Former Ohio State basketball players light up the NBA

The Ohio State basketball program hasn’t put a ton of players into the NBA recently. They don’t have as much representation as some of the blue blood programs like Duke, Kansas, and Kentucky. Even so, some former Buckeyes lit up the box scores yesterday.

Jae’Sean Tate was one of those former Buckeyes. He starts for the Houston Rockets and he was playing against the Indiana Pacers. Even in the loss, he put up some good numbers. Tate had 18 points on 6-10 shooting and added 4 rebounds as well.

Tate has been playing well for the Rockets. They are just a young team that isn’t any good yet, so they are going to take a lot of losses. The same can normally be said for the San Antonio Spurs, but Keita Bates-Diop decided that wasn’t going to be the case.

Bates-Diop went off last night, scoring a career-high 30 points on perfect 11-11 shooting. He made 3-3 from behind the three-point arc as well. He also added 7 rebounds en route to beating LeBron James and the Lakers in Los Angeles. It was his best performance as a pro.

Two other Buckeyes faced off against each other as well. Mike Conley’s Utah Jazz and D’Angelo Russell’s Minnesota Timberwolves. While Russell did have 19 points and 14 assists, his team could not pull out the win. Conley had a lot to do with that.

Conley had 17 points on 7-10 shooting. He also added 6 assists and 4 rebounds. He just played a solid game, which is what Conley has been known for in the NBA. It has been good to see him have such a long and effective career in the NBA after leaving the Ohio State basketball program back in 2007.

It’s always good to see some former Buckeyes play well at the next level, no matter what sport it is.