Our Honor Defend

It’s Friday, mercifully the end of the work week for a lot of people.  While you’re counting the minutes in your cubicle ’til happy hour, consider the following topics.

Buckeye Battle Cry 2010

Maple Street Press has carved out a niche in the sports literature market by catering to fans of specific teams, producing high-quality magazines targeted to hungry, hungry fans in the dog days of summer.  Ohio State fans, among the most belligerent and numerous  fans in all the land, are naturally prime real estate.  The Buckeye Battle Cry yearly magazine was started in 2008 to appeal to that audience, inviting yours truly to contribute a recruitng piece.  Now in its third year, I am happy to say that I am still a part of it.

It is also the first of the series that is edited by Jason Priestas, of Eleven Warriors.  He has run with it, inviting an eclectic array of journalists, bloggers and college football pundits to contribute to Buckeye Battle Cry 2010.

• Primed: The 2010 Ohio State Roster, by Jason Priestas
• Know Thy Enemy: The 2010 Ohio State Schedule, by Patrick Vint
• Extending Best Practices, by Alex Gleitman
• Pryor Emerging, by Brandon Castel
• A Meeting Of The Minds, by Ross Fulton
• Exceeding Expectations, by Matt Markey
• Buckeye Battalion, by Sam Eley
• Protecting Pryor, by Dave Biddle
• Bigger, Better More Often, by Doug Lesmerises
• Back On Top, by Ramzy Nasrallah
• Roadmap To Glendale, by Dave and Drew Thurman
• The Fall Of Michigan, by Tony Gerdeman
• Marquee Talent And Intriguing Potential, by the Staff at OurHonorDefend.com
• Ohio’s Finest, by Alex Gleitman
• Winds Of Change, by Luke Zimmerman
• Graduate School, by Corey Carpenter
• When Chic Harley Got Away, by Todd Wessell
• One Game Short Of Glory, by Joe Beale
• Remembering John Cooper, by Jason Priestas
• Jim Tressel, Future Athletic Director, by the Staff of Eleven Warriors

You can recognize many of the names, and some names that will soon be familiar.  For example, Todd Wessell is Chic Harley’s great nephew.  The periodical is available now for pre-order and should be on newsstands everywhere in the upcoming month.  CONSUME.

Turner Goes Second Overall to Sixers

The NBA is not my thing, far from it, but it is important to note that Evan Turner has rebounded from being undrafted by the Harlem Globetrotters, settling for being taken second overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2010 NBA Draft.  It is a significant milestone for Evan Turner, who started his high school career as second fiddle on a team loaded with talent.  The necessary patience and diligence demonstrated to get offers from places like Ohio State and to thrive in college over the course of a three year stay have reached their logical conclusion: gettin’ that cheddar.  In the end, that’s what’s really important… especially in the NBA.

While Turner is the one ultimately reaping the rewards, this is definitely an accomplishment for everyone involved.  It is a testament to strength and conditioning coach Dave Richardson, whose program prepared Turner (and company) to shine every game, for 40 minutes or more.  It also speaks well to the coaching staff, Thad Matta in particular.  Turner is the sixth Buckeye taken in the first round in the past four years, the most of any college basketball program in the country.  We may want more from Matta and voice frustrations here and there, but such a track record — in the NBA and on the basketball court itself — is an accomplishment that Buckeye fans may have thought would be relegated to their dreams.

Naturally, Evan Turner will throw out the first pitch at the next Phillies game.  Work on that breaking ball, young man.

Seantrel Henderson’s Recruiting Saga Takes Another Twist

The biggest recruiting drama of the 2010 recruiting class, Seantrel Henderson, took yet another dramatic turn.  “Dramatic turn” may be an overstatement, since there is only so much drama one can put forward before it becomes an unwatchably bad soap opera.  In Henderson’s case, the constant waffling between Ohio State, Miami and USC, giving way to a commitment to USC, a delay in signing the LOI before eventually doing so over a month after signing day has led to Henderson’s apparent refusal to enroll at USC.

You may remember that Henderson delayed signing his LOI ostensibly over pending sanctions to be leveled at USC.  So, it must be a pretty big shock that he could not see the writing on the wall regarding the NCAA’s jimmy-kick of USC.  That, or he must have only now discovered that his snake oil is just a bad alchemy.  Either way, the Hendersons don’t appear to be pleased.  Seantrel has responded to the issue by no-showing for orientation and telling local media “I don’t want to talk about it.”  USC, on their end, had to fly out the three top guns on the staff — Kiffycakes, Monte Kiffin, and Ed Orgeron (presumably not shirtless) — to the Twin Cities to check on Henderson.  It’s not a good situation for USC, considering they probably expected Henderson to be in the two-deep the moment he stepped foot in LA.

It is important to depress that little bit of the schadenfreude reflex and comments about the aspiring hip-hop career of his dad in order to see what’s going on here.  Kiffykins and company are having to fly out to Minnesota to convince Henderson to report for two reasons.  First, no-showing is a pretty clear indication that Seantrel feels he was fleeced.  He now does not want to be at USC.  Second, and here is where it gets interesting, there is no way in hell that USC will release him from his letter of intent.  This much is clear.  If they were going to do so, they would have already done so.  You may remember a sorta similar situation emerging with Thad Matta and Greg Oden and Mike Conley.  Uncertain of the prospect of future postseason bans on top of what the program self-imposed, Matta made sure to work with the athletic department to give an explicit promise to release Oden and Conley from their LOIs, with no penalty, if the Buckeyes suffered additional penalties.  No such promise was made by Kiffin, except that USC was in the clear regarding the Bush/Mayo investigations.

Henderson’s problem is that he holds none of the cards.  He has options, but this is where it gets tricky for him.  If he assumed he was on the express lane to the NFL, he loses at USC.  I don’t doubt the Trojans will retain some of their “NFL Factory” aura even on probation, but the postseason ban is a killer.  That is lost practice for Henderson that he will not have in order to develop into the NFL franchise left tackle.  If he transfers, he loses.  He may end up at the University of Miami and be fine there.  But, since the ink is dry on his LOI, he will have to sit out a year.  It would be a big road bump on the express lane to the NFL.  If he tries to get an appeal with the NCAA, alleging that he was fleeced, he loses.  The more time he spends playing pro-am basketball (as he is doing), the more time he spends not developing into that future NFL tackle.  In a sense, he loses no matter what he does.

I take nothing for granted with this situation.  Seantrel and his family may sue USC for a penalty-free release, for all I know.  Seantrel’s ultimate dilemma is that he is getting his wish.  He wanted to be a USC Trojan and, come hell or high water, it seems Kiffykins is going to make him get his wish.