Ohio
After loss, Green Bay coach Doug Gottlieb impressed by Ohio State’s defense, physicality
Green Bay coach Doug Gottlieb breaks down Ohio State after loss
Green Bay coach Doug Gottlieb’s full press conference after Ohio State’s 102-69 win on Nov. 25, 2024.
Doug Gottlieb had a lot to say about Ohio State.
Monday night, the first-year college coach brought his Green Bay Phoenix into Value City Arena and took a 102-69 loss. The Buckeyes never trailed, built a lead as high as 35 points and closed the game with a 44-18 run in the final 12:12 to improve to 5-1.
Stronger challenges lie just on the horizon for Ohio State, which hosts Pittsburgh on Friday to begin a home-and-home series before playing at Maryland and hosting Rutgers next week. First, though, was this game against Green Bay, and Gottlieb said there was plenty that concerned him about the Buckeyes.
It started on the defensive side of the ball.
“They don’t have any weaknesses defensively,” Gottlieb, a longtime sports broadcaster who played collegiately for Notre Dame and Oklahoma State. “Everybody else we’ve played, we try and attack the weak link. Usually it’s a five-man, and we thought when Sean Stewart played, ‘Oh, we have more of a traditional big, we can expose them a little bit by spacing them out,’ but he just recovers so quickly and plays so hard.”
Playing their fourth road game in their last five games, all in the span of 12 days, the Phoenix finished with their lowest adjusted offensive efficiency rating of the season. According to KenPom, Ohio State limited Green Bay to 94.8 points per 100 possessions despite starting 6-9, 220-pound Sean Stewart at center. Gottlieb credited the versatility of not just Stewart but starting power forward Devin Royal (6-6, 220) and primary rotation player Evan Mahaffey, a 6-6, 200-pound wing.
“Look, that’s a really well-coached team,” he said. “If you watch on tape and you look at the analytics, their defense is outstanding. Outstanding. It’s really, really connected, physical. We played Oklahoma State and they were physical, but it was kind of to the point of ridiculous where you could call a foul every time. They’re just physical but with really good intention.”
Ohio State committed a season-low 14 fouls against the Phoenix, out-rebounded Green Bay 37-23 and shot a season-best 64.9% from two-point range (24 for 37). Gottlieb credited that to Ohio State’s players buying into their specific roles under first-year coach Jake Diebler.
“They’ve got (Evan Mahaffey) dialed in to, ‘All you’re going to do is rebound and defend and drive to the basket or cut to the basket,’ ” Gottlieb said. “They got Sean Stewart, ball screen roll or just be a big guy in the middle and they drive off him. They use him almost like a goalpost in the middle you’ve got to avoid. They are accepting their roles and they’re flourishing. Their perimeter players, all those guards can just go get buckets, and they’re allowed to take a couple chances defensively because they’ve got good anchors inside. They are elite, elite defensively.”
Gottlieb, who hosts a daily national sports talk show on Fox Sports Radio, saved his most effusive praise for junior guard Bruce Thornton, who had a season-high 25 points and nine assists in 29:36. Gottlieb described him as his favorite Ohio State point guard since Scoonie Penn or Jay Burson.
“Bruce was really the story,” he said. “Bruce and Meechie (Johnson Jr.), Meechie just with confidence and Bruce … he leads, shoots, scores, passes. He’s a big-time basketball player. The rest of the guys just defend and feed off his energy.”
ajardy@dispatch.com
Get more Ohio State basketball news by listening to our podcasts
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.
Have a question for Just Askin’? Email us.
The Just Askin’ series aims to answer the questions that no one seems to have an answer for, except maybe Google.
Do you have a question you want answered? Send it to us at justaskin@enquirer.com, ideally with Just Askin’ in the subject line.
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.
-
News4 minutes agoThe New Harvard Trend? Getting Punched in the Face.
-
Politics10 minutes agoWhich Trump Tariffs Are in Place, in the Works or Ruled Illegal
-
Business16 minutes agoChina’s Exports and Imports Set Records in April Amid High Energy Costs
-
Science22 minutes agoVideo: Pentagon Releases U.F.O. Files
-
Health28 minutes agoHantavirus Vaccines and Treatments Are in the Pipeline
-
Culture40 minutes agoBook Review: ‘Selling Opportunity,’ by Mary Lisa Gavenas
-
Lifestyle46 minutes agoHunting For Lexapro Clocks, Viagra Neckties and Other Vintage Pharmaceutical Merch
-
Technology58 minutes agoDyson’s powerful 360 Vis Nav robovac is down to $279.99 for a limited time