Keeping up: Ohio State Buckeyes in the NBA, week of 2/5-2/11

Sadly there are no former Buckeyes involved in any of the events on the court during the All Star Weekend. The last time the NBA All Star Game featured a Buckeye was back in 2004 when Michael Redd played for the Eastern Conference. Hopefully in the next couple years a Buckeye basketballer can make his way into a All Star game since it has been far too long since one has made it

Mike Conley - PG - Memphis Grizzlies: With having had a little time to adjust to the addition of Tayshaun Prince to the lineup, Mike Conley has piled up the assist numbers in the last 3 games. Conley has registered 26 assists over the past 3 games, including 10 assists on Friday night. The output against Golden State was Conley's first time hitting double digit assists since December 21st, and his third highest output of the season. From the field Conley was spotty, alternating between bad and good shooting games last week. Two games saw Conley shoot under 30% while the other two saw him at or near 50%. On the week Conley had a high scoring output of 17 points in a loss to the Hawks on Wednesday. The Grizzlies split their 4 games last week and currently sit in a tie for 4th in the Western Conference standings.

Daequan Cook - SG - Chicago Bulls: With Marco Belinelli sidelined on Thursday night against the Nuggets with a ankle injury, Daequan Cook was able to have his best game since joining the Bulls in December. In 27 minutes on the floor, Cook hit four 3-pointers and scored a season-high 19 points. Hopefully Cook didn't get too comfortable on the court, as Belinelli returned the next night and Cook didn't leave the bench. Monday night's game against the Spurs only saw Cook on the floor for 46 seconds. Derrick Rose should be returning for the Bulls after the All-Star break which means that Cook could see even less time than he is seeing now. With playing so sparingly for the Bulls, it has been really tough for Cook to get any momentum going.

Kosta Koufos - F/C - Denver Nuggets: Last week saw Koufos' time on the floor decrease a little compared to where it had been over the last couple months. Koufos is still the starting center for the Nuggets but if JaVale McGee plays like he did on Sunday then Koufos might be looking over his shoulder a little more. McGee had 16 rebounds in 32 minutes on the floor. While Koufos doesn't take a lot of shots, he makes the ones he takes count. On the season Koufos is shooting 59.9% from the field, which would give him the 3rd highest FG% in the NBA if he had taken enough shots to qualify. Before Sunday's double overtime loss to the Celtics, the Nuggets had won 9 straight games and been one of the hottest teams in the NBA since the calendar turned to 2013.

Byron Mullens - F/C - Charlotte Bobcats: Since returning from an ankle injury last week Mullens has been quickly finding his game again. Monday night saw Mullens lead Charlotte to a victory over Boston, snapping a 7-game losing streak. Mullens scored 25 points and pulled down 18 rebounds in the victory. It was the second game of the week that Mullens scored at least 20 points and pulled down more than 10 rebounds. On Friday night in a loss to the Lakers, Mullens scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Hopefully Mullens will continue to make up for the time he lost to injury, as right now he is playing some quality basketball.

Evan Turner - G/F - Philadelphia 76ers: Wednesday night saw Turner play one of his worst games of the season, scoring 2 points on 1-10 from the field in the 76ers 19-point loss to the Pacers. Turner recovered nicely from that performance with 16 points and 10 rebounds in a win against the Bobcats on Saturday night. Hopefully Saturday night's game helps to bring Turner out of the scoring slump that he had been in. Going into the game Turner had only scored 20 points in his previous 4 games. Luckily for Turner, his work in other aspects of the game make it hard to take him off the floor even when he is struggling offensively.