Seth's 50 Centers

A Facebook status I made got me thinking about my favorite Ohio State basketball players. I decided to make a list, so here it is:

1. Evan Turner
Turner is hands down my favorite OSU hoops player. The CPA will tell you, I wanted to name my kid after him…really. I liked him as a freshman, which is an important part of this discussion, because he wasn’t nearly the player as a freshman that he was as a junior, so I felt like I was in on the ground floor with him. The player he became his junior year, overcoming some turnover issues from his sophomore season, and handling the ball fulltime, was impressive. That’s especially true when you consider the guy broke his back in December, and came back as good, or better, than ever just a few weeks later.

2. Jimmy Jackson
Turner passed Jackson for a few reasons, but the Jackson era culminated perfectly with me coming of age as a sports fan. The Reds had won a World Series and the Bengals had been to a Super Bowl, but I was invested in the teams Jackson was on his sophomore and junior seasons. There was nothing cooler than that guy those two years if you were a Buckeye fan.

3. Scoonie Penn
He was only on the floor at OSU for two seasons, but he had as much to do as anyone with the Buckeyes coming back from the dead. Following Jackson’s career, the squad took a huge dip, losing year after year. The year Penn transferred, and sat out, was my freshman year at Ohio State. I had student tickets for the last year at St. John Arena, and it wasn’t pretty. I remember telling my roommate Randy we couldn’t leave, despite being behind the Mateen Cleaves-led Spartans by 30 points, but who was I kidding? It was an awful 8-22 effort, if memory serves correctly, and it does. How could I forget? Penn came in and catapulted virtually the same group of players to a 27-win season, and a magical ride to the Final Four (It really happened, despite what the banners, or lack thereof, in the Schottenstein tell you). At the time, Penn’s ability to handle the ball, shoot the three and distribute were something that program hadn’t seen in a long time.

4. Jay Burson
If Jackson was the first player that grabbed my consciousness, Burson was the player who made me aware that Ohio State basketball existed. I wore No. 12, quite by accident, my first year of organized basketball, and quickly related to the short kid with the floppy socks playing against the giants of the Big Ten. I liked him even before my dad informed me he played his high school ball at John Glenn, which was in my eventual high school’s league, and not far from my hometown. The more I found out about him, the more I liked. This guy was the all-time leading scorer in Ohio high school history, before there was a three-point line! Do you know how many points he would’ve been credited with had he had that? He made nine in one game while at Ohio State, by the way! His neck injury late in his senior year crushed me, although it was a thrill to see him in person when my dad took me to my first game – an NIT contest at OSU – although he was relegated to sitting on a swivel chair courtside because he couldn’t turn his head.

5. Aaron Craft
This guy is so good, he prompted me to create this list. Seriously, though, Craft earned my respect the first time I saw him play. Here’s a guy who was barely recruited by Thad Matta, but quickly dove into the fray, even as a sixth man, and made his presence known. He’s the guy who most reminds me of No. 10 on this list, Chris Jent, in terms of diving on the floor after everything, but he has more control over the game because he’s the point guard. He’s relentless out there. I know Brandon Knight hit the game-winning shot for Kentucky with Craft guarding him in the Sweet 16 last year, but the more telling thing was the fact that A) that game was so low-scoring because Craft checked Knight, and B) the Wildcats stopped having their point guard bring the ball up the floor early in the first half because Craft was harassing him so much. This was a first-round draft pick at point guard, and he couldn’t be trusted to handle the ball against Craft! Craft’s ability to get to the rim against much bigger players, distribute the ball and (most importantly) guard the opposing team’s best guard-forward, make him a favorite only partway into his sophomore season.

6. Brian Brown
This one’s as much on a personal level as it is anything else. No, Brown didn’t have an NBA career, and he wasn’t always the best player on his own team, but he was a key cog to the Final Four run in ’99, being given the starting nod at the beginning of the tournament for the first time. He was also a guy I got to know a bit off the court in my role with student radio and as an intern at a radio station in town. He was the only guy at that level I ever interviewed who always got the last word as we closed out the conversation, with a “Thanks, Seth.” Brown’s ability to start as a role player, and continue to get better, eventually being a team leader and decent scorer, made me like him even more. His path at OSU resembled one of my honorable mention guys, Brent Darby, who passed away this week. Both guys filled in when needed as freshmen and eventually were the main men as seniors, something we don’t see much of these days with so many players leaving early for the NBA. Again, neither of them were NBA-type players, but they both gave fans reason to adore them.

7. Michael Redd
I’m kind of surprised I don’t have Redd higher on this list, but the fact Brown is just above him says a lot about things. If this were a list of the best NBA-bound players I saw play at Ohio State, Redd would be higher, and let’s face it, there’d be some other guys on the list who aren’t even honorable mentions. And I don’t hold it against Redd, Turner or Jackson for leaving school early, I really don’t, but it factors into my enjoyment of watching them play at some point. Dennis Hopson is the all-time leading scorer in OSU history, but all three of those early entry guys would’ve shattered that mark had they stayed another year. Anyway, I loved Redd as a one-man show on a dreadful team – he led the Big Ten in scoring as a freshman at over 20 a game – and while I would’ve considered him more Robin to Penn’s Batman on that Final Four team, he was the scorer any great team needs. He turned into a decent pro, making an all star team and being the sharp-shooter on the 2008 Olympic team that brought home the gold medal, but he wasn’t that great a shooter at OSU, and I’ve often wondered if he had some knee issues that flared up between his sophomore and junior seasons. He was so good with a spin move at the free-throw line as a sophomore, and you rarely saw him attempt it the next year. I’ll always have fond memories of him on that Final Four team, even talking to him about the new Air Jordans after the loss to UCONN in St. Petersburg.

8. David Lighty
Here’s a guy who’s on this list as an ultimate glue guy. He came into the program with the famed “Thad Five” recruiting class, and was probably the least talented of the incoming freshmen – Othello Hunter was a junior college transfer – yet he found his way on the floor on the deepest team Matta has fielded, largely because he eschewed his need to score, which he did plenty of in high school, to become a lockdown defender. The year after the ’06-07 championship game team largely split up due to graduating seniors and one-and-done players, Lighty’s broken foot derailed what I believe would’ve been a decent NCAA run. As it was, that team won the NIT with Turner, Kosta Koufas and Jamar Butler, but Lighty ws the “glue” that would’ve helped put them over the top. At the time of his injury, Lighty was guarding opposing post players in the zone defense, despite his ability to check anyone on the wing. His loss forced Turner inside, taking away a huge advantage in the passing lanes because of Turner’s long arms. Lighty went on to get a fifth year of eligibility and was a key part of the 34-win team last year. Unselfishness would be an apt word to describe Lighty, but he was also a great locker room guy because of his ability to flash his effervescent smile at any time.

9. Greg Oden
Oh, we only knew you for such a short time, Greg Oden. His injuries at the pro level have kept NBA fans from seeing what OSU had that lone season. It was actually less than a year because he entered the campaign with a broken wrist, and came back only able to shoot free throws left-handed, which he trained himself to do rather well. Oden wasn’t a skilled offensive player that Jared Sullinger is in the post, but brute strength and extraordinary length can cover up a lot. He was most impressive on the defensive end, especially on the boards. Matta-led teams often fail to rebound the basketball because he always has players getting back on defense, and because for a few years he had to rely on the zone so much, but Oden was a cure-all for that. His performances in the ’07 tournament were a glimpse of what we could’ve seen had he been healthier to start the season, especially the way he competed against a huge front line against Florida in the title game. Had OSU’s sharp shooters knocked down even a low percentage of their shots, Oden’s offensive output of 25 points against Al Horford and Joakim Noah would’ve been viewed as one of the great efforts of all time.

10. Chris Jent
I tried to play like this guy as a middle schooler. I doubt it was always smart for me to dive into the stands at my old grade school – I probably didn’t even have a chance to get to some of those balls – but I wanted to emulate what Jent did on the floor. He was a scrappy player out there and was a big key to the teams that grabbed league titles and the ’92 team that broke my heart by losing to Michigan in the Elite Eight. He was so scrappy, that I was actually surprised, as I grew older, to learn what a highly rated recruit he was. I didn’t know scrappy and skilled could go hand-in-hand.

Honorable mention: Jared Sullinger (can still move up), Lawrence Funderburke, Terrance Dials, Brent Darby, Ken Johnson, Mike Conley, Jamar Butler, Mark Baker, Jamie Skelton, Perry Carter, Treg Lee, Derek Anderson (yes, he played for OSU), William Buford

NFL Picks

Well, we don’t handle success too well, do we? I didn’t, anyway. Atop the standings one week, bottom of the pack the next.

Congrats to tgm for jumping into the fray with a 12-win performance.

There were some surprises out there, but tgm navigated the schedule well.

Results

tgm 12 + 1 = 13
Jack Ten 11
Adman 11
Grandpa 11
Pat B. 11
JMB 10
Fulch 10
The CPA 10
Crazed Wolverine 10
Jeremiah 10
Nora Peanut 10
The Trashman 9
Amy 9
Chjm70 9
Seth 8
Jessica 8
Mary the Nurse 8
GatorBuckeye 7
tgd 7
Lucy Cashew 6

Overall Standings

1. Amy 134****
2. JMB 131**
3. The Trashman 128
3. Seth 127*
5. The CPA 126*
5. Adman 126
5. Pat B. 126*
8. Fulch 123
9. Chjm70 122
10. Crazed Wolverine 120
11. Jeremiah 119
11. Grandpa 119
13. Jessica 117
13. tgm 117*
13. tgd 117
16. GatorBuckeye 115
16. Jack Ten 115
18. Mary the Nurse 111**
19. Nora Peanut 96
20. Lucy Cashew 96

NFL Week Fourteen

Cleveland (4-8) at Pittsburgh (9-3) THURSDAY
Houston (9-3) at Cincinnati (7-5)
Minnesota (2-10) at Detroit (7-5)
New Orleans (9-3) at Tennessee (7-5)
Philadelphia (4-8) at Miami (4-8)
Kansas City (5-7) at NY Jets (7-5)
New England (9-3) at Washington (4-8)
Atlanta (7-5) at Carolina (4-8)
Tampa Bay (4-8) at Jacksonville (3-9)
Indianapolis (0-12) at Baltimore (9-3)
Chicago (7-5) at Denver (7-5)
San Francisco (10-2) at Arizona (5-7)
Oakland (7-5) at Green Bay (12-0)
Buffalo (5-7) at San Diego (5-7)
NY Giants (6-6) at Dallas (7-5)
St. Louis (2-10) at Seattle (5-7) Pts. _____

Make your picks by using the “Comments” section.