Ohio State Basketball: K. Wesson’s pre-draft experience will help Bucks
Kaleb Wesson tested the NBA Draft waters and chose to return for one more college season. That experience will certainly help the center and Ohio State.
It’s hard to say if Ohio State center Kaleb Wesson was ever seriously considering entering the NBA Draft or not. However, going through the draft process will almost certainly help the big man and the Buckeyes.
Apparently the feedback he received reaffirmed things Chris Holtmann and the staff have been telling him but sometimes young guys need to hear things from another voice.
Colin Hass-Hill of Eleven Warriors wrote about the situation recently and here is an excerpt from his article.
"“So much of what they’re saying that he needs to get better at really, certainly benefits him, but it benefits our team,” Holtmann said on Wednesday. “It’s all the things that he’s heard. Fitness, defending ball screens. Ball-screen defense has become a constant. He knows that, Kaleb knows that. And he did make improvements. There’s no question he made improvements in his mobility and his ball-screen defense from Year 1 to Year 2, from his freshman to sophomore year. But those things continue.”"
It’s not surprising those are things pointed out by his coaches and NBA people because they jumped out at me last season, and I’m sure other fans as well. It just seemed like Wesson would sometimes be a half-step slow getting to a spot, on either end of the court.
In fact, his sophomore season reminded me of Jared Sullinger when he was a freshman. Sully came back for one more year and was an entirely different player.
His offensive stats improved slightly although his rebounds dipped some, but he was leaner, quicker, seemed to have improved his vertical and his defense improved. He averaged more steals and his blocks per game doubled.
If Wesson improves his conditioning like Sullinger did that may very well take care of his defensive issues. It may also do away with most of the cheap fouls like the ones he committed last season which often sent him to the bench.
As a result, Wesson’s minutes per game could increase from the 25.9 to 30 like Sullinger averaged. That would probably increase his scoring and rebound average from 14.6 and 6.9 to around Sully’s 17.5 and 9.2 in 2011-12 as well.
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If he can stay on the floor a few more minutes a game it would also ease the burden on backup Ibrahima Diallo which will help his development during his freshman season. He is a talented 7 foot center, but the first season going up against older ‘bigs’ is always challenging, especially in the Big Ten.
K. Wesson is obviously a talented young player but now he knows the things he has to work on if he wants to play at the next level. Going through the draft process was a good thing for both the center and Ohio State.
Just think if there is a new and improved K. Wesson on the floor next season. Now that Chris Holtmann has a loaded roster, if the big center picks up his game the Buckeyes could make some noise in the Big Ten and possibly in the NCAA Tournament.
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Remember, when Sullinger came back for his second year Ohio State made it to the Final Four. Could it happen again with another man in the middle deciding to come back for his third?