Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Jared Sullinger was the man for the Ohio State Buckeyes a couple of seasons ago and Deshaun Thomas was the go-to guy this past season. However, both players are obviously gone, so who will step up for the Buckeyes in the 2013-14 college basketball season?
It is hard to say if Ohio State will have as good of a scorer as it had in Thomas this past season. Thomas did score near 20 points per game and could not be stopped. The next highest scorer on the team was Aaron Craft, with 10 points per game.
Craft has the talent to take over on the offensive side of the ball for this team, but he plays so hard on defense and it would be very hard for him to dominate on both ends of the court.
However, Lenzelle Smith Jr., LaQuinton Ross and Sam Thompson all stepped up at times in the scoring department. All three averaged seven or more points per game.
It is really hard to predict if any of these four players will have a breakout season, but I think all four of them will step up on the offensive side of the ball and the Buckeyes will have a much more balanced attack. That is not necessarily a bad thing and Ohio State will still be one of the best teams in the nation when it comes to defense.
Thomas leaving the team definitely hurts, but now other players will have a chance to shine. Next season we will get to find out which players those actually are.
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