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Posted: Friday October 25, 2002 1:55 PM Updated: Thursday October 31, 2002 4:13 PM Ohio State Buckeyes
The following preview is provided by Blue Ribbon. For the most thorough preview available of the upcoming season, order the 2002-03 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, on sale now at 1-800-775-2518. Team Preview | Blue Ribbon Analysis
Jim O'Brien is old school, and because he takes that attitude with him on the recruiting trail, Ohio State fans don't have to worry about a big drop-off after the Buckeyes’ Big Ten championship season. O'Brien preaches the team over the individual; he fills his roster with hard-working, blue-collar guys who take charges, play defense and go to class every day. And his results speak for themselves -- four straight 20-win seasons and the first time in 40 years that the Buckeyes have been to four straight NCAA tournaments. Last year's team was vintage O'Brien, doing all the little things that elite teams do. The Buckeyes outshot their opponents .485 to .438, got to the line almost 200 more times (795-609), won the rebounding battle by about three boards per night, had 81 more assists and 59 fewer turnovers than their foes, and had no players who averaged more than 16.3 points per game. But statistics are more concrete than the intangible that O'Brien thinks was key to the Buckeyes' championship season. "The single biggest ingredient was the fact that we had terrific chemistry," O'Brien said. "We've been really fortunate that we've had good guys who are team-oriented. They had good unity and played well together. There were no real stars, just a collection of tough kids who were better as a team than individually."
Although he claims to have been fortunate to witness this development, O'Brien knows that he actually fosters that environment and makes chemistry possible in his basketball laboratory. "When we recruit, we try to stay away from guys we don't think are going to fit in. We're constantly preaching to guys about the value of what you can accomplish together as opposed to individually," O'Brien said. "It's a constant struggle. In today's day and age, there's an element of people so into the individual. They've got friends and family encouraging guys to 'get theirs' -- the pot of gold, the money, the potential NBA riches. On the other side, they've got coaches preaching 'team.'" As a result, O'Brien says, he and his fellow college coaches have to decide if recruiting that kind of talented, but distracted, player is worth it. "We all are faced with a little bit of a dilemma," he said. "I really struggle with this mentality of the 'hired gun,' when you recruit a kid with the potential of getting him for only one year. I really struggle with this whole scenario, where there's no concept of school or getting a degree." Not that O'Brien is totally immune to the other side of the argument. "[Former Buckeye] Michael Redd left here after his junior year," O'Brien said. "But when he got here, nobody knew who he was, he developed into a player, he was on course to graduate, and then this opportunity developed -- that's a different story." But in general, while other teams face the annual turnover of nearly half their rosters, or are giving playing time to kids who won't be part of the program for more than a few months, O'Brien's teams are built on continuity and the players’ familiarity with each other. He has a pretty good idea of what he's going to get from a player by the time that player is getting significant minutes. Last year, O'Brien's philosophy led to an amazing season that took most experts by surprise -- an 11-5 conference record and a Big Ten Tournament championship. "We'd lost Ken Johnson going into last year, the defensive player of the year who left Ohio State as the Big Ten's all-time leading shot blocker," O'Brien said. "We got spoiled, got accustomed to having a big guy behind us to block shots. "The consensus was that we'd finish about sixth or seventh, but we had a lot of experienced guys who had played in the NCAAs and we thought we had a chance to be better. On Big Ten media day there was no discussion of Ohio State, and our guys took notice of that. Once the season started we were playing pretty well and found ourselves in the thick of it. We won our last game at Michigan to get a share of the title, and played maybe our best basketball in those three days at Indianapolis (in the Big Ten Tournament). I was really happy with the effort. I thought we really overachieved." This year's team will have to overachieve without two of last year's top three scorers. The Buckeyes graduated guards Brian Brown, who led the team at 16.3 points per game and was a consensus first-team All-Big Ten selection, and Boban Savovic, a native of Yugoslavia who scored 11.9 points per game and led the team with 3.6 assists per game. Brown was close behind him at 3.3. OSU also must replace two other graduated seniors, forwards Will Dudley and Tim Martin, who chipped in a combined four points and three boards a game last year. But, typical of the O'Brien method, there are plenty of experienced players prepared to step in and pick up the slack. A pair of senior guards should lead the backcourt this year, and although the frontcourt is a bit younger, O'Brien is excited about the potential they've shown so far. The leading returning scorer is 6-foot-1 senior guard Brent Darby (12.8 ppg, 2.9 rpg). He finished third on the team with 92 assists last year, was a third-team All-Big Ten selection and made the all-tournament team as OSU ran to the postseason Big Ten title. He scored a career-high 26 against Northwestern last February but failed to match his top assist mark of eight in any game last year. This year he'll have even more pressure on him to distribute without Brown and Savovic helping him share the load. But O'Brien said he's not necessarily counting on Darby to play a traditional distributor's role. "We hope he's not going to be much of a point guard," O'Brien said. "He's got a scorer's mentally and is probably going to be our leading scorer this year." O'Brien is expecting big things out of 6-5 senior guard Sean Connolly (6.3 ppg, 2.3 apg), who came off the bench all season as a junior. He still finished third on the team in 3-point attempts and made 36.7 percent of them. Connolly transferred from Providence after his freshman year and battled an ankle injury as a sophomore before finally getting healthy and making a big contribution last year. Another player who opened some eyes off the bench last year was 6-1 sophomore Brandon Fuss-Cheatham (1.2 ppg, 0.8 rpg), who quickly became known for his flashy ball handling and passing skills. He should get a chance to make an impact in the Buckeyes' three-guard offense this year, but first he's got to convince his coach he's ready for the responsibility. "He was very inconsistent as a freshman," O'Brien said. "He went through growing pains, wasn't shooting well and lost his confidence. He shot it very well in high school, and it's critical that he has a really good year for us." The Buckeyes hoped to have 6-7 freshman swingman Matt Sylvester back, but after a redshirt year to recover from calf and back problems, he finally had back surgery this summer and won't be ready until November at the earliest. Next year the roster will get a home grown infusion of talent as two Ohio products return to play for the Buckeyes. Junior Tony Stockman, a 6-1 guard, averaged 12.1 points per game in his two seasons at Clemson, while 6-6 sophomore J.J. Sullinger scored 9.4 points per game last year at Arkansas. Both players will redshirt this year but will help push the starters in practice. Meanwhile, a pair of 5-10 senior guards, Ryan Heflin (1.1 ppg, 0.2 rpg) and Shaun Smith (0.9 ppg, 0.2 rpg) round out the backcourt. Up front, the Buckeyes are decidedly younger but possibly more talented. At the power forward spot, look for 6-7 junior Zach Williams (9.6 ppg, 5.8 rpg) to retain his starting spot for the third straight season. "He's a little bit limited in ability," said O'Brien of the team's reigning rebounding leader, "but he's got the heart of a lion. He's competitive, tough and bright." The Brooklyn native grabbed a career-high 13 boards in Ohio State's Big Ten semifinal victory over Illinois last March and he improved his numbers dramatically from his freshman year. At center, 7-0 junior Velimir Radinovic (3.8 ppg, 2.6 ppg) returns after starting 28 games last year. He represented Ohio State on the Big Ten All-Stars tour of Europe this summer and averaged 7.2 points and 4.4 boards per game. OSU coaches think he's only going to get more polished as he gets more playing time. Radinovic will be pushed by 6-9 sophomore Terrence Dials (6.7 ppg, 4.2 rpg), who led the team in blocked shots and finished second in rebounding last year despite coming off the bench in all 32 games. O'Brien said he wants to bring Dials along slowly and help him stay out of foul trouble, but Dials ended up averaging more minutes than Radinovic -- 16.5 to 12.1 -- by the end of the year. O'Brien said that 6-10 sophomore Matt Marinchick (1.7 ppg, 0.7 rpg) could end up making the center position "a three-headed monster" if he continues to develop, but he pointed to Dials' continued development as the key to the Buckeyes' success up front. Two newcomers could also find their way into the mix on the front line -- 6-6 junior Shun Jenkins, a transfer from Itawamba (Miss.) Community College, and 6-9 freshman Charles Bass from Crete-Monee, Ill. O'Brien said Jenkins is "thick, strong, a good rebounder, low-post-oriented," and the coach lauded his maturity. Bass, meanwhile, is "a string bean" at 190 pounds and needs to add strength to fill out his lanky frame. The backcourt appears set, and although losing Brown and Savovic will hurt, the Buckeyes have solid replacements in the wings. Williams, Dials and Radinovic could form an imposing line up front, enough that O'Brien might be tempted to scrap his three-guard offense if players like Fuss-Cheatham and Sylvester don't develop as planned. No matter who's on the floor for the Buckeyes, however, they'll have their hands full with a killer schedule that features Alabama at Springfield, Mass., Duke at Greensboro, N.C., in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, a road test at Pittsburgh and home games against Seton Hall and Louisville. Nobody thought OSU would challenge for the Big Ten title last year, and not many of those pundits will predict a repeat. But a fifth straight bid in the NCAA tournament is well within reach.
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