Happy Holidays To All Readers!

I want to take a minute to wish all readers a joyous holiday season! It’s been a warm December here so far, so there is essentially no chance of a White Christmas around these parts. In fact, I suspect some people will be having backyard cookouts :-).

The Blue Jackets are undefeated since my last post (which must not have been too long ago 🙂 ) after a 7-5 win at Arizona, and last night’s shootout win over Philadelphia in front of the home fans. Joonas Korpisalo has looked pretty good between the pipes, and he finally picked up his first win last night. Sergei Bobrovsky is improving faster than thought, and may be back in the lineup fairly soon.

Ohio State and Kentucky don’t get together very often. I wasn’t expecting much out of the Buckeyes in yesterday’s game in Brooklyn, given the slow start this season. But the Bucks surprised everyone with a 74-67 win. After taking leads of as much as 16 points, the Cats made a furious comeback. But it fell short. The loss is disappointing for UK fans, of course, but the win was a real boost to the young Buckeyes. It will be interesting to see if yesterday’s game was a fluke, or if OSU can now make a run at the Big Ten title.

Wildcats Rolling

Between the Kentucky men’s and women’s teams, there is only one blemish on the record. The men visited Pauley Pavilion for the first time, and lost to UCLA 87-77. The Bruins had made an inauspicious start to the season, but they looked like a well-oiled machine in topping the Wildcats. Kentucky routed UCLA last year, and the boys from Westwood got their revenge.

Kentucky freshman Skal Labissiere has been touted as another “one-and-done” player, so good that he will be a high draft pick in the NBA after playing one year in college. So far, he’s fallen short of many people’s expectations. Although talented, he may be a bit too small to be as dominant as once thought.

The Kentucky women remain undefeated. This after a number of players have chosen to leave the team. The Wildcats picked up their fifth win in-a-row over Louisville, 72-54. A big game comes up on the 20th of this month as Duke comes to town.

 

 

Tough Times In Columbus

The last weekend of the college football season went pretty well chalk. So, Ohio State will be on the outside looking in at the playoffs. The Bucks will, however, play Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day. It should be a fun matchup. We don’t play the Irish very often, but it is a big rivalry.

I’m looking forward to the college football playoff. But don’t ask me who will win the championship. I have no idea. All four teams bring a lot to the table. Should be a great playoff.

The Ohio State men are 4-5. The Bucks had an embarrassing 20-point loss on national TV Saturday at Connecticut. OSU will try to get back to .500 with a game tomorrow night against Northern Illinois. But NIU is a good MAC team. Then on Saturday, the Buckeyes will take on Kentucky in Brooklyn.

The Ohio State women are 6-3, with the three losses being to powerhouses Connecticut, South Carolina and Notre Dame. Maryland is quite good and will be the team to beat in the Big Ten this year. It will be interesting to see if the Buckeyes or any other conference team can give the Terps a run for their money.

The Blue Jackets have gone 1-6 since my last post. Starting goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky got hurt and will be out three weeks. Joonas Karpisalo was called up from the minors, and had a very good game against Tampa Bay last night in his NHL debut. But he got no goal support in a 2-1 loss.

An Interesting Weekend of College Football

College football’s 2015 regular season is winding down, and Thanksgiving weekend brought some of the more interesting games of the year.

For years, Ohio State had been a heavy favorite over a sub-par Michigan team, but had to settle for a close, hard-fought, stressful win. This year under first-year coach Jim Harbaugh, the Wolves put their best team on the field in quite some time. But the result was a 42-13 lopsided win by the Buckeyes. Michigan State’s win over Penn State gave the Spartans the Big Ten East championship. The Big Ten championship game will feature MSU against undefeated Iowa. The winner will certainly get a spot in the 4-team national championship playoff.

There are those who think the Buckeyes have an outside chance of a playoff spot as well. The current rankings will be announced tonight. Alabama and Clemson will almost certainly have to lose in their conference championship games. If Michigan State beats Iowa, there would be no undefeated teams remaining.

Kentucky got our hopes up, taking 21-0 and 24-7 leads on visiting Louisville. But the Cats ended up losing 38-24. So that is two years in-a-row that Kentucky finished 5-7, just one game short of bowl eligibility. Mark Stoops is certainly a good recruiter, but there seem to be other issues holding this program back from turning the corner.

Baylor visited TCU Friday night. Two of the nation’s highest-powered offenses had to contend with heavy rains for most of the game. It ended up being a punting duel, won by TCU in overtime 28-21.

Notre Dame appeared to have beaten Stanford by scoring a touchdown with 30 seconds left. But Stanford kicked a field goal as time expired to pull out the win.