Men's Basketball
Buckeyes Take on Talented Globetrotters in Final Exhibition
By John Porentas
The Harlem Globetrotters will provide the opposition
at the Value City Arena tonight as the OSU men's basketball team
will play its final exhibition game of the year prior to beginning
their regular season schedule against Coppin State on Tuesday.
"Just as long as we're not the Washington Generals,
I think it's good," said a smiling Jim O'Brien.
Don't let that Globetrotter name fool you. This is
not the Globetrotter team that clowns to entertain the crowd. This
is a Globetrotter team of all-stars that was put together to provide
serious basketball competition during the exhibition season for
college basketball programs.
"Obviously, it's a totally different format,
and this is going to be one of the better exhibition games that
we will play," said O'Brien.
"We specifically wanted to play these guys on
Friday because we thought it would fit in line in a pretty exciting
weekend with the Michigan game Saturday and the Globetrotters here
on Friday."
O'Brien expects this game to offer a high level of
competition.
"We think this is maybe the premier exhibition
team that you can play,'' O'Brien said. "We're going to approach
this a little more like a regular game. The minutes are not going
to be as free and I think we have to strategize the game a little
more than we did the first game.''
"Size wise they're very physical, they're mature.
Cedric Sebalos for one plays as a three man, and he's a 12 or 13
year NBA veteran, played in an all-star game. He's physically stronger
than all the guys we have that are going to guard him. It's good.
I'd rather play games like this than games we win by 25 or 30 points
and you get nothing out of it. I think this is a really good game
for us," O'Brien added.
The Globetrotters will be talented, physical, experienced
and just plain big. Their front court includes Olden Polynice at
7 feet and 250 and Solomon Hughes is 6-11 and 230. It also includes
James Felton at 6 feet 10 and 260 pounds. Felton was in Columbus
earlier this month as a member of the Nike Elite team and scored
17 points against the Buckeyes.
O'Brien thinks the matchup with the Globetrotters
will help prepare his team for early season matchups with Alabama
and Duke.
"The one thing we've talked about is the importance
of being a little more prepared to play at a higher level earlier
in the season," said O'Brien. "We can't really gradually
work our way into it. We've got to ready in the first week of our
season, which is a little bit different for us."
The game is scheduled for 7:30 PM and will be televised
locally by ESPN Plus.