After playing hard-to-get to the Spurs with his cell phone number, Deshaun Thomas ended up going 58th overall to San Antonio in the NBA Draft last night.
The Buckeye scoring machine preserved Matta's 7 year streak of having an Ohio State player drafted.
It's hard to imagine a better landing spot for Deshaun, who has already expressed his willingness to work his butt off in San Antonio:
“After today, I need to work even harder,” Thomas said. “This opportunity means a lot to me. I have believed in myself all along. There are a lot of people who have dreamed of being in this situation but have given up because it became too much work. I didn’t give up. Now my goal is to stay in the league for a long time.”
The Spurs are an excellent organization to work for, so Deshaun's fallen draft position might have ended up giving him an better situation overall.
His new G.M. R.C. Buford even had a little bit of fun with the cell phone number snub, saying that "We already talked to Livio, but since Deshaun wouldn't give us his cell number, we weren't able to call him."
Thomas's fallen draft position was surprising to almost everyone:
RT @TheFakeLantern NBA Teams "Not Really Interested" In Best Scorer From Best Conference
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) June 28, 2013
Buford echoed this by saying that, "I think everyone was relatively surprised."
CBS Sports' Matt Moore graded this pick as a B+, saying that he's, "A hard working guy with a high IQ, perfect for the Spurs' D-League team." I think Deshaun is a bit more than a D-League guy, Matt.
Best of luck, Deshaun. Here's to you staying in the league for a long, long time.
In other (former) Buckeye news, Kosta Koufos was traded by the Nuggets to Memphis for the 55th pick and Darrell Arthur.
DRAFT APPEAL. This NBA draft wasn't supposed to be "unpredictable" or full of funny and "instant classic moments," because it was thought of as mildly underwhelming in the talent department.
While it may have lacked draft superstars, it certainly made up in intrigue, drama, and genuine shock. Who could have imagined Anthony Bennett – a UNLV player I never knew existed – would go first? How would you grade that pick?
Besides Bennett, did you have Zeller going 4th overall? Or UGA's Caldwell-Pope skyrocketing up to 8th? How about Shabazz Muhummad falling to 14?
It's hard to argue that the draft will ever be the same without Stern as commissioner, too.
The Celtics face the end of an era with the Big 3 of Garnett, Allen, and Pierce (not to mention Doc Rivers) finally parting ways. I have to agree with CBS that it doesn't sound like an awesome start to rebuilding (but at least they've still got Sully).
JAMARCO JONES, COME ON DOWN. With all of this basketball talk you would think I forgot that the Buckeyes added a commitment from Jamarco Jones yesterday, making Urban, Warinner, and Herman all very happy.
Jones is a certified behemoth that will contend for a starting position almost from the second he steps on to campus next year. His recruiting highlight film is kind of ridiculous, with defensive linemen just falling all over the place and getting pushed ten yards off the line of scrimmage on run plays.
His film is certainly run heavy, so it's harder for me to assess his pass blocking skills, but that's usually something that all offensive tackle prospects must work on during their transition to college ball.
Noguiera and Stern in the "photo of the draft."Two things stand out to me about this pick up. First, the Buckeyes are finally picking up true offensive tackles, rather than the Walrus standard of having to convert true guards into tackles.
Second, Jones doesn't stop until the whistle (though it's hard to say when the whistle really is on a highlight film), pancaking his first guy and then moving on to another player. It's so important for offensive linemen to not only have size and technique, but tenacity as well.
In addition to Jones, Jones, and Trout, Meyer and company hope to add several more offensive linemen to this class, including Knox, Eluemunor, Mavety, Prince, or Bookser.
LOOKING BACK AT '02. Jerry Palm wrote a really interesting piece on the 2002 college football season in his series commemorating the BCS era.
This series details the changes to the BCS formula each year, the pool of Division 1-A teams, and takes a look at how a 4-team playoff would have been different. Ohio State versus UGA in '02? Sign me up.
In retrospect, 2002 was a pretty crazy year. Can you imagine an Iowa-Washington State Rose Bowl? Me neither.
I loved his description of the end of the national championship game:
The officials butchered the mechanics of making that call so badly that nobody who doesn't bleed Scarlet and Gray believes that was the correct call. Nobody, except the officials and me. I was standing at the goal line and saw it so clearly, I started reaching for my flag. It turns out I didn't have one. The Buckeyes converted their second chance, then won the title in the next OT. That stands as the Big Ten's only title of the BCS era.
OK Big Ten bros (i.e. Buckeyes) – you've got one last opportunity.
UNDRAFTED LINKS. 29 year old rookie NFL player hits 25 mph on a treadmill... Pelini isn't afraid to toss guys off of his team... In case you're itching for some SC football updates... Instead of fan-picked helmets, Southern Miss should have done fan-picked plays... Meechy came around and answered some Opening-related questions yesterday... More on Oladipo at number two... Louisiana Tech AD steps down after the 9-3 team didn't make a bowl last year.
