Sunday, March 24, 2013

The Ohio State Buckeyes made it much closer than it had to be, Aaron Craft makes buzzer beater 3 to go to sweet 16

The Ohio State Buckeyes are heading back to the sweet 16 thanks to the buzzer beater that Aaron Craft nailed down with .5 seconds left on the clock. The Buckeyes had a lead as large as 13 points in one part of the contest.

They got into some foul trouble and let Iowa work the lead down to nothing. With the game tied at 75 with only 29 seconds left in the game, Aaron Craft controlled the ball and worked the clock down to .5 seconds when he hit a 3 that would seals the deal for his Buckeyes.

This was a game that didn't have to be as close as it was. With the win the Buckeyes have won 10 games in a row. LaQuinton Ross was having the game of his life when Thad Matta sat him down. He was controlling everything each time he touched the ball today and if the Buckeyes would have lost this game, there would be some serious questions Matta would have to answer.

Ross had 17 points in the game and Iowa was having problems stopping him.
The Buckeyes would see Aaron Craft suffer from the foul line all game long. When it mattered he came through and it  looked like he never had a doubt in the shot he took to give the Ohio State Buckeyes a trip to the Sweet 16. Craft was extremely confident in his shot and I am glad he was.

The Refs made some bad calls during the game and even Barkley commented on how bad the officials were today.

Craft blew a lot of opportunities during the game, but he came through when it really counted.  He made a big-time shot like any big-time player would do.

In his post game Thad Matta said he hopes one day they put a statue of Aaron Craft outside the building.....

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

What Do Browns Fans Really Know About Rob Chudzinski?

Was it already predetermined that the Browns weren't going to be able to hire a new head coach with a winning record? Is that why Haslam & Banner settled for Rob Chudzinski? Lets face it, with the hiring of Chudzinski, the improvement over Shurmur may only be minor. As an offensive coordinator, Chud only had one winning season in the NFL. I guess we can take that as a positive Shurmur didn't have any. The 1 winning season he had as an O.C. in the NFL did come when he was with the Cleveland Browns, the team actually had a record of 10-6 in 2007. The bad thing was Chud watched as the Browns he called the plays for in their winning season fall to a record of 4-12 the very next season. Chudzinski could get the Browns offense to repeat as winner for 2 seasons in a row.
After Chud left Cleveland he went back to doing what he did before he became a O.C., he was hired by his good friend Norv Turner in San Diego and he went back to being a tight ends coach. Shurmur was a tight ends coach too. After spending a couple of seasons with his friend Turner on the west coast, Chud would get his big break to join the Carolina Panthers as their O.C..
Now the Panthers would have their quarterback and they hired what they thought was going to be a great O.C. in Chudzinski. The Panthers in the 2 seasons that Chud was there lost more football games than they won. Kinda mirrors a Shurmur move doesn't it? Chud sent his quarterback Cam Newton to work with one of the least successful NFL quarterbacks of all time Chris Weinke. How did that work out for Chud in the 2012 season? Not so good, they finished their season with another losing record at 7-9.
A lot of people who watched the Panthers and Chud in Carolina didn't care for some of the things he did. It seemed like he would have some disagreements with some of the players and then he would bench the guy.After he sent Newton to work with Weinke, they did win one more game in 2012 so I guess you could call it an improvement, but Chud's Panthers still had a losing season with a 7-9 record.
Now he has Weeden, working with Weinke. A guy that never could win in the NFL is tutoring Weeden on how to be a NFL quarterback. Weinke was the Panthers starting quarterback in the 2001 season. He played in 15 games and lost 14 of them. The Panthers would finish the 2001 season with a 1-15 record and Weinke would finish the season with 11 touchdown's and 19 interceptions. Perhaps Chud sent Weeden to Florida to work with Weinke on how to deal with throwing interceptions. It should be something the two of them have in common.
It is going to be an interesting season watching the Cleveland Browns under their new inexperienced head coach Rob Chudzinski. The first thing he will have to deal with as the teams new head coach is the Browns starting quarterback situation. I remember the season that Shurmur took control of the team. During the off-season McCoy worked with Brett Favre. Now Chud has Weeden working with Weinke. SMH, I wonder where Chud's thought process is coming from?