Buckeyes Fall To No. 11 This Week

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Buckeyes fell from No. 8 to No. 11 this week. USC picked up a first-place vote, but remained at No. 3 behind Florida and Texas.

Two interesting points to be made about the latest rankings: Ohio State's three-spot fall must indicate that some voters were somewhat impressed with the effort. After all, Oklahoma State plummeted 11 spots from No. 5 with its loss to Houston. A year ago, the Buckeyes dropped eight spots to No. 13 after that 35-3 lashing at the hands of USC.

Also, the Buckeyes are the highest ranked among the one-loss teams, ahead of No. 12 Oklahoma, No. 13 Virginia Tech, No. 16 Oklahoma State and No. 23 Georgia.

Note: Michigan, 3-9 a year ago, returned to the Top 25 at No. 25 after its win over Notre Dame.

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STATS TO LIVE BY: The only previous time a Jim Tressel-coached Ohio State team has lost by at least 25 points and then had a rematch with that opponent the next season, it won. The Buckeyes lost to Iowa 33-7 in 2004, then came back the next year to beat the Hawkeyes, 31-6. Ohio State is 10-3-1 since 1951 in those return games after losing by such a big margin the year before.

In the last four-plus seasons, dating to the fall of 2005, the Buckeyes are 2-8 against teams that made it to a Bowl Championship Series game that season. Against everyone else, they're 42-1. (The lone loss to a non-BCS bowl team came against Texas in 2005.

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MEDIA INTEREST: Ohio State's sports information department distributed about 1,000 working media credentials for the USC game. Team spokeswoman Shelly Poe said it was the biggest media turnout for a game at Ohio Stadium in her three years on the job. Every one of the 300 or so seats in the press box were occupied, and there were others standing behind the working media.

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REDD, SCARLET AND GRAY: Milwaukee Bucks shooting guard Michael Redd, who is one of Ohio State's leading career scorers, had a confession to make.

During his three years at Ohio State, he only went to two games at Ohio Stadium.

"Including my recruiting visit," he said with a laugh.

Since then, however, he's become a big booster. Before Saturday's showdown with USC, he said he goes to a couple of games a year. Over the 20 he's attended since moving on to the NBA, he said the Buckeyes have won every one except the Texas game in 2005.

Well, up until Saturday night that was the only one.

Redd, who has two years left on his contract with the Bucks, is recovering from surgery after tearing the ACL in his left knee last season. He said his recovery is on schedule.

He was averaging a team-high 21.2 points when he was hurt after he fell on teammate Luke Ridnour in a 106-104 win against Sacramento on Jan. 24.

Redd is donating $500,000 to Ohio State's new basketball practice facility at the Schottenstein Center. He played his last two seasons at Ohio State (he turned pro after his junior year) at Value City Arena, leading the Big Ten in scoring as a freshman.

He said he had already had a good day on Saturday, even before meeting family and friends at the stadium.

"I beat (Scoonie Penn) and Mike Conley in golf out at New Albany," he said with a grin. "They've been challenging me. Jimmy (Jackson) was supposed to play but he backed out. We played for pride. There was a lot of trash-talking though."

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