Brotherhood brings D'Angelo Russell, former Ohio State players back for 'Vet Week'
There’s a floor-to-ceiling mural decorating the wall outside Ohio State’s practice gym at the Jerome Schottenstein Center. After entering through the northwest rotunda and before getting to the commemorative silver basketballs celebrating each All-American in program history, visitors can see larger-than-life photos of the seven most recent Buckeyes to reach the NBA emblazoned in their Ohio State uniforms.
A year ago, Brice Sensabaugh walked past it on a daily basis. He wasn’t on it then.
Tuesday, he paused there on his way to the gym he called home during his lone season with the Buckeyes. A first-round NBA draft pick in 2023, Sensabaugh was back in town as part of what is becoming a growing summer tradition at Ohio State.
It’s “Vet Week” for the Buckeyes, where former players return to their alma mater to work out alongside, play against and build relationships with the current generation of Ohio State players. After a season with the Utah Jazz, that now includes Sensabaugh, whose image is among the seven to grace the wall inside the Evan Turner Hallway.
“This (wall) was motivation for me at the time, but now to see me up there, it’s surreal and it’s a blessing,” Sensabaugh said, glancing toward the mural. “It’s crazy. It honestly doesn’t feel like I’m on the other side. The other guys have gone into the visiting locker room but I still go in the home locker room because I’m not too far removed from it.”
This is at least the fourth time Ohio State has held a formal alumni gathering during the summer. The event was the brainchild of Jake Diebler, hatched when he was Chris Holtmann’s associate head coach and continued now that Diebler is preparing for his first full year as head coach. Players filter in and out during the course of a few days, with some only available to attend for a day or two and others around from start to finish.
At some point during the last few days, six of the seven players on the wall were in attendance. In addition to Sensabaugh, Duane Washington Jr., E.J. Liddell and the three players making up the bottom row of the mural: Keita Bates-Diop, D’Angelo Russell and Jae’Sean Tate.
In between spending time recording promotional videos for Ohio State’s men’s basketball social media channels, meeting with football coach Ryan Day and recording a soon-to-be-released podcast with Diebler on Father’s Day, Russell said he was enjoying doing his part to give back to the only school he ever took an official visit to see.
“I think a lot of places probably got six or seven guys and when it’s time to play open gym or do something, there’s not enough faces,” Russell said. “For us, we’ve got unlimited faces. Everybody’s here. It’s crowded right now. We’ve got two courts going, guys sitting out mad they’re not on the floor. It’s a big deal to be here. Everybody wants to be a part of it.”
Kaleb and Andre Wesson walked by as Kaleb brought his son, who will turn 4 later this summer. Evan Ravenel, William Buford, Deshaun Thomas, Sam Thompson, David Bell and Tate all milled about, heading to or from workouts. Others, like Clark Kellogg, Ron Stokes, Ron Lewis, Matt Terwilliger and Joey Lane took in the sights from the sidelines.
Russell, Tate and Bates-Diop all arrived at Ohio State in the 2014 recruiting class. Now NBA veterans who wrapped up seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets and Brooklyn Nets, respectively, they were back on the court together again.
“It’s a special, special place,” Bates-Diop said. “My (NBA) teammates in other locker rooms, we talk about what schools we come from and they don’t really talk to their former teammates or go back to their former school. Maybe every now and then they pop in, but this is a yearly thing for us.”
Diebler’s impact is felt everywhere. Bates-Diop and Russell talk about spending time with him when the coach was Ohio State’s video coordinator from 2013-16. Sensabaugh said Diebler was one of the first coaches to start recruiting him and cited him as a key source of strength during a challenging 2022-23 season.
“This is family, man,” Russell said. “I feel when you go to other schools they might create this content to make it look like something it’s not, but our group is what you see. Everybody here is a part of it. Everybody here is a small part of it, which makes it a big deal.”
Asked what makes this a must-attend event each year for former Buckeyes and Bates-Diop, Russell and Sensabaugh, each of them spoke of the importance of connecting the program’s past with its future. Sensabaugh talked of spending time with Mike Conley Jr. at a previous iteration of the event. Bates-Diop said veterans such as Shannon Scott, Trevor Thompson and Sam Thompson were instrumental in helping him feel connected to the program through his early-career struggles.
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Russell, a consensus first-team all-American, first-team all-Big Ten pick and the league’s freshman of the year, said he didn’t get to play much with his classmates during that year at Ohio State. This camp gives him the opportunity to do so.
“All I want to do is hoop with these guys,” he said. “Making it to the league, looking back, seeing those guys come into their own, I just wished I was a part of it. This is where I want to be. To this day, wherever I’m at, it doesn’t match to this.”
Sensabaugh carries that sentiment with him. Atop the mural, Washington’s outstretched arms above his head make an ‘O’ shape and showcase a tattoo on his left forearm. In black ink, it spells out “love” in cursive while the second letter is a scarlet “Block O” Ohio State logo.
After his lone season with the Buckeyes and before he left for the NBA, Sensabaugh got the same tattoo on his right forearm.
“I think it’s a testimony to how close I feel and how at home I feel when I’m here,” he said. “I think it was the most fun I’ve ever had in my life, the short time I’ve been here playing basketball and the team and family feel.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: D'Angelo Russell, Ohio State alumni converge on campus for annual camp
