Standing tall at 6-foot-4 and with an energetic bounce in his step, Ron Lewis appears to be the embodiment of youthful exuberance. But sometimes, the Ohio State shooting guard cannot help but feel like an aging old timer. One of only two seniors in a Buckeyes starting five dominated by prodigious freshmen, Lewis has literally been a man among boys this season.
“Sometimes, you know, [the freshmen] try and change me and say, `He’s old!’ Know what I am saying?” Lewis says. “But it’s a thing of me being a leader to these guys – that’s the way I think about it.”
From the start of school in August, Ohio State Head Coach Thad atta has called on his senior stud to be his main mentor for what some experts call the greatest recruiting class ever assembled. Half a year later, 22-year-old Lewis’ supervision of teenage stars Greg Oden and Mike Conley Jr. has helped guide the Buckeyes to their first Final Four since 1968. Back in pre-season practice, atta let Lewis know what was expected of him in the year ahead.
“He just told me to lead them,” Lewis recalls. “With me being a senior, you know, I have to lead this team. I have just tried to take on that role this whole year.”
From the stroke of Midnight Madness until the opening tip of the Big Dance, Lewis teamed with fellow fourth-year Ivan Harris in helping an unripe bunch trumpeted as the “Thad Five” blossom into a Final Four contender. Both on and off the court, Lewis has been a big brother to the juvenile big men on campus.
“I would just tell them to stay focused and not let all the hype and stuff get to them,” Lewis says when asked what advice he has bestowed upon stars like Oden and guard Daequan Cook. “They have been doing a great job with that, and that is how our team has been staying together all year. We don’t let any outside sources get to them and get them out of their comfort level and disrupt this team.”
That Lewis has been able to keep first team all-American Oden – who has been the subject of constant questions about his inevitable jump to the NBA – humble and focused throughout the season is a testament to the senior guard’s ability to lead. While he has done his share in making sure the gargantuan Oden didn’t outgrow his role, Lewis claims to have formed a special bond with backcourt mate Conley.
“I have been playing with Mike a lot, and me and him think a lot at times also,” Lewis says of the relationship that has bloomed between the two all-South Region team members. “So you know, we kind of fall into that category together.”
While the two may be separated by almost four years, Lewis and Conley have bridged the age gap with their close proximity to one another in the locker room.
“Our lockers are right next to each other,” Lewis says. “So I tend to talk to him more than I do everybody else.”
For a player who came off the bench for his high school team and attracted minimal attention from college recruiters, it has been odd at times for Lewis to watch players like Oden and Conley, whose faces were posted on Rivals.com before they had finished middle school.
While the members of Matta’s vaunted class of 2006 cruised to Columbus via the nonstop information highway of talk boards and chat rooms, Lewis followed a pathway of obscure back roads to State. Lewis led Columbus’ Brookhaven High to the 2002 Ohio state championship, then settled for Bowling Green when the big-time college programs ignored him. Following two losing seasons in Bowling Green, Lewis headed home to Columbus, where Matta greeted him with open arms.
Three years later, the one-time unknown stands on college basketball center stage as the seasoned veteran of a top-seeded Final Four team.
“People grow and change on different levels, and all their fame has nothing to do with this team. It doesn’t affect me as a person,” Lewis says, emerging from the long shadows cast by his renowned teammates. “They have been going through it and dealing with it their whole life, and I have been going through my own situation. I am just having the time of my life right now.”
Were it not for Lewis, the Buckeyes’ leading scorer on their march through March, Ohio State might be back home in Columbus. Lewis has twice led his team back from double-digit deficits on the road to Atlanta, dropping 25 on upset-minded Tennessee and another 27 against Xavier, including a clutch last-minute jumper to send the game to overtime.
“I have been trying to take on that [leadership] role, especially during the tournament,” Lewis says. “This team is young, and it hasn’t been through the tournament before.”
While Lewis swears emphatically that none of his peach-fuzzed teammates have ever approached him about picking up a six-pack of suds for them, the Buckeyes’ elder statesman has tried to connect with the younger generation off the court.
“We try and do things together, but I mean, these guys are in college, so they can’t do too much on the outside,” Lewis says. “But we try and do things on the outside to get the team to bond more.”
Preparing to take the floor for the 38th time this season on Saturday afternoon at the Georgia Dome, the distinguished members of the Thad Five are no longer the unproven whiz kids with unlimited upside that arrived on campus back in the fall. Thanks to their wise graybeard of a shooting guard, Oden, Conley and Co. have matured into the most magnanimous mix of talent and savvy since ichigan’s Fab Five advanced to the final in 1992.
With his basketball career seemingly at its end following this weekend’s final, Lewis, who graduated last month with a degree in sociology, might want to consider a career in child rearing.
“Nah,” Lewis says with a laugh when asked about the possibility. “I have a child of my own. No child care.”
