i'm absolutely fine with jimmer as the selection, but the kid didn't play a lick of defense. there are two sides to a basketball court. had the voters selected walker instead, i would have been fine with that, too.starBUCKS;1902230; said:
Commentary: Not so fast NBA Draft, Sullinger has some unfinished business
By Michael Periatt
[email protected]
Published: Sunday, April 10, 2011
Andy Gottesman / multimedia editor
It's that time of year again. College basketball is over and a flurry of underclassmen are forced to decide between a chance at millions of dollars in the NBA or returning for another year of school.
Duke's Kyrie Irving, Kansas' Morris twins, Illinois' Jereme Richmond, Pittsburgh's Ashton Gibbs and UCLA's Tyler Honeycutt are among the growing list of players who will test the waters in the NBA.
One name noticeably absent from the list is Ohio State's Jared Sullinger.
By all accounts, Sullinger was a guaranteed lottery pick; most mock drafts had him being selected somewhere in the top 10.
But Sullinger made it clear after OSU's 62-60 loss to Kentucky in the fourth round of the NCAA Tournament that he was coming back for another year at OSU.
Following the loss, Sullinger sat in a somber locker room and said, "I'm going to be an Ohio State Buckeye next year. This isn't why I came here, to come in here and see my seniors in here crying. I came here to win a national championship."
Some said Sullinger would waver on his decision. After all, how could anyone sit in front of his teammates after such a traumatic loss and say, "Well, it's been fun, guys, but I'm off to bigger and better things. See you around?"
But that's not the case. Sullinger never budged.
He was in that same locker-room situation just three years ago. During Sullinger's sophomore year at Northland High School in Columbus, his team made it to the district semifinal game against Westerville South High School. He had a chance to make a run at a state championship.
Before the game, Sullinger's coach and father, Satch Sullinger, suspended his son for the game for slacking on academics. Northland lost.
After the loss, Sullinger was left in a locker room full of depressed and disappointed seniors.
Sound familiar?
Cont..
Ohio State's Jared Sullinger a fitting first recipient of the Tisdale Award
Buckeye was relentless on the glass in leading his team to the Sweet Sixteen.
BY JAKE TROTTER, STAFF WRITER, [email protected] Oklahoman
Published: April 11, 2011
Wayman Tisdale had the ability to make everyone around him feel better about themselves.
Dick Vitale, left, and Jared Sullinger pose together during a reception before the Wayman Tisdale Award Banquet on Monday. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
Ohio State's Jared Sullinger a fitting first recipient of the Tisdale Award
Fitting that the first recipient of the Wayman Tisdale Award was blessed with a similar gift.
Monday night, during a banquet at the Skirvin Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City, Ohio State's Jared Sullinger was presented with the inaugural Tisdale Award, which going forward will be awarded annually to the top freshman in college basketball.
?(Tisdale) was a great basketball player. I heard he always had a big smile, would tell good jokes,? Sullinger said. ?I can go on and on about what I've heard.
?Some people say they compare me to him. It's an honor to be compared to him.?
Wed Apr 13
The highs and lows of being Jared Sullinger, in letter form
By Jeff Eisenberg
Never have the highs and lows of being a star athlete been clearer to Ohio State's Jared Sullinger than when the freshman forward picked up a stack of fan mail on Tuesday night and began reading the letters addressed to him.
Two stood out to Sullinger enough that he posted pictures of them on Twitter, both for entirely different reasons.
The first was a particularly obnoxious piece of unsigned hate mail written in all caps. The anonymous writer begins by ripping Ohio State for playing a soft schedule, then devolves into personal attacks with thinly veiled racial overtones:
"WE ARE BETTING LARGE ON AN EARLY OUT FROM OSU. S--T YOU HAVE BARELY WON 3 GAMES AGAINST WEAK CUPCAKES. JUST ANOTHER ARROGANT, DYSFUNCTIONAL BLACK LOOKING FOR A FREE RIDE. YOUR PIMPED UP BROTHER ON TV WITH HIS EARRINGS LOOKED ESPECIALLY CHEAP ON TV. OSU IS THE DIRTIEST ATHLETIC PROGRAM IN THE UNIOTED STATES. TELL ME YOU THUGS CAN COUNT AND SPEAK. I HAVE HEARD ABOUT 10 OF THEM AND I THINK NOT. BYE BYE WUSSIE."
The second was a touching letter from a 27-year-old cancer patient seeking an autograph. Collecting autographs had apparently been one of the writers' hobbies as a kid, so the Ohio resident got back into it after being diagnosed with Stage IV melanoma cancer since the responses from athletes were something to look forward to during chemotherapy:
"Right now during this tough time with my treatments, I look forward to getting responses through the mail to lift my spirits and bring a little excitement to my days. In my younger years, I put together a pretty good collection of autographed memorabilia and now is the opportune time to see it grow once again. My collection is something that I will cherish forever and will pass it down eventually to my children."
Cont...
Pretty easy to call Sullinger a "wussie" in a letter. Try doing it in person