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SF William Buford - 4 BTT Title Games, most Buckeye starts (Virtus Roma - Italy)

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I don't know what it is about William Buford but I've been a huge fan since his recruitement. He just seems to be a great player from a great family and couldn't have a more solid head on his shoulders. He's going to have success at whatever he takes on in life.
 
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38. William Buford, Ohio State (Sr., SG)
Buford was a key piece of the Buckeyes' terrifying perimeter shooting in 2011, and he's really one of the better scorers in college basketball right now. I'd love to see him get to the line more because he never misses from there, and it's odd that his FTA/2FGA is only 0.24 -- a figure that places him in the lowest five percent of Division I players. There can't be many players in that group besides Buford with so many two-point attempts and such a high FT percentage. (About that terrifying perimeter shooting: When I remembered that the other pieces of this machine were Jon Diebler and David Lighty, and that Thad Matta also had Jared Sullinger, Deshaun Thomas, and Aaron Craft at his disposal, I had to go re-check how Ohio State ever lost in the tournament. Well, here's your answer. That looks like the last traces of a plane that flew across the country and then got hit by an asteroid.)
Click to expand...

http://www.basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=1800
 
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William Buford = OSU's All-Time Leading Scorer?

There's been a lot of talk ever since Thad Matta took over at OSU in '04 about his recruitment of top talent prospects around the country. Matta has had numerous one & dones, players transfer out, players that under achieved, and players that hung around for their 4 year (5 for Lighty) tenure. He also inherited a McDs All-American in Ivan Harris and a former Mr. Basketball Ohio winner Jamar Butler.

Greg Oden and Mike Conley got tons of hype, and deservedly so. Deaquan Cook, one year and gone. Same with Koufos and Mullens. Lighty, Deibler, and Turner stuck around and developed their games and all left the program with their own legacy.
Turner - Naismith Award, and 2nd overall draft pick
Deibler - All-time school and B1G leader in career 3 pointers
Lighty - Winningest player in school history and a fan favorite

Then comes the current young guys on the roster.
Sullinger - Top recruit in the country, B1G freshman of the year
Thomas - Big time high-school scorer and McDs All-American
Craft - B1G 6th man of the year and an absolute fan favorite

Now we have this 2011 class coming in with 4 top50 players and 2 McDs All-Americans...........

Sandwiched in between all of that talent and hype, is a guy by the name of William Buford. Matta's most under-rated player throughout his tenure IMO. Buford was highly touted coming out of high-school but has been over shadowed by other players since committing to OSU including the #1 C prospect in the class and local prospect B.J. Mullens when he came in as a freshman.

Buford has played three solid seasons for Ohio St. but has never been the leading scorer on his team. To this point in his career, Buford has amassed 1,422 career points with a 13.4 per game avg. With Buford set to return for his senior season, that all but assures that he will crack the top5 all-time scoring list for OSU.

OSU's all-time Top5 scoring list.....

1) 2,096 Dennis Hopson
2) 2,011 Herb Williams
3) 1,990 Jerry Lucas
4) 1,934 Kelvin Ransey
5) 1,879 Micheal Redd

Buford currently stands 674 points shy of the all-time OSU career mark but it's not out of reach. If Ohio St. plays it's maximum amount games (41), then Buford would have to avg. 16.43ppg. If they play 40 games, he would need to play at a 16.85ppg clip. In each of the previous two seasons, Buford has avg. 14.4ppg. If he maintains that average his senior season and OSU plays 40 games, Buford would finish up at almost exactly 2,000 career points.

My guess, he finishes 2nd all-time somewhere between Hopson's 2,096 and Herb William's 2,011 points and become just the 3rd player ever to surpass the 2,000 point mark. Not too bad for a 4 year player that will never lead his team in scoring. I think that Buford should be referenced more as Mr. Consistency than the most under rated player in Matta's tenure. Either way William Buford, thanks for staying four years at The Ohio State University.
-NINJA
__________________
'HARD WORK BEATS TALENT IF TALENT DOESN'T WORK HARD'
 
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Would love to see Buford move up that list and believe his return will be a key to our success this year.

That said - and not to take anything away from him in his own thread - as a child of the 60's I have to add a column to that list:

Dennis Hopson - 125 games
Herb Williams - 114 games
William Buford - 106 games and counting.

Jerry Lucas - 82 games
 
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Oh8ch;1954833; said:
Would love to see Buford move up that list and believe his return will be a key to our success this year.

That said - and not to take anything away from him in his own thread - as a child of the 60's I have to add a column to that list:

Dennis Hopson - 125 games
Herb Williams - 114 games
William Buford - 106 games and counting.

Jerry Lucas - 82 games
Click to expand...

That's definitely a solid point there. I wasn't trying to put Bufird in the same category of a player as those guys, I was just stating how smooth and consistent Buford has been as a scorer and contributor over his career while never being 'the man' on the team. His first two seasons, he played with Turner (better player), and his last two seasons he'll play with Sullinger (better player).

My point was more that Buford is a very good player, and should be viewed at as a very good player when he leaves here. Not a great or elite player, but a very good player and solid Buckeye.

Isn't it a little weird to think that Will could leave OSU as the all-time leading scorer? If not, a top3 all-time. I think he's quietly accomplished more than most people realize because of all of the other 5 star players that have came and left while Buford was here.

Just a thought in this long off-season.....
 
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