Thursday March 29, 2012 year: 132 No. 43
the student voice of
The Ohio State University
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sports
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Buckeyes, dollars and deer
A look at coach Thad Mattaâs salary, his inspiration from deer and a reaction to spring football practice.
Ally Marotti / Copy chief
Hundreds of Buckeye fans line High Street as the menâs basketball team departs for the airport Wednesday for its trip to the Final Four in New Orleans. OSU will play Kansas Saturday for a chance to play in the National Championship Game.
Final Four matchups wonât be (Big) Easy
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Pat Brennan Sports editor brennan.164@osu.edu America is finally going to get the matchup between Ohio State sophomore forward Jared Sullinger and Kansas junior forward Thomas Robinson. A possible regular-season meeting was aborted when Sullinger was pulled from the lineup before OSUâs Dec. 10, 2011, loss at Kansasâ Allen Fieldhouse due to back spasms. Now, Sullinger the NCAA Tournamentâs East Regional Champion, and Robinson, the Midwest Regionâs most outstanding player, are on a collision course.
This star-studded encounter could have been derailed at any of several moments during the playersâ respective careers, though. Perhaps the most Sullinger has faced came during a 15-day period in February in which OSU lost 3-of-5 Big Ten games. A Final Four appearance was certainly in doubt during that time. In 2010, Robinson faced a much more personal trials â his mother, grandmother and grandfather all died during in February 2011. Of Robinsonâs personal struggles, Sullinger praised his soon-to-be combatant. â(Robinson has) been through a lot. If anyone deserves this moment, itâs him,â Sullinger said of his opponent. âLast year, he went through a big-time emotional situation where I donât think anybody
could have handled it better than the way he has handled it.â Both players have rebounded from on-court struggles â Sullinger now thanks the media for crticizing the teamâs rough patches â and off-court tragedies â Robinson received NCAA-allowed aid from Kansas to pay for the funeral of his mother and receive estate-planning help, according to a Jan. 26, 2011 ESPN report.. The playersâ struggles have long been in the rearview mirror as the Final Four approaches Saturday. During this past season, Sullinger averaged more than 18 points and eight rebounds while the 6-foot-10, 237-pound Robinson has scored more
continued as Basketball on 3A
1B O-H-I-O tradition worth 10,000 words
Many genres rolled into one
The Lantern continues its series of local band profiles with a look at jazz-inspired hip-hop artist Eric Rollin.
campus
On-campus assaults, thefts
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weather
What started as a group cheer around Ohio Stadium on football Saturdays has developed into a picture-sharing phenomenon at Ohio State: four individuals spelling O-H-I-O with their bodies in photos. A team in OSU Marketing Communications recently collected its 10,000th photo of students, family and OSU community members spelling O-H-I-O in its photo gallery on the universityâs main webpage. âItâs an outward expression of Buckeye spirit. It is taking that Saturday afternoon game-day thing all the way to service projects, study abroad, hanging out in the dorms, in the union, but also going on the best vacation you have with your family,â said Ted Hattemer, senior director of University Marketing Communications. Since the late 1990s, the University Communications department periodically received photos of people spelling O-H-I-O and started to collect the photos. In 2006, when it had enough photos to display, it opened a page and a link where people could submit the photos. The phenomenon took off by word-of-mouth and more photos were submitted. Starting in 2007, after Facebook created the option of âpagesâ in addition
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Courtesy of Ohio State Christopher Schwartz / Managing editor
OSU football has officially sprung
high 58 low 38
Justine Boggs Lantern reporter boggs.1047@osu.edu
sunny
F 63/43 SA 58/47 SU 66/56 M 73/49
Mary Posani Senior Lantern reporter posani.3@osu.edu
pm t-storms few showers partly cloudy mostly cloudy www.weather.com
Spring has arrived, shoulder pads are on and Urban Meyerâs first practice as Ohio Stateâs coach has come and gone. The Buckeyes hit the gridiron for the first time opening their season in the indoor fields at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center because of windy weather. Wednesday marked the start of itâs 100th season of Big Ten football, which is under a new reign that came into power Jan. 3. âIt felt great to blow the whistle and see guys run and talk to them and coach punting,â Meyer said. âI love coaching punting. I love coaching and being around quarterbacks and seeing the defense run pursuit. I felt great.â
On March 16, 2005 Meyerâs first practice as head football coach at The University of Florida was canceled due to severe weather conditions. Wednesday windy weather moved the buckeyes indoors, but that didnât stop them. âIt was a good first day,â Meyer said. âFor my staff, I saw a lot of guys excited about coaching at Ohio State, which is key.â Kerry Coombs, cornerbacks coach, tweeted from his account @ OSUCoachCoombs, he was happy with the effort everyone gave at practice. âWhat a great day! Players were working hard, enthusiastic and running all over the field! Great crowd at practice too! This is special!â Coombs tweeted.
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Buckeyesâ big send-off to La. Shay Trotter Lantern reporter trotter.35@osu.edu For the Ohio State menâs basketball team, the road to the Final Four began close to home. OSU students and fans alike lined the sidewalks of High Street from about Woodruff Avenue to 11th Avenue to show their support for the basketball team as they departed for the airport Wednesday evening. The street was flooded with fans sporting scarlet and gray apparel awaiting the teamâs arrival. Many also displayed signs with phrases such as âBuckeye Pride,â âWe Love OSUâ and âBring it Home.â Some members of the Columbus Division of Fire and the Columbus Division of Police took part in the gathering as well. One fire truck
displayed an OSU flag from its extended ladder high above High Street. Captain Rob Robinson of Ladder 13 expressed positive sentiment toward the Buckeyes. âWeâre just here to support the basketball team. We wish them well on their venture to New Orleans,â Robinson said. Fans and reporters alike arrived with cameras in hand to capture the departure of the team. Through the celebrations, there was a dominant âOH-IOâ cheer progressing down High Street. The arrival of the two buses resulted in a noticeable escalation of energy from those around, as signs were held high and the crowd shouted words of encouragement.
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