Over the past two-and-a-half years, Evan Turner has thrown his name into the history books.

Where exactly he ranks in the history of Ohio State men’s basketball, however, is another thing.

To many, the best player in OSU history is Jerry Lucas.

In three years at OSU, Lucas was a three-time All-American. Lucas and the Buckeyes compiled a record of 78-6 along with three Big Ten Championships. OSU also reached three consecutive National Championship games, winning one.

To this day, Lucas holds the career record for shooting percentage, shooting 62 percent. Lucas also held a career average of 24.3 points per game.

The only other players who scored more points in a career were Dennis Hopson and Herb Williams. Hopson played 43 more games than Lucas and Williams played 32 more games.
Lucas and Michael Redd are the only players in OSU history to score 500 points in each of their first three years at OSU.

Lucas’ domination doesn’t end on offense, either. Lucas also holds records for single-season and career rebounding at OSU. For his career, Lucas averaged 17.2 rebounds per game and set a record for 1,411 rebounds in a career.

By the end of his illustrious career at OSU, Lucas set a school record for the most double-doubles at 78.

To top off all of Lucas’ accolades, he was voted Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 1961. He was the first college athlete to get this honor. To add to how great of an honor it was to get the award, it came in the same year that Roger Maris set Major League Baseball’s single-season home-run record.

Another Buckeye great happened to play with Jerry Lucas. He is most known for his steal in the 1965 NBA Eastern Conference Finals with the Boston Celtics. John Havlicek is that man and due to his greatness in the NBA people tend to forget how great he was in college.

In 84 career games, Havlicek scored 1,223 points with an average of 14.5 points per game. Havlicek also averaged 8.6 rebounds per game, which ranks 11th all-time.
Havlicek ended his career as a two-time All-Big Ten selection and in his senior year he was first-team All-American. He also was on the all-tournament team at the Final Four twice.

Another Buckeye legend is Clark Kellogg, commonly known as “Special K.” Kellogg saw playing time as a freshman but didn’t actually start until his sophomore year. After his third season he decided to skip his senior year for the NBA.

While at OSU, Kellogg averaged a double-double, with 14.9 points per game and 10.1 rebounds per game. He scored a total of 1,285 points in his career and 872 rebounds.
By the end of his career at OSU, Kellogg ranked fifth in rebounding and tenth in blocked shots.

Kellogg was also voted as the Big Ten’s Most Valuable Player in his junior year.

For a few years after Kellogg left OSU, there were some mediocre years. Jim Jackson fixed all of those problems. Jackson was voted Freshman of the Year in 1990 and the following two years he was the Big Ten Player of the Year.

In his sophomore and junior years, he was an All-American.

Jackson left OSU as the sixth-leading scorer and ninth in scoring average. While the previous players mentioned were more known for rebounding, Jackson put up numbers in other categories.

Jackson ranks eighth among Buckeyes all-time in steals and assists. When Jackson had his number retired, he was just the third person to have this honor.

With these four players getting their chance to state their claim, now is Turner’s chance.
In 83 games at OSU, Turner has scored 1,127 points with an average of 13.6 points per game. He also has an average of 3.6 assists per game and 6.3 rebounds per game.

If Turner does decide to come back for his senior year, his legacy might have a lasting effect. One thing that might be hurting his legacy is overall team success. What separates the good from the great is winning the big game.