BJ Mullens Cashing In On Potential

What BJ Mullens is as a basketball player is a young guy, with size, some skills, and a lot of potential. What he's not is the Georgetown version of Patrick Ewing. Whether Mullens plays (1) year for the Buckeyes or (10), he'll never develop into that type of player.

Out of high school BJ Mullens' draft stock couldn't get any higher, this year it dropped; he had to play this year. The next three he doesn't. Every year from here on out will serve to do the same thing his freshmen campaign did; expose one aspect or another of his game as being less than perfect, and the unknown potential that made him a number one prospect, will turn into a known commodity, and his draft stock will suffer because of it.

I don't blame the kid for leaving early. He probably won't be an All Star, but who's to say he ever would have? In this economy, jobs are hard to come by for anybody, and if you can cash in on the 'unknown potential' that the NBA pays big dollars for I say you do it before you can't. The longer he stays, the longer the book on him gets, the more telling the tape on him becomes, and the quicker the notion of 'untapped, superstar, potential' disappears.

From Bucknuts.com:

"B.J. Mullens was expected to turn pro and on Thursday he made it official. The 7-foot freshman center will forego his final three seasons of eligibility at Ohio State and will enter the NBA Draft. Mullens is expected to be a first-round pick, but there is a debate in terms of how high he will go. Once projected as a high lottery pick -- perhaps the top overall selection of the draft --Mullens' stock has dropped."

As a Buckeye Fan, of course you'd like to see Mullens play at least his Sophomore season. But you'd have liked to Kosta Koufas do that, Mike Conely, and Daquean Cook too. The fact is, you wouldn't have gotten Mullens for (1) year if David Stern didn't mandate it, and you wouldn't have gotten Oden, or maybe even Cook too. Its about money, as it always is, and I say get that money and run, just like Darius Miles and Kwame Brown did before him. Scoonie Penn came back to school after going to the Final Four as a Junior, how'd that work out for him?

From the Desk of DejaTrue...Signing Day

Buckeyes Score Big on College signing day.

Or did they? I will tell you for sure in the fall of 2012. In the economically strained climate we live in today we hear more and more about financial buyouts. Its not an entirely new idea, its been going on since John D Rockefeller (not to be confused with Rockafella) bought out every railroad company in te US. In CFB it is no different, except we call it “National Signing Day.” As one Prep Head Football coached referred to it,


“Signing Days is the largest national annual buyout this country has ever seen. Millions of dollars are poured into kids all over the country who [some] have no business being in the presence of college professors.”


The analogy to business is this. With the Internet, handheld PDAs, text messaging, and the birth of “trained” talent scouts rating millions of High School players all over the country, every coach is blinded with information as to whom they should invest in. The list is predetermined. If you land this player, you get a high mark. Who cares if maybe a Jim Tressel sees a chink in the armor of a highly touted kid, if he passes on him, and Penn State gets him, that is a good for Penn State when it come to recruiting. And lets not kid ourselves, College Football is big business, and just as in business if an investment fails so too does the investor.


Therefore, put yourself in Jim Tressel position. On this day you need to make 100% correct short line investments or out the door you go. Now, when you got into the profession you were well aware of this game. Then came Zack Morris’ cell phone, car phones, pagers, internet, email, text messaging, hand-held internet, and you have had to adapt to all of this on the run. You have also been “exposed.” Every move is analyzed, dissected, and examined. And what is it worth, well its worth your starting position out the gate in 2009. At this point, the AP polls are already being generated for the season to come, based on the kids you signed just now.

DejaTrue is a featured contributor to Shaver Sports. Click here to view previous posts.

Buckeye Hoopsters Miss Lighty

Yesterday, ESPN's Doug Gottlieb said, "OSU hasn't been the same since David Lighty went down," and Shaver Sports couldn't agree more.

With Lighty in the line-up, OSU got out early, recording wins over #22 Miami in Miami, and #7 Notre Dame in Indianapolis en route to a 7-0 start. When Lighty went down in the final minutes of the Jacksonville game, he had just finished recording a career high in points that night with 21. At the time of his injury, the Cleveland Hoopster was averaging 10 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists, playing 33 minutes per game.

His void has not been filled as of yet. Since he went to the IR, the Buckeyes lost by (30) to an unranked West Virginia team, squeaked out a (3) point win against an unranked Iowa team, and lost yesterday to #21 Minnesota by (9) 68-59. Expect the Buckeyes, currently ranked #23, to fall out of the top 25 with the loss.

With (4) other Big Ten teams currently ranked in the top 25, someone wearing scarlet and gray is going to have to step up in a hurry if the Buckeyes hope to be dancing come March. It is hard to say for sure if the Big Ten is going to be a (5) or (6) bid league, and if the conference only ends up sending (4), OSU is going to have to finish ahead of a Michigan State (#15), Purdue (#11), Michigan (#24), or Minnesota (#21) for their dance card to be punched.

LeBron Picks Buckeyes On GameDay

LeBron James was at College GameDay this morning, and jumped on the set to break today's action down. LeBron told Fowler and the fellas that if he had gone to college he would have donned the Scarlet and Gray.

He also broke down today's college action on the set, and Shaver Sports will be posting later to break down The Chosen One's choices.

LeBron's Picks are as follows:

Michigan over Michigan State
Florida State over Virginia Tech
Georgia Tech over Virginia
Notre Dame over Washington
Arizona over USC
LSU over Georgia
Alabama over Tennessee
Texas Tech over Kansas
Texas over Oklahoma State

Kirk Herbsteit differed with King on 3 of the 9 games.

Herby had MSU, Georgia and USC as winners.

Oh and LeBron took the Bucks to roll over Penn State.

Herbsteit could not pick the game because he is calling it tonight at 8pm on ABC, but he did say the key to tonight's game is the QB play of Daryl Clark and Terrelle Pryor..."which QB makes the most mistakes could decide the game," he said.

Corso's picks aren't really worth traking, but the mascot of the show did put on the Buckeye Head...The Herbstreit Kids Came out to close the show wearing Terrele Pryor Jerseys...Go Bucks...should be a big night.

Rizzo: Bucks have 5000 to 1 Chance of Title

On the Really Big Show Friday, Tony Rizzo said that if the Buckeyes won every game by 50 points the rest of the way out, they still might not get in to the National Title game.

"Nationally, the perception of the Buckeyes is just not good, no on is going to vote for them, and I give the Buckeyes a Five Thousand to One chance of getting into the Title game.

Those Odds had to have gotten better yesterday afternoon. On the heels of USC's upset loss to Oregon State Friday, three other top ten teams in Flordia, Georgia, and Wisconsin, all lost. Terrel Pryor looked good, and Beanie looked healthy, and you could see the foundation of an arguement forming for the Buckeyes to make their claim as national championship material - maybe.

Hammer went on to counter Uncle Rizzy's arguement Friday by saying that if the Buckeyes are the last One Loss team in the country, they could still get in. "Its just how the system works," said noted Denver Fan Hammer, and I believe he is correct.

Additional food for thought on why the Buckeyes could get into the mix: They play a Wisconsin team that is going to be ranked in the top 15 next week despite losing to Michigan, they play a Penn State team that is going to be ranked in the Top 10, and they play an Illinois team that should be in the top 25 when they play.

29.7 Million Watched Us Loose This Weekend

As a Northeast Ohio Football Fan, it was a tough weekend for me, and everyone else around here. We got rolled on Saturday night when the Buckeyes got embarrassed, and we got smacked in the grill on Sunday too, just as we were trying to stand up from the previous nights beat down by the hated Steelers. I realize it was rough. I did not realize until reading today's post on Awful Announcing just how many people watched our National Title hopes get stomped, laughed at, and thrown in the trash, followed by the Steelers making us say uncle again...that total was 11.9 million households on Saturday, and 17.8 million on Sunday, for a total of nearly 30 million households nationally. The only thing that makes this a little bit better is the fact that it did not draw the audience that the Monday nighter drew...an alltime high of 18 million.

OSU - USC; Hype Was a Joke

I dont think it was the 21-3 halftime score that was the most embarrassing aspect about the OSU - USC game tonight. It wasn't the 35-3 final either. The most frusterating part wasnt the fact that Terrell Pryor didn't play every down. I am not even bothered by the fact that USC has four running backs better than anything the Browns have backing up Jamal Lewis. What bothers me was the build-up. YouTube - Ohio State vs. USC preview 2008 Its like starting a fight at a bar, only to get your ass kicked in front of your girlfriend. Its like walking into a USC keg party with a 'Trojans Suck' t-shirt only to loose your money, said shirt, and your girlfriend to some hairsprayed mohawk USC frat boy. Its like both of those things happening in the same night, and then having someone post it on you tube, so anyone in the world can watch over, and over again. The Bucks didnt loose. They didnt show-up. They displayed no heart. The game was a joke, and an even bigger joke is the idea that if the Bucks had Beanie they might have won. Seriously, the kid is good but he is not worth 35 points, and I dont believe Beanie has ever played DEFENSE. The collision at the coliseum - whatever? But worse than the game was build-ups like the video above, that just make me want to hide my face, and not let people know, I am in deed from Ohio, and I am a Buckeye fan. Its gonna take 10 years, and 2 coaching changes to earn back the respect that OSU lost tonight.

USC's Depth is Ridiculous

Not that this fact is news to the PAC 10 and USC honks, but as the Collision at the Coliseum looms imminent, USC's obvious depth has just smacked me in the face as being ridiculous. Its not their starters that they have that amaze me, so much as their second unit.

Why do players go to USC to sit on the bench. Is it because Matt Kassel never started a game and is starting for the Pats tommorrow? Is it Hollywood? Is it Pete Carroll? Are they getting Reggie Bush dollars to play there? I dont know what it is, but what I do know is there is no college in the country that gets multiple 5-Star Recruits to agree to go there, stay there, and compete to play the same position. The Buckeyes get that starter to go there there and play. They get Beanie Wells, and they are good because of it. But they cant get someone of equal talent to come there and compete with Wells. No one else can for that matter, no one except USC. How does Mitch Mustain agree to go there to be behind Sanchez? How does CJ Gable go there to agree to be behind Joe McNight and company? Mustain started for Arkansas, and they were a top 20 team as a FRESHMAN. Now he sits behind Sancez. That doesnt happen at OSU. The Bucks loose Beanie and their offense seemingly falls off the face of the earth. I think USC could loose their starting QB, and starting RB, and not skip a beat. But, in the end, the game is decided by the guys ont the field, not on the bench, so at 8, we will see what happens.