We delve into Walter Offutt's decision to leave the OSU basketball team.
Today we revisit a feature at Bucknuts.com called Instant Analysis. This is where we take the latest news and do our best to provide some perspective. Here goes:
* What’s New?: Ohio State announced yesterday that Walter Offutt, a 6-3 sophomore guard on the Ohio State men’s basketball team, decided to leave the program and seek a transfer to another institution.
An Indianapolis native who appeared in 23 games as a Buckeyes including two this season, Offutt has not yet picked a future school. He will finish out fall quarter at Ohio State and be free to move on to another program in mid-December. He’ll have to wait a full calendar year to be eligible at another Division I school.
As a Buckeye, Offutt scored 29 career points (1.3 per game). Last season he played in 21 games as a freshman recovering from a knee injury that cost him his entire season at Indianapolis Warren Central and logged 4.9 minutes, 0.9 points and 0.5 rebounds per game while shooting 38.1 percent from the field.
In 2009-10 he figured to have a slightly advanced role despite the return of the team’s entire backcourt and played 22 total minutes in the first two games of the season. In the opener with Alcorn State he contributed to the 100-60 blowout with eight points, two rebounds, three assists and a blocked shot. On Nov. 12, three days later, he played nine minutes of OSU’s 72-44 win over James Madison with three points, a rebound and a steal.
However, Offutt never got off the bench in the team’s next two games, matchups with top-15 teams North Carolina and California at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Head coach Thad Matta opted to play wings William Buford 31 minutes and Jon Diebler 39 despite shooting 3 of 15 and 4 of 13 from the field, respectively, against UNC. Matta played Evan Turner, David Lighty and Diebler 40 minutes apiece in the win over Cal on Friday and even though Buford continued to struggle with his shot and his minutes were trimmed to 28, the coach never called on Offutt.
In an interview on Wednesday with Bucknuts.com, Offutt said that was the final straw for him. But he also made it clear that his decision was based on a lack of playing time and nothing else.
“That’s the only thing that was wrong,” he said. “I didn’t get enough time and now I can go somewhere where I can play and show my abilities. I wanted to do it right now so I can play a year from now.”
Offutt discussed his fate with close friends and confidants like Scott Heady, his former coach at Warren Central. Heady is now an assistant coach at Anderson University, a Division III school in Anderson, Ind., and he has maintained close contact with Offutt since each left Warren Central two years ago.
“Walter has had nothing but positive things to say about the program there, Coach Matta, his teammates and Ohio State,” Heady told Bucknuts.com. “The bottom line is he just wants to play. He’s decided that is what is most important to him right now.
“As a freshman he played in high school and had a great year. He committed after that and then that summer before his sophomore year he blows out his knee and has very limited playing time that year. He wouldn’t play two days in a row because of his doctors telling him not to stress it. He missed about six games that year. Then his junior year he has a full year and at the end of that season he started to get back to the real Walter. He had his explosiveness and confidence. Then he blows out his other knee his senior year and doesn’t play.
“So he’s had one healthy season since his freshman year of high school. He’s not bitter. He just feels like because of who they have and who they have coming in it’s not going to get any better, and he wants to play significant minutes. They wanted him to stay and I wanted him to stay but it’s his decision and I support him. And it’s certainly understandable to feel the way he does.”
Still, there was the matter of walking into Matta’s office and dropping the news.
“That was nerve-wracking,” Offutt said. “It was hard for me to go in there and tell Coach. But my career was passing me. I want to get into a rhythm playing again. I haven’t played big minutes in a competitive game since AAU probably.
Matta confirmed Offutt’s decision in a short release Tuesday then addressed the issue again after the Buckeyes’ 84-64 win over Lipscomb that night.
“Walt has quit the team,” said the OSU coach. “He’s going to transfer and wants to find a place where he can play more. As I told him, I didn’t agree with the decision, but he’s in the family and we’re always going to respect what he wants to do. He wants to get in a situation where he can play more minutes, and I totally understand that.
“As I told him, I was a transfer and knew I wasn’t going to play at the place I was and I found me a place where I could play and was very happy about my decision. But I hate to see it. He’s a great kid, he’s a great teammate and loved Ohio State, but those things are going to happen.”
Offutt said he will leave Ohio State with the same admiration.
“Coach Matta is a great coach and he’ll always be a great coach,” he said. “He will always be successful because of the way he motivates and the type of players he gets. They have a great staff at Ohio State. I have learned a lot from being at this university and, of course, I will root for those guys. My teammates are kind of like brothers to me.
“But Coach has his own philosophy for what he does and his way of doing things. And I didn’t want to be a guy who gets the quote-unquote garbage minutes.”
* What Does This Mean?: Well, it’s going to be a difficult split. Offutt has a block ‘O’ tattoo on his left arm and has been connected to the program since he committed to Matta and then associate head coach John Groce in 2005.
Meanwhile, several Ohio State players expressed shock and sadness with the news.
“For me it’s a heartbreaker,” Lighty said. “He was like my little brother. I feel for him. He made the decision, so we’re still going to be behind him 100 percent and still keep in contact and things like that. I just wish him the best.”
Without Offutt, players like Diebler and Turner are looking at ironman-like minutes and 6-2 guard Jeremie Simmons has even more onus to produce off a thinned bench. Even though Offutt wasn’t slated to play any point guard, he was capable of spelling Buford or Diebler for a few minutes a half. Now Matta will be more inclined to play those guys longer or shift Turner off the ball when he wants to call on P.J. Hill to add energy to the point guard position.
The absence of Offutt also takes away more options when Buford or Simmons are struggling with their shooting stroke or the coaching staff wants to put an attack dog on a guard for defensive purposes.
The big picture ramifications are more important, however. Some are concerned that Offutt’s exit is another sign of either recruiting misses by the staff or the coaches’ inability to motivate and use role players enough to keep them happy. Backup point guard Anthony “Noopy” Crater left in late December of last season and transferred to South Florida. Swingman Eric Wallace left in the summer of 2007 after barely playing his freshman season and is now at DePaul. The first two players to sign with OSU in the Matta era, guard Sylvester Mayes and power forward Brayden Bell, also left Columbus seeking more playing time.
“We’re not the only high-caliber program that loses players because of playing time,” Matta said. “There’s no question. I don’t like it, especially when they’re great kids.
“I think what you have to do is you’ve got to look at things in a perspective, and I think the greatest example I’ve ever seen happened right here at Ohio State a few years ago. I remember sitting on my couch watching a football game and Bobby Carpenter breaks his leg, and they send this No. 33 in named James Laurinaitis, and I’m like ‘Who in the hell is James Laurinaitis?’ Well, three years of All-American. I think he had 17 tackles as a rookie in a football game this Sunday.
“There’s a process. And I think a lot of times what we face here at Ohio State is you’ve got guys who come in here for one year and guys think that that is the way it’s supposed to be, and it isn’t. There’s a process to the whole thing. It takes it’s time. There’s a moment for everybody and you’ve got to be ready. James Laurinaitis that day up in Ann Arbor was ready to go and look what happened to him.”
Offutt, of course, would argue that he’s also ready but the truth is there just isn’t much time for him as long as Diebler, Buford and Lighty are around. Next season OSU ushers in six well-rated players including guards Jordan Sibert and Lenzelle Smith Jr. Offutt not only decided not to wait around and see how he stacked up against them, he didn’t make it past four games this season.
“I think the American way right now is instant gratification,” Matta said. “I remember being a grad assistant at Indiana State in 1990-91 – I wanted to be a head coach. It just doesn’t sometimes happen as quickly as we want it to. At that position we’ve got some pretty doggone good players right now.
“It’s funny because, in recruiting, the greatest players I’ve ever recruited never cared who was here. They just want to come in and play. It’s one of those situations in coaching, it’s hard. I want to get guys in the game. There’s no question about that.”
* What’s Next?: Offutt said he watched the Buckeyes beat Lipscomb on Big Ten Network Tuesday night and had mixed emotions. He wished his former teammates well but wondered if he would have played a decent stretch with Buford limited to 22 minutes because of another off shooting night and Simmons out temporarily after banging his leg.
Still, he said he doesn’t have any buyer’s remorse.
“Actually, I’m kind of excited about moving on,” he said. “I wasn’t getting a lot of time and there is a place out there for me. It’s up to me to do my homework and make the right decision.
“I’d like to stay close to home if I can but it all else fails I could be going out West.”
Offutt admitted he has looked into the situation at Butler University in his hometown of Indianapolis but the Bulldogs currently are at the maximum number of scholarships for next season. His former high school teammate, Josh Jones, is trying to lure Offutt to join him at Eastern Kentucky, where lots of playing time awaits. Among the head coaches that apparently would welcome Offutt are Groce, who is now the head coach at Ohio University, and New Mexico’s Steve Alford.
“I would guess that he takes a very close look at some schools that are close to home,” Heady said. “He’ll probably end up at a mid-major, a program that gets it up and down the floor and needs an athletic wing who can slash and drive and make plays. I could see him doing very well at that level.”
Heady said those who question whether Offutt can play at the D-I level haven’t seen what he can do.
“He just competes,” he said. “He’s just a player. He’s not really a point guard and he’s not really a shooting guard. He’s an athletic wing that just competes.
“Obviously he’s a very good defender. He’s a smart player who understands the game. If anything he needs to work on his outside shooting, but he’s gotten better at that the last two years.”
Offutt also has done well in the classroom. He has a grade-point average of 2.9 at Ohio State and already had declared a major in sports and leisure studies.
He said he may have to also change his academic path at a new school. Meanwhile, the Buckeyes are simply going to have to march on without Offutt.
“We’re going to support him in whatever he does but we do realize that we have to keep moving,” OSU center Dallas Lauderdale said. “We can’t stop moving. This is a bump in the road but it’s not going to stop us.”
