Ohio
Mark Pope prepares for 'epic clash in Madison Square Garden' vs. Ohio State: “It's what you live for.”
Ohio State has had its ups and downs this season, opening the year at 7-4 with wins over No. 19 Texas and Rutgers with losses to No. 23 Texas A&M, Pitt, Maryland and No. 2 Auburn — that last one a 38-point beatdown in the Holiday Hoopsgiving event in Atlanta this past weekend.
The Buckeyes, led by first-year coach Jake Diebler, are grading out fine as the No. 32 team in the NET and the No. 36 team by KenPom — No. 33 in offense and No. 55 in defense — with terrific shooting numbers while dealing with some availability issues. In a high-profile event like the CBS Sports Classic in a higher-profile venue like Madison Square Garden, though, Mark Pope is expecting OSU’s best shot on Saturday.
“Terrific team, they shoot the ball at an unbelievable clip. I think as a team they’re shooting 41 percent from the 3-point line,” Pope said of the Buckeyes. “They play fast, they play hard, it’s a great coaching staff. They’re a formidable opponent. It’s a really, really good team.”
The highs have been high while the lows have been low, that 38-point loss to Auburn serving as the biggest and most demoralizing black eye. On one end, Ohio State has just one Quad 1 victory in the first game of the season against the Longhorns. Beyond that, though, the Buckeyes are 0-4 in Quad 1 matchups and 6-0 against Quad 3 and 4 teams — no Quad 2s. They’ve beaten up on the cupcakes without much to show for it against the real competition.
That’s where a Quad 1 against UK comes in, a chance for OSU to get back on track with a statement win in the national spotlight. CBS Sports Classic in New York City right before Christmas? That’s what it’s all about, right?
Pope certainly views it that way.
“They’ve had some great success and then a couple of games I think they’d like to take back — like all of us, right?” he said. “A really, really good challenge against a team that is going to continue to get better and better. It’s going to be an epic clash in Madison Square Garden for Christmas. I mean, it’s what you live for.”
Sophomore forward Devin Royal leads the Buckeyes with 15.6 points and 7.9 rebounds per contest, followed by junior guard Bruce Thornton with 14.8 points per game, freshman guard John Mobley Jr. with 12.1 points and senior guard Micah Parrish with 10.5 points to round out double-digit scorers.
Elsewhere, former Kentucky forward Aaron Bradshaw‘s status remains up in the air after returning to team activities on Dec. 9 with no games under his belt since Nov. 19. Fifth-year guard Meechie Johnson Jr., who is second on the team in minutes played at 28.8 per contest with 10 starts, is also taking a leave of absence from the team to “address some personal matters,” the school announced this week.
Don’t expect the Wildcats to have their guard down against the Buckeyes — even with Christmas just a couple of days away. Gotta earn an 11th win on the year before cruising into the holiday.
![KSR Staff Predictions: [3] Kentucky vs. [14] Troy, NCAA Tournament First Round](https://i3.wp.com/on3static.com/uploads/dev/assets/cms/2025/03/21082349/kentucky-troy-ncaa-tournament-first-round-ksr-staff-predictions-preview.png?w=400&resize=400,240&ssl=1 "KSR Staff Predictions: [3] Kentucky vs. [14] Troy, NCAA Tournament First Round")
![KSR Staff Predictions: [3] Kentucky vs. [14] Troy, NCAA Tournament First Round](https://i3.wp.com/on3static.com/uploads/dev/assets/cms/2025/03/21082349/kentucky-troy-ncaa-tournament-first-round-ksr-staff-predictions-preview.png?w=80&resize=80,80&ssl=1 "KSR Staff Predictions: [3] Kentucky vs. [14] Troy, NCAA Tournament First Round")
GIRARD, Ohio (WKBN) – Over 100 athletes came together for the 5th Annual Trumbull County Special Olympics Invitational Saturday morning in Girard.
These athletes represent five different schools across Trumbull County to compete and spread the message of inclusion, achievement, and sportsmanship.
The Invitational continued its long-standing tradition of honoring the legacy of Randy Suchanek while celebrating the dedication and accomplishments of Special Olympics athletes throughout the region.
“You can hear all the excitement for this, for the athletes that are here today,” said superintendent Bryan O’Hara. “They work hard all year long to participate. We’ve always worked hand in hand with the rotary to get this accomplished is a lot of work behind the scenes.”
Participating schools included Ashtabula, Geauga, Columbiana, Kent-Portage and Trumbull Fairhaven
“There’s a lot of nice participation from girard students as you see behind us, and a lot of participation from the community helping out,” Girard-Liberty Rotary co-president Andy Kish added.
O’Hara added that the event keeps everything in perspective, seeing the athletes compete in the spirit of fun, along with the courage and determination that they show.
Alex Sorrells contributed to this report.
Out of prison, Indiana’s caviar king back on Ohio River to find fishing holes taken
David Cox, of English, Indiana, says once he began setting his nets again after a two-year prison sentence and a three-year ban on commercial fishing, all of his once-secret spots were taken.
Can you eat fish from the Ohio River?
In 1975, future presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, then governor of Massachusetts, bet 20 pounds of New England cod that the Red Sox would defeat the Reds in the World Series. If things went south for Boston, Ohio governor James Rhodes promised to send Dukakis 10 pounds of Lake Erie perch and 10 pounds of Ohio River catfish. The Reds ended up winning and the cod was sent to the Convalescent Home for Children, in Cincinnati.
At the time, people were still eating catfish from the Ohio without too much concern. The fish were also served at several restaurants along the river.
There were warnings in 1977
But two years later, in 1977, The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission released the results of a study of contaminants found in the tissues of Ohio River fish. They warned anglers in cities such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, Wheeling and Gallipolis that man-made chemicals known as PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, had been discovered in the river fish. Later, high concentrations of mercury were discovered in the fish, too.
Thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the environmental regulations that followed, the river is now cleaner than it was in the seventies. And it’s still teeming with a variety of fish, including catfish, striped bass, drum and black bass, among other species.
But even though PCBs were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1979, they are still found in fish, since they remain in the sediment in the bottom of the river. “Organisms live in the sediment and fish feed on them,” Rich Cogen, the executive director of the Ohio River Foundation told The Enquirer. Mercury is also a big problem, according to Cogen.
So the question is: Can you eat fish caught in the Ohio River?
The short answer is yes. But it depends on what species you are eating and where along the river you caught it.
There are also very strict limitations on how frequently you should eat them, according to the web site for the Ohio Sport Fish Consumption Advisory, part of the Ohio Department of Health.
In areas of the river between the Belleville Lock, located 204 miles downstream from the river’s origins in Pittsburgh, to the Indiana border, the advisory agency currently recommends consuming Ohio River fish no more than once a month max. That area includes Adams, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Hamilton, Lawrence, Meigs and Scioto counties.
Here’s where to check
Recommendations change throughout the year, but you can keep up by visiting the Ohio Department of Health’s Sport Fish Consumption Advisory page, which provides updated information on when certain fish, usually bottom feeders such as carp, are deemed too dangerous to eat at all.
Here’s who should take a pass on Ohio River fish
The agency also warns that people who are more likely to have health effects from eating contaminated fish, includingchildren younger than 15 years old, pregnant women and women who are planning to become pregnant to avoid Ohio River fish altogether.
Just because you have to limit the amount of fish you eat, doesn’t mean the river is a bad place for fishing, as long as you limit your intake or do catch-and-release fishing. Just make sure you have a proper fishing license before casting your line.
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It isn’t over until it’s over. That’s the case for both the UCLA Bruins football program recruiting and for quarterback Brady Edmunds. Edmunds is currently committed to head to Ohio State but he took a visit from UCLA offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy earlier this week.
Kennedy met Edmunds on Thursday despite the fact that the quarterback has been committed to the Buckeyes since December of 2024 but could the UCLA Bruins be making a run at flipping the quarterback?
Edmunds has only had an official visit with Ohio State but could UCLA heave a heat check on the 6’5” quarterback? New UCLA head coach Bob Chesney is off to an unbelievable start to his recruiting with the Bruins and flipping a recruit of Edmunds’ caliber would be his most impressive move yet.
247 Sports has Edmunds as the No. 16 quarterback in the class, which would give UCLA a clear predecessor for Nico Iamaleava whenever the Bruins current starting quarterback decides to head to the professional level.
It’d be a full circle moment for the Bruins, as Edmunds was originally recruited to Ohio State by former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly, who bailed on UCLA to go run the Buckeyes offense. Ohio State is a great spot for a developing quarterback, as the Buckeyes produce tons of NFL talent, especially at the wide receiver position, which would help Edmunds put up some gaudy numbers in Columbus.
Chesney and the Bruins have geography on their side, Edmunds attends Huntington Beach High School in Southern California, which could potentially become a factor if Edmunds views UCLA as a program on the rise that’d be much closer to his friends and family than out in Ohio.
Time will tell if Kennedy’s visit will make a difference but UCLA’s recruiting has made waves in the first offseason under Chesney and the new regime.
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