Jon Diebler grinned then chuckled at even the thought of knowing what Carmen’s Crew’s roster will look like.
“We don't really know,” Diebler said through a laugh.
“I have no idea,” William Buford added before Diebler said, “That's a great question.”
All they know for sure right now is that they’re back in The Basketball Tournament for a fifth year, and they’ll be hosting one of the four regionals in Columbus at the Covelli Center. It’ll be the first on-campus games for the Ohio State alumni team, as announced on Wednesday afternoon.
So far, Carmen’s Crew – which won the $2 million tournament prize in 2019 but got eliminated in the first round in 2020 – has four players confirmed for its roster this summer: David Lighty, Evan Ravenel, Diebler and Buford. All four of them have played on the team dating back to when it debuted as Scarlet & Gray in 2017. Jared Sullinger is set to be the head coach and general manager once again, and Evan Turner will be an assistant coach.
Diebler and Buford will be among those who have input on the roster, but Sullinger and Turner have typically done the majority of the work of putting it together.
“We've had our core and guys that have been in since Day 1 since the first year we did it, but obviously we need to add some pieces, figure out who still wants to play and things of that nature,” Diebler said. “We've got time.”
For Diebler, that means he has time to campaign. Because, yes, Sullinger is currently slated to be an off-the-court member of Carmen’s Crew. But both he and Buford want more from the 29-year old former All-American Buckeye currently starring in South Korea, who did play for the team in its earlier years.
They hope to convince him to suit up in TBT this summer. Diebler called him “the main one” when talking about guys he wants on the roster.
“I know he's doing really well right now,” Diebler said. “Outside of TBT, it's just awesome to see him playing again. He's been through a lot injury-wise, and we all know how good of a player Sully is. To see him playing again, everyone knew he was going to play well. We're working on it.”
Buford jumped in: “You guys should help us out, man. You guys can hit him up and tell him he needs to play.”
Another guy well known in Columbus who might join Carmen’s Crew once again? Aaron Craft.
He retired from professional basketball last year to begin medical school at Ohio State but left open the possibility of playing in TBT one last time. Neither Diebler nor Buford knows yet whether he’ll be on the team.
“I haven't talked to him personally about basketball,” Buford said. “Just how his second career is going after ball. I hope that Craft does play with us. I love playing with Craft. He makes the game so much easier for everybody. You know what type of effort he's going to give night in and night out. Hopefully we can get him to play this year. It would be great for us.”
Diebler said: “Obviously there's always a spot for Craft if he wants to play.”
The Columbus regional doesn’t tip off until July 23, so Carmen’s Crew has more than three months before it has to put together a final roster.
“We're trying to keep it as many Ohio State guys as we can,” Diebler said. “We've obviously gone outside the program and had a lot of success with guys outside the Ohio State program, guys that are close to us friends-wise and guys that we consider family. So, we'll see. There's time. A lot depends on when guys are getting back, who's going to be in Columbus in the summer. There's a lot of factors, so as that time gets closer and guys start getting back from their overseas seasons, we'll probably lock in a little more and try and finalize our roster.”
