The members of Carmen’s Crew hardly need a million-dollar incentive to play basketball with one another. Many in the tight-knit group refer to the others as brothers or best friends, and whether its among themselves or with their modern contemporaries on the Ohio State basketball team, reuniting to hoop in Columbus, Ohio, after seasons spent overseas or in the G-League has long been a tradition for David Lighty, William Buford and the other players that comprise the squad.
With the natural on-court chemistry forged over years at Ohio State and well beyond, one gets the sense that Carmen’s Crew need little more than to roll out the balls, step on the hardwood and let instinct take over. The type of synergy on a basketball court that you acquire from, as Jared Sullinger put it Monday, playing with someone like Aaron Craft since the age of 15.
But running a pick and roll with Craft or dishing out to Jon Diebler out of a post-up isn’t the role Sullinger will play for Carmen’s Crew this year, and surprisingly, his talents as a player are not not the ones that have led the Buckeye alumni team to its most success in The Basketball Tournament. Rather, Sullinger’s segue into coaching has become a crucial element to the team’s structure, and while it may be a natural fit for the two-time All-American, it has certainly challenged him more than scoring a low-block jump-hook.
“One thing I did learn last year is you got to have patience,” Sullinger said of his coaching duties. “The biggest thing is, sometimes you feel like you’re playing the game because you’re so locked in mentally, and so you get physically exhausted just going through the thoughts of how you can be better, what you should do better, what lineup to play who I should’ve kept in.”
But those deliberations don’t go away for Sullinger when the game ends. The Columbus native said he watches games over to critique his decisions from the sidelines. Should the timeout have come earlier? Did he wait too long to bring a sub in off the bench?
It’s not a burden for Sullinger, though. It’s a passion.
“I love coaching,” Sullinger said. “I love drawing up plays, I love doing scouting reports, I love creating videos, so I have a lot of fun doing it.”
The approach Sullinger brings to his position is different than that of former National Player of the Year and 10-year NBA veteran Evan Turner, who characterized his assistant role as “pretty much just help Sully’s confidence.”
“Everything he says, I’m like, ‘Yes. Yes, that’s right. Yes, that’s beautiful, yes, that’s magical,” Turner said.
Turner said he tries to stay out of the way, believing the team already possesses the necessary chemistry and camaraderie to continue to be successful in the tournament. But even if Carmen’s Crew isn’t placing an overemphasis on Xs and Os, Sullinger has been confronted with other new considerations, such as how to best deal with the officials.
“You gotta be able to have good relationships with the refs. As a player, you talk to the refs a certain way just because your emotions are tied up into the game. As a coach, your emotions are tied up in your players so you have to keep a level head just so your players can keep a level head,” Sullinger said. “Coaching, that’s the hardest part is just having the patience and knowing when to blow up, when to let it go and just feeding your team’s confidence.”
Along with coaching comes personnel decisions. Even though many would assume Carmen’s Crew could only improve with the services of a 6-foot-9 force that played five years in the NBA, Sullinger closed the door on the possibility of a return to the tournament as a player.
Sullinger said he commends fellow former Buckeye Andrew Dakich, who is pulling both head coach and playing duties for Big X in TBT this year, but said there’s no way he could do both.
“I’m not playing in it,” Sullinger said. “If you think about it, the first two years we played in it, we lost. The year I go to the sideline and coach, we win. I don’t understand why I would step in and mess that up.
Along with Dakich, younger Ohio State alums like C.J. Jackson and Keyshawn Woods have played on other TBT teams in the past couple years, and the Wesson brothers were rumored to join up with Big X before ultimately declining to participate.
Could there ever be a world where the two generations of Ohio State basketball cross over? It’s possible, Sullinger said, but it may be tough to earn a spot in the rotation among some of the best Buckeyes of the past decade-plus.
“Of course we would love to add those guys but I mean, you talk about Aaron Craft and then C.J. Jackson. I mean, I love C.J., but I gotta ride with my guy Craft,” Sullinger said.
For all the work he’s done to transition into a TBT-winning head coach, Sullinger knows that with the talent and experience he has on the roster, he can still afford to leave the ship on auto-pilot from time to time.
“The leadership of Dave Lighty, Will Buford, Jon Diebler, Aaron Craft like, those guys I literally can throw out there and turn my back because I know they’re gonna bring it every single night.”
