Long story on Ohio State freshman Aaron Craft. Funny take from Jared Sullinger, talking about how in AAU every one would always assume the white kid was the designated shooter.
A young craftsman at the point: Ohio State's Aaron Craft a vital cog of undefeated Buckeyes as a freshman
Published: Tuesday, January 18, 2011, 10:33 PMUpdated: Tuesday, January 18, 2011, 11:35 PM
By Doug Lesmerises, The Plain Dealer
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The question made a bit of sense in the off-season but sounds so silly now, like asking which type of nut Ohio State should choose as a mascot.
The Buckeyes were losing their leading scorer and primary ball-handler in national player of the year Evan Turner. So, who was going to play point guard for Ohio State?
Freshman Aaron Craft has answered that question so completely, 18 games into the season, it's difficult to imagine the No. 1-ranked Buckeyes without him, as strange as if the big-headed guy clapping with the cheerleaders was Brutus Pistachio.
It's something even the OSU coaching staff contemplated Sunday, one day after Craft played his best game as a collegian, scoring 19 points while locking onto Penn State star Talor Battle.
"If we didn't have Aaron Craft, what a different basketball team we would be," coach Thad Matta said Tuesday. "We'd be playing a completely different way."
Craft is averaging 9.6 points and 5.2 assists in Big Ten play going into Wednesday night's game with Iowa. Integrating him into the rotation (he has started just once, usually entering the game after four minutes) to run the offense and clamp down on defense has been the easy part.
Matta said the veteran OSU players told him over the summer "you're going to have a hard time keeping that kid off the court."
Despite arriving at Columbus considered little more than an afterthought among Ohio State freshmen not named Jared Sullinger, point guard Aaron Craft has quickly carved out an essential role with the undefeated Buckeyes.
Matta has always felt former point guard Mike Conley was his little secret to some extent, that he saw something when most others thought of Conley as Greg Oden's sidekick four years ago. So Matta loved that during summer pickup games, when former Buckeyes return to Columbus, Conley liked Craft's game because "Aaron started guarding him when he pulled into the parking lot." In Matta's mind, there's not much higher point guard praise than Conley's.
Craft won't he jetting off after his freshman season to be the No. 4 pick in the NBA Draft, as Conley did. At 6-2 and 195 pounds, he doesn't have Conley's lightning quickness and ability to get in the lane at will -- though after a summer of constant shooting, he's more of a 3-point threat and is a better on-ball defender.
Yet early on, even the Buckeyes weren't in on this secret. The hard part about turning Craft into a freshman necessity was getting him to Columbus in the first place.
Matta has often told the story of his other freshman star, national player of the year candidate Jared Sullinger, and how former Buckeye J.J. Sullinger first recommended his younger brother when Jared was in junior high. Sullinger was a Buckeye all the way, and Matta and the Ohio State staff saw him play all the time -- catching Craft, Sullinger's AAU teammate on All-Ohio Red, at the same time.
Yet when Craft wanted to make an early recruiting decision and picked Tennessee as a high-school junior in September 2008, he did it without an Ohio State offer.
Jared Sullinger said Matta talked about wanting to add players to the class, not big-name players, but "solid basketball players."
"I kept telling him about Aaron," Sullinger said. "I was like, 'Coach, get Aaron, you've got to get Aaron.'"
With a young point guard in Anthony Crater on the roster, the Buckeyes' priorities were elsewhere. Then Crater transferred in December, 2008. Sullinger and Jordan Sibert, another OSU commit on All-Ohio Red, whispered in Craft's ear. Tennessee hosted Craft on an unofficial visit that would eventually land Volunteers coach Bruce Pearl in hot water with the NCAA for improperly hosting players at his home and then lying about it.
In April 2009, Akron assistant coach Jeff Boals, who had gotten to know Craft, was hired at Ohio State. A month later, Craft rescinded his oral commitment to Tennessee, and lots of schools started calling.
Craft's father, John, said Tuesday that the family was initially unsure about the Buckeyes' interest.
"Coach Matta probably watched me more than anyone else, but with them not recruiting me, I pretty much put it aside and said I wasn't going to go there," Aaron told BuckeyeGrove.com in 2009 after his Tennessee change of heart.
But underestimating Craft was nothing new. Sullinger said Tuesday he's seen it for four years.
"He played on a team full of black guys, and you know how there's one guy [opponents] classify as a shooter, so every time Aaron got into the game, it was like, 'Watch the shooter,'" Sullinger said with a laugh. "And the next thing you know, he blows by you.
"He's always been the underdog, and he always embraced it."
About two weeks after dropping Tennessee, Craft embraced the Buckeyes. Seniors David Lighty, Jon Diebler and Dallas Lauderdale and junior William Buford have been around forever. Columbus native Sullinger was practically born a Buckeye. But now the near-Volunteer is as draped in scarlet and gray as any of them.
John Craft said his son's only goal when he reached Ohio State in June was to gain the respect of the older players. He's handling the transition as he did in high school, when Craft started for the football team as a freshman quarterback, but turned down a chance to ride the varsity bus. Instead, he'd stay back and pick up the locker room with the rest of the freshmen, then ride with the J.V.
"And he'd be the first one to clean up," Tim Nichols, his football coach at Liberty-Benton High School, said Tuesday. "He thought that's what freshmen were supposed to do. It was refreshing."
It's why ESPN senior recruiting analyst Dave Telep calls Craft a "unifying" player. He believes Craft was overshadowed as a recruit only because there was a group of point guards in the Class of 2010 viewed as sexier prospects, what Telep called attention-seekers and program-changers. But Telep said there are few players in the last few years he respects more as "a completely selfless player."
"If you have Jared Sullinger, you're going to win 80 percent of your games," Telep said. "Mix in Aaron Craft, and you go to 90 percent."
It's a good thing then that the Buckeyes got both.
"Luckily, my buddy came here to Ohio State," Sullinger said. "He's the key to our engine. ... A player like Aaron Craft, it was the best pickup we got."
Edited by: GreatLakeState
