BabyLinks: Dirty Laundry and the OSU Quandary

by Ben Collins

Before we get to some hot, steamy BabyLinkageness this fine evening, we’ve got some quick housework to get to and it’s all filled with creamy goodness. But we need your help.

After some BabyLinkstigators went out of their way to prove this thing is possible, I’ve decided to make this blog a pretty much daily thing on weekdays. Some days we’ll just get some quick updates, some TOP-10s, TONS of features and we’re going to make this little portion of SLAM a pretty heavy force in basketball.

Thing is, though, we need your help. We need tips. We need links to scores, suggestions of things you want us to cover. We need links to people messing up box scores. We need viral videos of elderly people in the X-Games. We need all of this badly.

So you can send these tips to here. 24/7, anytime you want. Or here. But that’s the same link as the previous. As is this one: [email protected]. Did I mention this? Or you can leave them in the wondrous comments section we have below.

This is your Call to Arms, SLAM folk. Especially you, SLAM college lovers. Be interesting and be different, which is not hard for you guys, and we’ll gladly mention you, too.
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First assignment, easy enough: What do you think of Bobby Knight? I’ve been working on my second, non-Isiah Manifesto to prove that you won’t ever see another coach like him, and that’s not necessarily a good thing (you’ll be seeing this soon). But what about you? Especially if you’re under, say, 25. Would you ever play for a coach like this? Is he just a hilarious public figure to you? Do you think he brushes his teeth with rocks just to prove he’s tough?

Yeah, me too.

Anyways, onto the delicious Babylinks:

– Okay, this isn’t really even fun anymore. Who would’ve thought that rooting against Duke would be like dominating an infant in Jenga. They’re starting off 0-2 in their conference and they’re playing the marshmallow exterior of the ACC. It might be time to start feeling bad for them.

No.

– DOWN GOES BUTLER. It was fun, guys. No, we can’t validate your parking. You can keep the ruby slippers, though.

– Onto the meat of these BabyLinks, were we overrating OSU all along? Were we really?

You know what? Maybe we were wrong all along.
I’m sure it’s the national media’s fault that we thought the best high school player since Lebron, the second-best since Lew Alcindor, would have some sort of immediate impact in college. And, when he played masterfully in limited minutes off the bench, we figured he’d do just the same in an expanded role. We’d at least figure that, after he shot 91% in his first three games, he’d at least get that opportunity to see those extra minutes he earned. We’d think that when he did finally get those 30 minutes a game, as he did for the first time against Wisconsin, Thad Matta would find a way to get the most dominant player in college basketball the ball. We’d also bet he’d get him more shots than six other players on the team.

But maybe you were right. Maybe we overrated the team that never gave itself a shot all along.