After a men’s basketball practice, a 6-foot-2-inch guard wearing No. 10 can be seen working on his 3-point shot alone.
He’s an unfamiliar face to Ohio men’s basketball.
Ohio coach Saul Phillips doesn’t even know how to say his last name. Not yet, at least. Neither did members of the media surrounding Phillips last Friday.
He is the “other Antonio” — not the one who won Mid-American Conference Player of the Year award last season.
Antonio Bisutti is his name. And he is the newest member of the Bobcats, joining the team after walk-on tryouts a few weeks back.
“I’m still learning his name,” Phillips said. “We needed another body. We had an open tryout and he was the best one.”
Bisutti was the only consistent walk-on during Ohio’s tryouts, beating out random students in shooting and 5-on-5 drills.
Being in Bisutti’s shoes may be tough. He’s a junior from Dublin and joins a Bobcat roster already filled with seasoned veterans such as Jaaron Simmons, Antonio Campbell and Kenny Kaminski.
Phillips said he will mostly use Bisutti during the meat of the season for walk throughs.
“Particularly when we get into the season and we’re trying to simulate some things, rather than taking a guy that’s in the rotation and make him go through dummy offense or dummy defense, another body there helps,” Phillips said.
That’s the lifestyle of walk-ons: be an extra body during practice situations and maybe earn some playing time during lopsided wins or losses.
It’s hard to see Bisutti gaining much playing time. Ohio has a variety of depth at each position this season all across the lineup.
But for now, he's been a welcomed addition to the team.
