Ohio State basketball 2013 exit interviews: Evan Ravenel

Evan Ravenel, Ohio State's 6-8 lone senior, wasn't expected to play a huge role during the season. Although with a young and not especially deep frontcourt, Ravenel knew he was still going to need to play real minutes, grab a few rebounds, throw a hard foul, and generally do a lot of the little things if Ohio State was going to be successful. How well did he do? Let's take a look.

Season Stats: 4.9 PPG, 4.2 RPG, .7 BPG, 16.8 Minutes, .514 FG %

Best Games:

Ravenel feasted on some of the undersized out of conference teams early in the season. Against UNC Asheville, Rav nearly had a double double with 12 points (on 6-7 shooting) and 7 boards in only 19 minutes. He added an 11 and 9 the game before in the win over Savannah State, and had 11 points, 4 boards and 3 big blocks against Purdue. As Ohio State moved to smaller lineups, Ravenel sometimes didn't see quite as much burn, but he had a few other bright spots, like his 8 points and 6 boards in Ohio State's upset of Indiana.

Worst Games:

To Rav's credit, he rarely shot the ball enough to have a particularly horrid offensive showing. He did struggle to stay on the court, or on front of his man on occasion though, like during the 2/10 drubbing by Indiana, where Ravenel fouled out in 22 minutes and let Cody Zeller go HAM on him. The 1/19 loss to Michigan State told a similar story, with 4 fouls, and lackluster results on the boards or on defense.

The Skinny:

Evan Ravenel wasn't bad. He wasn't great either, though. He wasn't great at finishing at the rim, but he could step back and hit an open jumper at times. He wasn't a guy that could really play too much above the rim, or sky up to get rebounds, but he did an okay job at grabbing boards for what he was. Evan Ravenel always tried hard, ran the floor, and didn't try to force the issue. There is something to be said for that.

The problem, I think, is that occasionally Ravenel had to be something he wasn't, and that's mostly because Amir Williams didn't develop as quickly as perhaps everyone would have liked. Ravenel was never built to be the principle post presence and offense needs to secure spacing for their shooters, and he certainly wasn't. He can't be the best rebounder, or really even the second best rebounder on your team without the right fit next to him, and he never was. Would it have been nice if he was a little quicker, so he could have defended the lane a little better? Sure, but it would be neat if everybody was a little better. At the end of the day, he came into the program as a role player, and left a slightly better role player. Can't complain too much about that. Thanks for the memories, Evan.

Prognosis:

Mr. Ravenel will more than likely get a cup of coffee playing professional ball somewhere; the destination is less clear. His lack of size, elite athleticism, and scoring prowess makes his fit with the top clubs of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague unsure, let alone the NBA. Someone will take a flier somewhere though, and If Evan wants to stay in basketball as a coach after that, I see no reason why a program wouldn't roll the dice on him as a graduate assistant. Whatever he decides to do, we wish him well and thank him for his service with the Ohio State basketball program