Jon Diebler, the Big Ten’s record-setting 3-point shooter out of Ohio State, has done his share of team workouts for next week’s NBA Draft.
“Eight,” he said.
Figure he has heard his share of tattoos-for-memorabilia jokes.
“Eight,” he said, before insisting he had no tattoos because “I’m afraid of needles.”
That is the condition of Ohio State’s reputation these days. Diebler and David Lighty, two Buckeyes shooting guards who auditioned for the Nets yesterday, have heard every crack about tattoos and football scandals. They are leaving Ohio State, hopefully for the NBA, in the wake of a scandal that nuked the Buckeyes’ storied football program and brought down coach Jim Tressel.
“It stains the university. I think we are one big ‘Buckeye Nation,’ ” said the 6-foot-5 Lighty, who is projected as a mid-to-late second-round pick. “It hurts all of us. It’s sad to see Tressel and a guy like TP [QB Terrelle Pryor] go. But I think they will bounce back.”
The two Buckeyes hope they created some interest in the Nets, who pick 27th on the first round on June 23 and at 36 on the second. They want to get back to basketball and away from football-scandal talk. Both insist the school will bounce back strong.
“From the outside looking in, you might have a different perception of the whole university in general, but we know how the university is run. We know the people in charge,” the 6-6 Diebler said. “Yes, a mistake was made by multiple people with the football program, but at the end of the day, everyone still wakes up the next day. Ohio State is going to be Ohio State, one of the best universities in the country.”
Diebler and Lighty were part of the Nets’ two-session workout yesterday that included projected first-round pick power forward Trey Thompkins of Georgia, shooting guard and stone-cold scorer Andrew Goudelock of College of Charleston, Bayonne-born shooting guard Corey Stokes of Villanova, point guard Diante Garret of Iowa State, defensive-minded shooting guard Marcus Simmons of Southern Cal, Croatian shooting guard Bojan Bogdanovich (from the same team that delivered Drazen Petrovic and Zoran Planinic) and three centers — Brian Williams of Tennessee, Illinois’ Mike Tisdale and Greg Smith of Fresno State.
“A lot of these guys could be at 27. It’s so close in the range. At the end of the week we’ll have a good idea who will be there,” said Nets GM Billy King. “If we can get athletes, it helps. Length and athletic ability [are] paramount.”
The Nets hope to see more of that today when workouts continue with four bigs: 6-10 JaJuan Johnson of Purdue, 6-11 Jeremy Tyler, who played in Israel and Japan after high school, 6-11 Keith Benson of Oakland and 6-10 Jordan Williams of Maryland. They’ll be joined by two 6-4 Big East guards: Brad Wannamaker of Pitt and Georgetown’s Austin Freeman.
No matter whom the Nets get, King, who claimed it’s hard to gauge whether he can move up or down in the draft, does not see an impact player coming.
“I don’t expect whoever we pick at 27 to be playing big minutes for us,” King said. “I look at 27 being somebody that’s going to have to earn his way into the rotation. We need to add some veteran pieces . . . one thing you noticed in the Finals and conference finals, there were no young guys playing. They were all veteran guys out there.”