For those that make the annual expedition to Worthington for the McDonald’s
Summer League, Thursday is the day to begin muttering the familiar phrase, “I’m
loving it.”
This Thursday, June 16th, the McDonald’s Summer League begins play at
Thomas Worthington High School at 6:30 PM with games also at 7:45 and 9:00 PM.
It will give basketball fans a chance to see several former, current, and future
Ohio State basketball players as well as many others.
This year, like always, the league will be set up in two divisions, with the
regular season running until July 13th. Then, the playoffs will run from July
14th until July 21st.
In the past, Ohio State head coach Jim O’Brien used to assign his players
to certain teams. However, we understand that this season, Thad Matta has
decided to let the returning players choose their own teams. We understand from
league officials that not all current Ohio State players have yet finalized
which team they will play for, and obviously not all rosters are yet complete.
Given that fact, we do not yet know which teams Matt Terwilliger, Jamar Butler, or Ivan Harris will be playing on. Last season, Terwilliger and Butler
played for DSW Warehouse, which will not be fielding a team this season.
College teams are permitted to have two (2) players under a letter-of-intent
on a given summer league team by NCAA rules.
Here are the teams with the notable players in parentheses as of the rosters
that have been submitted to the league as recently as June 13th.
Wolves Divsision
Buckeye Corner (Ron Lewis, J.J. Sullinger, Tony Stockman)
Berwick Party House
Andrews Insurance (Matt Sylvester)
Precision Cylinder (Ed McCants)
Chorpenning Good
HER Hunt
Donatos (Rob Summers and possibly Ron Lewis)
Prudential Realtors
New Covenant Church
Cardinals Division
Cordray for Treasurer
City Wide (Kevin Weakley, Bryan Weakley, Jason Weakley, Jeff Gibbs)
HER King (Brian Brown & Carlos Davis)
Safe Auto (Andrew Lavender, NeShaun Coleman, Jermaine Tate, Troy Smith,
Carmelo Anthony, Gary Trent)
Columbus Christian Center
College Bound Athletes Connection
Mitchell McKinney (Antonio Watson, Shun Jenkins, Shaun Smith)
Union Savings Bank (Terence Dials, Brayden Bell, Sylvester Mayes, Je’Kel
Foster, Scoonie Penn)
Ohio Dominican
We must note that although it’s not a misprint Carmelo Anthony is listed
for Safe Auto, we have no reason to believe you should head to Worthington
expecting to see him actually playing.
Along those lines, in addition to Terwilliger, Butler, and Harris who all
will be playing on one of the 18 teams, there are other names to watch for that
have been in the league in the past and could still pop up on a roster at any
point (some may already be on a roster that has yet to be submitted). These
names are (but not limited to) Michael Redd, George Reese, Ken Johnson, Quentin
Brooks, Velimir Radinovic, Brent Darby, Calvin Booth, and Esteban Weaver.
The lineup for Thursday’s opening evening is as follows:
6:30 PM Buckeye Corner vs. Prudential; City Wide vs. Mitchell McKinney; New
Covenant vs. ODU
7:45 PM Cordray vs. Union Savings Bank; HER King vs. College Bound; Safe Auto
vs. Col. Christian Cen
9:00 PM Precision vs. Chorpenning Good; Berwick vs. Donatos; Andrews
Insurance vs. HER Hunt
Bucknuts will have reports and features throughout the season from the
McDonald’s Summer League.