You gotta feel for Jared Sullinger.
Here's a guy who dominated at the highest level in college as a rookie, but instead of heading to the NBA draft, decided to return to Ohio State for another shot at a national title, all the while hoping to continue to improve his game, and his draft stock in the process.
The Buckeyes did make it to the Final Four thanks in part to Mr. Sullinger, but were were edged ever so slightly by Kansas and failed to get a shot at the eventual champ, the Kentucky Wildcats.
And in terms of improving his game, there wasn't much statistical improvement to show for his sophomore campaign.
To make matters worse, a few days ago a report from ESPN.com surfaced indicating that the Ohio State big man had been red-flagged by NBA doctors due to concerns with Sullinger's back.
All of this adds up to a potential drop for Sully out of the lottery, and likely explains why he didn't seem so jazzed to face the media earlier today at the Raptors pre-draft workout session. Questions about his back abounded and while he simply stated that his back was fine, it was pretty obvious that he longed to talk about something other than potentially being another Greg Oden.
So that's what we did.
Post-scrum we managed to grab Sullinger for a quick chat ranging from his time at Ohio State, to his play during these pre-draft workouts: