Former Ohio State Basketball player wins an MVP

The Ohio State basketball team was still pretty good back in the 2012-2013 season. They were coming off a Final Four appearance the year before in which they fell to Kansas, but the vibe was good around that team. It was still a good roster with a good coach.

That was the first time I met Amadeo Della Valle in one of my classes at Ohio State. He didn’t seem to take much interest in that class, nor did I. It was a boring math class. But he was there making sure he learned the material. Even then, I think he knew he wouldn’t need it though.

Fast forward ten years later and Della Valle was right. He didn’t need to know that material. He played for two years with the Ohio State basketball program before turning pro in Italy. Despite only playing 12 minutes a game in his final year with the Buckeyes, he wanted to head home to turn pro.

Since then, he’s been wildly successful. That culminated in him being named the MVP of Italy’s Serie A league, which is the top league in Italy. This season while playing for Germani Basket Brescia, he averaged 18.5 points, 4 assists, and 2.8 rebounds per game. He also shot 47% from the field and 40.5% from three. He also shot 90% from the free-throw line

Della Valle has found a nice little career for himself back home. He was always a fan favorite at Ohio State and was a really nice guy. It’s good to see him have success as a professional and be really good. MVP of the top league of Italy is something to be proud of.

I can imagine that Della Valle is having himself a lot of fun in Serie A as he did in the Big Ten. The difference now is that he’s the best player in the league.