pardonfan wrote:It is being cited at JJHUDDLE.com that Ron is going to join the OSU buckeyes. Enjoy this all of you buckeye haters.
Can anyone find some official info on this? OSU is the last place I would like to see anyone transfer to...Buck the F*$@eyes!!!
Here it is:
From AP:
Bowling Green's top scorer is moving to Ohio State
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Bowling Green's leading basketball scorer
says today he'll transfer to Ohio State and become new coach Thad
Matta's first recruit.
Ron Lewis averaged 17 points a game last year. The six-foot-four
guard from Columbus will have two years of eligibility left after
sitting out the upcoming season under N-C-A-A transfer rules.
Matta was hired in July to replace Jim O'Brien, who was fired
after athletic director Andy Geiger said O'Brien gave six-thousand
dollars to a recruit in 1999.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
I’m an Ohio State hater myself. I’ve never been able to jump on the OSU bandwagon with every other redneck in this state (…and OSU is where I went to grad school…). I take pride in being a fan of a program with a small athletic budget, reputation, and fan base. I like being different.
I’ve never though that highly of Lewis, so I’m not that green about him going to OSU. I stand by my earlier post about him being the most overrated player that we’ve had here. If you can look beyond his jumping ability, what you have is a fairly limited player. He does some things well: he’s drives and scores, draws fouls, and makes free throws. He boards. He’s rugged. He stays out of trouble off of the court. But for a guy his size, he’s a lousy ball control player on the perimeter. His outside shooting is a liability. And unless he’s having one of his big nights, he gives away on defense as much as he gets on offense. He’s slow to distribute, doesn’t lead, and usually did not step up on clutch situations. Wright will shift to the 2G and to a scorer’s role, and I actually think that he’ll be better in this role than Lewis.
It’s hard to believe the Motta plans on using Lewis at PG. As a platform for launching a pro career, well, OSU may be less advantageous than BG. OSU is positioned to recruit top 25 players, the type talented enough to steal his PT or even beat him out. The overall talent at OSU is likely to be higher, so his minutes and scoring might not grow and may even diminish. Sullinger will be a senior when Lewis comes eligible, and Sullinger has better guard skills. Lewis will slide to a three, get fewer touches, and rotate out against some of the bigger 3’s in the Big 10. At BG, Lewis was virtually guaranteed minutes and shots.
Upshot - Lewis’ rationale for leaving BG probably shouldn’t be taken at face value (same with Crawford and Harwell). What that means, I don’t exactly know, but in conjunction with all of the other player turnover, something certainly seems to smell bad.
Thursday, September 02, 2004
Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Ronald Lewis liked the style of basketball Xavier played when Thad Matta coached there. Lewis also liked Matta’s style after the two met last week.
The style points added up to Matta netting his first recruit as Ohio State coach.
Lewis, a 6-foot-4 guard from Brookhaven who was released from his scholarship at Bowling Green last week, said yesterday that he will transfer to Ohio State. He will have two years of eligibility after sitting out this season.
Lewis said he and his brother and adviser, Lamont Carter, met with Matta on Friday to discuss a transfer, then spoke with coaches from other schools he was considering.
"We were supposed to talk to him again on Sunday," Lewis said of Matta, "but he called back on Saturday, and then again on Sunday. He was the only (coach) who did that. I felt like he was more interested in me than anybody, so I made my decision off of that and (his) style of play and the future of the program. I felt like the players they have here, and me coming in, we can get the job done."
Matta cannot comment on Lewis until the university completes paperwork related to the transfer.
Lewis said he watched tape of Xavier games while investigating possible destinations. He also contacted Dayton, Virginia Tech, Boston College, West Virginia and Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
"I like the system, the spread of the offense and how they distribute" the ball, Lewis said. "They play together and they run the floor a lot. Nobody’s clogged up. I like that style of basketball."
Lewis averaged 17 points and was named to the all-Mid-American Conference second team last season. He did a lot of damage driving to the basket and by making a conferencebest 191 free throws. He said both numbers made an impression on Matta.
"I don’t know anybody in the MAC last year that made 191 free throws," Lewis said. "A lot of people didn’t even shoot 191 free throws, let alone make them."
BleedOrange wrote:Upshot - Lewis’ rationale for leaving BG probably shouldn’t be taken at face value (same with Crawford and Harwell). What that means, I don’t exactly know, but in conjunction with all of the other player turnover, something certainly seems to smell bad.
This sentiment--with which I agree--is stated numerous times on this thread. I don't buy entirely Lewis' REPORTED rationale about PG. As far as I know, he never said that, only the coaches.
Imagine what we would have thought if we had known about the assistants leaving in the middle of the players leaving?
Let's all take a step back and realize that Coach Vandiver and Coach Markowski left for their own personal reasons and 1) we're not asked to leave 2) were not pinned with blame by the current coaching staff as to why we had a mass exodus.
Despite what you may be feeling about this offseason, there is a certain amount of integrity and class that is echoed in those two statements. At MOST D-1 institutions following three seasons similar to ours . . . The coach would have been asked to remove himself or his assistants . . . That did not happen here and as I have discussed with many of you in conversation outside of the board, I will be very surprised if Dan is not given the opportunity to finish his existing contract. Like it or not, it's how we do business at BG and it's not a bad way to conduct an athletic program.
There I did it . . . I said something nice about Dakich and Krebs in the same breath.
In all seriousness, there are many different directions to point fingers in this offseason such as believe what you will about the reasons that Lewis, Hobson, Rosefelt, Harwell, etc . . . left . . . The bottom line is with two senior point guards and the reigning Mr. Basketball in the fold, there do not appear to be a lot of point guard minutes available for Ron Lewis at tOSU so read into that what you will . . . but the bottom line is we still have guys to support . . . that actually want to be here.
Lewis added that going to Ohio State wasn't his goal - leaving Bowling Green was.
"It was more important to leave Bowling Green, because I didn't know Ohio State would offer me a scholarship when I left," Lewis said. "That opportunity came when I got my release.
"[At Bowling Green] they have players leaving every year, and I didn't feel we were getting any better. We couldn't develop any continuity."
couldn't have said it any better Ron, best of luck!!!!
ATTENTION BG ATHLETIC DEPATMENT:
[At Bowling Green] they have players leaving every year, and I didn't feel we were getting any better. We couldn't develop any continuity."
(im sure Ron isnt the only one that feels that way...kids want to win...not listen to coaches come up with lame excuses why they transfer...did't read the press release that he came to OSU to play point??????how interesting)
MotorCityChamps wrote:"[At Bowling Green] they have players leaving every year, and I didn't feel we were getting any better. We couldn't develop any continuity."
In other words...
"Hi, I'm Ron Lewis. I'd like to be part of the PROBLEM, not part of the SOLUTION."
Whatever. I like Ron as a player and I hope he does well there, but this explanation isn't doing it for me either.
so he should stay here and have 2 more losing seasons with his friends and team mates leaving.....it may be a team but it comes down to yourself..if you don't look out for yourself nobody will....a university cares about one thing $$$$...it is a business...if you don't produce you are shown the door and lose your scholarship...there is no LOYALTY in college athletics..why should players not look out for themselves and put themnselves in the best situation..fact is we would still have some quality players that left if #1 our coach had people skills(as much as he wants to be he is not b. knight)..and this was a winning program, which will never happen until #1 is solved...the arena and all of that has nothing to do with that, we have always gotten good enough players...if coaches have no loyalty to a program(coaches leaving for WV then coming back)(screwed over 2 schools in a week) the why should we bag on players for looking out for themselves....if i'm ron lewis i would much rather play on my hometown for OSU and be on TV everygame then play for a sub .500 and going down MAC program with maybe 3 TV dates a year...
Ron Lewis is a very good athlete and basketball player. Ron Lewis is a better player than JJ Sullinger, Tony Stockman, Brandon Fuss-Cheatem and Ricardo Billings this morning. If he was immediately eligible, he would assist the Buckeyes greatly. With a year of pure practice to work on his individual skills like defense and ball handling, learn the OSU/Matta system and work with future teamates, I would look for Lewis to be an excellent contributor for OSU in the following two seasons. Lewis is a decent student and is not a troublemaker. If he works (and he has in the past), I believe he will fit in with OSU quite nicely.
The above are my opinions and, although I literally do not like OSU in any way, I wish him well on and off the court. I believe his comments I am reading in The Blade etc should not have been made at all as he is released and resigned. But the media sometimes gets statements out of you that don't sound real good or things just start spilling out. But perhaps these statements do indeed tell us something and we can learn from them.
As I have posted earlier, I am cerrtain everyone associated with Falcon bball knows that we are at a turning point. We need to turn in the right direction- sign more good players, keep more good players, develop more good players, win games and have them represent us well off the court and at graduation. Recently, we have only done the latter well enough as a program. And things must change in the other areas.
Anderson Arena won't change between now and March 30. And I've not heard our coaches make excuses anyway; they just want to win. And we need to turn in the right direction- now.
