Connor Lemons
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You’re Nuts: Which Buckeyes would have been great if they weren’t blocked by someone else?
Connor Lemons via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Matthew O’Haren-USA TODAY Sports
There have been some great hoopers to come through Columbus, but was that at the expense of some others?
Congratulations to Carmen’s Crew, which has officially advanced to the Elite Eight of The Basketball Tournament for the first time since the team won the title in 2019. A balanced scoring attack led by Jared Sullinger and Kaleb Wesson carried Carmen’s Crew to a 74-70 victory over the reigning TBT champions, Team Heartfire, on Wednesday night.
Last week, Connor and Justin both picked one player that’s never played for Carmen’s Crew that they would like to see suit up in scarlet and gray soon. Justin picked Jamison Battle, who recently signed with the Toronto Raptors after going undrafted in the 2024 NBA Draft. Connor picked Evan Turner, who coached Carmen’s Crew for the last few years, but has never suited up — even after retiring from the NBA in 2020.
20% of the readers sided with Justin and his pick of battle. The other 80% picked Turner, whose name hangs in the rafters at the Schottenstein Center.
Connor- 79
Watching former Buckeyes get buckets on TV has us thinking back about Ohio State teams of years past. Some Ohio State teams have been so deep that great players were relegated to a backup role, despite being more than capable of starting if the opportunity was there. Some of those players wound up transferring elsewhere, and found success when more minutes became available to them. Others broke out in a big way once the player they were “backing up” graduated.
Here are two examples...
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Sandra Dukes-USA TODAY Sports
Absolutely nobody should be surprised to see LeDee listed here, since he finished as a Second-Team All American last season at San Diego State, was named the Mountain West Player of the Year, and won the Karl Malone Award, given to the nation’s best power forward.
Before all of that happened, LeDee was a TCU Horned Frog. Before he was a Horned Frog, he was a Buckeye.
LeDee was a four-star recruit out of Texas in the 2018 cycle, just outside the top-100 prospects in the country. He was part of Chris Holtmann’s first “full” recruiting class at Ohio State, along with Luther Muhammad, Duane Washington, and Justin Ahrens. Ironically enough, three of those four players wound up transferring from Ohio State at some point.
As a freshman, LeDee appeared in 26 of Ohio State’s 35 games, averaging three points per game in just under seven minutes per game. He wasn’t the “five-star center” that Ohio State fans have been demanding for the past 15 years, but LeDee was tall, lean, had good footwork around the basket, and was a good free throw shooter considering his size.
After his freshman season, LeDee transferred to TCU. The rumor was that LeDee, who is originally from Texas, wanted to be closer to home.
It took until his sixth year of college, but LeDee did eventually have his breakout season, as stated above. He averaged better than 21 points per game for San Diego State last season, helping take the Aztecs to the Sweet Sixteen where they lost to the eventual national champion UCONN, 82-52. Even with that loss, LeDee’s Aztecs still advanced farther in the tournament this past season than Ohio State has in the past 11 years.
Everyone enjoyed doing the whole “revisionist history” thing with LeDee this past season, pointing fingers and reminding anyone who would listen that Chris Holtmann could’ve played LeDee more, but chose not to. This ignores the fact that Jamie Dixon also could’ve played him more at TCU and also did not, as well as ignoring the fact that LeDee being a great player in his sixth college season does not mean that LeDee would’ve been great at Ohio State early in his career, even if he was given the minutes.
However, a huge barricade to LeDee getting minutes as a freshman was Kaleb Wesson, who is one year older than him. Wesson arrived at Ohio State in 2017 as an exciting local recruit from nearby Westerville and earned an important role for the Buckeyes starting his freshman year. Wesson eventually turned into an All-Big Ten caliber player who was — at times — Ohio State’s only offensive threat, especially during that 2018-2019 season.
Wesson developed an outside shot during college, and left Ohio State as a 40% three-point shooter. However, he was never a player who could operated primarily on the perimeter at 6-foot-9 and 270 pounds, which meant he and LeDee weren’t going to co-exist on the floor.
Clearly, Jaedon LeDee had a ton of talent — it just took some time and the right situation to really allow him to show it. If he was at Ohio State and Wesson wasn’t, I think there would’ve been a much larger opportunity for LeDee. Perhaps the San Diego State breakout would’ve actually happened in Columbus if he wasn’t blocked behind another talented center. *shrugs*
When it comes to players that have been positionally blocked at Ohio State, guard Shannon Scott immediately comes to mind.
He attended Ohio State for four years, three of which were behind Aaron Craft. His senior season was also D’Angelo Russell’s freshman season. They were two of the best guards in the history of the program. Tough draw.
Scott spent four years in Columbus, played in 143 games, and only started in 57 of those. 34 of those 57 starts came in his senior year when he was the starting point guard, and Russell was the starting shooting guard. However, often throughout that season the offense still ran through Russell most of the time.
Scott was the No. 32 ranked recruit in his class, so he was a high four-star prospect and showed great potential when he arrived in Columbus. Scott was a two-time Big Ten All-Defense and was elite on that side of the ball, but he played alongside one of the greatest defensive guards in the program’s history, so his efforts on that end got overwhelmed, too.
In 143 games over four years, he averaged 5.5 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game. This was with the offense never being run through him or for him. He could have fairly easily been a double-digit scorer, but his role was defensive and not as a main scorer. It also made him slightly inefficient because it was hard for him to get into a flow.
Scott did not have a bad career in Columbus, but because of who he played behind and next to, it was hard for him to reach his full potential.
I don’t consider LeDee to be on this list because he wasn’t positionally blocked to me; He just wasn’t on the right team or in the right situation. He went to TCU as well, and that was not right for him either. He found the perfect spot at San Diego State, and that was awesome to see. I am not sure he would have ever reached his potential at OSU, but not because of who was ahead of him.
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Connor Lemons via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Matthew O’Haren-USA TODAY Sports
There have been some great hoopers to come through Columbus, but was that at the expense of some others?
Congratulations to Carmen’s Crew, which has officially advanced to the Elite Eight of The Basketball Tournament for the first time since the team won the title in 2019. A balanced scoring attack led by Jared Sullinger and Kaleb Wesson carried Carmen’s Crew to a 74-70 victory over the reigning TBT champions, Team Heartfire, on Wednesday night.
Last week, Connor and Justin both picked one player that’s never played for Carmen’s Crew that they would like to see suit up in scarlet and gray soon. Justin picked Jamison Battle, who recently signed with the Toronto Raptors after going undrafted in the 2024 NBA Draft. Connor picked Evan Turner, who coached Carmen’s Crew for the last few years, but has never suited up — even after retiring from the NBA in 2020.
20% of the readers sided with Justin and his pick of battle. The other 80% picked Turner, whose name hangs in the rafters at the Schottenstein Center.
After 162 weeks:
Connor- 79
Justin- 63
Other- 16
(There have been four ties)
Watching former Buckeyes get buckets on TV has us thinking back about Ohio State teams of years past. Some Ohio State teams have been so deep that great players were relegated to a backup role, despite being more than capable of starting if the opportunity was there. Some of those players wound up transferring elsewhere, and found success when more minutes became available to them. Others broke out in a big way once the player they were “backing up” graduated.
Here are two examples...
This week’s question: Which Buckeyes would have been great if they weren’t blocked by someone else?
Connor: Jaedon LeDee
Absolutely nobody should be surprised to see LeDee listed here, since he finished as a Second-Team All American last season at San Diego State, was named the Mountain West Player of the Year, and won the Karl Malone Award, given to the nation’s best power forward.
Before all of that happened, LeDee was a TCU Horned Frog. Before he was a Horned Frog, he was a Buckeye.
LeDee was a four-star recruit out of Texas in the 2018 cycle, just outside the top-100 prospects in the country. He was part of Chris Holtmann’s first “full” recruiting class at Ohio State, along with Luther Muhammad, Duane Washington, and Justin Ahrens. Ironically enough, three of those four players wound up transferring from Ohio State at some point.
As a freshman, LeDee appeared in 26 of Ohio State’s 35 games, averaging three points per game in just under seven minutes per game. He wasn’t the “five-star center” that Ohio State fans have been demanding for the past 15 years, but LeDee was tall, lean, had good footwork around the basket, and was a good free throw shooter considering his size.
After his freshman season, LeDee transferred to TCU. The rumor was that LeDee, who is originally from Texas, wanted to be closer to home.
It took until his sixth year of college, but LeDee did eventually have his breakout season, as stated above. He averaged better than 21 points per game for San Diego State last season, helping take the Aztecs to the Sweet Sixteen where they lost to the eventual national champion UCONN, 82-52. Even with that loss, LeDee’s Aztecs still advanced farther in the tournament this past season than Ohio State has in the past 11 years.
Everyone enjoyed doing the whole “revisionist history” thing with LeDee this past season, pointing fingers and reminding anyone who would listen that Chris Holtmann could’ve played LeDee more, but chose not to. This ignores the fact that Jamie Dixon also could’ve played him more at TCU and also did not, as well as ignoring the fact that LeDee being a great player in his sixth college season does not mean that LeDee would’ve been great at Ohio State early in his career, even if he was given the minutes.
However, a huge barricade to LeDee getting minutes as a freshman was Kaleb Wesson, who is one year older than him. Wesson arrived at Ohio State in 2017 as an exciting local recruit from nearby Westerville and earned an important role for the Buckeyes starting his freshman year. Wesson eventually turned into an All-Big Ten caliber player who was — at times — Ohio State’s only offensive threat, especially during that 2018-2019 season.
Wesson developed an outside shot during college, and left Ohio State as a 40% three-point shooter. However, he was never a player who could operated primarily on the perimeter at 6-foot-9 and 270 pounds, which meant he and LeDee weren’t going to co-exist on the floor.
Clearly, Jaedon LeDee had a ton of talent — it just took some time and the right situation to really allow him to show it. If he was at Ohio State and Wesson wasn’t, I think there would’ve been a much larger opportunity for LeDee. Perhaps the San Diego State breakout would’ve actually happened in Columbus if he wasn’t blocked behind another talented center. *shrugs*
Justin: Shannon Scott
When it comes to players that have been positionally blocked at Ohio State, guard Shannon Scott immediately comes to mind.
He attended Ohio State for four years, three of which were behind Aaron Craft. His senior season was also D’Angelo Russell’s freshman season. They were two of the best guards in the history of the program. Tough draw.
Scott spent four years in Columbus, played in 143 games, and only started in 57 of those. 34 of those 57 starts came in his senior year when he was the starting point guard, and Russell was the starting shooting guard. However, often throughout that season the offense still ran through Russell most of the time.
Scott was the No. 32 ranked recruit in his class, so he was a high four-star prospect and showed great potential when he arrived in Columbus. Scott was a two-time Big Ten All-Defense and was elite on that side of the ball, but he played alongside one of the greatest defensive guards in the program’s history, so his efforts on that end got overwhelmed, too.
In 143 games over four years, he averaged 5.5 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game. This was with the offense never being run through him or for him. He could have fairly easily been a double-digit scorer, but his role was defensive and not as a main scorer. It also made him slightly inefficient because it was hard for him to get into a flow.
Scott did not have a bad career in Columbus, but because of who he played behind and next to, it was hard for him to reach his full potential.
I don’t consider LeDee to be on this list because he wasn’t positionally blocked to me; He just wasn’t on the right team or in the right situation. He went to TCU as well, and that was not right for him either. He found the perfect spot at San Diego State, and that was awesome to see. I am not sure he would have ever reached his potential at OSU, but not because of who was ahead of him.
Continue reading...