This could be Turner's Tourney

This could be Turner’s Tourney

By Brad VanFossan

Work hard, play smart, play tough, keep your mouth shut, and let things fall into place. There aren’t too many young athletes who heed this advice, but that’s exactly what Ohio State’s Junior leader Evan Turner did. Amazingly, Turner arrived at Ohio State somewhat under the radar.

In 2007-08 Evan Turner came onto the scene in Columbus as a freshman in the shadows of fellow freshman and highly touted recruits Greg Oden, Mike Conley Jr., and Dequan Cook. Those three highly touted recruits ended up leaving after one season at Ohio State to become first round draft picks in the NBA, with Oden being the first pick overall.

The talented but less hyped Turner became the leader of a fairly inexperienced Buckeyes team as a sophomore and has not only taken the wheel, but has floored the gas in that role ever since.

Turner won the Big Ten Conference scoring title and Big Ten Player of the Year award in that 2008-09 sophomore season. Despite his personal success, the Buckeyes were upset by Sienna in last year’s NCAA Tournament, at the same time the Cleveland State Vikings shocked the world with their upset of Wake Forest. The first round loss having left a bad taste in Turner’s mouth, he passed up on the greener pastures of the NBA and returned to Columbus seeking redemption.

A funny thing happened on the path to redemption: another chance at redemption. On December 5, 2009, Turner fell and hit the ground hard after a dunk during a game vs. Eastern Michigan and suffered transverse process fractures of the second and third lumbar vertebra in his back. Turner was supposed to miss eight weeks and his and Ohio State’s season of promise turned into an almost Cleveland sports like curse. A bleak outlook was an understatement. As amazing as it is to think now that Evan Turner came to Ohio State as arguably the fourth best recruit, even more amazing was his recovery and return to play.

On January 6, Evan Turner returned to play, almost a month from the date of his injury, and a month earlier than his estimated recovery time. Turner only scored eight points vs. Indiana that night, but that would be his last single digit scoring game for the rest of the year. During the six games Turner missed, Ohio State was 3-3, since his return the Buckeyes have gone 16-3. Even missing six games Turner has managed to score over 25 points eight times this year, has gone over 30 points three times, and lit up the box scores for over 20 twelve times. It’s not all about scoring as Turner has recorded double digit rebounds in 15 games this year, and has averaged nearly six assists a game (5.9) this year.

Turner has number two seed Ohio State poised to make a run to avenge last years poor tournament outing. So whether or not you’ve been watching Ohio State this year, it’s not too late to watch this special talent play his last few college games. Like playing hard and smart, my advice would be to just kick back and enjoy this tournament run because a player like Turner only comes around maybe once a decade or even two (Jimmy Jackson?)

Sure Evan Turner isn’t in the NBA yet like Oden, Conley, and Cook, but it’s looking like he might be the true NBA superstar from this bunch. No matter what happens down the road in the pros, Turner and Buckeye fans everywhere hope he can say he’ll have one thing that those guys don’t come April….a National Championship.