Our Honor Defend

In the Hive

Greetings, Friday Hive lovers. It’s good to see you. I spent the week all excited about having Monday, Tuesday and Thursday off, but an allergy attack, a sick 3-year-old and a wife with the flu, quickly dispelled me of the notion that this was going to be a nice, relaxing, enjoyable few days off. Wednesday at work was almost a welcome respite and I’m back at it again today. I wasn’t able to take the full week off, due to a few assignments coming due and my boss taking off today, but whatevs. Time off is time off, even when things don’t go according to plan.

We hope Sunday goes according to plan, and the Buckeyes are able to kick the snot out of Bucky Badger at The Schott. As I type this, the No. 15 Badgers have just lost on the road at Iowa  (!), giving the Hawkeyes a season sweep of Wisconsin. I like the sound of “season sweep of Wisconsin.” Ohio State needs another win over Wisconsin, and road wins at Nerdwestern and Sparty next week to capture at least a share of the B1G crown. The Buckeyes are certainly capable, but this year’s team has been so Jeckyll-and-Hyde it’s almost hard to imagine winning all three. And you know Bo Ryan will be in full baby-eating mode after the Iowa game.

Academic All-American #Swoon

Sophomore guard Aaron Craft was named to the 2012 Capital One First Team Academic All-America Team yesterday. Craft becomes the first Buckeye shooty hoops player to accomplish the feat since Bill Hoskett did it way back in 1968. That’s before most of you were born. I was two. The Crafty one was the only sophomore named to the first, second or third team, and the first sophomore to be so honored since 2010, when Nevada’s Luke Babbitt made the second team and Butler’s Gordon Hayward made the third team. No sophomore has earned first-team honors since D.J. Augustin of Texas did it in 2008. You’ve seen what he can do with a Rubik’s Cube. Now you know the pre-med major (exercise science) is more than a dreamy one-trick pony. Dude is smart. His GPA of 3.89 is rivaled only by my blood alcohol content when we lose to TTUN. Craft still has a shot at the Bob Cousy Award, what with him being among the 11 remaining candidates.

Samantha Prahalis goes all Brandon Paul on Minnesota

The Lady Buckeyes pounded the Golden Gophers into a thin, brown paste last night, 81-56, at The Schott, with senior point guard Sammy Prahalis going absolutely HAM in the process. Prahalis hit 15-27 (7-12 outside the arc) to destroy Minnesota. Sammy scored a school record 42 points, besting Katie Smith’s old mark of 40, set back in December of 1994 against Idaho State. And just for fun Prahalis added six rebounds, four assists and three steals. Not a bad way to celebrate Senior Night, eh? Tayler Hill added 16 points and five rebounds. The rest of the OSU starting lineup scored only four points, but were they even needed? Ohio State’s dynamic duo outscored Minnesota all by themselves. Hill hit only three of 13 field goal tries, but did a lot of damage from the charity stripe (9-11). The Lady Bucks finish the regular season Sunday at Nebrasky.

From the “You probably don’t care about this nearly as much as I do” Dept.

This is one of my favorite weeks of the year, despite the lack of college football. They call it Speed Weeks in Daytona Beach, and it marks the beginning of the NASCAR season. It’s a little backwards for a sport to put its “Super Bowl” at the beginning of the season, but then again not even the Super Bowl lasts a full week, even though the hype makes it seem that way. It’s always a special time for me because my dad and I have long bonded over the sport of racing. My dad’s late uncle used to drive modifieds in the northeast on dirt tracks against the likes of Mario Andretti. My dad grew up helping his Uncle Mike work on race cars. I grew up watching the Daytona 500 every year and in 1993 I attended the Great American Race for the first time. Back then we camped with Uncle Mike just outside of Turn Four in an area that now contains the NASCAR Fan Zone. In the last 19 years, I’ve missed about half a dozen, but I always at least catch it on TV and try to catch the Sprint Cup race most weekends. My dad comes down every year and we watch the races in person or on TV and sometimes hit the local dirt track as well. Sadly, Uncle Mike passed away a few years back and isn’t around to share it with us anymore.

For the second week in a row I get to #Humblebrag about my seats for a sporting event. This was my pre-race view from the Sprint Tower on Thursday.

Kyle Busch kicked off this year’s festivities with an incredible winning performance in the Bud Shootout All-Star race last Saturday. Yesterday my dad and I were on hand for the Gatorade Duel—a pair of 150-mile qualifying races that determine the starting lineup for the 500 (except for the front row spots, which are won in the usual time trial format). Our favorite drivers finished 1-2 in the first race. Tony Stewart (my favorite driver) took the checkered flag under caution in front of dad’s fave, Dale Earnhardt Jr., after Danica Patrick got punted into the inside retaining wall on the final lap. Matt Kenseth took the second race in a pretty cool scramble on the final lap. Tonight, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series kicks off its season on Daytona’s high banks, with the first Nationwide series race on Saturday and the 500 on Sunday. Should be a good weekend for race fans.

Kicky ball and patriotism

Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey could play together for the #USMNT for the first time since Bob Bradley was head coach, when the team plays Italy next week in Genoa. Lots of Americans either don’t understand or don’t care about the sport we call soccer, but it’s a shame. To me, it’s a chess game with some of the world’s greatest athletes as the pieces. Also, it’s another chance for us to drink and yell “U-S-A! U-S-A!”