This is the first story of a series analyzing Ohio men's basketball roster and the players' potential impact during the 2016-17 season.
This season, the sophomore guard/forward Gavin Block will look to find his true niche on a Bobcats roster which is suddenly loaded with depth.
Block came off the bench during his first year in Athens — crucial at-times, especially for a team that used just a seven-man rotation deep in the postseason.
Plus, with the graduation of Treg Setty, some speculation has begun to swirl. Block could be moved from the Bobcats sixth-man to full-time starter.
It makes sense on paper. Ohio coach Saul Phillips has raved about Block’s ability to space the floor and make tough passes inside the paint.
“(Block’s) so solid mentally,” Kenny Kaminski, Block's teammate and mentor, said. “When he gets into the game, he’s able to get right into the flow of things. That makes a team dangerous, to have a bench that’s no step down from the starters. … We need him.”
But Phillips has also emphasized that incoming freshman Jason Carter and Rodney Culver, will see the floor, potentially impacting Block’s minutes.
“His upside has everything to do with him getting physically stronger,” Phillips said last year. “You might see him get thrown around (during his freshman year), but he is tough.”
Fundamentally, Block is a solid player in multiple facets — a true flex player of sorts. His shooting was decent his freshman year, (40 percent from the field), his passing crisp, his ability to read defenses way advanced for a teenager.
Similar to his teammate and former roommate Jordan Dartis, Block will look to add some muscle and pounds to his relatively slim frame.
But unlike Dartis, who will be most-likely used as Ohio’s No. 3-4 scoring option this year, Block will look to find out where he exactly fits in Ohio’s overarching scheme this winter.
Simply, this season could be a crossroad in Block’s Ohio career.
“A guy like Gavin Block, does he take another step forward?” Phillips wondered aloud. “I don’t care where it comes from. We need more than what we had last year if we’re gonna (win a Mid-American Conference title) and I think we have candidates that are possible.”
