Ohio State coach Thad Matta hopes the Buckeyes tough defense can keep up with UCLAs high-scoring offense Saturday in the CBS Sports Classic at Las Vegas.If Mattas transition defense can rise to the challenge, the Buckeyes could have a chance to subdue UCLAs offensive flow led by future NBA point guard Lonzo Ball.That could be a case of easier said than done, however, against the Bruins, who ranked No. 2 nationally in scoring at 97.9 points a game after beating UC Santa Barbara 102-62 Wednesday at Pauley Pavilion.No. 2 UCLA improved to 11-0, its best start since a 14-0 beginning of the 2006-07 season. Ohio State (8-2) is unranked. The game at the T-Mobile Arena (3 p.m. ET, CBS) is part of a doubleheader with the second game featuring No. 6 Kentucky and No. 7 North Carolina.They are playing at such a fast pace and just a very high skill level, Matta said of UCLA. (They have) a lot of guys who can make shots. They do a good job of getting the ball down the floor.Thats one thing that will be very, very important from the start -- getting back on defense. Getting our defense set will be a huge priority for us.The Buckeyes have established themselves as one of the nations top defenses through the first 10 games, allowing only one opponent to score more than 70 points -- a 79-77 overtime loss at home against Florida Atlantic on Dec. 6.UCLA is unlike any of Ohio States opponents to this point when it comes to scoring. The closest the Buckeyes faced is Marshall, which averages 86.6 points a game.Ohio State can gain confidence from that game heading into the matchup against the Bruins. The Buckeyes beat Marshall 111-70 in Columbus, Ohio, on Nov. 25. Matta said the Buckeyes will play at a faster pace similar to that game but wont try to match UCLA step for step.The Bruins showed their firepower against UC Santa Barbara with their fifth game of 100 points or more. Freshman standouts TJ Leaf and Ball each recorded a fifth double-double of the season, and reserve sophomore guard Aaron Holiday -- who started 34 games last year but now backs up Ball -- tallied his first career 20-point game.Leaf had 25 points, including 17 in the first half. He and Ball each had 10 rebounds. Leaf nearly finished with a triple-double, adding a season-high eight assists. Ball wound up with 13 points, seven assists and a season-high 10 rebounds.Its a lot of fun watching this team play and coaching this team, UCLA coach Steve Alford said after noting that the Bruins had 27 assists and only eight turnovers against the Gauchos. We move on now. We have a major test with our third Big Ten team coming up on Saturday.The Bruins defeated Nebraska 82-71 and Michigan 102-84. They also have a 74-67 win over Texas A&M, showing they can survive a challenge in a lower-scoring game. Their best achievement was a 97-92 triumph at then-No. 1 Kentucky on Dec. 3.Ball is drawing comparisons to Jason Kidd while averaging 14.8 points, 8.6 assists and 5.6 rebounds per game. He is a better perimeter shooter than Kidd, making 45.8 percent of his 3-point attempts. UCLA is shooting 45.3 percent from beyond the arc.Balls making great decisions, Matta said. He has a tremendous future ahead of him. Theres no question about that.Ohio State ranks No. 20 nationally allowing only 61.7 points a game, almost 36 points fewer than the Bruins scoring average. Greg Paulus, the former Duke standout who is Mattas defensive assistant, has told the Buckeyes it will require a team effort with defense away from the ball to challenge UCLA.It boils down to having an understanding that its five guys guarding the basketball, Paulus told the Columbus Dispatch. Its not just one-on-one, if you get scored on its not my guy who scored -- no, its on Ohio State. Its on us.UCLA has six players scoring in double figures per game while Ohio State has five, but the Bruins played without junior center Thomas Welsh (11.1 points and 9.6 rebounds) the last two games. He is nursing a sore right knee.Starting forward JaeSean Tate leads the Buckeyes with 13.9 points a game while also averaging 7.3 rebounds. Reserve 7-foot center Trevor Thompson tops Ohio State with 8.6 rebounds a game, and he is shooting 66.7 percent from the field, most of that following offensive rebounds.
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http://www.cubsauthentic.com/cubs-ron-santo-jersey/ . Speaking Thursday on TSN 1050 Thursday, the Leafs GM also touched on the questions surrounding the teams leadership and the struggles of his big-name free-agent signing. “Its not from lack of effort from the coaching staff.
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Kosuke Fukudome Jersey . -- The boos poured down on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots at the end of a horrible first half. HARTFORD, Conn. -- A former Wesleyan University football player has been sentenced to six months of home confinement on federal charges that he supplied recreational hallucinogenic drugs to his teammates.Ryan Welch, of Salem, Massachusetts, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Bridgeport. He must also serve three years of probation and perform 200 hours of community service.The 22-year-old Welch pleaded guilty in March to possession with intent to distribute and distribution of a controlled substance.Welch played defensive back for Wesleyan, a Division III program.He was going into his junior season a year ago when he began dealing a hallucinogenic concoction that became known as Welchies Special, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. It included the psychedelic drugs known as 2C-B and 2C-E, which authorities say he acquired over the internet.He first provided the drug in a liquid form, which was often mixed into a sports drink. He later sold the drug in powders and capsules, according to court documents.Prosecutors said he provided the drug to about 20 freshmen, sophomores and juniors on both the offense and the defense. The first dose was free and players paid $10 for subsequent doses, prosecutors said.Some of these ddistributions occurred off-campus, when the football team traveled to away games, and other of these distributions occurred on campus, including in the locker room used by the football team, according to the prosecutors pre-sentencing report.ddddddddddddNone of the coaches knew about Welchs operation, according to prosecutors.Welchs lawyers said he did not sell the drugs to make a profit, but wrote in their pre-sentencing report that he naively (with knowledge that they were illegal) obtained the substances to use for himself and share with his friends.The federal investigation began last October, when emergency crews treated a tennis player inside a dormitory who went into convulsions and had to be hospitalized after taking the drugs.Welch could have faced up to a year in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office, which had recommended a year of home confinement.The school confirmed Tuesday that Welch has been expelled. But spokesman Bill Holder declined to say whether players who purchased the drugs face any discipline from Wesleyan or the football program. ' ' '
Ohio State coach Thad Matta hopes the Buckeyes tough defense can keep up with UCLAs high-scoring offense Saturday in the CBS Sports Classic at Las Vegas.If Mattas transition defense can rise to the challenge, the Buckeyes could have a chance to subdue UCLAs offensive flow led by future NBA point guard Lonzo Ball.That could be a case of easier said than done, however, against the Bruins, who ranked No. 2 nationally in scoring at 97.9 points a game after beating UC Santa Barbara 102-62 Wednesday at Pauley Pavilion.No. 2 UCLA improved to 11-0, its best start since a 14-0 beginning of the 2006-07 season. Ohio State (8-2) is unranked. The game at the T-Mobile Arena (3 p.m. ET, CBS) is part of a doubleheader with the second game featuring No. 6 Kentucky and No. 7 North Carolina.They are playing at such a fast pace and just a very high skill level, Matta said of UCLA. (They have) a lot of guys who can make shots. They do a good job of getting the ball down the floor.Thats one thing that will be very, very important from the start -- getting back on defense. Getting our defense set will be a huge priority for us.The Buckeyes have established themselves as one of the nations top defenses through the first 10 games, allowing only one opponent to score more than 70 points -- a 79-77 overtime loss at home against Florida Atlantic on Dec. 6.UCLA is unlike any of Ohio States opponents to this point when it comes to scoring. The closest the Buckeyes faced is Marshall, which averages 86.6 points a game.Ohio State can gain confidence from that game heading into the matchup against the Bruins. The Buckeyes beat Marshall 111-70 in Columbus, Ohio, on Nov. 25. Matta said the Buckeyes will play at a faster pace similar to that game but wont try to match UCLA step for step.The Bruins showed their firepower against UC Santa Barbara with their fifth game of 100 points or more. Freshman standouts TJ Leaf and Ball each recorded a fifth double-double of the season, and reserve sophomore guard Aaron Holiday -- who started 34 games last year but now backs up Ball -- tallied his first career 20-point game.Leaf had 25 points, including 17 in the first half. He and Ball each had 10 rebounds. Leaf nearly finished with a triple-double, adding a season-high eight assists. Ball wound up with 13 points, seven assists and a season-high 10 rebounds.Its a lot of fun watching this team play and coaching this team, UCLA coach Steve Alford said after noting that the Bruins had 27 assists and only eight turnovers against the Gauchos. We move on now. We have a major test with our third Big Ten team coming up on Saturday.The Bruins defeated Nebraska 82-71 and Michigan 102-84. They also have a 74-67 win over Texas A&M, showing they can survive a challenge in a lower-scoring game. Their best achievement was a 97-92 triumph at then-No. 1 Kentucky on Dec. 3.Ball is drawing comparisons to Jason Kidd while averaging 14.8 points, 8.6 assists and 5.6 rebounds per game. He is a better perimeter shooter than Kidd, making 45.8 percent of his 3-point attempts. UCLA is shooting 45.3 percent from beyond the arc.Balls making great decisions, Matta said. He has a tremendous future ahead of him. Theres no question about that.Ohio State ranks No. 20 nationally allowing only 61.7 points a game, almost 36 points fewer than the Bruins scoring average. Greg Paulus, the former Duke standout who is Mattas defensive assistant, has told the Buckeyes it will require a team effort with defense away from the ball to challenge UCLA.It boils down to having an understanding that its five guys guarding the basketball, Paulus told the Columbus Dispatch. Its not just one-on-one, if you get scored on its not my guy who scored -- no, its on Ohio State. Its on us.UCLA has six players scoring in double figures per game while Ohio State has five, but the Bruins played without junior center Thomas Welsh (11.1 points and 9.6 rebounds) the last two games. He is nursing a sore right knee.Starting forward JaeSean Tate leads the Buckeyes with 13.9 points a game while also averaging 7.3 rebounds. Reserve 7-foot center Trevor Thompson tops Ohio State with 8.6 rebounds a game, and he is shooting 66.7 percent from the field, most of that following offensive rebounds. Kerry Wood Jersey . He said Tuesday thats a big reason why he is now the new coach of the Tennessee Titans. Whisenhunt said he hit it off quickly with Ruston Webster when interviewing for the job Friday night. David Ross Cubs Jersey . The catch: It needs a lot of money, and it needs it fast. http://www.cubsauthentic.com/cubs-ron-santo-jersey/ . Speaking Thursday on TSN 1050 Thursday, the Leafs GM also touched on the questions surrounding the teams leadership and the struggles of his big-name free-agent signing. “Its not from lack of effort from the coaching staff. Jon Lester Jersey .Y. -- Syracuse has turned up the defence at the right time all season, and when High Point threatened to pull off a monumental upset the second-ranked Orange did what they do best with their quick hands and savvy play. Kosuke Fukudome Jersey . -- The boos poured down on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots at the end of a horrible first half. HARTFORD, Conn. -- A former Wesleyan University football player has been sentenced to six months of home confinement on federal charges that he supplied recreational hallucinogenic drugs to his teammates.Ryan Welch, of Salem, Massachusetts, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Bridgeport. He must also serve three years of probation and perform 200 hours of community service.The 22-year-old Welch pleaded guilty in March to possession with intent to distribute and distribution of a controlled substance.Welch played defensive back for Wesleyan, a Division III program.He was going into his junior season a year ago when he began dealing a hallucinogenic concoction that became known as Welchies Special, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. It included the psychedelic drugs known as 2C-B and 2C-E, which authorities say he acquired over the internet.He first provided the drug in a liquid form, which was often mixed into a sports drink. He later sold the drug in powders and capsules, according to court documents.Prosecutors said he provided the drug to about 20 freshmen, sophomores and juniors on both the offense and the defense. The first dose was free and players paid $10 for subsequent doses, prosecutors said.Some of these ddistributions occurred off-campus, when the football team traveled to away games, and other of these distributions occurred on campus, including in the locker room used by the football team, according to the prosecutors pre-sentencing report.ddddddddddddNone of the coaches knew about Welchs operation, according to prosecutors.Welchs lawyers said he did not sell the drugs to make a profit, but wrote in their pre-sentencing report that he naively (with knowledge that they were illegal) obtained the substances to use for himself and share with his friends.The federal investigation began last October, when emergency crews treated a tennis player inside a dormitory who went into convulsions and had to be hospitalized after taking the drugs.Welch could have faced up to a year in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office, which had recommended a year of home confinement.The school confirmed Tuesday that Welch has been expelled. But spokesman Bill Holder declined to say whether players who purchased the drugs face any discipline from Wesleyan or the football program. ' ' '