COLUMBUS, Ohio –– Despite returning from his pseudo-basketball-retirement to join forces with Carmen’s Crew once again this summer, former Buckeye point guard Aaron Craft will play an unfamiliar role for the Ohio State alumni team when its opening round game of The Basketball Tournament tips off on Friday.
Craft started every game for the Buckeyes in his final three seasons with the program from 2011-14, and helped secure TBT’s $2 million first-place prize in a starting role with Carmen’s Crew in 2019.
This year, however, Craft expects to come off the bench.
“I’m definitely not in shape the way I’d love to be, but I think I’m working on getting there,” Craft said Monday. “Playing Tuesday night rec league with some other guys, I fooled myself into thinking I was getting in shape the last couple months, and it is not. But we’ll see how it goes. Hopefully there’s some adrenaline, obviously the fans. I don’t think I’ll start, so I can kind of relax on the bench for a couple minutes.”
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Having spent the past year integrating back into a scholastic schedule following six years of professional basketball, Craft said he isn’t jumping back into high-level competition with quite the same level of game shape that he had entering last summer’s tournament.
However, Carmen’s Crew teammates of the current Ohio State medical school student aren’t totally convinced that Craft has lost as much as he’s letting on.
“Aaron’s gonna be fine. He’s definitely in shape. Just playing with him today, he’s definitely in shape,” former Ohio State guard Shannon Scott, who played with Craft from 2011-14, said. “I mean, he has a kid now, he runs around more probably now than he did back then. I think he’s gonna be fine. He’s in shape, he’ll be good.”
Craft said Scott, who has played both internationally and in the NBA G League, is quicker than him, which suggests that he may take over the reins as Carmen’s Crew’s starting point guard this weekend. Also joining the team at the guard spot this year is Keyshawn Woods, who played for the Buckeyes as a fifth-year senior in 2018-19.
Record-setting Buckeye 3-point marksman Jon Diebler, who was Craft’s Ohio State teammate during the 2010-11 season, said the two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year may be overselling his supposed lack of conditioning, though.
“I think he’s in better shape than what he’ll probably give [himself] credit for,” Diebler said. “It’s probably not the shape that he’s used to being in, but none of us really are. That’s why we’re in here practicing. But he looks good, you can’t really tell that he’s taken a year off.”
Although last year’s tournament was intended to be Craft’s swan song, Diebler said several members of Carmen’s Crew were “in his ear” over the past year with the hopes that he would return for another go.
Those efforts paid off, but team head coach and general manager Jared Sullinger said it was actually Craft that reached out to him about playing this summer, and not the other way around.
“I took the time off that I think I needed and deserved,” Craft said. “I told him, ‘Hey, I was leaning towards wanting to play, if you want me to.’ He graciously obliged, and we’ll see if I can make him proud.”
Craft doesn’t anticipate his TBT return to be permanent. He may have said it a time or two in the past, but Craft once again expects this year’s tournament to be his last.
However, local rec leagues are still on notice for the foreseeable future.
“I would be surprised if I played again after this in anything, really,” Craft said. “Tuesday night I’ll be here though. That’s a little lower key.”
Carmen’s Crew, a No. 1 seed in the tournament, takes on No. 16 seed Mid American Unity this Friday at 9 p.m. at the Covelli Center on Ohio State campus.
