TURNER IS BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER

Evan Turner is a beast.  In the past week he has come back from a nasty back injury, led the Buckeyes to two wins over ranked opponents and has been named the Big Ten Player of the Week.  Not bad for somebody who fractured their back about a month ago and could have been potentially out for up to eight weeks.

Turner fractured his back while attempting a dunk vs. Eastern Michigan in Columbus on December 6^th.  The injury is about as painful as it sounds, even making chiropractors cringe in pain.  Initial reports said that Turner was going to miss 8 weeks which would have been a major blow to the O State basketball program. 

Fortunately for Coach Matta and the rest of the Buckeyes Turner returned January 6^th vs. Indiana and led the Buckeyes to victory.  Turner also manage to avenge the double digit loss the Wisconsin Badgers hung on them, by beating them in round 2 last Saturday in Columbus 60-51.  Turner had 15 points versus the Badgers but did not play most of the second half due to foul trouble.  His stats vs. Purdue however are much more impressive.  In the Buckeye’s 70-66 upset of #6 Purdue on Tuesday night, Turner scored a career high 32 points with 23 of those coming in the second half.  He also had 9 rebounds and scored 14 of Ohio State’s last 18 points.  Pretty impressive.

The game was a classic duel between Turner and Purdue forward Robbie Hummel.  Hummel also scored a career high 35 points that night, but unlike Turner scored most of his (29) in the first half.  Turner insists that he wasn’t trying to outscore Hummel saying “I was just motivated to try and win, I know I’m going to end up getting my points and my shots.”  We all know however that Turner wasn’t going to let a little forward outscore him.  A week ago the Buckeyes were in danger of falling out of the conference race unusually early, now they have the confidence they dearly needed by beating the top team in the conference and can move on feeling confident that they can play with anybody.

Evan Turner is a big reason that the Buckeyes have this newly found confidence.  He is a senior this year and is sure to go quite high in the draft for his size and speed.  He is originally from Chicago where he went to St Joseph’s high school.  He was a two year starter and amassed personal bests of 25 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 blocks and 3 steals per game during his senior season.  During his junior year he averaged 18 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists and was very involved in leading his team to wins in the regional and sectional championships.  He was a first-team all state recipient, an all-city honoree, East Suburban Catholic Conference MVP and finally Suburban Life Player of the Year.

I don’t mean to sound nasty but Ohio State doesn’t stand a chance without Turner in the game.  Sure they were able to beat Wisconsin without him playing most of the second half but that is because David Lighty stepped up and carried the team by scoring 18 points.  Do the Buckeyes have 1) Enough depth on their roster and 2) Proven guys who, if need be, are able to carry a team for a half like Lighty did?   Also how healthy is Mr. Turner?  Could a tweak or rough foul cause him to miss even more time? My answer:  Stay tuned…