PORTLAND, Ore. — Keita Bates-Diop sat down in front of his locker inside Ohio State’s locker room following the Buckeyes’ 75-72 overtime win against VCU on Thursday and pulled out his iPhone. Awaiting him were roughly 50 unread text messages.
Bates-Diop smiled as he was looking down at his phone, almost in shock that the texts wouldn’t stop coming. When asked who would be the first person he was planning on replying to, though, the answer was simple.
“Probably my mom and my dad,” he said. “They’ve already (texted me) so I’ll reply and call them later. They just said great job with all the emojis and exclamation marks, stuff like that."
The reason for the mass amount of texts on Bates-Diop’s phone was pretty simple, too. The freshman forward from Normal, Ill., had just hit the two biggest shots of his young career.
With 3 minutes, 36 seconds to play in regulation and the Buckeyes trailing 60-59, Bates-Diop caught the ball on the left wing, bobbled it, then hoisted a 3-pointer that hit nothing but the bottom of the net and gave Ohio State a two-point lead.
That lead wouldn’t hold, however, as the two teams went to overtime. But it was in that extra period where Bates-Diop stepped up again. He caught a pass from Shannon Scott, this time on the right wing, and buried another 3-pointer with 2:34 left to break a tie and give Ohio State a 71-68 lead. The Buckeyes didn’t give this one up.
“My coaches and all my teammates believed in me, I couldn’t let them down,” Bates-Diop said. “The ups and downs in this season, I had to forget all about all that and just make the shots.”
The ups and downs Bates-Diop was referring to were in relation to most of his freshman season. He’s been in and out of Ohio State’s lineup, never knowing when he’s going to get significant minutes, if at all.
But on Thursday night, when his name was called and when the Buckeyes needed him, he stepped up and delivered.
“It’s a lot of pressure, but we practice those shots every day in practice,” Bates-Diop said. “You’ve gotta clear your mind and make the shot.”
Bates-Diop came to Columbus with high expectations. He was a four-star recruit in high school and one of the top-50 players in the country. But for whatever reason — sometimes it’s his defensive ability and others it’s his lack of aggressiveness — things just haven’t clicked this year. He’s averaged just 3.8 points per game.
Most of the season, it’s been D’Angelo Russell and Jae’Sean Tate who have been the key contributors in this freshman class. Both were great for the Buckeyes against the Rams, as well, but on this night Bates-Diop got to share the spotlight.
“Keita is huge and we see it every day in practice,” Russell said. “I mean, you’re seeing a star in the making with Keita. He just needs the confidence.”
Confidence and comfort seemed to be the common words used by some of Bates-Diop’s other teammates, too.
“We all knew Keita had it in him, he’s just getting comfortable,” Tate said. “Keita is, every day, improving so much and now he’s showing the world. We always knew he would be a big part of this team.”
Added senior forward Sam Thompson: “Keita was huge, man. I can’t get over how big he was. I was in foul trouble, I wasn’t playing very well and Keita came in and had those two shots and knocked them down. It was huge for him, I’m happy for him.”
Russell was the one who iced the game for the Buckeyes after making a pair of free throws with just five seconds left in overtime. Tate scored 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds as he was a monster in the paint, specifically in the second half, against an undersized VCU team.
But what were arguably the two biggest shots of the day for Ohio State, in some of the biggest moments, came from the hand of Bates-Diop.
And even after all of that, Bates-Diop remained his quiet, humble self as he sat in front of his locker staring at his cell phone still in awe of what happened. He had just helped lift the Buckeyes to an NCAA tournament win and set up a date with No. 2 seed Arizona on Saturday.
“I have faith that anybody else on the floor could have made those shots, could have made a play,” Bates-Diop said. “It just happened to be me.”
