Update: Deshaun Thomas will forgo his senior season and enter the NBA Draft
Ohio State forward and Big Ten leading scorer Deshaun Thomas wrote a letter to the editor of THE Ohio State University student paper The Lantern this week wishing that Buckeyes everywhere would care much more about the sports that NO ONE CARES about. Specifically, the non-revenue producing sports.
Deshaun Thomas wrote:
Last Tuesday, The Lantern featured an article in which athletic director Gene Smith talked about how Ohio State isn’t just a football school. He talked about the success of our basketball team. It would be good to remember that in the other sports, there is a lot of success too.
All athletes at Ohio State work very hard at being the best they can be at their sport. I wish that all athletes could receive the attention that our football and basketball teams get. They all deserve to be celebrated.
First off, this was really cool of Deshaun Thomas. He’ll make his millions in the NBA soon enough, but he’s clearly still down to Earth. He’s looking out for his athletic Buckeyes brethren athletes. Although I agree with the intent and spirit of the letter, I agree much more with Smith than I do Thomas. Hoops may get some media attention, but still not that many people actually care.
To say that Ohio State football is a religion is to understate both college football and organized religion. Most churches envy both the size and devotion of the Ohio State football flock. In the Buckeye state, Ohio State football is bigger than Jesus, Allah, Buddah, Moses, Pope Francis, Vishnu, Martin Luther, Joseph Smith, Zoroaster and L. Ron Hubbard COMBINED.
And even spring college football is a big deal in Columbus.
Although, it’s nothing but scrimmages where they play with themselves, it’s more of a big deal than the Ohio State Buckeyes basketball team in the NCAA Tournament. Despite Buckeyes hoops reaching the Final Four last season, THE Ohio State University DOMINATING the Big Ten conference tournament every year, and OSU reaching the Elite 8 again this year, Bucknuts are still more interested in Ohio State spring. And this is odd considering Ohio State has arguably the third best tradition of winning in the Big Ten; after Indiana and Michigan State.
Remember, last spring 3,100 people showed up to watch Ohio State football DRILLS. To quote Allen Iverson, “PRACTICE. We’re talking about practice”
And the Ohio State football spring “game,” featuring mostly 3rd-stringers, drew over 80,000 despite a $15 entry fee. The Buckeyes drew even more fans than any of the Bible Belt powerhouse programs in SEC country last year.
Even the polarizing figure of Aaron Craft isn’t enough to move the needle when it comes to hoops. Although it’s still nowhere near as bad as the annoyance of football-school-with-solid-hoops-program-but-basketball apathy that is Notre Dame.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, a Google News site generating millions of visitors. He’s an author who also contributes regularly to MSN, Fox Sports , Chicago Now, Walter Football.com and Yardbarker
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