Ohio State Basketball Pre-season Ranking 2012-2013

6 Ohio State Buckeyes This is the year that Deshaun Thomas becomes the Buckeyes' go-to-guy. But what will Thomas' offensive game look like now that Jared Sullinger is in the NBA? He played off of Sullinger for two years, cutting to the rim when he was double-teamed, crashing the offensive glass to clean up his misses, and taking spot-up jumpers against sagged-in defenses. As a sophomore, Thomas' most frequent possession type (23.1 percent of them) was the spot-up shot, and despite being 6-7 and 225 pounds, only 13.1 percent of his possessions came on feeds to the post. The thing is, Thomas is actually an asset on the blocks, averaging 1.041 PPP there. Whether that was due to limited defensive attention is TBD. But one imagines that without Sullinger to cut and crash off of, Thomas' offensive profile will include more work on the interior, and as a result, more trips to the free-throw line. His free-throw rate (23.8 per 100 FGA) was less than half of Sullinger's last season (51.9), and if Thomas wants to carry the offense, that will have to change