By Paul M. Banks
With all the attention on Naismith Award favorite Evan Turner, a few Ohio State Buckeyes often go overlooked. And there are three on the current squad who have a good chance of joining Turner in the NBA in the next couple of years. So I took it upon myself to profile and interview the forgotten Buckeyes. Next we look at swingman, David Lighty.
A couple days ago I asked Ohio State coach Thad Matta, during the off day press conference…”The two guys that were just here, William and David, do you feel they benefit like from all the attention that Evan gets, like they fly under the radar?”
COACH MATTA: “I do. I’ve said that. I throw Jon in there as well. There’s so much made about Evan, as there should be. He’s a tremendous player. But these guys have shown the capability of playing great basketball throughout the course of this season. And I’ve said it before — everybody forgets Dave Lighty didn’t play last year. And when he went down with his broken foot, we were 7-0, I think 13th in the country, and you lose him — David is just a guy — as a coach I don’t think you can put a price on him for everything that he does on both ends of the floor and really doesn’t get a whole lot of recognition.
I’ve said this before with his defense. I, obviously, as a coach don’t have a real good feel on how to nominate a guy for Defender of the Year, but I would take David Lighty over anybody on defense in the country. And he never gets the play that he deserves in that regard,”
I would agree. A year ago when Lighty went down OSU was ranked #1 nationally in scoring defense. He’s this team’s defensive stopper, and he has a knack for getting to the ball and making the hustle and effort plays. Pick your cliche: “glue guy,” “does the things that don’t show up in the stat sheet,” etc. that’s him. Lighty is the last Buckeye remaining from that monster recruiting class that included NBA lottery picks Mike Conley and Greg Oden.
I asked Lighty recently what he needs to work on in order to take his game up a notch. “My handles and pretty much keep shooting, you can never stop shooting the ball and getting better at your jump shot,” he responded. Especially free throw shooting, his percentages are pretty low for a guard. But enough being a Negative Ned, Lighty is shooting about 50% from the floor this year, and his percentages in all the major statistics have indeed steadily increased each year, so it would make sense that the 6-5, 225 pound junior from Cleveland should keep getting better the more he gets involved in the offense. He’s a good rebounder for his size, often putting his athleticism and hops to good use.
I also asked Lighty, an All-Big Ten third team and All-Big Ten Tournament team selection, (also Big Ten player of the week during the final week of 2009) what he believes his biggest strengths to be. “Transitioning and penetration the offensive end, and on the defensive end, just doing a little bit of anything, I always try to help out anywhere I can,” he responded.