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Ohio State Basketball Insider: Do The Buckeyes Have Enough Depth? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow Morning for Thursday, July twenty third.
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host Tom or the ball State game in
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  Speaker 1: forty four days, the game against Michigan in one hundred
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  Speaker 1: All right, On today's show, we are talking Ohio State basketball.
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  Speaker 1: Got a chance to talk to a couple of the
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  Speaker 1: newest buck Eyes earlier in the week. I'm joined by
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  Speaker 1: Marcus Hartman, the basketball insider at Buckeye Insiders dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And Marcus, it felt like there were a couple issues
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  Speaker 1: with last year's Ohio State team, but one of them
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  Speaker 1: that really felt like it kind of rose up and
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  Speaker 1: bid him a couple times at inopportune moments was a
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  Speaker 1: lack of quality depth off the bench, and it feels
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  Speaker 1: like Ohio State has really made an effort. They fixed
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  Speaker 1: they it seems like they addressed a number of different
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  Speaker 1: issues in the portals offseason, but adding some quality depth
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  Speaker 1: that feels like that was maybe a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: a priority for them.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. I mean they last year they almost
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  Speaker 2: literally got nothing from the bench. So you know, the
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  Speaker 2: good that's bad news for last year and good news
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  Speaker 2: for this year is it looks like, you know, they
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  Speaker 2: brought in a couple of starter quality guys from their
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  Speaker 2: old schools and they're gonna come off the bench if
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  Speaker 2: all goes according to plans, so you know, and Jimmy
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  Speaker 2: Williams who was previously Ducane and Curtis Gibbons the third
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  Speaker 2: who was most recently at LSU, and and so you know,
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  Speaker 2: it could be it's not you know, when I think
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  Speaker 2: when those guys were coming, I don't remember the whole
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  Speaker 2: sequence of it, but you know, they were in on
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  Speaker 2: a few more much higher profile guys, uh, and people
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  Speaker 2: were disappointed that they didn't get them. But I think ultimately,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I think they already had five starters and
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  Speaker 2: what they really needed was depth, bench depth more than anything.
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  Speaker 2: So it's it's it's a convenient narrative, but also I
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  Speaker 2: think happens to be true that these guys should fit
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  Speaker 2: kind of in the overall roster construction.
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  Speaker 1: So before we get into that bench dev, let's just
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  Speaker 1: run through right now game one. They're trotting out on
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  Speaker 1: the court against Cincinnati in that exhibition game down at
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  Speaker 1: then Lender Tennor Center. What would you what's your expectation
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  Speaker 1: for one through five who is out there for Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State Before we get into some of these bench guys.
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  Speaker 2: I think the center most likely will be Ivan and Zagovin.
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  Speaker 2: It's possible it could be Joshua Giana. I'm still working
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  Speaker 2: on that one, but you know, like we've talked to
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  Speaker 2: some people that we get the impression he may come
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  Speaker 2: off the bench or whoever gets the most minutes there.
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  Speaker 2: It may not make a big difference. I think then
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  Speaker 2: your forwards are going to be Anthony Thompson and Andrew
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  Speaker 2: Amari Binum. So I'm struggling. And then you're going to
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  Speaker 2: have John Mobley Junior and Justin Pippen at the guards,
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  Speaker 2: and those guys are both Pippen is going to be
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  Speaker 2: the point guard, but I think they'll both handle the
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  Speaker 2: ball a lot, sort of like I mean, he won't
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  Speaker 2: handle it as much as as Thornton did, I don't think,
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  Speaker 2: But I believe those guys are really both kind of
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  Speaker 2: combo guardish Mobiley is probably better off the ball as
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  Speaker 2: a shooter and Pippin is a little more of a facilitator,
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  Speaker 2: but they can both kind of be interchangeable.
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  Speaker 1: There.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's going to be your starting five most likely.
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  Speaker 2: But as far as the five, you know, they've got
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  Speaker 2: three or four options, and I'm not sure how much
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  Speaker 2: difference there is between a lot of them other than
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  Speaker 2: maybe age.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, you mentioned Ivonna Govin, you mentioned josh Or Genua,
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  Speaker 1: and you know the key to saying his last name
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  Speaker 1: is just say say confidently and everyone kind of nods along.
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  Speaker 1: That's that's what has been my game plan so far.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think I was reading it for a year
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  Speaker 2: and then I heard you say it, and I realized
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  Speaker 2: that I was missing an eye in there all along.
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  Speaker 2: So now I kind of have like a mental block
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  Speaker 2: against it, Like I got, I know there's an extra
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  Speaker 2: syllable in there I was missing, and now I get
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  Speaker 2: It's like I'm looking to jump off high diye every
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  Speaker 2: time I'm going to say his name.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I have read through the pronunciation guide in the
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  Speaker 1: media guide, and I think I've got it right. But
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  Speaker 1: we'll we'll see, well, we may get may get corrected
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  Speaker 1: at some point on that one. But in addition to
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  Speaker 1: those two guys, you got Andrea Yalovich, who was a
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  Speaker 1: transfer for Kentucky. We've talked about him. We did a
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  Speaker 1: whole show on sort of the front court guys and
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  Speaker 1: some of the depth there. Now we're going to talk
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  Speaker 1: about the backcourt guys because the two guys you just
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  Speaker 1: mentioned there, Jimmy Williams, URTIs Givevens, the third, those two guys,
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  Speaker 1: we got a chance to talk to them earlier this week.
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  Speaker 1: It was funny. I was looking and thinking, boy, we
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  Speaker 1: haven't really talked about a lot about those guys. We've
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  Speaker 1: talked about the big front the big guys. Who talked
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  Speaker 1: about the two true freshmen who they're expecting to play,
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  Speaker 1: you know, reasonably big roles this year, but we really
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  Speaker 1: haven't talked about those those veteran guards who they brought
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  Speaker 1: in in the transfer portal and then lo and behold boom,
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  Speaker 1: the side office made those two guys available for interviews,
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  Speaker 1: like okay, perfect good timing. We're all on the same
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  Speaker 1: page in terms of the content that we need to
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  Speaker 1: be talking about this week. So let's talk a little
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  Speaker 1: bit about those guys. You got a chance to watch
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  Speaker 1: a little bit, you know, an extended viewing of practice
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  Speaker 1: earlier in the week, and then talk to both of
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  Speaker 1: those guys. Where do they fit into the rotation? Are
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  Speaker 1: those guys that are going to be playing twenty minutes
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  Speaker 1: a night of those guys that are just maybe role
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  Speaker 1: players or they say it depends on the night thing.
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  Speaker 1: Where do those two guys fit into the rotation this year?
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  Speaker 2: Well? I did since I knew we were going to
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  Speaker 2: talk to them. I focused on them a decent amount
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  Speaker 2: at least whenever they were out there. And I think
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  Speaker 2: role player for sure. I mean, if all goes according
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  Speaker 2: to plan, I think that's another thing maybe people should
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  Speaker 2: keep in mind. I don't know how many guys they
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  Speaker 2: brought in, certainly not guys who were double figure scores
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  Speaker 2: or close to it, who they were almost certainly going
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  Speaker 2: to come off the bench here in the Portal era.
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  Speaker 2: And so if all goes according to plan, I think
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  Speaker 2: that's a pretty good starting vibe. And I think those
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  Speaker 2: are guys that will play a lot of minutes. And
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  Speaker 2: then so you've got some depth there, I think is
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  Speaker 2: the plan. And so Williams, I think you look at
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  Speaker 2: is the true glue guy. I mean really honestly, and
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  Speaker 2: just watching and trying to watch if everything, but even
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  Speaker 2: to look for those guys, you know, you don't notice
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  Speaker 2: him a lot. He's just gonna be a guy who
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  Speaker 2: comes out there and he's a solid. They say he's
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  Speaker 2: two hundred and ten pounds sixty four. I mean, I'd
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  Speaker 2: say that's pretty pretty. I mean, he's definitely built pretty well,
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  Speaker 2: he's put together pretty well. A guy who's been out
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  Speaker 2: of high school for a few years. He can make
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  Speaker 2: some hustle plays for you. You know, we'll see what
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  Speaker 2: kind of a shooter he turns out to be. And
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  Speaker 2: and so he's someone who can kind of step in
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  Speaker 2: there and do what you need. And then Givens he
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  Speaker 2: told us that he is really he feels like he's
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  Speaker 2: a combo guard. He's comfortable playing the one if he
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  Speaker 2: wants to. He got he was much more noticeable. Both
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  Speaker 2: the way they had it, it was kind of like,
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  Speaker 2: I don't know, the guys that you would probably assume
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  Speaker 2: are kind of in the top ten in the rotation
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  Speaker 2: were split up, and then Gibvens, you know, was kind
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  Speaker 2: of you know, he mixed, he rolled in a little bit,
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  Speaker 2: and then there were a couple of times where they
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  Speaker 2: they did have kind of like the third string almost
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  Speaker 2: in and he was running that team. He was the
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  Speaker 2: point guard when they with the other guys that were
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  Speaker 2: like freshmen who we don't think are necessarily going to play,
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  Speaker 2: and you could and he had some plays, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: he had a couple he actually had the setup on
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  Speaker 2: the game winning of that they did. They went to
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  Speaker 2: overtime because they had a scrimmage and it finished at
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  Speaker 2: seventy nine to seventy nine and it was kind of
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  Speaker 2: a sudden death thing. So the other team went down
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  Speaker 2: and did not score, and then they had a little
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  Speaker 2: kind of tictac toe pass and he fed Dagovin and
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  Speaker 2: he dunked it to win it, and you kind of
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  Speaker 2: when I rewatched my clips, he was even actually a
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  Speaker 2: little more noticeable than I had thought. And Gibbons did
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  Speaker 2: have he missed I think at three, but he had
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  Speaker 2: a nice little take and finish and he had a
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  Speaker 2: couple of like twelve to fifteen foot jumpers where you know,
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  Speaker 2: it just kind of got to a spot and scored.
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  Speaker 2: So I mean, I think, I mean, they're both They're
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  Speaker 2: both role players for sure, but Gibbons is a guy
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  Speaker 2: who can handle the ball. You know, if Pippin is
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  Speaker 2: in foul trouble and MOBILEI you still don't want to
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  Speaker 2: handle the ball too much, or if one of those
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  Speaker 2: guys gets hurt, and he can also come in and
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  Speaker 2: play off the ball if you need him to. So,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it looks like you can really see the
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  Speaker 2: plan there if you watch him practice. And I think
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  Speaker 2: both of these guys, I think know what they're getting
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  Speaker 2: into from that standpoint as well.
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  Speaker 1: And one question that we've gotten a lot on our
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  Speaker 1: board at Buckeye Insiders dot Com is Ljsmith. It feels
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  Speaker 1: like we've been talking a lot about Anthony Thompson, that
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  Speaker 1: five star true freshman, and the fact that he looks
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  Speaker 1: like he is going to be a major player on
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  Speaker 1: this year's team, probably one of the first scoring options
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  Speaker 1: this year. LJ. Smith, He's in a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: a different boat because he reclassified he should be a
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  Speaker 1: high school senior this year. He arrived a couple weeks
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  Speaker 1: later than some of the other guys, so he's been
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  Speaker 1: just a little bit behind during the times we've seen
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  Speaker 1: him this summer, and that has been a very common question.
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  Speaker 1: What are you expecting from LJ. Smith this year? Is
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  Speaker 1: he someone that's going to play meaningful minutes at any
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  Speaker 1: point against decent opposition. Is he someone that's ready to
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  Speaker 1: play right now? What's this sort of timetable in the
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  Speaker 1: plan for him? As far as you know?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think there's no rush for him.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, Jake did say that they brought him in
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  Speaker 2: to have a role. They didn't bring him in just
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  Speaker 2: to just a red shirt, you know. And I think
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  Speaker 2: and you know, he passes a look to uses certainly
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  Speaker 2: for you know, a teenager. I mean, he doesn't look
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  Speaker 2: lost out there. I don't. He doesn't look like he's
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  Speaker 2: demonstrably younger than the other guys. Not that he couldn't
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  Speaker 2: stand it, you know, I'm sure put on plenty of
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  Speaker 2: good weight, but he's got plenty of size to go
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  Speaker 2: out there, and we'll see how he kind of gets
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  Speaker 2: used to used to the physicality of everything. I feel like,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I am having I have tempered expectations for
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  Speaker 2: two reasons. One, because he's coming in later he can
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  Speaker 2: because he's well, because he came in a little bit later,
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  Speaker 2: and he also is an early enroll lead both of
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  Speaker 2: those things, but also because we don't we know, they
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  Speaker 2: don't absolutely have to you know, force him into the
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  Speaker 2: action either if he didn't play at all. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: he wasn't in the plan six weeks ago, so if
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  Speaker 2: he doesn't play at all, it's probably not the end
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  Speaker 2: of the world. But I think it's very likely. You know,
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  Speaker 2: the way these things tend to go is coaches tend
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  Speaker 2: to get, you know, guys that are going to be
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  Speaker 2: able to be reliable in terms of running the plays
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  Speaker 2: correctly and doing what they're supposed to do on defense.
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  Speaker 2: That's the group of guys that they pick, the guys
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  Speaker 2: who get playing time out of and then it's you know,
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  Speaker 2: who's got the most to offer beyond that. And so
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  Speaker 2: I feel like the other two guys I don't think
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  Speaker 2: have really demonstrated much a jump shooting ability. I don't
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  Speaker 2: know how much they're going to make. So I think
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  Speaker 2: maybe the thing that Smith, if he can hold his
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  Speaker 2: own and be decent in those areas, he could be
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  Speaker 2: a guy who can make shots. I mean, that's that's
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  Speaker 2: his mo And I really read one scout that compared
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  Speaker 2: him to a bigger John Mobley, which is pretty good
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  Speaker 2: because Mobley's real only knock is that he's only like
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  Speaker 2: six' one or six two, And so if he and
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  Speaker 2: he's a guy who can really shoot it. So if
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  Speaker 2: you I think he could be a guy who could
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  Speaker 2: really add a lot offensively if he gets into you know,
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  Speaker 2: if he kind of figures it out and figures out
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  Speaker 2: how to contribute at the level, whether or not that's
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  Speaker 2: in November or December or January or February or even
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  Speaker 2: you know, we've seen you know, like it could be
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  Speaker 2: like a Brian Brown. I don't think he started a
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  Speaker 2: game until he's until this INSTAA tournament. And I know
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  Speaker 2: that was thirty five years ago, but nonetheless it's still
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  Speaker 2: something that we've seen happen before. So you know, he's
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  Speaker 2: a guy there's no rush for him, but he's got
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  Speaker 2: the most upside and you can see the length and
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  Speaker 2: the physical ability and everything like that. So if he's
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  Speaker 2: a guy who can make some baskets, especially if you know,
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  Speaker 2: looking at it, you know, last year they had the
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  Speaker 2: offensive raw ability. This year they're concentrating on defense and
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  Speaker 2: at least in practice, you know, they're not. They're definitely
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  Speaker 2: not not going to knocking it down from the outside,
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  Speaker 2: so that this may be a team that needs some
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  Speaker 2: scoring and needs some shooting as things go along.
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  Speaker 1: So we will see how he progresses in his role,
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  Speaker 1: and we will see how the the depth guys progress
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  Speaker 1: in their roles. But it does seem like they have
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  Speaker 1: addressed some of the some of the more glaring issues
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  Speaker 1: from last year team, which is probably a good sign
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  Speaker 1: for this year's team. So we'll be continuing to follow
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: the Ohio State basketball team all throughout the offseason and
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: as we head into the preseason, which again tips off
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: October seventh, down in the Linder Family Tennis Center down
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: in Cincinnati. You're planning to be down there for that
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: to cover that, but we will also have plenty of
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  Speaker 1: football between now and then as well. We will be
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: in Chicago for Big Ten Media Days starting next Monday evening.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: We'll have some coverage from there, and then Big Ten
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Media Days Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday next week live from Chicago.
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