First Posted: 3/18/2015
PORTLAND, Ore. — Do-it-all freshman D’Angelo Russell will likely be one of the top picks in the NBA draft this summer and inherit all the expectations that come with it.
First, he’ll find out whether he can handle a different kind of pressure: playing in the NCAA Tournament against a team that tries to create chaos.
Russell will lead Ohio State (23-10) against vigorous Virginia Commonwealth (26-9) in the round of 64 today, and even the Rams are eager to see what he can do on college basketball’s big stage.
“Since the seeding came out, we’ve been watching prediction after prediction, expert after expert saying they got a top-three pick, that he’s mainly going to be the engine that makes them go,” VCU guard Melvin Johnson said. “We’re just going to go out and attack.”
The Buckeyes, seeded 10th in the West Regional, were booted in the Big Ten quarterfinals by Michigan State and went just 4-4 in their final eight games. But Ohio State showed all season that it’s always dangerous because of Russell, a dynamic 6-foot-5 lefty who can shoot and pass like a pro.
Russell averaged 19.3 points — most among freshmen — along with 5.6 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game. He also shot 45.8 percent overall and 41.5 percent on 3-pointers.
Russell was not among the players who participated in Ohio State’s news conference Wednesday, and he was not available during the time reporters were allowed in the locker room. But Buckeyes coach Thad Matta said the last thing he’s concerned about is Russell dealing with the hefty weight on his shoulders.
“From the first time I began recruiting him, meeting him, then getting him to campus, he’s a very mature young man,” Matta said.
The seventh-seeded Rams are no strangers to battling — and beating — the best this time of year.
VCU is playing in the tournament for the fifth consecutive season, which began with a memorable run to the Final Four in 2011. The Rams have stayed steady since, becoming a March Madness regular behind a high-tempo offense and smothering defense that coach Shaka Smart calls “havoc.”
VCU won only five of its final 11 regular-season games — and suffered its first three-game losing streak in Smart’s six seasons as coach — after losing Briante Weber to a season-ending right knee injury in a loss to Richmond on Jan. 31. Even without the face of that havoc-causing defense, the Rams got hot in the Atlantic 10 Tournament and beat Dayton in the title game for the conference’s automatic berth.
Now they’re trying to carry that momentum through March again.
