I believe the best compliment you can ever give a point guard is “excellent distributor.” I asked Ohio State “1” Aaron Craft what he thought of the term at Big Ten media day.
“I’ll take any kind words I can get,” he responded.
Craft has had the benefit of playing with a marquee player in Jared Sullinger; giving him a strong force to work the ball inside to.
“Playing with a guy like Jared, and a guy like Evan Turner (NBA overall #2 pick in 2010) in the summer, makes us better. It’s a lot more fun and you always now what you’re going to get.
I think it’s safe to say Craft is coming into his own now. His karaoke singing may be horrendous (as you can see in this video), but his basketball acumen is off the charts.
The Buckeyes lacked a true point last year. Enter Craft, a great distributing guard, who stepped into a starting role by showing the ability to feed the studs around him.
A high school valedictorian, he’s heady player that also likes to get physical in his game.
Aaron was voted Big Ten 6th man of the year for the Buckeyes last year, recording the 5th highest minutes played for the team. He led OSU in Assists (177) and Steals (73) and set a school record 15 assists in a game during a NCAA tournament game against George Mason. Again- great distributor who will only develop further.
I asked him how he’s going to work to get better.
“Cutting down on turnovers that just shouldn’t happen and being a threat on offense. Not necessarily scoring more, but being willing to take more shots and being able to create more, not allowing my guy to play off me,” he responded.
Craft was named preseason top 50 for both the Naismith and Wooden awards this year. Last winter he was named to the all-defensive and all-freshmen teams in the Big Ten.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports
A Fulbright scholar and MBA, Banks has appeared on live radio all over the world; he’s also a member of the Football Writers Association of America, U.S. Basketball Writers Association, and Society of Professional Journalists. The President of the United States follows him on Twitter (@Paul_M_BanksTSB) You should too.