OSU seniors get grad ceremony on road
Ohio State guard Jon Diebler talks to referee Ted Valentine in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Michigan in the semifinals of the Big Ten Conference tournament. (March 12, 2011) Credit: AP
NEWARK -- Ohio State recently brought a new dimension to the routine pregame shoot-around. Hours before its previous NCAA Tournament game, the team held its usual warm-up exercises, shooting exercises and stretching exercises. Then it had commencement exercises.
Winter graduation was Sunday in Columbus, which meant David Lighty, Jon Diebler, Dallas Lauderdale and Nikola Kecman were out of luck, given that they had a game against George Mason in Cleveland that afternoon. Their university did the next-best thing, surprising the four seniors with tasseled black mortarboards, gray sashes and their diplomas.
No valedictory address, no keynote speaker, no procession, no "Pomp and Circumstance," but it was all just right. "The music was playing in my head as I was shaking my classmates' hands," said Lauderdale, who received his degree in strategic communication.
"It was kind of crazy to get that diploma, but it was very nice for Miss Miechelle to do that," said Diebler, an All-Big Ten Tournament guard and now the holder of a degree in marketing, referring to senior associate athletic director Miechelle Willis, who set it up.
"For them to do that, it was real special," said Lighty, a valuable swingman on the team who finished his last assignment toward his degree in family resource management Saturday night.
There was an additional level of symbolism for those four (Kecman has his degree in aviation management). They faced the possibility of playing their last game with Ohio State Friday night against Kentucky in a Sweet 16 matchup at Prudential Center.
Graduating seniors aren't exactly rare in NCAA basketball, but they do stand out in a culture marked by "one-and-done" freshmen who enroll in college for one year, then leave for the NBA.
Kentucky is Exhibit A in the latter category, having sent four freshmen to the pros last year and having been led by freshmen again Friday night. Wildcats coach John Calipari said he hopes the NBA changes the rule that allows -- and basically encourages -- the best players to leave school after a year.
"I'd like to have guys for more than one year. I don't like 'one-and-done.' But I'm not going to recruit bad players," Calipari said. "I'm going to recruit the best players and then if we develop them . . . and they're able to leave, I'm going to encourage them to leave."
If there is a stigma attached to seniors -- suggesting they stayed because they weren't good enough to leave -- there also are great rewards.
"I mean, you grow as a person, on the court and off the court," said Lighty, a 1,000-point scorer and All-Big Ten second-team member. "And the experiences that I've had at Ohio State pretty much made me the man that I am today."
Said Diebler, "Getting your degree is an awesome feeling. It is a great honor to go through that, especially as an athlete, with the amount of time we spend in our sport.
"I think the great thing is we're going to leave college without any debt."
