Which city can lay claim to the title as best high school basketball town in the state?
Every city in Ohio is proud of its high school basketball talent. Whether it’s a big town that puts out several D-I players every year, or the smallest village that saw one high schooler play big-time basketball a long time ago, every town has a story of someone who went on to do big things from humble beginnings in their town. But which city has fueled the Ohio State men’s basketball program with the most talent? We will get into that shortly.
Last week, Connor and Justin debated which player on the men’s basketball team will take the biggest jump next season. Connor went with redshirt sophomore Taison Chatman, while Justin picked sophomore John Mobley Jr.
42% of the readers sided with Connor, while 34% agreed with Justin. The remaining 24% thought it would be someone other than Chatman or Mobley.
After 204 weeks:
Connor- 92
Justin- 86
Other- 20
(There have been six ties)
This week, we’re debating which city has produced the most talent that eventually found its way to the Ohio State men’s basketball program. It’s not solely about the number of players — instead, think about the greatest players the program has seen and their significance to the history of Ohio State basketball.
This week’s question: Which city has supplied the most talent to the Ohio State men’s basketball program?
Connor: Toledo
Bob Donnan-Imagn Images
For being the fourth-biggest city in the state and being substantially smaller than both Cleveland and Columbus, Toledo has produced more elite players for the Buckeye basketball program than any other city.
Four of the top seven scorers in program history are from Toledo — Dennis Hopson (1), William Buford (3), Kelvin Ransey (5), and Jim Jackson (7). All four of those players played for public high schools in the Toledo City League.
As far as the number of players goes, Columbus and the central Ohio area probably have the most great players who ended up at Ohio State. But it’s impressive that the highest scorers in the program are mostly from Toledo.
Marc Loving was also a 1,000-point scorer from Toledo, having played at St. John’s Jesuit. Aaron Craft, Jon Diebler, and Dave Sorenson are all from the Findlay area (Upper Sandusky for Diebler), which isn’t Toledo, but it is northwest Ohio. Jae’Sean Tate grew up in Toledo when he was younger before moving to Pickerington shortly before high school.
As far as big cities go in Ohio, the big three are typically Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland. But when it comes to basketball talent, Toledo is above all three.
Justin: Columbus
To be honest, it is hard to compete with Toledo when it comes to Ohio hoops. The only one that comes close is Columbus. However, I think some of the fan favorites from the program are the hometown guys.
I would say three big names from Columbus to the campus are Michael Redd, Jared Sullinger, and Herb Williams. Williams is one of the top-scoring and rebounding Buckeyes of all time and was a four-year starter for the Ohio State Buckeyes, scoring 2,011 points and recording 1,111 rebounds (still second in team history only to Jerry Lucas).
Williams is also the school leader in making career field goals, with 834 in 114 games, and is second all-time in career blocked shots with 328.
Williams was named to the All-Big Ten team as a junior and led the Buckeyes in scoring that year with an average of 17.6 points per game.
Redd was a scoring machine for three years, averaging 21.9, 19.5, and 17.5, respectively. As a sophomore, Redd and Scoonie Penn led Ohio State to the NCAA Final Four in 2000.
Sullinger was a two-time consensus first-team All-American in 2011 and 2012, the USBWA National Freshman of the Year, and Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2011.
He was also a two-time First-team All-Big Ten in 2011 and 2012, was the Big Ten tournament MOP in 2011, and was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team in 2011.
These three are a strong big three to represent the city of Columbus, while you can also add guys like Granville Waiters, Ron Lewis, Lawrence Funderburke, J.J. Sullinger, and others.