PG Aaron Craft (B1G 6th MOY '11, Def POY '12, Acad AA, Dolomiti En. TR - Italy)

[Buckskin86]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyQdYe3EGrQ"]Aaron Craft of Ohio State basketball at Big Ten Media Day in Chicago - YouTube[/ame]

 

[NINJA BUCK13]

​

 

[Buckskin86]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB0--pcUh50"]News-Sentinel 1-on-1: Aaron Craft - YouTube[/ame]

 

[LitlBuck]

If it were a made-for-television movie rather than a basketball game aboard the USS Yorktown, Brandon Craft would walk out from behind a curtain and surprise his brother and sister.

?That would be sweet,? Aaron Craft said.

Reality, as far as anyone knows, is that Brandon still will be somewhere in Afghanistan when his younger brother and their younger sister, Cait, play in the Carrier Classic on Friday aboard the decommissioned aircraft carrier anchored at Mount Pleasant, S.C. And that will lend real-life perspective to the excitement over the tipoff of the 2012-13 college-basketball season.

The 19th-ranked Ohio State women?s team plays No. 7 Notre Dame at 4 p.m. The fourth-ranked men?s team plays Marquette at 7 p.m. Aaron is a junior and the starting point guard for the men?s team. Cait is a freshman guard for the women.

?We?re going to play hard. They?re going to play hard. Obviously, we want to win,? Aaron said.

?But it just goes to show there are much bigger things out there than sports, much bigger things out there than basketball. I get to play basketball and enjoy it because guys like my brother are over there taking care of our country.?

The Carrier Classic was started last year to benefit U.S. armed-forces charities. The first game, between Michigan State and North Carolina aboard the USS Carl Vinson off San Diego, generated about $500,000.

At the time, Brandon Craft, an Army infantryman, was rehabilitating an injury that postponed his second deployment to Afghanistan. The injury was to the same knee that he injured in college, cutting short his football career three years ago and resulting in his decision to leave the University of Findlay, where he was a junior, and enlist.

Aaron, three years younger and at the time

more
http://buckeyextra.dispatch.com/content/stories/2012/11/06/crafts-big-event-is-next-week.html

 

[Buckskin86]

Carrier Classic Will Be Special for Craft Family
By Brandon Castel

COLUMBUS, Ohio ? There will be just one thing missing on Friday night, one piece to an otherwise perfect evening off the coast of South Carolina, on the top deck of a United States aircraft carrier.

Photo by Jim Davidson Aaron Craft

It?s there, in the Charleston Harbor, where Ohio State point guard Aaron Craft will begin his junior season, where his younger sister Cait will play her first collegiate game, and where their father, a school teacher of 27 years, will be thinking about his oldest son.

?That would be too surreal to have the third one,? said John Craft, who tea6ches American History and Government at Fostoria High School in the northwest corner of Ohio.

?That would have been one of those ?let?s keep it a secret? deals.?

cont..

http://www.the-ozone.net/hoops/12-13Men/carrierclassic/craftfamily.html

 

[OHSportsFan]

Outscored Deshaun Thomas.

 

[colobuck79]

Outscored Deshaun Thomas.

With about half the shots.

 

[LitlBuck]

With about half the shots.

That's not saying much

 

[LitlBuck]

Bob Baptist Twitter

Albany coach Will Brown said after game that Aaron Craft will play in NBA for 10 years. "He just gets better every year." #buckbk

 

[DZ83CK]

Craft's new 3-point stroke (and confidence) should pay huge dividends this year for OSU. He has made some other improvements offensively as well, so he could have a much bigger year on that end of the court. It could be that he goes from 9 ppg to 14 or 15. Very good to see him shoot the ball like he did yesterday, as this team (if it's going to have a good chance at making a run in the NCAA tourney again) needs Aaron, Zelle and DT to all be super scorers, especially if they frequently get low scoring outputs from the 5 position. Aaron and Zelle were very good at shooting a high percentage on a lot of shots yesterday - if that trend continues throughout the year, both will be in line for some Big Ten honors.

 

[Bulls-Eye]

The thing about Craft is he scored 7-9 ppg and averaged 5 apg while being a complete afterthought in the offense the past two years. Sure he would at times become a playmaker, either for himself or someone else, but nothing consistent. It just wasn't necessary. That is not to say he does not have that ability though, and I think that is where the surprise will come in nationally.

He obviously will not be able to shoot quite as well as he did against Albany, but I think we can expect to see Craft consistently putting up much bigger offensive numbers. Now, for this team and offense to become as effective as possible, Craft will be asked to be more of a playmaker. It is a completely different role from his first two years at OSU, but I have no doubt he can be that type of player.

 

[LitlBuck]

Craft’s father, John, said he was backing out of his driveway on the day before Thanksgiving when his phone rang. He saw that the call was from his older son, Brandon, and that meant one thing: The Army soldier had returned to his base at Fort Lewis, Wash., after an eight-month stint in Afghanistan. He was deployed in March while Aaron was playing in the NCAA East Regional in Boston. If all goes according to plan, Brandon could be home for the Buckeyes’ game against Kansas on Dec. 22.

Insider

 

[MaxBuck]

Outscored Deshaun Thomas.

With about half the shots.

That's not saying much

Deshaun Thomas is the second-most efficient offensive player in the nation, so you guys can cool your jets.

Craft is going to be the most important player on the court tomorrow night, IMO. Got to keep the inferior Duke guards turning the ball over in order to compensate for the Blue Devils' superior bigs.

 

[leroyjenkins]

Insider

 

[LitlBuck]

No one took the loss at Duke harder than Aaron Craft.

A two-year starter for Ohio State, a preseason All-Big Ten selection, a dynamo on defense and calm conductor of the offense, he had more put on his plate this season. With the departure of Jared Sullinger and William Buford, the Buckeyes also need him to score more.

He didn?t on Wednesday night in a 73-68 loss to the No. 2 Blue Devils. He wasn?t the only one, but his struggles were the most noticeable down the stretch as the Buckeyes gave up a lead they had for more than 28 minutes.

?You?ve got to give them credit,? a somber Craft said of the Blue Devils (7-0), who limited Ohio State to 33.8 percent shooting, but ?I just missed shots, plain and simple. The majority of my shots were wide open and I missed them.?

What made him feel worse was that he knew his teammates were looking to him to make a difference in the second half, to lead their response to Duke?s persistent surge that gradually turned the tide against the No. 4 Buckeyes (4-1), especially with the Blue Devils focused on taking away the room Deshaun Thomas had to score.

Thomas led Ohio State (4-1) with 16 points, but he was scoreless after his three-pointer with 8:26 left gave the Buckeyes a 51-46 lead. At that point, Duke pretty much decided to pay him extra attention while allowing Craft open looks.

Neither Craft nor anyone else was capable of taking up Thomas? slack. Ohio State made only four of its last 12 shots, and two came in the final 10 seconds with the Buckeyes down by six points. Craft and Evan Ravenel had the only field goals in a span of more than eight minutes in which Duke turned a five-point deficit into a lead of as much of eight by outscoring the Buckeyes 20-7.

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