Thad Matta has the Buckeyes playing great ball this year, but everyone knows that Buckeye hoops could be a force next season with the “Thad Five” coming to Columbus. One of Ohio State’s prized recruits, Daequan Cook from Dunbar High, put on a show the other night at Value City Arena. Cook scored a career-high 41 points, had 15 rebounds, five assists and three steals.
Yes, it’s early, but Mel Kiper has the Browns taking Iowa linebacker Chad Greenway with their first pick in the 2006 draft. Greenway is one of many solid players that will be available with the 12th pick. I’d love to get A. J. Hawk instead, but Greenway would also be a great addition to this defense.
Maurice Carthon made some stupid comments in New Orleans about how the Cleveland media criticized his play-calling, and how this was the same media that ran Bill Belichick out of town.
Terry Pluto decided to give Mr. Carthon a history lesson about what really happened with Belichick in Cleveland, and then went on to point out some of the serious shortcomings in Carthon’s performance this season as offensive coordinator. Great column.
With the addition of Glenville offensive lineman Bryant Browning, Jim Tressel is getting a late recruiting surge that is helping to round out an excellent recruiting class.
Rivals.com is very high on recent recruit Robert Rose:
Nobody had a better U.S. Army All-America Bowl than Rose, a fast-riser from Cleveland’s Glenville High School. Rose, a strong and stout 6-foot-4 and 255-pounder, couldn’t be blocked in the game and his development late in the season during the Ohio state playoffs and then in the all-star game has been amazing.
He went from a sure fire top 250 national prospect to quite possibly the No. 2 player in Ohio and a five-star candidate.
They are still targeting some excellent prospoects:
There is little doubt that OSU is in a great position to also land in-state stud Thaddeus Gibson after an official visit this weekend. The battle to land the four-star player from Euclid, Ohio, is down to OSU, Tennessee and Michigan, but most sources agree it’s a two-team race between the Bucks and Vols.
Then there is City College of San Francisco four-star linebacker Larry Grant, who had originally planned on signing with Florida at mid-term but a math class kept him from heading to Gainesville.
He’s now in the final process of evaluating his options and it appears to be down to Texas A&M and Ohio State for him.
Should be interesting.
The Indians signed reliever David Riske to a one-year, $1.8 million deal Monday.
I know, big news. Still, Riske figures to be a key guy again in the middle of the ‘pen, though if the Indians have a hard time settling on a right-handed set-up guy, Riske could occassionally find himself in for some eighth-inning duty. Fernando Cabrera looks like the best fit for that role right now, and Matt Miller and Rafael Betancourt also could get a shot. Of course, the key is for Wickman to stay healthy so that our biggest concern this year will be who his set-up man will be and not his replacement.