What's an Official OSU Visit Like

By d1145fresh -14 January 2013
27 Comments
- Recruiting

With all the talk of Vonn Bell's trip among others it has me wondering what OSU's official visit is like? I'm not really asking what the difference between an unofficial and official but what are some of the things a recruit would do on an official visit? I know that they tour the facilities and meet with academic advisors and such but I didn't know if anyone had any inside information as to what the OSU bells and whistles might be. A lot of the staff has stated with the big name recruits coming to town OSU has been rolling out the ~~red~~ scarlet carpet for them. I'm guessing they go out to eat at some nice places around Columbus and meet with some of the Buckeye greats (Archie ect.) Anyways it was just something that I had been thinking about recently and thought someone out there might have some inside information. Thanks!

sox33osu on 14 Jan 2013 - 5:15pm #

This should sum it up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAhCpAS2AwA

sox33osu on 14 Jan 2013 - 7:44pm #

Wow... put this up as a joke. Guess that was a bad idea.

d1145fresh on 14 Jan 2013 - 8:17pm #

I enjoyed it but I still do wonder what all happens during an OV. Maybe they just go yogging.

bukyze on 14 Jan 2013 - 8:24pm #

I've heard of this yogging. Apparently, you just run for an extended period of time. It's supposed to be wild.

hodge on 15 Jan 2013 - 3:07am #

It's a soft "J".

bigbadbuck on 14 Jan 2013 - 6:17pm #

well its no wonder everyone wants to sign their name on the dotted line......gives me chills.........(and not necessarily good ones either)....lol

Battles are sometimes won by generals; wars are nearly always won by sergeants and privates. Football is no different, the guys down in the trenches win the games, not the coach.

HighBallAce on 15 Jan 2013 - 2:49am #

I've been on an OV for a few different schools besides Ohio State but I doubt it's much different as they all have to follow the same rules. They first send you a letter at home telling you they have such and such activities or whatever planned and they would like for you to come visit. They'll tell you that they are only allotted so much funds to provide for you and that if it goes above that amount, you have to pay for it yourself. They give you t-shirts and gym bags and stuff like that. If you have a family that comes along, they'll put them up in a hotel. In my case my mom came along and they had a house on campus that was vacant for some reason. Well the top portion was and folks lived downstairs. Anyway, it was a really nice house and had a lot of space and what not. They pretty much gave my mom whatever she asked for and they put me in the dorm room with one of the players on the team. It was pretty nice other than one of the other players came bursting in the room naked and rubbed himself up against me! That was the second night there and I was there for three so I asked to just be allowed to stay with my mom that last night. It wasn't that they the guy did that to make fun of me or anything, I got along well with them but that just made me feel really uncomfortable as I'm sure it would just about everyone else. Anyway, they had an assembly where there were a bunch of people and so they called us up to the front of the stage and they announced us all off one by one as the future starters for the school and all that stuff. Then they gave us jerseys with out names on them and that was pretty much everything. When it was meal time or whatever, sometimes we would eat in the commons area and we had full access to all the cereals and fruits, eggs, sausage whatever you might eat for breakfast and then for lunch or dinner it would be that. It was really good cooked food and the students would tell us that they were in luck cause it wasn't normally so good. We really only went to dinner with the coach's once or twice. We played ball in the gym against the the team and we held our own against them! Bare in mind that this was for basketball and it was a Div 2 school so things might be a little different.

Now I did go to camps at Ohio State and I have played with and know a lot of the guys from the 93-96 teams. I've also played in summer leagues with a lot of them. I've been up in the coach's offices at the top of St. John Arena which was even where John Coopers office was at the time. I'm not sure if that's where the coaches office is or not now? I've stayed in the Shoe dorm rooms and had dinner up there and we even went out on the field at night to play football! Honestly, the OV's that I went on really weren't that much different than going to camp at a school other than your the center of attention! There was never anything illegal that went on and they really try to make sure your taken care of and that you represent the school as well as yourself while your there. Most folks realize that it's an HONOR to have had the chance to do it so they do their best not to do something disgraces either!

hodge on 15 Jan 2013 - 3:03am #

This is really informative. Awesome write up, man!

Just for clarification, did you actually visit Ohio State? That D2 comment really threw me off haha.

HighBallAce on 15 Jan 2013 - 3:56am #

I was invited to attend Ohio State's summer camps by Randy Ayers. I had played ball for his brother, Frank Ayers on some of his camps. There were probably well over 90 kids that attended summer camps at the high school age and even more for junior high and I believe even elementary. The high schoolers were treated differently as they were watching us for talent reasons and what not. It was really cool! We got to go swimming and use the high diving platforms and if we wanted to go skating we could do that but none of us did that that I know of. Put it this way, I was 6'4" and one of the shortest kids there so being on the ice for us wasn't easy....lol A LOT of the players would come and talk to us and stuff like that. They would scrimmage us at times. I got to play Jimmy Jackson one on one and I could hold my own with him as long as I had to take him off the dribble but he would out muscle me in the post. This was the year after he went to the Mavericks. He asked the group one time what we wanted to be when we got older and of course we all said we wanted to play in the NBA. So he said to us that of the hundreds of thousands of high school kids that went to college, there were only thousands of kids of kids who made it on a college team, of the thousands of kids from college that wanted to go to the NBA, only 384 made it to the NBA! So obviously we should have a back up plan for college! That was one of the most sobering realities of my life at that time. Another time a few of us were sitting around beside Jimmy Jackson and he was sitting down with a ball in his hand, we were at half court and he bet us that he could make a shot from half court, SITTING DOWN on his rear, not on his knee's so the shot would have to be all arm strength, and he made 2 out of 3! That's how strong the man is! They had to rotate us in and out of St. John arena sense there were so many kids. One day we would be playing in St. John's parking lot and the next at Larkins Hall. When we had to play at Larkins, we had to run all the way from St. Johns to Larkins! That's a pretty good run! One time we were out there at night and we had taken our shirts off at St. Johns and left them there cause this was a really hot summer which was horrible when they had us out there in the parking lot playing on that blacktop! Anyway, we had left out shirts at St. Johns to run to Larkins and on the way back it started Hailing! It was horrible cause it hurt like hell and busted our ass' faster than you can imagine! I bet the coach's were timing our 40 times for the football team!....lol

I did pretty good at the camps and was invited to play in the summer leagues where I got to know some of the players even more. I never was offered a scholarship or anything and I wasn't that great. I was good enough to get noticed and that was about it. But I do know St. Johns intimately as well as the Shoe. The Schott wasn't even built at the time so I've never been in the locker rooms or the offices in that arena. So I can't really tell you anything about it.

Ok....after editing that a thousand times, I think I got it right....lol I should really learn to edit my posts BEFORE I publish the final copy!

Baroclinicity on 15 Jan 2013 - 4:33am #

Definitely interesting to read. You mentioned in the original post that you met many of the 93-96 players. Those were largely some turmoil-ridden years for the hoops program, with Gerald Eaker and Greg Simpson (I think one of them shot at the Antonio Watson's car) getting kicked off the team, and Derek Anderson transferring. The next couple of seasons were disasters with very thin rosters and Randy Ayers getting shown the door after the team of Jermaine Tate, Jamie Bosley, and Shaun Stonerook didn't really pan out. I think Jim O'Brien kicked them off the team the moment he got there.

It was really easy to get courtside seats those years! Lots of losses.

Any other players stand out to you besides J.J.?

HighBallAce on 15 Jan 2013 - 5:52am #

Yes, Derek Anderson was a really nice guy! He had the quickest first step I've ever seen! I've been on the court with some really good one's and he was honestly one of the best! Had he not tore his knee out when he went to Kentucky, he would have been a great one.

Greg Simpson was also very quick and had some serious hops. He reminded me a lot of Isiah Thomas. He played some of us in a pick up game and he came down between two defenders, thew the ball up in the air and jumped up and caught it and dunked it! It was pretty amazing! He was short to be doing that but he was fast! He also got himself into some trouble.

The kid from Georgia, I cant remember his name? It wasn't Eaker, he was really tall and ended up transferring to a JC and did pretty good. Would have ended up doing well in college had he had the right coach I always thought. Anyway, oh his name was Macon, he was always up in the coach's office having to be tutored on his math.

Shaun Stonebrook was a good player but he was always looking for a party and drank a lot. I think Ayers is the one who kicked him off?

I got to be friends with Jason Terry, the point guard for Ohio U. Not the tall kid from Mt. Giliead. They both had the same name and the tall one was nicknamed High Pockets. Jason the point guard wasn't happy at Ohio U and I think he ended up transferring. He was an instructor like at the camps. Very good player.

I also played against Mark Baker and he slaughtered me. Word of advice, NEVER challenge a pro level point guard if your a white boy who plays small forward.....lol He was kind of a jerk till you get to know him. Jim Jackson is the same way actually.

Jamie Skelton is a really nice guy but he's kinda shy. He told me I had really big hands for as tall and skinny as I was. I hadn't yet fully grown into my body. Sense I've gotten older, I'm a lot more muscular and fatter from being married....lol

Ummmmm.....thats about all. If you can think of anyone in particular I guess I can try to remember something.

Oh, Regarding Randy Ayers. He is a really good man! They all said that he didn't have control of his teams. Thats not true at all! Those guys respected Coach Ayers because he demanded it from them! He commanded respect from his players and he did not ever take crap from any of them nor from the campers! I saw him tell a kid he was kicked out of the camp for being late to roll call in the morning! It was for dramatic effect to shock the kid into being on time and it worked! The kid ended up having to get up at 4 A:M and run stairs till roll call! Trust me, when you had to be at roll call at 6 in the morning and play ball till usually 11 at night for about 2 weeks, you never missed another roll call! That was Coach Ayers and all that crap they said about his players having no discipline was a lie! There was an issue with the players all having cars from Beyers I think it was but I can't comment on that.

HighBallAce on 15 Jan 2013 - 8:55am #

I don't usually write stuff this long. My grammar is horrible! I admittedly did only the bare minimum that I had to to get by so I could play ball. The school I went to held you to a different standard than public school so I guess that helped a little but not much....lol

Baroclinicity on 15 Jan 2013 - 6:52am #

edit: this was meant to be a reply to you HIGHBALLACE

Great stories... I like reading these. Thanks for posting!

I forgot about Charles Macon! I think he flunked out.

Wasn't Gerald Eaker from Indiana/Mr. Indiana High School Basketball? After he was jettisoned, Just remember thinking, "I don't love Bobby Knight, but if he doesn't make a hard pitch for Mr. Indiana High School Basketball, that was probably the first clue we should have stayed away from him."

I remember being really depressed about D.A. transferring, but no one could blame him at the time. I think it paid off, because wasn't he on that UK team that beat Syracuse for all the marbles? (Or was it Arizona they beat?)

After all those players were kicked off, that first year, we won like 6 games or something like that, and Doug Etzler who destined to be on the bench forever ended up starting with Watson and Dudley. Man, those were some bad times for our team. For those on this board too young to remember, it was just total chaos. I'm glad you said Randy kept the players in check despite what was happening. I liked him a lot as coach. And as we all know, the coach can't babysit 24/7.

The two years I had tickets right behind the Ohio State bench, you could kind of "talk" to Coach Ayers during the games. He wouldn't necessarily talk to you, but as long as you didn't abuse it, you could say something to him and you might get a head nod, or a shoulder shrug or something like that. I remember a guy next to me saying, "Hey Randy, let me ref... I can shut my eyes, too!" in a game that seemed like all fouls were going against us. Randy turned to the guy and responded something to the effect of, "This is absolutely unbelievable." I had a lot of respect for that, and it made bad games fun.

I just did a quick search... again, for those that don't know about the mid 90s hoops issues, here's a really good article:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1994-10-23/sports/9410230326_1_buckeyes-trouble-felony-theft-and-possession

(I was wrong, it was Macon who was Mr. Indiana)

The other name from that time period that stands out is Lawrence Funderburke. Ever meet him?

HighBallAce on 15 Jan 2013 - 8:03am #

Yeah I met Funderburke but he was kinda shy. I really didn't get to know him and I got the impression he was kind of a loner. I don't think he hung around the guys on the team much? He was one of Bobby Knights kids and he transferred from Indiana to Ohio State. He got a really bad rap for that and people said he was a bad kid but he really wasn't. There was a famous incident with him and Dick Vitale. Dicky V. was doing a Ohio State game and he thought the commercial break killed the mic but it didn't and Dicky V. said some really crappy stuff about Funderburke. Funderburke later just blew it off when asked about it and took the high road. Dicky V. had to make a public and personal apology to Funderburke for it. Funderburke was on that team that lost to the Fab Five in the Tournament after beating them by only 2 points I think it was. Chris Jent missed a easy shot that was very close to the basket to lose that game. I think Funderburke was on the Jamie Skelton teams, not with the Derek Anderson, Greg Simpson teams.

Doug Etzler was a hell of a point guard and Ricky Dudley was really good at power forward/center!

I played ball with a boy who was on Frank Ayers' team, Bobby Black who was one of the best players I had ever played with and he was recruited by Ohio State but I don't know what ever happened to him.

popeurban on 16 Jan 2013 - 6:42am #

@Baroclinicity, crazy good link. Even though the Jackson, Funderburk team was my favorite of all-time, I was too young to know about the following years troubles (or too naive to understand). Thanks!

LouGroza on 15 Jan 2013 - 8:15am #

Wasn't there a point guard that was caught stealing back around that time? Think he was a white guy that may have been squeaky clean coming into OSU and it was a big surprise he found trouble and ended up booted from the team? Damn, so many memories they all mesh together after awhile.

Baroclinicity on 15 Jan 2013 - 8:24am #

Damon Stringer?

Edit: Jamie bosley...but both got into trouble.

LouGroza on 15 Jan 2013 - 8:25am #

If I remember correctly he was caught smashing windows out of cars to steal what he could and it may have been right there in the area around the arena. It was a big shock. Don't think it was Stringer but may be wrong.

Baroclinicity on 15 Jan 2013 - 8:37am #

I remember a funny instance involving Bosley in a game. Whoever we were playing had a pair of free throws and he was lined up on the key. He started leaning early and he knew it, and was easily going to get called for a lane violation. In a split second he figured he could maximize his time before going into the lane and avoid the violation by letting himself go and fall without bracing for impact. Well, it wasn't close and he crashed to the floor like he had rigor mortis. First time I've seen players laughing during a game. It was hysterical.

HighBallAce on 15 Jan 2013 - 8:32am #

I think Stringer was black? Umm I remember Bosley but can't think of who he was. That whole team got in trouble!

LouGroza on 15 Jan 2013 - 8:38am #

Bosley was a stocky white kid. Big time shooter. Smaller, six foot or so. After the theft thing he was booted and went to Akron. Found bits and pieces of the story. From Massillon Jackson HS.

HighBallAce on 15 Jan 2013 - 8:40am #

Jamie Bosley I think it was?

Baroclinicity on 15 Jan 2013 - 8:42am #

Someone appears to be serial down voting you. Upvotes to compensate.

LouGroza on 15 Jan 2013 - 8:44am #

Thanks for the upvote! Sad indeed.

HighBallAce on 15 Jan 2013 - 8:47am #

That crap IS getting old!

LouGroza on 15 Jan 2013 - 8:28am #

Yep, Bosley is who it was. And maybe a kid named Gradney was in trouble with him. Just unsure of what exactly. Nice work. I will have to try to research that some. Thanks.