Landing Page
Special Projects
This story is part of a series of specially designed stories that represents some of the best journalism The Post has to offer. Check out the rest of the special projects here.
BLAKE NISSEN
C.J. Rhodes dribbles down the court during Ohio's game against Akron on Feb. 6. The Bobcats beat The Zips 99-75.
02.15.18
C.J. Rhodes was hard to miss during one of his first practices with Ohio. Not just because he’s the shortest player on the team by six inches.
Learning plays and positioning on the fly that other players had practiced for months, Rhodes let his inexperience show. Most of his shots rimmed out, he was slow stepping around screens and he struggled to put his hand up in time on jump shots.
Position: Guard
Year: Freshman
Height: 5-foot-8
Weight: 167 pounds
High School: Mount Healthy (Cincinnati)
As a result, Jordan Dartis, the team’s best shooter and Rhodes’ defensive assignment, was making Rhodes pay with basket after basket.
“You signed up for this!” freshman guard Teyvion Kirk shouted to Rhodes.
Indeed, that’s what Rhodes signed up for when he walked on in mid-January. Now he’s working to adjust to the college level, in spite of his 5-foot-8 frame, and to help the Bobcats however he can.
At the start of the school year, Rhodes met guard Zach Butler on campus and soon befriended Kirk, too. The trio hung out together, went to dining halls and talked about basketball.
“(Rhodes) just started talking about how he wanted to walk on for the team and started asking about tryouts,” Kirk said. “Me being a freshman, I didn’t know too much about walk-on tryouts or even if they did that.”
Ohio does hold a walk-on tryout, which Rhodes attended a few weeks into the Fall Semester. He was one of about 30 hopefuls trying to be noticed in The Convo. Rhodes recalled coaches at the tryout telling him, “good moves,” “good shot” and asking where he is from.
It was over in about two hours. Weeks went by, then months. The season started. All the while, Rhodes waited to hear back.
“No word,” he said.
Rhodes watched home games in the stands and tuned in to some road games online, continuing to support his friends on the team. He kept playing and working out, including spending some nights shooting at The Convo with Butler, as he set his sights on trying out next year.
Then, over the winter break, Rhodes received a call from director of operations Cameron Joyce. There was a spot on the team for him.
A boatload of in-season injuries had thinned Ohio’s roster. Sometimes, the Bobcats had difficulty fielding teams for five-on-five scrimmages. That prompted coach Saul Phillips to sift through the results from the team’s walk-on tryout and pick up a player, which turned out to be Rhodes.
“After trying out and not getting a call, I figured it was over,” Rhodes said Jan. 21 in a Facebook post on his personal page. “I thought that basketball wasn’t for me anymore, but I kept working hard. … I won’t take this as a joke and it’s time to eat.”
The average height of a Division I player is just over 6-foot-4, according to kenpom.com. As the shortest player on most basketball courts throughout high school and now, Rhodes is no stranger to working hard to counter-attack adversity. He even uses the hashtag, “#HeartOverHeight” on social media.
“He’s not a 6-foot-2, 6-foot-3 basketball player … but he’s not afraid to go in there with the trees. We have to pull him back from doing that sometimes ‘cause he doesn’t realize he’s not 6-foot-3.”- Adair Carmichael, Mount Healthy high school coach
In high school, Rhodes was one of the leading scorers at Mount Healthy in Cincinnati his senior year, helping the team to a 16-8 record after just a 10-13 mark the year before.
“C.J. has the heart of a warrior,” Mount Healthy coach Adair Carmichael told The Cincinnati Enquirer in January 2017. “He’s not a 6-foot-2, 6-foot-3 basketball player … but he’s not afraid to go in there with the trees. We have to pull him back from doing that sometimes ‘cause he doesn’t realize he’s not 6-foot-3.”
Rhodes’ first collegiate action came in the final three minutes of a blowout win over Akron last Tuesday. He was as invisible as can be, failing to register a stat in any category — while running around as the only player without a name on the back of his jersey.
For the Bobcats, Rhodes will almost certainly be limited to the role of a practice player. Just don’t tell him that.
He’s thankful for the better-late-than-never call from Ohio and plans to make the most of his chance, wholeheartedly.
“When he finally got that call, I was real happy for him,” Kirk said. “He worked really hard. He really wanted it. Now he got it.”
BackLanding Page
This story is part of a series of specially designed stories that represents some of the best journalism The Post has to offer. Check out the rest of the special projects here.