Welcome to the Skull Session.
The Skull Session acknowledges Ohio State's loss to Iowa. It sucked. Even still, there's some basketball #content in this Skull Session. The content, especially the first section, is meant to lift our weary and heavy-laden spirits.
Have a good Thursday.
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME, DAVE O’BRIEN?!” I remember it vividly.
Fifteen years and one day ago, I ran home from school, swung open the door, threw my backpack on the ground, rushed to the TV and saw Even Turner drain this shot.
15 years ago, I ran home from school to catch the end of Ohio State-Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament. I swung open the front door, threw my backpack on the ground, rushed to the TV and saw Evan Turner drain this shot.
— Chase Brown (@chaseabrown__) March 12, 2025
15 years later, it's still iconic.pic.twitter.com/OUbXu89FAs
Jake Diebler can also remember where he was 15 years and one day ago. His memory is better than mine – the actual memory, not his cognitive process of encoding… though that’s probably better than mine, too.
Diebler was at the game.
One year removed from his playing career at Valparaiso, Diebler remained with the Crusaders as a graduate assistant. Valparaiso’s season ended with a first-round loss in the Horizon League Tournament, so Diebler had some free time to watch his brother Jon and Ohio State face “That Team Up North” in Indianapolis.
With 2.2 seconds left in the game and the Buckeyes down 68-66, Diebler admitted to thinking he had wasted gas on the trip.
“Then, Evan makes it,” Diebler told Adam Jardy of The Columbus Dispatch.
He can recall each detail for what followed.
“I remember Thad (Matta) going to the scorer’s table," Diebler said. "That was a special moment, one of those moments you’ll never forget. I can still remember the feeling I had and how excited we were to see that ending.”
Now Ohio State’s head coach, Diebler hopes for nothing more than to create new memories with the Buckeyes in Indianapolis.
“I want all of our guys to experience that,” he told Jardy. “Hopefully we can win the level they got to win at, certainly, but what that group has, even long after their careers are over, is ultimately what I’d love for our guys to have, too. I’ll never forget that moment.”
Neither will I!
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN. Two of Ohio State basketball’s all-time greats almost went to another school.
In an appearance on the Knuckleheads Podcast with NBA veterans Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles, Greg Oden shared that he and Mike Conley, Oden’s high school teammate at Indianapolis’ Lawrence North, almost committed to Wake Forest over Ohio State.
Oden discussed several other aspects of his college career, including Ohio State’s loss to Florida in the national championship game, his decision to declare for the NBA draft and more:
On choosing Ohio State over Wake Forest
“If Chris Paul was gonna say at Wake Forest, I probably would have went with Mike to Wake Forest. I would say that. But Chris Paul left for the league. Mike wanted to go there and play with Chris Paul, but Chris Paul leaves. … It wasn’t etched in stone (that I would go where Mike went), but we had a good visit down there at Wake Forest. I’ll put it like that. It was a good time. Nah, I will say this, though. When we went to the Texas-Ohio State football game, just seeing that atmosphere on that visit and seeing what that city was, I think we all kind of were like, ‘Alright, this is it. This is where we want to be at.’ But I think Wake Forest was definitely a very, very close second.”
On Ohio State’s loss to Florida in the national title game
“Going up against Florida, as you all know, Taurean Green, Corey Brewer, (Lee) Humphrey, Al (Horford), Joakim (Noah), Chris Richard coming off the bench, Marreese Speights a freshman. … They’re arguably one of the best college basketball teams in history. Actually, they have to be top five because there are only three or four of them that actually went back-to-back. If we hit a couple more threes, I would like to say I hope we had a better chance. But f— everybody that does the Gator Chomp. That s— hurts my soul to this day. I’m a grown a— man, but when I see the Gator Chomp, I see a tear. I’m like, ‘You know what? This some bull—.”
On leaving Ohio State for the NBA
“The week before I went to school, it was nothing. After the championship on Monday, going to class on Wednesday, I couldn’t make it a block without people getting out of their cars, asking for autographs, stopping to take pictures. Literally, I couldn’t make it to class. I went back to my dorm, called Coach (Matta) and I’m like, ‘I literally can’t make it to class. I’m overwhelmed.’ That’s when I knew it was about to happen.
“(But) I wanted to stay. We were that close. You think about all the times (Conley and I) won in high school, in AAU, in eighth grade. You think about our high school years, we barely lost 10 games. We probably lost three in AAU. It’s less than 15 games from sixth grade, seventh grade, up to college. I wanted to win. But I went and talked about that to Coach, and he was like, ‘Ha. Get the f— out of here.’ It was like a soft laugh. ‘He was like, ‘You can’t do that, brother. I can’t do that to your family. I can’t do that to you.’ When you’re put in this position, you have to take advantage of that. I am thankful for the people around me. My life changed after that.”
I remember Anthony Davis said on a podcast last summer that he committed to Ohio State but later chose to attend Kentucky.
That was brutal!
I couldn’t imagine if Oden and Conley chose Wake Forest over Ohio State.
That would have been even more brutal!
“WHO DA FOOK IS THAT GUY?” A brief break from the basketball #content to address this ridiculous comment from Michigan freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood: "We started talking, and then I said ‘Before this all starts, just had to let you know, I go to Michigan.’ He was like, ‘Oh, yeah, yeah.’ (And I said) ‘It's over for Ohio State.’”
I have one response:
I also have this message for Ohio State: Put Underwood's words on a bulletin board. Use it as motivation all offseason!
CHEERS, COACH SCHAEFER. I want to end the Skull Session commending Texas women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer.
Following a 64-45 loss to South Carolina in the SEC Tournament championship game, Schaefer paused to acknowledge a group of student reporters who drove 16 hours from Austin, Texas, to Greenville, South Carolina, to cover the tournament for The Daily Texan.
“I want y’all to know when it comes time to get a job, you put me on your résumé,” Schaefer said. “There’s really unique. I’m proud that you guys are here. And I’m proud that you’ve taken enough pride in your job that you would do that because you don’t have to do that. And I think people need to know that. So, thank you for being here.”
Texas WBB @CoachVic_UT showing appreciation for student journalists from the @thedailytexan who drove 16 hours to cover the SEC Tournament pic.twitter.com/MVKhyFXxL8
— Jeremy Rosenthal (@jeremyrosenthal) March 10, 2025
Schaefer’s gesture of gratitude is a rare display of class from a college coach. (Just a day earlier, LSU coach Kim Mulkey called out media members at the SEC Tournament for eating – like, 100 feet away? – while she and some of her players answered questions during a postgame press conference.)
As a former student reporter for The Lantern, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate his comments. Student reporters do a lot of the same work as professional ones but with much less credit. To see them acknowledged makes me beam with pride.
I hope the students take him up on his offer!
SONG OF THE DAY. "Humble and Kind" - Tim McGraw.
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