Welcome to another Monday.
Spring practice rolls on for Ohio State football as the spring game inches closer and closer, while Ohio State men’s basketball continues to figure out what its roster will look like heading into the 2022-23 season.
In other words, we have a lot to get to.
Here’s what I’m thinking about heading into this week.
Jeremy Ruckert is still present in Ohio State’s tight end room.
You guys already know the Jeremy Ruckert and Mitch Rossi story.
It’s what brought them both together in Kevin Wilson’s tight end room: coming up with a motto to “swing,” embracing explosion as opposed to hesitancy, going 100 miles per hour on every block, every route and not worrying about how it looks or what outcome lay ahead.
Ruckert’s at the center of Joe Royer’s development in the room too, calling the former Ohio State tight end his “big brother” for two seasons before leaving for a chance to play at the next level, helping the redshirt sophomore with everything, from his diet to his size, getting bigger and tougher at the line of scrimmage.
To the members of the Ohio State tight end room, Ruckert is the goal.
He’s the perfect match of the amalgamation of ability of Wilson’s current room, whether it’s the pass-catching ability of Royer and Gee Scott Jr., who was not seen participating in Ohio State’s student appreciation practice Saturday, the blocking ability of Rossi, or the overall potential and firepower of Cade Stover.
And his hole is a big one to fill.
It’s not a new-look room heading into 2022. It’s a room head coach Ryan Day said was pretty much the same from a season ago “minus Ruck,” someone who took 61.1% of the team’s total snaps from the tight end spots last season, with no other player eclipsing Stover’s 223.
It’s a room that may not accumulate a lot of stats. But it’s a room that’s developing more and more into a “jack of all trades” must for what potentially could be the best offense in the country.
It’s a lot, from lining up and being an extra tackle to going out wide and becoming a red zone threat.
It’s a developmental position, something Rossi, Royer and Stover each made clear. It’s something Ruckert made his own, something a room with a lot of relatively unproven talent must fill in the gaps for.
Tight end may be the position that makes or breaks Ohio State. It may be the Buckeyes’ X-factor, even if it may not jump out that way on a stat sheet.
And Rossi, Royer, Stover and company will need to fill in the gaps Ruckert is leaving.
So what’s the best case scenario for the tight end position?
I think Bennett Christian’s view of the tight end room is the best description I have heard in awhile, and one that has not left me since he said it.
“It’s like you have Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave and Jaxon Smith-Njigba out there,” Christian said. “It’s kind of hard to share the ball.”
Change those names to Smith-Njigba, Marvin Harrison Jr. and/or Julian Fleming and Emeka Egbuka, and you have pretty much the same approach for the tight end room in 2022. The potential for them to catch the ball is there, sure — Ruckert had career highs in catches, yards and yards per touch this past season — but it shouldn’t be an expectation.
So with that in mind, what should Wilson’s room look like?
It’s a bit corny with a hint of coach speak, I know. But I think the tight end coach’s analogy to his room being like a basketball team works here. Not every player in the room is the same size, nor do they all have the same skills. It’s why it works, though, switching out lineups where every player can do the same, basic things overall, but with their own twists and specialties to add in when the offense needs it.
It’s a wild card, a “jack of all trades.” If Ohio State can get to a point in its offense where the tight end is always a question mark to opposing defenses, not like a quarterback who comes in as basically a “read-option guy,” it will become that much more deadly in the grand scheme of things no matter who is in there.
Let’s take a look at the Brothers of Destruction.
First of all, most importantly, this nickname is awesome. It truly is the perfect representation of the expectation of both Dawand Jones and Paris Johnson Jr. at each of Ohio State’s tackle spots.
What Jones made clear is that this name isn’t new. It’s something he and Johnson went by last season when the two paired up on the right side of the line in 2021. It’s the same thing, he said, just from different sides.
Maybe I’m reading too far into this, but to me, this shows that Jones expects nothing to change between the two.
Johnson is a natural tackle, but has not played much tackle at the college level, moving to guard to get on the field faster, to get that experience more quickly than he would have waiting behind players like Thayer Munford and Nicholas Petit-Frere.
There will be change. Johnson will be tasked with the top defensive end from each defense Ohio State faces, protecting his blind side, with none of them caring about his experience level at the position.
But Jones isn’t worried. Johnson is that Brother of Destruction. And even with the position change, even though they are not paired together on one side of the line any longer, that won’t change.
And that should make Ohio State fans excited.
OK, so let’s catch up on the weekend that was incredibly eventful for Ohio State basketball.
While change is reportedly set to be finalized on Ohio State’s coaching staff in the coming days, with the addition of former Miami (OH) head coach Jack Owens to replace Tony Skinn on the staff as an assistant coach, that wasn’t even close to the biggest news of the week for Chris Holtmann and company.
First, Malaki Branham did what we all thought he would do: test the NBA waters.
Then, Ohio State began its rebuild of the roster, adding former Wright State leading scorer Tanner Holden as a transfer.
Could Holden be in line to replace Branham?
I kind of already had a chance to write my thoughts — something I did quickly and efficiently from a parking lot of a grocery store in Asheville, North Carolina. But after a couple of days of thought, I think Branham’s presence for Ohio State has only grown.
With that addition of Holden, a 6-foot-6, 185-pounds wing, it seems like the Buckeyes feel the freshman is leaving after one season, something that really would surprise no one. Branham turned from an inconsistent, flaky starting option who only played the minutes he did due to a short bench at the beginning of the season to a ferocious, smooth and consistent scorer by the end, showing flashes of potential with each game.
He was more comfortable and he showed progress, something an NBA team will likely feast on and look to continue building from the first round of the draft.
In Holden, Ohio State gains a player of similar stature to Branham, and one who continued to develop a high-level scoring touch, shooting nearly 50% from the field with 20.1 points per game, being primarily a consistent option inside the 3-point line averaging 13.6 shots per game, 0.2 less than teammate Grant Basile.
It’s aggressiveness, something that Branham developed over time, becoming the 1B option in many games and the second name many opposing coaches uttered when discussing what they see in Ohio State as a whole.
Will Holden’s offense transfer to the Big Ten? Maybe.
But Branham is definitely not a maybe anyone for the Buckeyes, something they would much rather have at their disposal along with Holden.
So what does that starting lineup look like as of now?
Two things: I’m going off the basis that Justice Sueing AND Seth Towns are coming back for another season, something I think is probable.
Also, I’m not going to project any transfers, just the players they have at their disposal, even though the Buckeyes are not done in the portal, with their eyes on many names, including small forward Jalen Bridges.
None of this should shock you:
G Meechie Johnson Jr.
G Tanner Holden
G Eugene Brown III
G/F Justice Sueing
F Zed Key
However, this will not be the starting lineup once the season starts.
For as much talk as Eugene Brown III is getting, I think he would be the odd man out here with the addition of a transfer like Bridges.
At 6-foot-7, 220 pounds, the West Virginia forward would fit his way into Liddell’s spot, moving Sueing back to that versatile three spot, giving Ohio State the size that it hoped for a season ago with Liddell and Branham in the picture.
Now, if it’s not Bridges, It seems like Sueing could hold down the fort at the power forward spot, keeping Brown at that versatile guard/forward positionless spot.
Now, if Sueing and Towns don’t return, even though comments on the latter’s Instagram post signify otherwise, that’s when more depth will be needed and freshman like Brice Sensabaugh and Felix Okpara could be pushing for playing time, along with Bruce Thornton, depending on what the Buckeyes do with that point guard spot.
All we know is this: this is a team that will look much different than it did in 2021-22.
One more basketball thought.
So I was in North Carolina this weekend for a bachelor party. Appropriate, I know: just in time for the Duke/North Carolina Final Four classic.
But before that was Kansas and Villanova, and I couldn’t help but notice the Jayhawks approach.
I’ve written in the past about how similar Holtmann’s roster building and team makeup is to Jay Wright and the Wildcats. And the game plan was the same: get it inside to senior forward David McCormick and Jalen Wilson and rule the paint.
And there was nothing the Wildcats could really do about it.
Kansas ruled the glass, pulling in a plus-six rebound advantage, despite losing the offensive rebounding battle by two. While Villanova shot 41.9% on 31 3-point tries, Kansas matched that with a 54.2% success rate on 24 tries, which is amazing, but matched it with a 53.3% success rate inside the line compared to Villanova’s 34.6%.
Villanova is a good basketball team. A great one, actually.
And Kansas planned for the Wildcats’ shortcomings effectively.
Sound familiar?
Finally, Thad Matta is BACK.
I couldn’t believe it when I saw the tweet.
The day after Mike Krzyzewski hangs up his whistle, Thad Matta is back in the lead of a basketball program.
Matta has not been a head coach since 2016-17 — my first season covering Ohio State men’s basketball FWIW — but is a legend in the sport, winning 20 or more games in 16 of his 17 seasons, going to the NCAA Tournament 13 times and reaching the Final Four twice.
He won the Big Ten four times, is a three-time conference coach of the year and is the all-time winningest coach in Buckeye history.
That’s pretty good.
He’s back to the team where he started his head coaching experience, but to those surrounding Ohio State and to fans, Matta will always be a Buckeye.
It’s just wild how cyclical this game can be.
Oh, and Ohio State should schedule Butler. Immediately.
Here’s my song of the week.
Kanye West is a polarizing figure. He’s loved by many, hated by many.
But, man, he’s a great producer. It’s something that’s shown off prominently in the Netflix documentary “jeen-yuhs,” the majority of which is spent showing him make his masterpiece debut “The College Dropout.”
There’s a scene in the documentary where West shows this beat to Pharrell Williams, a prominent producer and a generally “Happy” guy (get it). His reaction is perfect, so, so similar to the reaction I had when I first ever heard this song off a Grammy Award compilation CD when I was a kid.
I love this song. I love this album.
I love THIS Kanye.
See you on the board.
Spring practice rolls on for Ohio State football as the spring game inches closer and closer, while Ohio State men’s basketball continues to figure out what its roster will look like heading into the 2022-23 season.
In other words, we have a lot to get to.
Here’s what I’m thinking about heading into this week.
Jeremy Ruckert is still present in Ohio State’s tight end room.
You guys already know the Jeremy Ruckert and Mitch Rossi story.
It’s what brought them both together in Kevin Wilson’s tight end room: coming up with a motto to “swing,” embracing explosion as opposed to hesitancy, going 100 miles per hour on every block, every route and not worrying about how it looks or what outcome lay ahead.
Ruckert’s at the center of Joe Royer’s development in the room too, calling the former Ohio State tight end his “big brother” for two seasons before leaving for a chance to play at the next level, helping the redshirt sophomore with everything, from his diet to his size, getting bigger and tougher at the line of scrimmage.
To the members of the Ohio State tight end room, Ruckert is the goal.
He’s the perfect match of the amalgamation of ability of Wilson’s current room, whether it’s the pass-catching ability of Royer and Gee Scott Jr., who was not seen participating in Ohio State’s student appreciation practice Saturday, the blocking ability of Rossi, or the overall potential and firepower of Cade Stover.
And his hole is a big one to fill.
It’s not a new-look room heading into 2022. It’s a room head coach Ryan Day said was pretty much the same from a season ago “minus Ruck,” someone who took 61.1% of the team’s total snaps from the tight end spots last season, with no other player eclipsing Stover’s 223.
It’s a room that may not accumulate a lot of stats. But it’s a room that’s developing more and more into a “jack of all trades” must for what potentially could be the best offense in the country.
It’s a lot, from lining up and being an extra tackle to going out wide and becoming a red zone threat.
It’s a developmental position, something Rossi, Royer and Stover each made clear. It’s something Ruckert made his own, something a room with a lot of relatively unproven talent must fill in the gaps for.
Tight end may be the position that makes or breaks Ohio State. It may be the Buckeyes’ X-factor, even if it may not jump out that way on a stat sheet.
And Rossi, Royer, Stover and company will need to fill in the gaps Ruckert is leaving.
So what’s the best case scenario for the tight end position?
I think Bennett Christian’s view of the tight end room is the best description I have heard in awhile, and one that has not left me since he said it.
“It’s like you have Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave and Jaxon Smith-Njigba out there,” Christian said. “It’s kind of hard to share the ball.”
Change those names to Smith-Njigba, Marvin Harrison Jr. and/or Julian Fleming and Emeka Egbuka, and you have pretty much the same approach for the tight end room in 2022. The potential for them to catch the ball is there, sure — Ruckert had career highs in catches, yards and yards per touch this past season — but it shouldn’t be an expectation.
So with that in mind, what should Wilson’s room look like?
It’s a bit corny with a hint of coach speak, I know. But I think the tight end coach’s analogy to his room being like a basketball team works here. Not every player in the room is the same size, nor do they all have the same skills. It’s why it works, though, switching out lineups where every player can do the same, basic things overall, but with their own twists and specialties to add in when the offense needs it.
It’s a wild card, a “jack of all trades.” If Ohio State can get to a point in its offense where the tight end is always a question mark to opposing defenses, not like a quarterback who comes in as basically a “read-option guy,” it will become that much more deadly in the grand scheme of things no matter who is in there.
Let’s take a look at the Brothers of Destruction.
First of all, most importantly, this nickname is awesome. It truly is the perfect representation of the expectation of both Dawand Jones and Paris Johnson Jr. at each of Ohio State’s tackle spots.
What Jones made clear is that this name isn’t new. It’s something he and Johnson went by last season when the two paired up on the right side of the line in 2021. It’s the same thing, he said, just from different sides.
Maybe I’m reading too far into this, but to me, this shows that Jones expects nothing to change between the two.
Johnson is a natural tackle, but has not played much tackle at the college level, moving to guard to get on the field faster, to get that experience more quickly than he would have waiting behind players like Thayer Munford and Nicholas Petit-Frere.
There will be change. Johnson will be tasked with the top defensive end from each defense Ohio State faces, protecting his blind side, with none of them caring about his experience level at the position.
But Jones isn’t worried. Johnson is that Brother of Destruction. And even with the position change, even though they are not paired together on one side of the line any longer, that won’t change.
And that should make Ohio State fans excited.
OK, so let’s catch up on the weekend that was incredibly eventful for Ohio State basketball.
While change is reportedly set to be finalized on Ohio State’s coaching staff in the coming days, with the addition of former Miami (OH) head coach Jack Owens to replace Tony Skinn on the staff as an assistant coach, that wasn’t even close to the biggest news of the week for Chris Holtmann and company.
First, Malaki Branham did what we all thought he would do: test the NBA waters.
Then, Ohio State began its rebuild of the roster, adding former Wright State leading scorer Tanner Holden as a transfer.
Could Holden be in line to replace Branham?
I kind of already had a chance to write my thoughts — something I did quickly and efficiently from a parking lot of a grocery store in Asheville, North Carolina. But after a couple of days of thought, I think Branham’s presence for Ohio State has only grown.
With that addition of Holden, a 6-foot-6, 185-pounds wing, it seems like the Buckeyes feel the freshman is leaving after one season, something that really would surprise no one. Branham turned from an inconsistent, flaky starting option who only played the minutes he did due to a short bench at the beginning of the season to a ferocious, smooth and consistent scorer by the end, showing flashes of potential with each game.
He was more comfortable and he showed progress, something an NBA team will likely feast on and look to continue building from the first round of the draft.
In Holden, Ohio State gains a player of similar stature to Branham, and one who continued to develop a high-level scoring touch, shooting nearly 50% from the field with 20.1 points per game, being primarily a consistent option inside the 3-point line averaging 13.6 shots per game, 0.2 less than teammate Grant Basile.
It’s aggressiveness, something that Branham developed over time, becoming the 1B option in many games and the second name many opposing coaches uttered when discussing what they see in Ohio State as a whole.
Will Holden’s offense transfer to the Big Ten? Maybe.
But Branham is definitely not a maybe anyone for the Buckeyes, something they would much rather have at their disposal along with Holden.
So what does that starting lineup look like as of now?
Two things: I’m going off the basis that Justice Sueing AND Seth Towns are coming back for another season, something I think is probable.
Also, I’m not going to project any transfers, just the players they have at their disposal, even though the Buckeyes are not done in the portal, with their eyes on many names, including small forward Jalen Bridges.
None of this should shock you:
G Meechie Johnson Jr.
G Tanner Holden
G Eugene Brown III
G/F Justice Sueing
F Zed Key
However, this will not be the starting lineup once the season starts.
For as much talk as Eugene Brown III is getting, I think he would be the odd man out here with the addition of a transfer like Bridges.
At 6-foot-7, 220 pounds, the West Virginia forward would fit his way into Liddell’s spot, moving Sueing back to that versatile three spot, giving Ohio State the size that it hoped for a season ago with Liddell and Branham in the picture.
Now, if it’s not Bridges, It seems like Sueing could hold down the fort at the power forward spot, keeping Brown at that versatile guard/forward positionless spot.
Now, if Sueing and Towns don’t return, even though comments on the latter’s Instagram post signify otherwise, that’s when more depth will be needed and freshman like Brice Sensabaugh and Felix Okpara could be pushing for playing time, along with Bruce Thornton, depending on what the Buckeyes do with that point guard spot.
All we know is this: this is a team that will look much different than it did in 2021-22.
One more basketball thought.
So I was in North Carolina this weekend for a bachelor party. Appropriate, I know: just in time for the Duke/North Carolina Final Four classic.
But before that was Kansas and Villanova, and I couldn’t help but notice the Jayhawks approach.
I’ve written in the past about how similar Holtmann’s roster building and team makeup is to Jay Wright and the Wildcats. And the game plan was the same: get it inside to senior forward David McCormick and Jalen Wilson and rule the paint.
And there was nothing the Wildcats could really do about it.
Kansas ruled the glass, pulling in a plus-six rebound advantage, despite losing the offensive rebounding battle by two. While Villanova shot 41.9% on 31 3-point tries, Kansas matched that with a 54.2% success rate on 24 tries, which is amazing, but matched it with a 53.3% success rate inside the line compared to Villanova’s 34.6%.
Villanova is a good basketball team. A great one, actually.
And Kansas planned for the Wildcats’ shortcomings effectively.
Sound familiar?
Finally, Thad Matta is BACK.
I couldn’t believe it when I saw the tweet.
The day after Mike Krzyzewski hangs up his whistle, Thad Matta is back in the lead of a basketball program.
Matta has not been a head coach since 2016-17 — my first season covering Ohio State men’s basketball FWIW — but is a legend in the sport, winning 20 or more games in 16 of his 17 seasons, going to the NCAA Tournament 13 times and reaching the Final Four twice.
He won the Big Ten four times, is a three-time conference coach of the year and is the all-time winningest coach in Buckeye history.
That’s pretty good.
He’s back to the team where he started his head coaching experience, but to those surrounding Ohio State and to fans, Matta will always be a Buckeye.
It’s just wild how cyclical this game can be.
Oh, and Ohio State should schedule Butler. Immediately.
Here’s my song of the week.
Kanye West is a polarizing figure. He’s loved by many, hated by many.
But, man, he’s a great producer. It’s something that’s shown off prominently in the Netflix documentary “jeen-yuhs,” the majority of which is spent showing him make his masterpiece debut “The College Dropout.”
There’s a scene in the documentary where West shows this beat to Pharrell Williams, a prominent producer and a generally “Happy” guy (get it). His reaction is perfect, so, so similar to the reaction I had when I first ever heard this song off a Grammy Award compilation CD when I was a kid.
I love this song. I love this album.
I love THIS Kanye.
See you on the board.
