Advertisement
basketball Edit

Former Buckeyes join forces to take on TBT

COLUMBUS, Ohio – As things are changing within the current Ohio State men's basketball program with the hiring of new coach Chris Holtmann there also is a reunion tour of some of former coach Thad Matta's top players on the eve of a 5-on-5 tournament that will pay its winning team two million dollars.

A team of former Buckeye greats will make up a team appropriately named "The Scarlet and Gray" as part of The Basketball Tournament. Action will start for the team made up of former Buckeyes on Saturday at Bradley University a part of a 64-team field.

Jared Sullinger, William Buford, Aaron Craft, David Lighty, Dallas Lauderdale, Evan Ravenel and Jon Diebler are just some of the names on the team as Scoonie Penn leads the way as the General Manager of the team.

Advertisement

It's a who's-who of much of the Matta-era and one of the toughest losses of that era will fuel more than a couple players on this team.

"This is kind of a redemption tour for us for what happened against Kentucky when Brandon Knight hit that shot against us," Sullinger said of the Sweet 16 loss to UK in the NCAA Tournament.

That loss has stuck with many players on that team when Ohio State came up short in a 62-60 loss. The Buckeyes shot an uncharacteristic 33-percent from the field against a Kentucky team that everyone felt was under-seeded in the East Region, a region where Ohio State held the No. 1 seed and overall No. 1 seed of the tournament.

"It is one of the toughest losses that I have suffered in my career," Lauderdale said. "I am not bitter about it but at the same time I feel like we lost that game, I feel like there were some things that we did that we should have not done even leading up to the game. We got a little ahead of ourselves. Now we are really cherishing this tournament and sort of trying to do things better this time than we did last time."

This tournament is about more than just remembering a tough loss that marked the end of several Ohio State careers. It is a chance for players to get back on the court together in a competitive setting and do what they love best, play basketball.

"It is great. I have not played with these guys in so long, been like five or six years and time flies," Buford said. "It is just great to play with these guys again. I played against a couple of these guys but have not got to play with them. It is going to be fun and hopefully we will win this thing."

David Lighty joked that his career spanned so long with Ohio State that there is not anybody on the team that he has not played with.

"I played with everybody. They say I was here for 20 years. I was here for pretty much all of coach Matta's whole career," Lighty joked. "I played with all these guys."

A two-million-dollar check to the winner to be split among the team would not be a bad thing as well.

"Nice little bonus for us, nothing wrong with that," Lighty added. "I treat it as if we can win it all that this will be the championship that we should have got."

Payday aside, all of these players try to get back to Ohio State during the offseason to work out together but getting to play competitive games outside of the WHAC as a unit is something that they have not had the opportunity to do and may never get to do again.

"I think we are just excited to be able to represent not only coach but the university again," Craft said. "I think if you talk to every one of us we would give quite a lot to come back and be able to do that again. Because you just don't appreciate it while you are there. To be able to do this on a NCAA Tournament like stage again, it is something of a second chance that I think we are all really excited about."

"It is awesome. Everybody wants to win, every team in the tournament wants to win but for us, it is an awesome experience to get together again and work out again together and play in some competitive games on a team again," Diebler said. "We don't get to do this all the time. I think we are really looking forward to it and hopefully we can win and represent Ohio State really well."

"The Scarlet and Gray" is a two-seed in the Midwest and will take on the No. 15 seed "The Region" on Saturday. If the former Buckeyes win they will play again on Sunday. If the team advances to the second week then action would shift to Brooklyn the following weekend. Action will be streamed on ESPN3. The final four of the tournament will be seen on ESPN and will take place in Baltimore on August 1st and 3rd.

Advertisement