Center position becoming more versatile in college game

As a big, beefy kid, Jared Sullinger adapted his game to the competition.

Playing with his brothers and older kids, he was a mini Magic, working what everyone in the neighborhood called the slow break, lingering around the perimeter when the action turned into a half-court game.

Against kids his age, young Jared was a mini beast, setting up in the lane, bulling his way past those who weighed as much as his right leg, shooting over the ones who came up to his chest.

Though he surely didn’t know it at the time, Sullinger was preparing himself for the future, developing the skills that would turn into one of the best of the new breed of big men in college basketball.

“When you have a player that can score on the block, can hit the open jump shot, put the ball on the floor, can rebound and is 6-10, you’ve got a heck of a player,” said Satch Sullinger, Jared’s father and high school coach. “Jared was taught the inside game and the outside game.”

The Ohio State star isn’t the only one these days.

Used to be that winning teams usually had a dominating back-to-the-basket big man. Get someone who could clog up the lane, score at the rim or draw attention to free up shooters on the perimeter, and a team was set.

That’s not the case
anymore.

The big man, for one, isn’t as big as he once was, replaced by a new, sleeker model. He has more diverse skills, too, still able to back an opponent down, but also with an ability to turn and square to the basket for a mid-range jumper or a slash to the basket.

Some have even expanded their range out to the 3-point arc, an almost unheard-of skill when players like Georgetown’s Patrick Ewing and LSU’s Shaquille O’Neal roamed the college paint.

Thanks to an emphasis on up-tempo and motion offenses, not to mention the 3-point shot, college hoops big men have transformed, leaving the shell of their former behemoth selves behind.

In other words, the 4 is the new 5.