Ohio State lacrosse prepares for NCAA Semifinal contest against Towson

Ohio State men’s lacrosse in NCAA semifinals

The Buckeyes men’s lacrosse team is just two wins away from claiming a national championship. They can get one step closer to a natty with a win against Towson on Saturday.

Playing in their first semifinal, Ohio State looks to continue riding their wave of success, which includes claiming an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament, followed by winning against Loyola and Duke to reach the championship weekend. Now in Foxborough, the Bucks got some championship help from a championship winning coach.

Reigning Super Bowl winning head coach Bill Belichick talked to the team at practice. Belichick knows a thing or two about pulling off big wins, as his New England Patriots erased a 25-point deficit en route to winning Super Bowl LI.

Historically, the Buckeyes own a 5-3 record against the Towson Tigers—one of the wins being in the 2013 NCAA Tournament. A championship appearance wouldn’t be too far fetched, as OSU entered the tournament as the No.3-seed, which was earned off a school-record tying 15-4 season.

Tre Leclaire was a big reason for the success, as the the freshman leads the Buckeyes with 45 goals. The Big Ten freshman of the year has picked up the pace even more over the last five games, scoring 17 goals.

You can catch the Buckeyes-Tigers semifinal on Saturday at noon. ESPN2 will be broadcasting the game.

“You’d be dumb to think that the Buckeyes don’t find a way to be one of the best in the nation, though.”

— Justin Hartling on Ohio State, and the new batch of betting lines for the Buckeyes’ 2017 season, Oddsshark

Last week, one batch of Vegas odds came out predicting how many wins the Buckeyes were gonna get in the 2017 season. Today, another batch came out, and the odds are nearly identical all-around.

Oddsshark, with the help of BetOnline, broke out the rationale behind some of the early predictions, which includes the Buckeyes winning a projected 10.5 games. Behind J.T. Barrett and a restocked defense, Justin Hartling wrote that it would be unwise to think Urban Meyer’s squad couldn’t pull off a successful season.

Last week, Alabama had a slight edge in one of the sports books, however, this week has them tied with the Buckeyes and Florida State Seminoles at 10.5 wins. It’s still early, but it seems that these three schools will be fighting at the top of the college football mountain for supremacy. In the first year of the college football playoff, Bama, OSU and FSU all found their way into the final four; BetOnline has them as the three early favorites—which is an early sign that these three could be having a playoff reunion.

Michigan, a team still looking for a playoff appearance, hasn’t gained the confidence of the books. BetOnline has the Wolverines at an over/under of 9.0 wins. Hartling notes that road games against Penn State and Wisconsin may be the bugaboo to the fighting Harbaughs’ title hopes. Combine a home game against Ohio State with a young team, and the recipe to a rebuilding year has been served.

As we get closer to the start of the season, expect fresher odds to become available. We’ll keep you posted as they come out.

Ohio State football team’s GPA is highest in 8 years

Keeping up with the theme of numbers in football, the Ohio State football team’s GPA was announced. For the 2017 spring semester, the Buckeyes earned an overall average GPA of 2.92, surpassing last season’s spring semester average of 2.88.

A few Buckeyes scored a 4.0 GPA for the semester. Those three were Jordan Fuller, Liam McCullough and Billy Price. Price’s success from gridiron has carried into the classroom. This past season, Price was a team captain and secured first-team All-American honors.

In addition to those three, 41 other Buckeyes earned a GPA of 3.0. Congrats to the Buckeyes for their success in the classroom!

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