A few minutes before tipoff, Ron Stokes slid into a seat along press row in Value City Arena and set up a temporary office that included a singular perk.
He unpacked his iPad, set down some notes and looked toward the far basket where the Ohio State women?s team warmed up for its game against Lafayette.
Stokes, a former OSU player and current radio analyst for the men?s basketball team, had come to watch his daughter, Amber, play for the Buckeyes.
The two are the only father-daughter combination to wear Ohio State basketball uniforms in program history.
She always knows when he is alone in the press section or with her mother, Lavita, in regular seats.
?Yeah, I look over at him occasionally,? said Amber, a fifth-year senior. ?It?s always good that he?s here.?
Her father will watch quietly while his daughter plays a style of on-the-ball defense that is hauntingly familiar to fans who watched him play for the Buckeyes from 1981 to ?85.
Yet, Ron scarcely moved when she stripped a Lafayette player of the ball and knifed to the basket for a layup. Amber knows that reaction as well.
?He?s pretty relaxed during games,? she said.
Seemingly at some point in a game, the 5-foot-10 Amber will rise for the rebound high enough to touch the rim with her fingertips. The crowd will react in the same excited manner that it did when her father, a 5-11 guard with scary hops, slammed home a dunk.
?The first time I dunked I was in the ninth grade,? Ron said. ?I was probably about 5-91/2 then. The last time was six years ago when I was 43. So there are similarities between us.
?There is obviously a difference between men and women athletically, but she has exceptional leaping ability. When somebody grabs a rebound, people marvel at two things ? the player?s ability to get from point A to point B, and to elevate. Those are definite advantages for her.?
7 PM tonight
