Turner, Team USA Advance to WUG Quarterfinals
ET: cavity free (via ohiostatebuckeyes.com)After posting a 2-1 record during the exhibition slate, Team USA has racked up four straight wins to start the World University Games tournament setting up a quarterfinals match up with Bulgaria tonight at 8pm.
Evan Turner’s participation has been that of a role player asked to hit the glass, distribute the rock and lock up on defense as evidenced by his grand total of 13 field goal attempts in four games in which he’s averaging just 15.5 minutes.
The Villian has started two of the last four contests as Bo Ryan rotates lineups but ET did most of his damage off the pine. In two starts, including Tuesday’s 68-66 win over Serbia, Turner has accumulated 4 points, 6 boards and 3 assists but in two reserve stints he produced a combined 9 points, 13 caroms and 10 assists.
While it was expected the full roster would receive double digit minutes per contest making it unlikely ET would log 40 a night, I do find it odd he was clearly the standout player during tryouts but that hasn’t translated to being one of the key cogs in the USA machine. Instead, Talor Battle, Deon Thompson and De’Sean Butler, among others, have shouldered much of the scoring load. To his credit, the Villian ranks 3rd in rebounding (6.0) and leads the team in assists.
Stay tuned to see if Turner becomes more of a factor over the medal-play weekend.
The latest stop on Jared Sullinger’s worldwide summer tour finds him in Akron at the LeBron James U.S. Skills Academy. Sullinger immediately caught the eye of Scouts Inc’s Reggie Rankin showcasing an ability to use his frame to gain position at both ends of the floor allowing him to dominate the backboards. Rankin also left impressed with Sullinger’s already developed go-to post moves (never saw that from “Byron”) and his vision finding cutters and open shooters on kick-outs.
Hoping to maximize his versatility while maintaining strength needed to bang on the blocks of the Big Ten, Sullinger has lost 25 pounds this summer bringing him to 255 and he plans to be at 240 by the time he suits up in Columbus. Increasing his mobility and speed should pay dividends in what should be a wide open Matta offense in 2010.
Not content with the elite crop of teammates set to arrive on campus in 2010, Sullinger continues to extol the virtues of Ohio State via whispers in the ear of the still undecided 6′11” Adreian Payne out of Dayton:
“I’m trying to drag him to Ohio State, too,” Sullinger said.
Reports say Payne hasn’t been overly impressive in camps when going head to head against other elite bigs but Matta would still love to have him on board.
Of course, Sullinger won’t be the only one actively recruiting Payne since there are two 10-day recruiting windows in July allowing coaches to attend AAU tournaments and camps. The two periods run from July 6th to the 15th and again from the 22nd through the 31st. Bob Baptist reports Matta plans to offer just one more scholly for the 2010 class now that the conference has changed policy from taking commitments from more players than they have room for in a given year. It would appear Payne has first dibs but if he continues to fret over coming to a bustling metropolis like C-Bus then Sullinger teammate J.D. Weatherspoon could join the class.
Staying on the camp circuit, fellow ‘10 verbal commit DeShaun Thomas was recently recognized as the best scorer at the Vince Carter Skills Academy according to the slimy yet hoops-wise Paul Biancardi.
Biancardi praised Thomas for ability to stroke the three and finish in the lane while also noting the lefty plays balls out at both ends of the floor. Man, I can’t wait to watch the 2010 squad run and gun.
There’s finally word that Zisis Sarikopoulos’ injury causing him to be held out of all but the first two games of the FIBA U-19 world championships is a left knee sprain. Baptist reports Zisis hopes to still play later this month in the U-20 Euro championships so we aren’t talking about anything too serious.
While Matta certainly isn’t counting on a huge contribution from Z this year, it would be nice to have him healthy before the Buckeyes take advantage of 10 bonus practices allowed by the NCAA before they head to Ontario for a few exhibition games in late August.
From the perspective of what’s best for the Buckeye roundballers, I would say that it is excellent news that Evan is not being asked to “(shoulder) much of the scoring load.” Handle, handle, handle, repeat ad infinitum.
The Villain is clearly ahead of the curve when it comes to creating his own shot – it’s just that his shitty ballhandling so far more often than not turns the shot-creating episodes into a heart-stopping carnival ride. The threes will most likely take care of themselves on their own if we’re to believe what we’re told about his work ethic.
I’ve always thought of Turner as a superior ATHLETE with a particular aptitude for basketball rather than a superior basketball player, if that makes any sense. If Bo Ryan was cynical enough to use the WUG to enhance Wisky’s B10 prospects, he would have ET driving to the hoop every time he felt like it, and then driving to the hoop some more – but the more time Turner spends in these games and practices doing everything OTHER than trying to score will only make him a better player for us this year.
I agree with you. I’m fine with ET not logging heavy minutes and being forced to carry the team offensively like he did for Matta last year – I’m just a little surprised he hasn’t been more of a scoring option for this team. Looking at the stats, he’s actually last on the team in ppg. I would’ve never imagined that after the tryout buzz.
Why do call him the Villian? Could we lose the caption under the photo. This is not facebook!
Caption updated. Didn’t realize the B-word had been relegated to Facebook status :)
Unless I’m misremembering my Club Tril history, “The Villain” is the nickname Evan Turner HAS GIVEN TO HIMSELF. At least I think that’s what you’re TRYING to get at here, because “(w)hy do call him the Villian?” borders on nonsensical.
Plus I call bullshit on changing the caption. Find me one woman, anywhere, that thinks that the obviously ironic use of “bitches” in that context ACTUALLY oppresses women, and I’ll eat my hat.
great profanity. hey spanish boy go up to ann arbor with your uppity friends. you idiot!
Bish pls
I agree El Caballo, just taking the high road. As we all know, the comment section on most posts, especially on a gameday thread, will contain far worse than the dreaded b-word.
Right you are but try to make this an above average site with class not like penn state and um’s site.
Sorry, bitch (Ha!), I’m still calling bullshit – sometimes the “high road” is to tell poor-spelling pearl-clutchers to eff off. I’ll take smart and witty commentary over some backwoods notion of “class” any day.
You sound and probably act like a 16 year old. I don’t know how many people go to this site and maybe just maybe a few buckeyes themselves go to this site and their families so do you think they want to see that caption. Your a big spanish boy using big words on the internet. grow up and show some class – wait you don’t have any – and you think your some kind of expert on the english language – go to the pool you perv!
Hold on a second, GA Buckeye. I was content to respectfully disagree with your over the top stance on certain words used in certain context but now that you are continuoulsy bagging on El Caballo by using “spanish” in a derogatory way, doesn’t that make you a hypocrite? Couldn’t negatively using that term be even worse than me not negatively using the word bitch?
Let’s all play nice now fellas and get back to some Buckeye talk.
I got my copy of the Buckeye Battle Cry last night and it is getting me extremely pumped up for this season. Has anyone seen TP in person lately? I heard he looks like he has put on about 20 lbs. of muscle.
the spanish named dude was being provocative and insulting liberally. can’t really fault the english name dude for responding. we even have constitutional caselaw on it: chaplinsky v. new hampshire (and the various after the fact narrowings of chaplinsky).
PS – spanish named dude, i can find you a number of women that would take offense. they also use the term “womanity.” i have ketchup, if you’d like.
they call him The Villain (and so do i) because that’s what mark titus calls him, and if that’s what titus calls him then that’s good enough for me.
turner prefers “The Kid,” but he’s the Villain, there’s no stopping it. DEAL WITH IT, EVAN
“Hoping to maximize his versatility while maintaining strength needed to bang on the blocks of the Big Ten, Sullinger has lost 25 pounds this summer bringing him to 255 and he plans to be at 240 by the time he suits up in Columbus.”
this is insane. can this be right? good lord…
Yea, this guy is really big from the waste down.(thats what she said, ha!)
As far as Boone goes, those 49er fans don’t know what they are in for.
yeah, that’s hilarious that they think he’ll be of any help whatsoever
quite the left-handed compliment.
if he can get in shape, become an athlete, and develop some maturity he can be a surprise in training camp!
Just saw this little tidbit:
http://www.azcardinals.com/blog/post.php?author=1&id=2148
Beanie wells lost 18 lbs already? Didn’t he normally play around 225-230? Seems like he managed to get quite a bit of paunch between the combine and final exams.
HE FAT
seriously though, the cards will probably want him to play at the low end of his normal playing weight, their offense really wouldn’t benefit from a lendale white duder on the team
So I guess now the Cards are my 2nd favorite NFL team ’cause of Beanie. I don’t think I’ll buy a jersey though. (BTW I haven’t had a 2nd fav team since Eddie left Nashville)
Jason, did you get my e-mail? Pretty funny, huh?
If a frog had wings, it wouldn’t bump his arse!