Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from The Nutty Buckeye!

I don't know how you started your new year, but I spent mine prepping food for a small gathering of friends and listening to my husband yell at the TV, using more than a few choice words.

Why was he yelling? Well, the Buckeyes were playing Indiana in basketball, and let's just say that it didn't go well. It was one of the sloppier games I have seen/heard this season. It's really a good thing I am more subdued about basketball, too, because that could have really stressed me out. Just listening to the hubby stressed me out.

The officials in the game called FORTY-TWO fouls. Of those 42 fouls, 22 were on OSU. So they seem to have been split pretty evenly, but watching the game, it sure didn't feel that way. There was a rare period of a couple minutes in the second half where there weren't many whistles, but even the commentators remarked that there wasn't a smooth flow in the game at all. The officials (one, in particular) were very whistle-happy, and the Buckeye starters got in foul trouble early, forcing the back-ups to come in. They did okay, keeping the game very close for the last 10 minutes of the first half, but in the second half, the foul trouble really affected the Buckeyes' defensive play, and they had to allow some easy lay-ups to the Hoosiers that normally wouldn't be there.

On top of the foul issues and the AWFUL officiating (because who wants to watch a game like that?), Aaron Craft turned the ball over six times. Craft is usually the one that fouls a LOT, and miraculously he doesn't get called. But strangely, he wasn't getting called for as many fouls as the rest of the Buckeyes. Unfortunately, he wasn't on his best game, and 2 of his 6 turnovers came in the last minutes of the game, when the Buckeyes needed points to go ahead.

And while Thad Matta played political about the poor officiating, and commented that the team needs to learn to play through it (read: the poor officiating), and the newspapers cited inexperience of the Buckeyes for some of the mistakes on the road, I can't help but be irritated that the game was so affected by ticky-tack calls.

I have never been a huge basketball fan in general, but as I have grown to like the game while watching with my husband, I can comment that I would rather watch a game be played by the athletes than affected by the officials. Granted, adjusting to the calls of officials and umpires in a sport is part of the game. In baseball, you have to learn the ump's strike zone and learn which pitches are going to be called strikes instead of balls. In football, you get a feeling for how far the officials will let you push the interference and holding before they throw a flag. And in basketball, every official has a foul range. I just have to say that last night's officials' foul ranges were pretty bad. Even if the Buckeyes had managed to pull out a victory, I couldn't say that it was a game that I enjoyed watching/listening to my husband watch.

Hopefully the Big Ten will look into it and advise those officials to keep their whistles in check a little more in the future.

But it is a brand new year! Tomorrow, the football Buckeyes play in the Gator Bowl, their last bowl for a season given the sanctions imposed by the NCAA. I wish I could guarantee a victory, but I just don't have a feeling one way or the other.

The 6-6 football team was brilliant at times, and not-so-stellar at others. I think they are fully capable of pulling off a victory. The Florida Gators are down this season, and hopefully new-OSU-head-coach Urban Meyer has lended some insight to Coach Fickell in bowl prep. Talent hasn't been the problem for the Buckeyes. Distractions and execution have. And we aren't without distraction this post-season. Some of the juniors are likely bitter about the post-season ban next season. A ban that came at the hands of some of the current seniors. Tension in the locker room won't be conducive to a victory.

But a win would help end this mediocre season on a positive note, and it would be nice to have that going into the long off-season.

GO BUCKS!!