Thursday November 8, 2012
thelantern www.thelantern.com
PAT BRENNAN Sports editor brennan.164@osu.edu
Photo courtesy of Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum
The USS Yorktown at sea prior to its 2nd decommission from the U.S. Navy in 1970.
ANDREW HOLLERAN Photo editor holleran.9@osu.edu The Ohio State men’s basketball team spent the majority of its offseason training as if it was a track squad. Wind sprints. Suicides. Mile-long runs. That’s the type of training OSU did on the 90-degree days in Columbus this summer to prepare for the upcoming season. “We’ve seen the track this summer more than we’ve seen the court,” said junior guard Lenzelle Smith Jr., a returning starter from OSU’s Final Four team last season. With former standout Jared Sullinger gone to the NBA, the inside-out style of basketball the Buckeyes became accustomed to when the wide-bodied forward arrived on campus two years ago has left. In its place this year is likely to be an up-tempo, transition-based offense that should feature plenty of highlight-reel worthy dunks and big plays. OSU players are excited for the new brand of basketball likely to be employed. “I love it. It’s a lot more fun when you can run up and down the floor. We have a good group of guys that do that,” said junior guard Aaron Craft, another returning starter. Replacing Sullinger will be a challenge for OSU, and a big one at that. Filling in for the two-time All-American will be a combination of sophomore center Amir Williams and redshirt senior forward Evan Ravenel. Former guard William Buford is also gone. Stepping in for the former four-year starter will
Some liken sporting events to wars and battles, but the USS Yorktown has seen and fought in the real thing. Sport will converge with the Yorktown, a decommissioned U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, when the Ohio State men’s and women’s basketball teams will open their 2012-13 seasons against Marquette and Notre Dame, respectively, Friday in the Carrier Classic. Friday’s games, which will take place on a court constructed on the Yorktown’s flight deck, bare no likeness to the battles the warship has seen. Still, OSU coach Thad Matta has an appreciation for the venue’s history. The OSU teams and their opponents’ stay on the ship will last for the duration of the 40-minute basketball games. Retired U.S. Navy Lt. Bob Dorsey, 73, of Milton, Fla., recalled that a typical stay as a sailor on the Yorktown was much longer. Unlike for the basketball teams, a “short” stay, or cruise, on the ship would last six to nine weeks. Long cruises could last six to nine months, and the cruises weren’t for basketball games or other forms of pleasure, but for war.
be sophomore forwards LaQuinton Ross and Sam Thompson. Sophomore guard Shannon Scott will likely get more playing time because of Buford’s departure, too. Together, Buford and Sullinger were responsible for roughly 43 percent of OSU’s scoring last season. What the Buckeyes might lack in terms of experience and developed skill this season, they hope to make up in speed and athleticism. Williams, arguably, is a better runner than Sullinger. Ravenel lost 25 pounds this offseason, likely priming himself for the transition game. Thompson and Ross are lankier and seem to be better leapers than Buford. Scott might be one of the fastest lead guards in the country, according to his coach. “I don’t know if anybody pushes the ball up the floor as quick as Shannon Scott can,” OSU coach Thad Matta said. “He gets the ball from point A to point B as well as I’ve seen.” There isn’t likely to be a hole on the Buckeyes’ roster when it comes to being able to get up and down the floor. “Just about every position we have someone that runs,” Craft said. “I like it, just putting pressure on the defense more times than not. I don’t think teams in the Big Ten are used to playing at that pace.” But the Buckeyes will have to learn how to run, and run effectively, before they can call themselves a premier transition team. And it’s not something that is learned easily. “I don’t think a lot of people realize how smart of a team you have to be to play up and down like that,” Smith Jr. said. “It’s a difficult transition. It’s different than what we normally play.” While the Buckeyes will be more of a run-and-
Dorsey, a former helicopter pilot and President of the Yorktown Association, was stationed on the Yorktown from 1963-1966 and was twice deployed to Vietnam and the South China Sea. Following World War II, during which the ship faced bombings and other forms of heavy combat, the Yorktown was modified for rooting out the Soviet submarine threat during the Cold War. When it became evident that there was no threat of Soviet submarines in the seas near Vietnam, Dorsey’s mission changed, he said. “We were doing basic utility work, moving men and cargo from different ships in the South China Sea,” Dorsey said. “We were also doing what was considered coastal surveillance. They would send us out to investigate various shipboard targets that they would pick up on our radar and we would fly out to sea if there was a threat. And so that was our primary mission.” Then, the mission changed again once Vietnam “was going pretty big,” Dorsey said. “A lot of (planes) got shot down, so our mission really changed to being combat rescue,” Dorsey said. “During all that time, we never lost a single helicopter due to combat loss, which was pretty spectacular.” And there were many missions that launched on the sea and saw Dorsey and
gun type squad this season, there will be times when OSU has to settle down and run its half-court offense effectively. That’s when OSU will probably miss Sullinger and Buford most. “There is a lot of speed and athleticism, but there are some tangible pieces that are going to be missing this year,” Matta said. Those tangible pieces were the players that came up with big buckets down the stretch of games for OSU last season. Running an effective half-court set will be key in making up for what was lost from the 2011-12 team. “When we do have to slow it down, (we have to) execute our halfcourt stuff,” Thompson said. “To say that we’re going to be a running team doesn’t mean that we completely abandon our half-court principles and our half-court execution. We want to be the best of both worlds.” When OSU does push the ball, though, the players said it will be exciting to watch. Matta echoed that statement, saying there were many dunks on the fast break during practice this offseason. That doesn’t mean Matta will let OSU settle for being just a fun team to watch, however. “I’d take effective over exciting any day,” he said. OSU opens its season Friday against Marquette at 7 p.m. on the deck of the USS Yorktown in the second annual Carrier Classic in Charleston, S.C. The game is scheduled to be broadcasted by NBC Sports Network.
other members of America venture into Vietnamese airspace. The missions, while thrilling, Dorsey said, were exceedingly dangerous and included night missions at low altitude. “You know, flying off an aircraft carrier is probably one of the most exciting things most people ever do, and I thoroughly enjoyed it,” Dorsey said. “We did a lot of night flying, which was fairly dangerous … generally, helicopters were limited to a maximum altitude of 200 feet. So on a dark night at 200-feet, you really better pay attention.” Obviously, OSU won’t face dangers like what Dorsey saw. The biggest risk the two Buckeyes’ squads run on Friday is starting their respective seasons with a loss. For the men’s team, it would be the first opening-game loss since a 76-65 defeat to San Francisco on Nov. 21, 2003. OSU women’s coach Jim Foster has never lost a season opener since arriving in Columbus for the 2002-03 campaign. Given the Buckeyes teams’ history of opening-night success, some fans in Columbus might be disappointed to miss the opener. The Carrier Classic will take place in Charleston, S.C., some 10 hours from Columbus by car.
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ANDREW HOLLERAN / Photo editor
Deshaun Thomas’ broad shoulders to bear Buckeyes’ scoring burden MICHAEL PERIATT Managing editor for content periatt.1@osu.edu
CODY COUSINO / Multimedia editor
OSU forward Deshaun Thomas, then a sophomore, cuts down the net after the Buckeyes’ March 24 NCAA Tournament victory against Syracuse at TD Garden in Boston. OSU won, 77-70.
Ohio State basketball coach Thad Matta knew what he was getting in Deshaun Thomas. The junior forward is a scorer, but ever since Matta could remember he’s also had a bit of a loose trigger. When Thomas played in the 2009 Class 2A state championship game in his home state of Indiana, OSU’s coach was there to watch. The game’s opening tip went to Thomas who immediately threw up a deep 3-pointer. Air ball. “You haven’t seen anything yet,” Matta said to the person sitting next to him at the game. Thirty-four points and 15 boards later, Thomas’ Bishop Luers High School was hoisting the state championship trophy. Now, the same guy who hurriedly threw up an ill-advised air ball in his high school’s state championship game and admitted that he used to “chuck threes, just play to get that shot up” during his freshman year at OSU is the man who will lead the Buckeyes’ offense this season. Is Matta comfortable with that notion? “Yeah,” Matta said. “I think so.” He might not have any choice. With former forward Jared Sullinger now with the Boston
Celtics and guard William Buford playing professionally in Spain, much of the night-to-night scoring load will be thrust onto Thomas’ broad shoulders. After the Buckeyes’ 2011 tournament run to the Final Four, it appeared Thomas might join his two teammates in the professional ranks. “It was close,” Thomas said of his decision. “I was thinking about it … because I had a great season so I was very close. But then I sat off in my room by myself and I made that decision myself, and I think I made a perfect decision by coming back.” His return is a big reason the Buckeyes — which are playing in what is expected to be the most difficult basketball conference in the country — are ranked No. 4 in both major preseason polls. For the Buckeyes to live up to those expectations, Thomas — who was named a first-team All-American by the Associated Press — will have to play a major role. The OSU forward showed he had the capabilities to be a major player last season, averaging 15.9 points and 5.4 rebounds for the season, and 19.2 points in the NCAA Tournament. Most of his production though, came with the defense focused on Sullinger, giving Thomas a little more freedom. As the only returning Buckeye to average more than nine points per game, the ire of opposing defenses will be fixed upon Thomas.
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