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The spotlight sure was on Ohio State this week. On Monday Ohio State hired Urban Meyer, and then on Tuesday #2 Ohio State beat — make that routed — #3 Duke 85-63 in the biggest nonconference basketball game at the Schottenstein Center in its history.
To me the hiring of Urban Meyer was a home run for OSU. Only Alabama’s hiring of Nick Saban in 2007 comes close to the magnitude of bringing in a two-time National Championship coach at the age of 47. He’s got the all-important Ohio pedigree as well (How important is it? Just look at Jim Tressel vs John Cooper). OSU is in need of Meyer’s offensive expertise and when it comes to recruiting, he might be the best in the business. Braxton Miller should thrive under his guidance and I expect OSU to win the Big Ten as soon as next season. The cherry on top of this hire is knowing how angry Florida fans will feel knowing that their ex-coach chose Ohio State and the Big Ten over their perceived better-than-everyone-else SEC.
Additionally, I’m glad to hear that Coach Fickell will stay on with the Buckeyes next season. There is no truer Buckeye and for a time I was hoping that he would be named the full-time head coach for how he took one for the program this year and held the team together during trying times. But in the end the Buckeyes could not pass up on bringing Meyer back home.
As for the basketball game, there’s not much to say other than the highly anticipated match-up in Columbus quickly turned into a rout just after tip-off. I didn’t expect OSU to dominate quite as easily as they did, but the Bucks do have a recent history of blowing out ranked teams at home. The past 4 ranked opponents-Purdue and Wisconsin last year; Florida and Duke this year-have lost by an average of 20 points per game. OSU has developed quite the homecourt advantage these days. Let’s hope this is the year for OSU basketball…