Hometown: Tampa, FL
High School: Brandon HS
Position: Forward (4/5)
Year: Junior
Height: 6-8
Weight: 260
High School Awards:
– Tampa Tribute All-Hillsborough County second-team honors (2008).
– Tampa All-City honors (2008).
– Class 5A All-State honorable mention from the Florida Sports Writers Association (2008).
Evan Ravenel transfered to Ohio State from Boston College where he played his first two seasons in the ACC under head coach Al Skinner. His transfer was influenced when Boston College fired Skinner after 13 seasons. Not wanting to stick around for Steve Donahue’s new regime, Ravenel went looking for a new place to call home. While the Buckeyes had never directly recruited Evan out of High School, OSU assistant Dave Dickerson did recruit him while Dickerson was the head coach at Tulane. Matta happily gave Ravenel a scholarship offer, and Ravenel joined the Buckeyes before the 2010-2011 season.
Given the NCAA transfer rules Ravenel was required to sit out his first season here at Ohio State. That does not prevent the transfer from working with the team in practices, though, and Ravenel clearly made use of that this last season. He seems to have already bonded with his new teamates in a big way, and it should make an obvious difference this year.
Career Stats:
Stats from Buckeyes Beat, as usual.
| Season | GP | MPG | PPG | FG% | 3FG% | FT% | APG | RPG | BPG | SPG |
| 2009-10 (BC) | 25 | 10.5 | 3.3 | 49.2 | 0.0 | 71.4 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 |
| 2008-09 (BC) | 14 | 10.3 | 2.0 | 32.1 | 0.0 | 58.8 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 0.1 |
Strengths:
Ravenel is an excellent area rebounder, having averaged 2.4 rebounds per game during his sophomore season at Boston College. He saw limited time, only 10.5 minutes per game, suggesting that he was very nearly averaging double digit rebounding over the course of 40 minutes of play. This is certainly solid rebounding numbers which will have certainly improved over the last year and a half.
In an interview with Buckeye Planet, he expressed a couple more of his skills,
I believe some of my strengths are being a team player, a good passer out of the post position, getting to the basket from different spots on the floor and ball handling. Buckeye fans can look forward to a person that exemplifies high moral character and one who will compete extremely hard both on and off the court. I am a person who will do whatever it takes within the game to win…a player who can provide offense and defensive stops when called upon to perform.
He sounds a lot like Matta’s favorite type of front court player.
Weaknesses:
Ravenel has never been a big scorer, hitting only about 3 points per game his sophomore season. He will want to improve his floor presence in a big way in order to be the kind of player the Buckeyes will need him to be. He will also need to improve his play while facing the basket, and work on some of his mid-range shooting. If these things are addressed, he could be a force down low for the Bucks during the grueling Big Ten stretch.
Role for the team:
Evan Ravenel is naturally a Power Forward, but may well play a different role this season. With the possibility of Jared Sullinger moving to the 4, someone will need to start at the 5. If Amir Williams is not yet ready to play substantial minutes someone else will have to step in and do the job. Ravenel may very well be asked to perform that role this season, particularly with his experience in the program and the chemistry he’s already developed with the others.
He may also play backup to Sullinger at the 4. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but if that’s the case, we may see a larger player rotation this season than we’ve seen from Matta in the past. Obviously that’s in doubt, considering every season that we expect a deeper rotation, we continue with 7 men more or less. However, with the depth of talent on the bench, Matta might finally be able to feel comfortable enough in the early season to play a few more players than normal.
Ravenel is a player who could be ready for a breakout season for himself, and it will be a treat to get to watch him do it in the Scarlet and Gray.
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