SF David Lighty (official thread)

[LitlBuck]

Originally Posted by crazybuckfan40

Lighty is poised and I mean poised for a big season...

hope so because he will have to do a lot out of the dirty work when it comes to rebounding and handling some pretty good players at the 4 position where he will be giving up some height.

[Buckskin86]

Healthy Lighty happy to be back on the court for Ohio State
By Mike Popovich
CantonRep.com staff writer
Posted Oct 23, 2009


AP / Jay LaPrete
Ohio State's David Lighty sits on the bench during the first half of their a Dec. 20, 2008 game in Columbus, Ohio. Lighty missed most of last season after breaking a bone in his left foot.


COLUMBUS ?

The college basketball teams David Lighty faced in August bore no resemblance to national powers such as North Carolina, Michigan State or Kansas.

It didn?t matter, though. Playing the likes of Windsor and Western Ontario in exhibition games was better than not playing at all.

Lighty saw his first action since December during Ohio State?s summer trip to Canada. The 6-foot-5 junior guard missed the majority of the 2008-09 season with a broken foot.

?Personally, it was a great feeling,? Lighty said. ?To lace them up, play against another team with referees out there, have a crowd and a little atmosphere ? it was something I missed. I wanted to get back out there.?

Lighty broke a bone in his left foot late in a home win over Jacksonville. He tied a career high with 21 points that night.

Initial projections had Lighty out 6 to 12 weeks. He took part in halfcourt drills at the end of the regular season, but never played again.

?I was getting there later on in March, starting to get back in the flow of practice a little bit,? Lighty said. ?But I?m definitely 100 percent now and ready to go.?

Ohio State finished tied for fourth in the Big Ten and made the NCAA tournament without Lighty. Still, his loss was felt. Lighty is one of the Buckeyes? top rebounders and arguably their best defender.

?Getting him back on the floor with his energy, strength and athleticism, we hope that?s something that really helps us,? Ohio State Head Coach Thad Matta said.

Guard Evan Turner calls Lighty?s return ?huge.?

?He?s a competitor,? Turner said. ?He?s a never-say-die type of kid. If things look the worst, he?ll never believe things won?t go back our way. Just to have a warrior like him out there betters your chance of winning by 100 percent.?

Healthy Lighty happy to be back on the court for Ohio State - Canton, OH - CantonRep.com

[Buckskin86]

- "Getting David Lighty back is huge for this basketball team. We felt last year, right at the time he went down (with an injury in mid-December), we were playing some great basketball. We were undefeated. We had the No.1 defense in the country. That?s what David brings to our team. You might not see it on the stat sheet, but he's a guy I have to have on the floor. . . . (He) is a strong candidate for defender of the year."

Thad's thoughts at media day (Hoops & Scoops: an OSU basketball blog)

[Buckskin86]

OSU men's basketball: Lighty's return jacks up intensity
Monday, November 9, 2009
By Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


Jonathan Quilter | Dispatch
Ohio State's David Lighty was on the court in last week's exhibition game. He'd been out since a December injury.

Jet-lagged from a trans-Atlantic flight home from Serbia, David Lighty nevertheless had an appointment to keep.

He was back from duty with USA Basketball's under-19 team, Dave Richardson reasoned, so the Buckeye was running.

"I had the team running a mile the next morning," said Richardson, the strength and conditioning coach for the Ohio State men's basketball team. "I told Dave, 'Hey, man, you've got to be here for the mile.' "

What Lighty didn't know until that morning two years ago was that Sarah Schulze also was there. The incoming freshman on the OSU women's basketball team was a two-time Ohio high school cross-country champion and a state runner-up in the 1,600 meters.

"I told Lighty, 'This girl's going to kick your (butt),' " Richardson said, "and he said, 'Coach, she's not beating me.'

"He beat her," Richardson said. "He ran like a 5:08 or something. He hadn't trained in a month, just got off a 20-hour flight, got on the track and ran a 5:08 because he was not going to let that girl beat him.

"That's one of the greatest stories ever right there. But that's the kind of guy he is. He has the will to win. He wasn't going to lose. He died. He laid on the ground after that. But he wasn't going to lose."

When the Buckeyes lost Lighty to a broken foot only seven games into last season, they lost more than the sum of his statistics.

"His competitiveness," teammate Evan Turner said. "He's fearless. I honestly think if we would have had him, we would have won the Big Ten championship."

Now they have another chance with him.

BuckeyeXtra - OSU men's basketball: Lighty's return jacks up intensity

[bkochmc]

Nice stat line in his first game back... 4-7 shooting, 8 pts, 5 reb, 8 assists, 1 turnover. Good base to build off of.

[LitlBuck]

Originally Posted by bkochmc

Nice stat line in his first game back... 4-7 shooting, 8 pts, 5 reb, 8 assists, 1 turnover. Good base to build off of.

David had one dunk that was awesome. He was about 18' from the basket and the lane was clear so David took about 3 dribbles and elevated for a throwdown

[Buckskin86]

David Lighty: 'Everybody has love for the Buckeyes here'
Ryan Fagan
Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009

The foot injury that cost David Lighty all but seven games last season has healed. The 6-5 junior could help Ohio State make a run that ends deep in the NCAA Tournament. Lighty took a few minutes recently to talk Buckeyes basketball with Sporting News' Ryan Fagan.

Sporting News: What are your expectations for this year?

David Lighty: Right now, it's just to go out there and compete every day and try to make each other better as much as possible. And just work on our individual games as much as possible because that's going to make our team better. Trying to be smarter with the basketball, not turning it over. Reading defenses, things like that. Just capitalizing on other teams' mistakes.

SN: How are you a better player now than you were when you had the injury?

DL: My shooting has gotten a lot better. I mean, that's pretty much the only thing I could really do, was sit there and just shoot the ball. Something that's going to be big for us is grabbing the rebounds, pushing it up the court and creating.

SN: Talk about Evan Turner for a minute. He really had to step up his game when you went out. What impressed you most about him while you were hurt?

DL: Just his, I don't know how to say it, his wanting-to? How he was eager to step up and perform. He was always ready for every game, every challenge he had. He knew teams were going to double-team him, triple-team him, but he stepped up to the plate and did a real good job in leading the team when I wasn't out there. I commend him on getting himself ready in that situation.

SN: That double-overtime loss to Sienna in the tournament last year; that still a motivation or have you guys tried to put that behind you?

DL: I mean, yeah, that is motivation. We had, what, a 12-point lead midway through the second half? We just couldn't handle their pressure. We started turning the ball over a little bit, and that's one of the main reasons we've said we're trying to work on the little things right now, taking care of the ball, making good passes -- perfect passes -- and just being smart basketball players.

SN: You look at recruiting rankings, and Ohio State has a couple of monster classes in the next few years. What is it about Thad Matta that makes him such a great recruiter?

DL: I don't know exactly what it is. He's a great person, on and off the court, not just basketball-wise. Just sitting down and talking to him, he cares about life, about situations and things like that. He's just a real down-to-earth type of man. And, Ohio State University, I guess that might help out, too. Just being here, the atmosphere in Columbus, it's crazy. Everybody has love for the Buckeyes around here. That's probably what it really is.

David Lighty: 'Everybody has love for the Buckeyes here' - Ryan Fagan - College Basketball - Sporting News

[Buckskin86]

I asked David Lighty why he was so much more aggressive with the basketball, especially in the first half against California. The games in New York were a definite upgrade for Lighty over the first week of the season.

"Just knowing who was guarding me" for California gave Lighty the confidence to attack more, he said. "I think I was a little tentative against North Carolina when I could have taken the big man (off the dribble). I took it upon myself to say I was going to be aggressive (against Cal) depending on the matchup."

The waiting game (Hoops & Scoops: an OSU basketball blog)