NCDS: Jeff Boals, Asst. Coach - Ohio State
By: Jeff Boals, Asst. Coach - Ohio State
Happy Holidays to everyone! We had an eventful month in Buckeye Nation: some good, some bad.
The good is we are 10-2 heading into the Big Ten schedule.
We beat a very good Florida State team on December 2 that ended up
clinching the Big Ten-ACC Challenge.
The season is full of ups and downs and is always a roller
coaster. I always go by the "It's never as good as it seems
and it's never as bad as it seems" motto, but during the Eastern
Michigan game it was pretty bad. We lost Evan Turner for
approximately 6-8 weeks on an unfortunate, freak accident.
During the game he went up for a dunk. His hands slipped on
the rim and he fell from about 7' straight on his back.
It was a very scary moment and after seeing the fall we are fortunate that he is going to be fine. He has been out 3 weeks now and is doing much better. He has been doing some light, non-contact drills for the last few days. Our training and medical staff have done an outstanding job with him headed up by our athletic trainer, Vince O'Brien. We hope to have Evan back soon.
It has been a big adjustment without him in the lineup. He did so many things for our team and we had to change some things on the fly and other guys on the team have had to step up. We have had four full games now to settle into different roles and to adjust the offense without Evan in the lineup. (The last four years Coach Matta has been here it seems someone has been injured and the team was not 100%: Matt Sylvester- 2006, Greg Oden-2007, David Lighty-2008 and now Evan.)
Following our win against Cleveland State on December 22, our guys were able to go home for a few days for Christmas and spend time with family and friends. (Check the dunk out by David Lighty on Jared Cunningham from Cleveland State- wow!)
We are now heading into the meat grinder portion of the schedule. We play four of our first five Big Ten games on the road. Not actually sure how this schedule was devised, but I would be interested to see the rationale behind it. We are the only team in the league that starts with four of five on the road. This New Year's Eve we play at Wisconsin on ESPN2 (2 p.m. ET). It will be a great challenge playing in the Kohl Center. I've heard it is one of the toughest, if not the toughest place to play in the Big Ten.
Best of luck to Coach Tressel and the Buckeye football team who are playing in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day. Happy New Years to everyone; I hope 2010 brings us some great memories!
* * * *
