BUCKEYES 101

Is Thad Matta’s Ohio State basketball program rebuilding or reloading after unexpectedly losing more players than the graduating William Buford?

Losing sophomore forward Jared Sullinger to the NBA, as well as two other sophomores; guard Jordan Sibert and forward J.D. Weatherspoon to transfers what is actually left for Thad’s team?

Well let’s just take a quick peak into the not so distant future, as the crystal ball rolls across the table it reveals that the Buckeyes have not one but two solid point guards returning, a potential national player of the year candidate coming back, and a whole slew of second year players looking to make more of an impact.

If wing man Deshaun Thomas is able to make himself more explosive and work on defending the ball in the off season, there is a very good possibility that with his scoring ability he can challenge just as Evan Turner did for the national player of the year honors.

The best on ball defender in the entire country and at times the basketball buckeyes emotional leader Aaron Craft is also bringing his academic All-American accolades back to Columbus for another go round with Matta and the guys.

The Buckeyes will again for the second straight year boast a single senior, in the upcoming season taking over the spot previously held by William Buford will be Boston College transfer Evan Ravenel. Ravenel who seemed to get more comfortable towards the end of last season will be looked upon again for support from the younger players.

As for the second year guys, all five of them are back and are looking to expand on a rather bright freshman year. Guys like LaQuinton Ross and Trey McDonald will prove more useful than there play suggested last season, as neither really got a lot of minutes.

There’s no question that the ever expanding roles of guards Sam Thompson and Shannon Scott will continue to grow into year two, as long as the learning curve doesn’t get to far ahead of them they will have a lot of success in the upcoming season.

With Jared Sullinger leaving early for the NBA that leaves a big hole in the middle for the Buckeyes, how or from where will they fill it? Look no further than the Buckeyes reserve players from last season, sophomore big man Amir Williams is ready to be the dominant force in the middle that Thad Matta recruited him to be. Amir is poised to take over a spot in the starting five.

We all know that Matta likes to keep his rotation very tight, so there is an eight man rotation right there, and if that isn’t enough, Matta went out and got one of the better pure shooters in the country from Findlay Prep in Vegas, Amedeo Della Valle, who will prove to be a very capable Jon Diebler Jr.

Della Valle has the ability to knock down the long range shot but prides himself on his passing abilities; he averaged over three assists a game last season.

As of right now, that’s nine players, eight of which that have at least a year under there belts in Thad Matta’s system. I don’t think it’s much of a question; sounds like Matta will be reloaded for this upcoming season. 

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@The_JDam

Tags: Buckeyes, NCAA, Ohio State

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