COLUMBUS, Ohio –– Ohio State guard CJ Walker was thrilled at the prospect of playing in front of a hometown crowd in his native city of Indianapolis in last year’s Big Ten Tournament, but that chance was taken from him before the Buckeyes could even take the court.
COVID-19 wiped out the 2019-20 postseason entirely, but fortunately for the redshirt senior point guard, the powers at be have made up for his lost opportunity twofold this year.
Both the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments will take place just minutes away from his parents’ home, depending on the venue, and seeing Walker perform on either of those stages live and in person will be a first for his family.
“Playing in Indianapolis, I’m very excited and very happy that I get to play in front of my parents each and every game in the tournament. That’s not something a lot of people are able to get,” Walker said Thursday. “So playing in front of my family always just makes it that much better, especially being in the NCAA Tournament, where my parents haven’t seen me play.”
It’s not that Walker hasn’t played in the Big Dance before though. In fact, Walker was a starter in every game of Florida State’s run to the Elite Eight back in 2018.
But proximity was always an issue in terms of family attendance, with the Seminoles playing in locations like Florida, Tennessee and California during Walker’s first two years of college basketball.
Now though, the pandemic that ruined Walker’s postseason hopes a year ago has brought both tournaments to the doorstep of his friends and family, before whom he won a state championship with Arsenal Technical High School in 2014.
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“Obviously when I was at Florida State we played in California and things like that, so it’s hard to travel,” Walker said. “And then last year, not being able to do it because of COVID, so just having them in Indianapolis at home and my parents, stuff like that is really good for me and I’m really happy about it.”
Much of the disappointment in the premature end to last season, at least as it pertained to Ohio State, was just how good the Buckeyes were playing by the end of the regular season.
Ohio State finished with nine wins in its final 12 games, and no small part of that success was the surging play of Walker, who closed out the last six games averaging 13.7 points, 4.3 assists and 4.0 rebounds per contest.
The world never got to see how that uptick from Walker might have lifted the Buckeyes for a potentially deep postseason run, but even though Ohio State has dropped three games straight ahead of its final regular season game this year, Walker is piecing together a similarly impressive run individually.
Walker is averaging 11.8 points and 4.3 assists in his past six performances, and it’s safe to say that he’ll play an integral role in however far the Buckeyes advance in the postseason in what could be his final year of college basketball.
Before the postseason begins though, Walker will lead the Buckeyes onto the floor at the Schottenstein Center Saturday for a 4 p.m. matchup with Illinois, where he'll be celebrated for Senior Night.
“It’s been a great experience for me and I’m truly grateful for it, and I’m honestly happy that I came here, it’s one of the best decisions I’ve probably ever made in my life," Walker said.