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BONUS: 3 Things We Learned About Ohio State Men's Basketball This Week · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: We are back with another bonus show, and this time
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  Speaker 1: instead of football, we are talking basketball. I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: welcome in Buckeye Insider's basketball insider, Marcus Hartman. He got
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  Speaker 1: a chance to watch a little bit of Ohio State
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  Speaker 1: men's basketball practice and a little bit of Ohio State
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  Speaker 1: women's basketball practice this week. I'm going to talk to
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  Speaker 1: Marcus about both of those teams on a couple shows
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  Speaker 1: right now. First one, Marcus, let's talk about the Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State men. And this is a time of year when
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  Speaker 1: there's obviously a lot of optimism, but we've seen enough
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  Speaker 1: of this team over the summer to think, all right,
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  Speaker 1: there are some intriguing pieces here. And on this show,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to be talking about three topics, sort of
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  Speaker 1: three things, takeaways from each of these practices. We're going
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  Speaker 1: to start with the men in this show, and we'll
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  Speaker 1: have a separate show with the women with three takeaways
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  Speaker 1: from the women's practice. But the men's show, Marcus, I
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  Speaker 1: feel like there's nothing that gets people more excited than
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  Speaker 1: a five-star true freshman. And it seems like Anthony Thompson,
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  Speaker 1: Anthony Thompson, who has been a, you know, obviously quite
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  Speaker 1: a topic over, you know, since he was being a,
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  Speaker 1: just a recruit, it feels like there has been maybe
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  Speaker 1: some tangible progress for Anthony Thompson since the last time
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  Speaker 1: we saw him. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And there was talk about basically with Dave Richardson coming
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  Speaker 2: back to be the, the strength and conditioning coordinator, you know,
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  Speaker 2: they talked about a lot of gains that a lot
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  Speaker 2: of these guys made and, And Anthony Thompson being a
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  Speaker 2: freshman and a guy who is 6'9 and 200 pounds-ish,
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  Speaker 2: I think when he showed up, they're listing him at 215,
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  Speaker 2: but he looks bigger and stronger. And not only that,
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  Speaker 2: but Jake Diebler said that he's kind of moving around
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  Speaker 2: better and just looks like he's carrying that weight better
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  Speaker 2: and looks like he might be a little more apt
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  Speaker 2: to be ready to kind of handle some of the
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  Speaker 2: rigors of college basketball. So that was kind of one
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  Speaker 2: of the things that was mentioned there on the first day.
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  Speaker 2: And he said he likes kind of the same thing
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  Speaker 2: with L.J. Smith, another five-star freshman, or at least he
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  Speaker 2: was a five-star in the class of 27 before reclassifying. Um, and, and,
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  Speaker 2: and so he's a guy who's a no, you know,
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  Speaker 2: another year younger, but, but definitely, and, and I thought
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  Speaker 2: you could tell kind of with him, uh, he doesn't look,
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  Speaker 2: he doesn't look like he's, you know, a year behind, uh,
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  Speaker 2: in terms of when he was out there. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: he's got some length and size and, uh, for a
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  Speaker 2: guard and, and definitely is not, uh, I mean, he
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  Speaker 2: doesn't look skinny by any means. I mean, he's not
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  Speaker 2: a big imposing guy, but he doesn't look like he's,
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  Speaker 2: he's behind anybody just from a physical standpoint.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Anthony Thompson, to me, he feels a little like
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  Speaker 1: when we talk about true freshman wide receivers or true
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  Speaker 1: freshman running backs on the football team. We always talk about, yes,
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  Speaker 1: being able to catch the football is an important part
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  Speaker 1: of the game for a wide receiver. However, you also
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  Speaker 1: have to be able to run block. And for someone
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  Speaker 1: like Anthony Thompson, it feels like the scoring is not
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  Speaker 1: necessarily what might keep him off the floor or decide
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  Speaker 1: how much he plays this year. That might be defensive
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  Speaker 1: side of the ball and being able to hold up
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  Speaker 1: physically within the Big Ten and what you're going to
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  Speaker 1: be asked to do during the course of a Big
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  Speaker 1: Ten season. So based on what you've seen, and obviously
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  Speaker 1: it is very early, is this kind of at least
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  Speaker 1: someone who is maybe on track to be a meaningful
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  Speaker 1: contributor to this year's team? Not necessarily leading scorer, but
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  Speaker 1: someone who's going to be ready physically to do the
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  Speaker 1: things that they need him to do?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, they started out, we got 30 minutes
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  Speaker 2: of practice, the first 30 minutes, and it was all
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  Speaker 2: defensive drills. And, you know, they were working on closeouts
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  Speaker 2: and double teams and beating double and actually playing a
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  Speaker 2: defense in the post to avoid needing a double team, actually,
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  Speaker 2: to be specific. And he looked, you know, he got
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  Speaker 2: reprimanded once because he didn't come out right, you know,
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  Speaker 2: have his hand in the right spot. But, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, he looked the part and you can see him,
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  Speaker 2: they're trying to develop muscle memory on a lot of
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  Speaker 2: this stuff. with these guys. He looks like he's a
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  Speaker 2: willing guy. He's buying into it. Again, he didn't look
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  Speaker 2: too skinny. Sometimes you do see that with especially a
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  Speaker 2: guy who's a 6'9 freshman. He looked like he was
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  Speaker 2: big enough to hold his own out there from that standpoint.
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  Speaker 2: Not that he's going to be guarding a traditional big
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  Speaker 2: man down on the low block maybe, but he looked
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  Speaker 2: like he could handle the job well. of a modern
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  Speaker 2: kind of 3-4 type of a guy in college basketball
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  Speaker 2: these days and I really feel like from what we
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  Speaker 2: had seen in the summer and when you've got some
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  Speaker 2: of these other guys that can maybe create their own
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  Speaker 2: shot like Bynum and Mobley I think he's going to
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  Speaker 2: start the season as a floor spacer I mean I
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  Speaker 2: think a lot of times that's what he was doing
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  Speaker 2: he was in the corner or on the wing and
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  Speaker 2: And if the defense would collapse, he would be someone
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  Speaker 2: they would throw it to for a three. With that height,
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  Speaker 2: he can shoot over the closeout guy, and he's got
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  Speaker 2: a nice stroke. It's not the most quick release, but
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  Speaker 2: I kind of feel like that might be the number
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  Speaker 2: one way that he contributes. And then he adds some length.
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  Speaker 2: down low on defense. And, you know, maybe even if
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  Speaker 2: you want to get to really dare to dream, he could,
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  Speaker 2: he could help from a rebounding standpoint, just with that,
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  Speaker 2: that having a little more size and length than what
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  Speaker 2: they had at the three last year.
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  Speaker 1: Someone else who could help from a rebounding perspective and
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  Speaker 1: who also is a little bit of a physical question
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  Speaker 1: is Joshua genuine. He was, he came over from Baylor
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  Speaker 1: last season as a transfer and then sat out the
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  Speaker 1: entire season after knee surgery and, And he was just
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  Speaker 1: cleared basically 100% now to be able to get back
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  Speaker 1: out there and contribute. And he's someone who felt like
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  Speaker 1: kind of one of the real mystery pieces to this
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  Speaker 1: year's team where physically he was playing at a very
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  Speaker 1: high level before the injury. We don't know exactly what
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  Speaker 1: he's going to be now, but he obviously is closer
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  Speaker 1: to being ready to contribute now than he was when
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  Speaker 1: we saw him over the summer. So where is he
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  Speaker 1: at the moment and what does his role sort of
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  Speaker 1: look like?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they've got this wave of big men that they
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  Speaker 2: can throw at you, and Diebler said he's really just
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  Speaker 2: a matter of conditioning now, which makes sense because they've
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  Speaker 2: been holding him back just to make sure he got
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  Speaker 2: this far and was strengthening up all the joints and everything.
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  Speaker 2: So now it's a matter of letting him go and
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  Speaker 2: get back into shape so that he can contribute as
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  Speaker 2: much as they need. He said overall they may not
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  Speaker 2: play– two big guys for 40 minutes, you know, to
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  Speaker 2: break up the 40 minutes. He wants to be able
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  Speaker 2: to kind of run them out there in waves, both
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  Speaker 2: so they can go as hard as they can for
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  Speaker 2: two or three minutes at a time. And also, you know,
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  Speaker 2: that would give you some fouls to add up. And
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  Speaker 2: then obviously it'll depend on the matchups from game to
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  Speaker 2: game as well. So he would be the guy that
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  Speaker 2: kind of brings you the strength on the low block
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  Speaker 2: and some athleticism. But, you know, he's just thick and
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  Speaker 2: strong and a big guy. I think he can score
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  Speaker 2: around the rim a little bit, and then some of
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  Speaker 2: the other guys would be able to, and then so
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  Speaker 2: would Ivan Ngovin would be able to be more of
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  Speaker 2: that type of a guy, and then the other guys
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  Speaker 2: would be more face-to-basket type of players probably, but they
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  Speaker 2: all can give you a little bit of some of
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  Speaker 2: the same basic things, but then they have their own strengths.
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  Speaker 1: And then the third guy I wanted to ask you about,
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  Speaker 1: you know, Joshua Genua, we had seen him some over
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  Speaker 1: the summer. The last guy I want to ask you
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  Speaker 1: about is the guy who we hadn't seen at all
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  Speaker 1: before now, and that was Lee Aliyah. He came up
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  Speaker 1: from Argentina was a sort of late addition to this
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  Speaker 1: year's roster. And he's a guy who has national team
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  Speaker 1: experience down in Argentina. And you sort of thought, okay,
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  Speaker 1: this is a really intriguing addition. What do they think
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  Speaker 1: his role is.
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  Speaker 2: Going to be this year? Yeah, it sounds like they
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  Speaker 2: think he can play both of the frontcourt spots, but
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  Speaker 2: he was going to start at power forward and give
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  Speaker 2: them some looks there. I think he would be a guy,
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  Speaker 2: he's an older, more physically mature guy, can give you
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  Speaker 2: some defense and rebounding there and maybe help out as
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  Speaker 2: a passer and things like that. Exactly how things break out.
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  Speaker 2: Remains to be seen, but you've got to like adding
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  Speaker 2: a guy with that kind of maturity, especially in this
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  Speaker 2: day and age of college basketball. It is kind of amazing.
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  Speaker 2: I felt like Ohio State was not big enough or
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  Speaker 2: deep enough or skilled enough at the 5-4 last year,
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  Speaker 2: and now it's amazing how much they've overturned that. um,
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  Speaker 2: position here this year, getting a genuine back obviously makes
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  Speaker 2: a big difference, but, but, uh, with Ivan kind of
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  Speaker 2: developing more, uh, into really a guy who looks like,
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  Speaker 2: you know, he was just kind of an extra guy
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  Speaker 2: last year, an extra body. And now he looks like
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  Speaker 2: a real contributor. And then some of the people that
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  Speaker 2: they've added, um, they it's, it's really a much different
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  Speaker 2: look this year.
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  Speaker 1: All right, there you go. It is still football season
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  Speaker 1: in Columbus, Ohio, but we want to get you a
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  Speaker 1: little basketball talk this time of year as well. Marcus
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  Speaker 1: busy covering both the men's and women's Ohio state basketball
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  Speaker 1: teams for you at Buckeye insiders.com. Got access to practice
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  Speaker 1: this week to watch both the men and the women
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  Speaker 1: talk to the coaches from both teams. And we're going
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  Speaker 1: to have plenty of coverage of basketball all season long
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  Speaker 1: for you at Buckeye insiders.com. So if you are a
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  Speaker 1: basketball fan, one more reason to join our community there
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  Speaker 1: at Buckeye insiders.com coverage of the basketball team. Yeah. Don't worry.
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  Speaker 1: We talk a bunch of football too, but there's always
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  Speaker 1: a lot to talk about on the insiders board. presented
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  Speaker 1: by Jeff Rubies Columbus at BuckeyeInsiders.com. Thank you guys all
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  Speaker 1: for joining us. We'll be back with more content a
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  Speaker 1: little later on in the week.