points and 17 of the first 21 and never let up. Penn Shtate (10-12, 2-7) became the third consecutive OSU opponent to fail to score over 20 points in the first half. Ohio State pulled back into a tie for the B1G lead, winning for the 37th straight time at home and beating the Nitts for the 17th consecutive time. Jared Sullinger notched another double-double with 20 points and 13 rebounds to lead Ohio State. William Buford nearly got one too, with 15 points and nine boards. Aaron Craft scored 11 on 4-4 shooting, getting all his points before halftime, including a triple when he was trying to toss an alley-oop pass in the final minute. At least he had the common sense to look sheepish about it when it went in. DeShaun Thomas had a quiet nine points to go with seven rebounds.

Craft may have failed to notch a steal for the first time all season, but his defense on PSU star guard Tim Frazier set an early tone. Frazier looked frustrated all night and only approached his 18-point average during garbage time against the OSU bench. Frazier finished with a respectable 16 points and four assists, but only one rebound and four turnovers. He also got nailed for four fouls, mostly in frustration. Jermaine Marshall, Cammeron Woodyard and Frazier combined for 40 of Penn State’s 54 points, but with the Buckeyes ahead 38-18 at the break, most of the second half became stat-padding time for the Nitts’ top scorers.

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In the Hive

After taking two weeks off from this feature, one week for a conference in Austin and the other due to having my gall bladder removed, I return to writing the Wednesday morning hives which, contrary to the claims of my counterpart on Tuesday, is actually the best day of the week.  I would like to thank Margie and Vico for helping to fill in for me in my absence.

A Lament on Women’s Basketball Attendance

Sunday’s women’s basketball game against Illinois drew a season high crowd of 6,687 people.  While this isn’t a bad crowd for a women’s game, it is sad that it is a season high.  I understand that women’s basketball will never draw the crowds that men’s games see, nor do I expect them too, but I still find it disappointing that a Buckeye team which is ranked in the top 10 cannot draw better.  Last season OSU averaged 3,849 people per game, placing them 26^th in the country and 6^th in the Big Ten.  Gonzaga and Indiana State both outdrew Ohio State.

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