Hopes High as Ohio State Returns 3 Stars at BetLM

Hopes High as Ohio State Returns 3 Stars

COLUMBUS, Ohio —In an oth­er­wise dreary 11 months at Ohio State filled with NCAA prob­lems, a bit of sal­va­tion could be just around the corner.

The men’s bas­ket­ball team of coach Thad Matta is com­ing off a ster­ling 34–3 record and has three stars back. The Buck­eyes held their media day on Thurs­day and—unlike their foot­ball brethren who are 3–3 and down in the dumps—were jok­ing about the lofty expec­ta­tions sur­round­ing the team.

“It’s a moti­va­tional thing when a fan comes up to you and says, ‘You have to win this year’,” star for­ward Jared Sullinger said. “It’s like all the spot­lights are on us for the first time. It’s like, whoa. Let me step back, it’s a shocker.”

Bas­ket­ball play­ers have long been second-tier celebri­ties on cam­pus while any foot­ball player—starting quar­ter­back or long-snapper—is adored wher­ever they go.

But in a year when foot­ball play­ers have con­tin­u­ally got­ten in trou­ble with either the NCAA or the law, the dar­lings of Ohio State fans are sud­denly the guys who play inside at Value City Arena.

“Oh, yeah, the expec­ta­tions are high,” for­ward Deshaun Thomas said. “We can be really, really great. This team we’ve got right here, it can be an NCAA cham­pion. This team can accom­plish more than even what every­body thinks.”

That’s hard to fathom. Last year’s team won its first 24 games to climb to undis­puted No. 1 and con­jure up thoughts of Indiana’s unbeaten sea­son in 1976. The Buck­eyes lost two road games at NCAA-bound teams, Wis­con­sin and Pur­due, while clinch­ing first the Big Ten’s regular-season and then tour­na­ment titles. They coasted through the first two rounds of the NCAA tour­na­ment, win­ning by an aver­age of 31 points, before run­ning into a red-hot Ken­tucky team that hung a sting­ing 62–60 loss on the Buckeyes.

Gone from that team are three main­stays: record-setting 3-point shooter Jon Diebler, ver­sa­tile defender David Lighty and shot-blocker extra­or­di­naire Dal­las Lauderdale.

This year’s ver­sion of the Buck­eyes includes only one senior (four-year start­ing shoot­ing guard William Buford) and just a sin­gle junior schol­ar­ship player (Boston Col­lege trans­fer Evan Ravenel). Every­body else is either in their first or sec­ond year in the program.

But, oh, how good those young­sters are. Sullinger was an All-American a year ago as a cal­low fresh­man. In the off­sea­son, he pared 25 pounds off his frame and added a lot of mus­cle. Now he says he has more sta­mina, is more mobile and retains his same brutish play around the boards and the paint.

Join­ing him in the front­court are some intrigu­ing possibilities.

Thomas is 6-foot-7 but never saw a jumper he wouldn’t take. He grew into a depend­able offense-energizer in the stretch run and says he’s improved his defense this year so he can step into the start­ing lineup.

Fresh­men Amir Williams (6–11), Sam Thomp­son (6–7) and Trey McDon­ald (6–8) could offer instant help inside, along with Ravenel (6–8) and J.D. Weath­er­spoon (6–6), a high-school team­mate of Sullinger’s at Colum­bus’ North­land High School under Jared’s dad, Satch Sullinger.

After a year wow­ing peo­ple as the Buck­eyes’ first player off the bench, Aaron Craft takes over on the point where he could be paired with Geor­gia high school phe­nom Shan­non Scott—the son of for­mer NBA and North Car­olina Tar Heels star Char­lie Scott.

Jor­dan Sib­ert and Lenzelle Smith Jr. will likely see plenty of action off the bench.

Matta rec­og­nizes that Ohio State’s fans have a lot invested in his team.

“The one thing I’ve learned in eight years at Ohio State is these peo­ple have great pas­sion for this uni­ver­sity,” he said. “They want this uni­ver­sity to do well. There’s been a cou­ple of bumps along the way. But our mind­set doesn’t change from the stand­point of, we’re always going to try to put the best prod­uct out on the floor that we pos­si­bly can. And try to attempt to do the things that we’re sup­posed to to make the uni­ver­sity proud.”

The Buck­eyes open prac­tice at 5 p.m. on Fri­day. Their first game is Nov. 11 against Wright State. They have two titanic early-season bat­tles com­ing up against Duke and Kansas before begin­ning con­fer­ence play.

Ticket sales have been brisk. A lot of peo­ple are talk­ing about the Buckeyes.

But Sullinger knows that, still, bas­ket­ball prob­a­bly remains No. 2 to King Football.

“The foot­ball team is spe­cial. Regard­less, we came to a foot­ball school,” Sullinger said. “With (Buck­eyes fans) com­ing to us and say­ing they’re look­ing at us as their sav­ior, it means a lot to us.”

Fol­low Rusty Miller on Twit­ter: http://www.twitter.com/rustymillerap.

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