I know most of the talk about the Ohio State sports world is the youth movement that we saw on Saturday to go along with some key veterans that really stepped up to kick off the 2011 football season. But, we definitely didn’t want to forget our excellent Basketball team and what they’ve been up to over the summer! We will be filling you in with a weekly basketball article or more leading up to tip off. Look for a couple player previews, position previews, schedule preview, practices reports, and anything else that we find to report on in the next several weeks.
The schedule should be finalized in the next couple of weeks, but 4 big games headline the non-conference schedule. Florida, Duke, @Kansas, and @South Carolina. It should be an exciting run before we get the big ten season.
The team is currently on a break until Sept 12 when they can start limited workouts with the coaches. I was able to attend one open gym, but it was before any of the frosh were there. Word is starting to swirl around about this team and how once again if the veterans mesh with the incoming freshmen, we could be very special.
Lets start with Will Buford. I can only imagine how the Kentucky game still haunts him. It has really fueled him this off-season to work hard and he never even put his name in for the NBA draft because it bothered him so much. Look for a much stronger and more dynamic Will this year. I see multiple 20 point games in his senior season.
POY candiate Jared Sullinger has dropped about 20 lbs in the off-season. He has also transformed his body and should play this upcoming season around the 270 mark. This will allow him to be in better shape, get off the floor quicker and easier, and allow him to really go at the other team just a little bit harder than in his frosh season. All I have to say for our opponents is watch out!
I look for Aaron Craft to really step up as the vocal leader of this team. What I witnessed in open gym was him leading the troops. He made sure they were all playing hard and getting the most out of their time in the gym and wouldn’t let them quit when they all thought they should be done. As for his on the court skills I see his jumper improving from last season and his ability to take the ball and penetrate more than last year. We all know the type of defense that he can provide, and it will be on full display again this year.
After the season, it became clear that Jordan Sibert and Deshaun Thomas needed to improve on their defense. Both needed to get stronger, and then continue to improve upon their long range and off-the-dribble games. I think we will see improvement in all of those areas from these two. It should be interesting to see if Thomas continues to see time at the 4 only and if Sibert has the ability to flip-flop between the 2-3. There is starting to be a little big of a log jam at the wing position. We shall see how it plays out over the next couple months.
Of the incoming frosh the two names I have heard the most are Shannon Scott and LaQuinton Ross. Scott is a pass first PG, which is much like Aaron Craft in that respect, so we shall see how the two mesh together. He will need to make sure that his defensive game is where it needs to be as we have seen with Matta; he will not throw guys out there until they prove that they can play on both ends of the court.
Matta mentioned a couple weeks ago that the players are telling him how well Ross has looked in open gyms. He also said that it was open gym and he knows they are not playing the type of defense that they will need to play to win games, and that is what is going to get Ross playing time. The downside to that positive comment is the fact that Ross’ eligibility is in limbo status. What I have been told is his transcript originally came into Ohio State with two C’s on it. But after investigation they were deemed to be D’s and not C’s. There was also a change of grading scale from school to school from a 74-82 = C t0 70-79 = C. So at this point tOSU has filed an appeal and is in a wait and see period.
Of course that is not the whole team, but we haven’t forgotten about guys like Smith, Ravenel, Williams, and the rest of the team, but we will get to them in the upcoming weeks.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
