Ohio
After breakout at Michigan State last year, Devin Royal ready to lead Ohio State in rematch
Ohio State coach Jake Diebler previews Michigan State, Big Ten play
Ohio State coach Jake Diebler previews Michigan State, Big Ten play in this Jan. 2, 2025 press conference.
Devin Royal’s internal clock told him he was out of time.
The green-and-white-clad crowd of 14,797 was screaming as the Ohio State freshman held the ball, and likely the game, in his hands. A Tyson Walker free throw had just pulled Michigan State even against upset-minded Ohio State with 6.4 seconds remaining as Royal tried to get the Buckeyes set up for a final shot. Frantically, the freshman looked for his primary outlet to inbound the ball only to find the Spartans had taken it away.
“I’m counting in my head,” Royal said Thursday, thinking back on the moment. “I’m at five (seconds) myself, so I’m trying to hurry up and get it in.”
No whistle blew, and Royal managed to thread a pass into Bruce Thornton amid three Michigan State defenders. What happened next set off a celebration not seen in 12 years: Thornton pushed the ball up the court, found Dale Bonner along the 3-point line and fed his teammate for a game-winning shot that swished through the net with 0.2 seconds remaining.
The shot will live on in Ohio State lore as the first road winner against the Spartans since William Buford’s jumper lifted them to a share of the 2012 Big Ten title in the final game of the regular season. It also snapped a 17-game road losing streak for the Buckeyes. But while Bonner’s name gets the headline for the play, that shot doesn’t go in – and Ohio State isn’t in position to shock the Spartans – without the first true standout game of Royal’s career.
On that Sunday afternoon, Royal finished with 14 points on 6-of-6 shooting and added two steals and two rebounds in the most playing time of his freshman season to that point: 17:54. It was a glimpse of why the Pickerington Central product had been such a coveted recruit, one who picked the Buckeyes despite a hard push from Michigan State coach Tom Izzo.
Friday night, those two teams meet for the first time since Bonner’s shot when the Spartans come to Value City Arena in the lone matchup between Ohio State and Michigan State this year. This time, Royal features prominently atop the scouting report amid a breakout sophomore season that was hinted at last season.
He leads the Buckeyes in rebounding (7.5 per game) and is second in scoring (14.8) after averaging 2.4 and 4.7 last season, respectively. It’s the kind of growth players sometimes show from freshman to sophomore seasons, but coach Jake Diebler said that’s not exactly how Royal’s summer went.
“At times you can just assume (that growth) is going to happen, but there’s a work, there’s a mentality, there’s a maturity required to make that jump,” Diebler said. “He was a little inconsistent with that at times in the summer. We talked about it. He owned that, and then he took off because I think he was honest with himself.”
When the Buckeyes reported for fall camp, Diebler said Royal had flipped the page and quickly began to assert himself as a high-level player.
“You’re seeing a great deal of benefit from the hard work and mentality he had really starting in August,” the coach said. “He’s a great story about what I want our program to be about. I want guys to come in and grow and get better and he’s certainly done that.”
When Ohio State returned from holiday break, Royal was hardly able to practice due to an illness that had him questionable for the Dec. 29 home game against Indiana State. He gutted out 19:44, finishing with 13 points and four rebounds in the 103-83 win against the Sycamores.
In two Big Ten games this season, Royal leads Ohio State in scoring average (20.0) and rebounding average (7.5). For the Buckeyes to knock off No. 18 Michigan State, Royal will have to play a big part.
Just like he did last year.
“It taught me a lot,” Royal said of that experience. “It’s a very physical game. Tom Izzo definitely put in them (the mentality) to be physical a lot. I know coming into this game I have to put it into some of the younger guys who might not know about it.”
ajardy@dispatch.com
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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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