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G/F Evan "The Villain" Turner (2010 Naismith Winner)

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Feb 9, 2010
Dime NBA Draft Profile: Evan Turner
By Dime Magazine
Evan-Turner-239x360.jpg


With the season already past the midway point, NBA GMs have their minds set on the NBA Playoffs. But for those teams that will be counting ping pong balls instead of playoff victories, the upcoming NBA Draft has many intriguing prospects that need to be recognized. So before March Madness takes over, Dime contributor Lucas Shapiro will be profiling players and giving them a team that would best fit their talent. First up was Kentucky?s John Wall, so now we?re on to Ohio State?s Evan Turner.

Player Comparisons: Scottie Pippen, Brandon Roy and Paul Pierce

Athleticism
The college game tends to make good athletes look like great athletes, and Turner has been a product of this. While he can dominate based on his athleticism for now, when he makes the transition to the League, he may not stand out as much athletically. He is still strong and quick for his size, but his jumping ability is not elite at the next level. It is also rare to see a player his size (6-7) with the great coordination that he possesses. At times, he has put Ohio State on his back (literally) and has shown that he can play the full forty minutes of a game with his great endurance.
Grade: B+

Fundamentals
If it weren?t for his lack of three-point accuracy, Turner would have the best fundamentals in college basketball. He can handle the ball like a point guard, post up like a power forward and drive like a wing player. His versatility allows him to play three positions and his killer instincts make him like the Kobe Bryant of the NCAA. Defensively, he can lock-down opponents with his sheer desire to dominate others. The guy is like a machine. (Seriously, have you heard him talk? He even sounds like a robot.)
Grade: A

NBA Readiness
There is no doubt that Turner can make a splash in his first season in the NBA. The question is whether he will be able to transition well. Take a look at Terrence Williams. Williams was a point-forward, similar to Turner. He also lacked three-point range, similar to Turner. Right now, Williams is struggling adjusting to the NBA game since he?s not capable of shooting consistently from the outside and does not have the ball in his hands at all times. Some worry that since Turner will not be handling the rock as often in the NBA ? depending on what team he lands on ? that his transition may not be as smooth.
Grade: B+

Potential
Take a look at the comparisons Turner has received. All of them are versatile players and capable of killing you when you are not paying attention. He is tough as nails. How many players do you know who could return from a broken back in four weeks? Turner has the potential to be a great player, maybe even franchise player. It will all depend on whether he lands with the right team that lets him be a ball dominant player, similar to Brandon Roy?s situation in Portland.
Grade: A+
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Dime NBA Draft Profile: Evan Turner | Dime Magazine (www.dimemag.com) : Daily NBA News, NBA Trades, NBA Rumors, Basketball Videos, Sneakers
 
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Lee Caryer at Bucknuts had a very interesting blog on why Turner should be the POY and one of the more interesting points that he made was the one below where he took out the two games which Evan played only partially. There are numerous other arguments that Caryer made but I found this one to be sort of interesting.

For example, his season statistics should be revised, deleting the Eastern Michigan and Indiana games. In the first, he was injured and left the game after seven minutes. In the other, his first game after returning from the injury, he played only 20 minutes. While those games have to count in official statistics, they clearly distort his season averages.

Therefore, a new statistic -- accurate season averages, asa -- is required. Deleting the 27 minutes, 12 points, five rebounds, six assists and one steal Turner had in those partial games, his season averages improve from 19.7 points per game to an asa of 21.4; from 9.4 reb. to 10.1; from 5.4 assists to 5.7; and 2.0 steals to 2.2. His minutes jump from 33.8 for 18 games to 36.3.
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I still haven't found one NBA scout, general manager or player personnel director who will tell me they will take anyone other than Kentucky's John Wall No. 1 in the draft, assuming he declares. Ohio State's Evan Turner might win the national player of the year award, but he won't supplant Wall as the top pick. Even if a team like Utah, which has Deron Williams as its lead guard, were to get the top pick (it holds New York's unprotected pick), the Jazz would take Wall.
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Andy Katz's Daily Word: Quick hitters from around the country - ESPN
 
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Nice article by Biddle. Brings up the point that Turner has been the most important recruit by Matta but you wouldn't have guessed it looking at high school careers.

Is Turner Matta?€™s Most-Important Recruit At OSU? | Ohio State Buckeyes College Football Recruiting, OSU Big Ten Football, OSU Basketball ?€“ Bucknuts.com

However, as it turned out, he landed his most-important recruit in the very next recruiting class.

Evan Turner from Chicago was not a no-name recruit by any means. But he also wasn't a highly-rated, can't-miss prospect. There was no McDonald's All-American Game for Turner coming out of St. Joseph's - the same high school that produced Isiah Thomas and current Illinois star Demetri McCamey.
Turner had a decent offer list - but it's not like he could have picked any college he wanted to go to like someone like Oden could have. Turner considered offers from DePaul, Notre Dame, Wake Forest and a few other Big Ten schools before picking Ohio State during the summer before his senior year in high school. (One of the not-much-talked-about reasons for him picking OSU was the fact that his father - James Turner - lived in Columbus and Evan had visited him since he was very young.)
For those that think Turner was extremely under-the-radar during his prep days, you might be surprised to learn that ESPN.com had him ranked as the No. 7 small forward in the nation and the No. 49 prospect in the country overall. Other services didn't have him ranked quite so high, but the point is that he did have solid credentials coming out of St. Joe's.
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cont...
 
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Ohio State men's basketball star Evan Turner developed a Buckeyes connection early
By Doug Lesmerises, The Plain Dealer
February 12, 2010

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Iris James remembers what she calls the traumatic experience of putting her son, Evan Turner, on the plane to Columbus, watching the self-described momma's boy head to Ohio.

"It was hard for me to let him go," she said.

When Turner was choosing where to play college basketball, James made no secret of her desire for him to stay as close as possible to their Chicago home. But when he chose to play for the Buckeyes, it wasn't anything new. That first flight to Columbus occurred years earlier, with his older brother, when Turner was about 10.

Always a Chicago kid, Turner on Sunday will lead the Buckeyes back to his home state when Ohio State plays at Illinois with first place in the Big Ten on the line. But his roots in Ohio -- flying to spend the summers with his father in the Columbus area from about ages 10 through 14 -- helped pave the way for his college journey back to Columbus.

"I already knew how crazy it was, how the people out here were Buckeye crazy," Turner said Friday. "I had ties to Ohio."

His father, James Turner, is a 1978 graduate of Ashtabula High School and met Iris James in Chicago. Years after their sons were born, he moved to the Columbus area for work. That's when Evan and his older brother Darius started making their summer journeys and Ohio State started entering his consciousness.

In Chicago, with so many college and professional sports teams fighting for attention, Turner said the University of Illinois didn't make much of an impact on him. He grew up following Duke and North Carolina basketball. But he remembers walking into a gas station in Reynoldsburg during one of his first Ohio summers.

"I saw this Ohio State stuff and I thought it was crazy, because you never see Illinois stuff in Chicago," Turner said. "I thought it would be cool if I came back to play for the Buckeyes."
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Ohio State men's basketball star Evan Turner developed a Buckeyes connection early | Ohio State Buckeyes - cleveland.com - - cleveland.com

Updated: February 12, 2010
Ready for takeoff
St. Joseph's alum ready to take on McCamey, Illini
By Jon Greenberg
ESPN
Chicago.com

Ohio State's Evan Turner is averaging 19.2 points a game with 9.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists this season.

Asking star college athletes about their major is always interesting. After all, how many euphemisms are there for communications or liberal arts in the wild world of jock-o-cracy?

When Evan Turner, a breakout star guard for Ohio State, told me he was majoring in family resource management, an impressive jumble of academia that apparently has something to do with retail and consumer studies, I asked politely, "What are you going to do with that degree?"

"I'd like to work for Nike," he said.
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Ohio State's Evan Turner suddenly an "it" player at the college level - ESPN Chicago
 
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Friends McCamey, Turner taking the spotlight in Illinois-Ohio State matchup
By Mark Tupper | [email protected] | Posted: Saturday, February 13, 2010

CHAMPAIGN ? They are good friends and have been since they were about 11 years old, taking turns shooting the same basketball.

They were teammates at Westchester St. Joseph High School, members of the same Illinois Wolves AAU team and there?s little doubt they share the same dream.

They exchange text messages, trash talk and root for each other from afar ? Demetri McCamey at the University of Illinois, Evan Turner at Ohio State.

Turner has blossomed this season. He leads the Big Ten Conference in scoring and rebounding and is second in assists.

McCamey has blossomed, too, becoming an explosive scorer and playmaker who leads the league in assists.

During this past week ? when Illinois defeated fifth-ranked Michigan State and No. 11 Wisconsin ? McCamey averaged 24.5 points and 9 assists, shot 65.5 percent from the field and 69.2 percent from beyond the 3-point arc.

In another year, he might be in the running for Big Ten Player of the Year. But that?s seems unlikely since Turner is being talked about as a national Player of the Year candidate.

Sunday at the Assembly Hall, Turner and McCamey will go head-to-head, and although Illini coach Bruce Weber said he hopes the game doesn?t turn into a game of one-upsmanship with McCamey trying to outdo Turner, the comparisons will be inevitable.

?We met when we were about 11, and he was already 6 feet tall,? Turner said. ?He was probably close to 200 pounds back then ? a man among boys.?

McCamey, who topped out a 6-3 while Turner has grown to 6-7, said he has been ?kicking his butt since the sixth grade.?

Turner laughed when he heard that.

?I think I took that over when we turned 14 or 15,? he said. ?We?re pretty much like brothers.?
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Friends McCamey, Turner taking the spotlight in Illinois-Ohio State matchup

OSU men's basketball: Turner has turned tables on prep rival
Sunday, February 14, 2010
By Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

When they entered St. Joseph's High School in suburban Chicago as freshmen in 2003, Demetri McCamey was, literally and figuratively, a much bigger deal than Evan Turner.

"He was a man-child," recalled Mike Mullins, who coached both as director of the Illinois Wolves AAU program.

McCamey was almost as big then as he is now -- 6 feet 3 and 200 pounds -- and already had made a name for himself on the youth basketball circuit.

"Physically, he was very imposing and developed," Mullins said. "Evan was more like a thin reed who was growing like a prairie weed."

Gene Pingatore, the longtime coach at St. Joseph, put McCamey on the sophomore team as a freshman. Turner, just 6 feet, stayed with his fellow freshmen.

"Demetri was very mature. We felt he was able to handle it," Pingatore said. "Evan was not."

The same thing happened the next season, when they were sophomores. McCamey played with the varsity. Turner, though having grown a few inches, stayed with the sophomores.

"I moved up to varsity for summer league, played well, but (they said) you can't play varsity this year because Demetri's playing and it's not fair to the seniors," said Turner, who will lead Ohio State against McCamey and Illinois today with a share of the Big Ten lead on the line. "I just kind of wanted to trade spots (with McCamey), and that's what happened.

"People that know me know I don't do anything just for fun. I want to be the best."
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http://www.dispatch.com/live/conten...2-14.ART_ART_02-14-10_C1_EEGJAD7.html?sid=101
 
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