ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
SKULL SESSION: WHEN THAD MATTA KNEW D'ANGELO RUSSELL WAS ONE-AND-DONE, IMAGINING A WORLD WHERE J.T. BARRETT WAS SHORT, AND NON-CONTACT SPORTS CAN BEGIN
ONE-AND-DONE. I attended every one of D'Angelo Russell's home basketball games as a student, standing 15 feet away as he threw up (and made) ridiculous threes in the face of two defenders, broke various ankles, and threw no-look passes that bounced off his teammates' chests.
It still makes absolutely no sense to me that he played at Ohio State, and it probably only took two or three games for me to realize that he wasn't going to be around for very long.
It only took Thad Matta one. And it was a preseason exhibition.
Matta called him Doc (Russell’s initials are DR), telling him from the first time the two met that he had to shorten the name because he didn’t think he could get “D’Angelo” out of his mouth fast enough when he had to yell at him during practice. There was an easy, fast rapport, and Matta succeeded in doing what anyone who knows Russell well understands to be key: convincing him that he had Russell’s back.
“It’s funny because throughout his recruitment, these so-called experts kept pointing out flaws in his game,” Matta said. “Every time I’d sit and watch him play, he always won. He never lost. And he always made the right play down the stretch.”
The last thing on Russell’s mind when he arrived was that he was going to be gone seven months later. Russell was planning on being in Columbus for years, developing his game, immersing himself in the college life.
Matta still remembers the moment he knew Russell was a short-timer. Both Matta and Boals recited his stat line for a preseason scrimmage in West Virginia off the top of their heads like Russell had done it in the national championship game: 33 points, eight assists, shredding Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins’s famed full-court press, hitting the game-winning 3 on the final possession.
“I get on the bus and say, ‘Fellas, he’s out of here. We’ve got to find another point guard,'” Matta said to his assistants. “They were like, ‘Nooo, no.’
“I’m saying, ‘Fellas, I’ve never seen shit like that before in my life.'”
One of my biggest sports-related regrets is that he didn't play for like, pretty much any other Ohio State basketball team in my lifetime, because that squad was just dogshit bad outside of him. But that maybe that made the ride even more fun, anyway.
Entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/skul...-imagining-a-world-where-jt-barrett-was-short
ONE-AND-DONE. I attended every one of D'Angelo Russell's home basketball games as a student, standing 15 feet away as he threw up (and made) ridiculous threes in the face of two defenders, broke various ankles, and threw no-look passes that bounced off his teammates' chests.
It still makes absolutely no sense to me that he played at Ohio State, and it probably only took two or three games for me to realize that he wasn't going to be around for very long.
It only took Thad Matta one. And it was a preseason exhibition.
Matta called him Doc (Russell’s initials are DR), telling him from the first time the two met that he had to shorten the name because he didn’t think he could get “D’Angelo” out of his mouth fast enough when he had to yell at him during practice. There was an easy, fast rapport, and Matta succeeded in doing what anyone who knows Russell well understands to be key: convincing him that he had Russell’s back.
“It’s funny because throughout his recruitment, these so-called experts kept pointing out flaws in his game,” Matta said. “Every time I’d sit and watch him play, he always won. He never lost. And he always made the right play down the stretch.”
The last thing on Russell’s mind when he arrived was that he was going to be gone seven months later. Russell was planning on being in Columbus for years, developing his game, immersing himself in the college life.
Matta still remembers the moment he knew Russell was a short-timer. Both Matta and Boals recited his stat line for a preseason scrimmage in West Virginia off the top of their heads like Russell had done it in the national championship game: 33 points, eight assists, shredding Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins’s famed full-court press, hitting the game-winning 3 on the final possession.
“I get on the bus and say, ‘Fellas, he’s out of here. We’ve got to find another point guard,'” Matta said to his assistants. “They were like, ‘Nooo, no.’
“I’m saying, ‘Fellas, I’ve never seen shit like that before in my life.'”
One of my biggest sports-related regrets is that he didn't play for like, pretty much any other Ohio State basketball team in my lifetime, because that squad was just dogshit bad outside of him. But that maybe that made the ride even more fun, anyway.
Entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/skul...-imagining-a-world-where-jt-barrett-was-short
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