This time we felt it was only appropriate to dedicate this space entirely to Evan Turner, who continues to mop up All-American appointments and college basketball player of the year awards at a dizzying pace.

The 6-7 Turner, as expected, announced July 7 that he would forgo his senior season at Ohio State to pursue early entry into the NBA draft. He doesn’t yet have an agent but likely will retain David Falk, who famously handles Michael Jordan.

A product of the town Jordan once ruled, Chicago, Turner is now a household name himself and could be the first or second player taken in the June draft.

In further tribute to one of the greatest seasons ever logged on the hardwood by a Buckeye, the following is a look back at some of the comments from and about Turner that didn’t appear previously in other articles:

OSU head coach Thad Matta on wanting Turner to tighten up his handle once the decision was made to shift him to point guard – “That and quick decisions. Those were the two areas we talked the most about in the offseason. If you remember last year or the first two years, when he’d make a move his head would be over his toes. So balance was a big issue for him. I think we even showed him one time Beanie Wells running through a hole that he was parallel because it was a point of explosion. I think those are the things that he took to heart and got better at.

“I’ve been very pleased with his decision making and his aggressive patience, if you will, of kind of when to go, when to wait on things. I think he’s done a great job with it.”

Matta on Turner not being able to log time at PG once David Lighty was injured and lost for the season – “His freshman year we started him at the point one time against Wisconsin and he threw the advance pass to a Bucknut in the eighth row the first play of the game. But when Dave went down we had to kind of use him as a point forward last year.”

Matta on his hunch about Turner’s junior year – “When we went to Canada and we got back a couple weeks later and I saw the improvement he had made from playing in the games up there to how much better he was in practice, I was very excited about what he was going to bring to the table. And I felt like offensively we were able to come up with enough things that, in case there was ever a problem, we could manage it throughout the course of a game. We’ve got a lot of different things we can do with him to move him around.”

Lighty on how Turner endured fractures in his lower back against Eastern Michigan in early December, an injury that cost him six games in midseason – “He was down, but who wouldn’t be. I told him, ‘Don’t make this be a burden on your heart’ or think that he let the team down.”

Turner on the same topic – “It could have been way worse. I could have tilted a little bit more and hit the top part of my spine or hit my head or it could have been way worse. I was really blessed. I just hurt my L-2 and L-3.”

Matta on not having Turner for a month but being told he could be out for eight weeks – “The hard part was the unknown of knowing when he was coming back. (It was) a little bit different from Greg Oden when you knew when he was coming, but you didn’t know exactly what you were going to get. With Evan it was, ‘Hopefully we can get back to this stage and get a little bit better.’ ”

Turner on his pursuit of a Big Ten title – “That’s an extremely big deal. There’s nothing like winning, because if you don’t win what you did the whole time doesn’t really matter.”

Lighty on Turner’s offbeat personality – “He’s just different. Like we go out to eat or something, he’ll just order steak and bread, like a plain steak with nothing on it. That’s what he’ll eat. If his food is touching, he won’t eat it. He’s a little different in his own way.”

Teammate and roommate Jon Diebler on the same subject – “He’s so unique because when you see him on the court you think, ‘Man, this guy is crazy’ because he’s so competitive and emotional. But off the court he’s completely different. He’s a funny guy who likes to crack jokes. It’s almost like two different people.”

Turner on himself – “I think I’m more different than people perceive I am. Like a lot of people who meet me say, “I thought you’d be like this, I thought you’d be like that.

“If my food is touching on my plate, I’m not eating it. I won’t eat anything that’s white. I can’t really do that. It’s just all mental with me. I’m weird about certain stuff.

“I’m a normal kid but I like weird stuff. People always tell me, ‘You’re weird, but I love you to death.’ ”

Matta on how his star player dealt with all the fanfare and distractions during the season – “I think that he’s done a fabulous job of keeping the focus on the right things and knowing that if he would want to pursue that he’s done everything he was supposed to do leading up to it.”

Diebler after the season-ending loss to Tennessee on whether or not Turner would consider returning for his senior season – “There is that slight chance because he is such a competitor and he’s got that bad taste in his mouth. He hates losing. Knowing the guy, it’s the worst thing to him. It doesn’t matter what he’s doing. He does not like to lose.”

Turner, during the season, on the idea of returning for his senior season – “If I stay, it wouldn’t hurt. I’m going to get better as a basketball player and keep maturing as a person. We have a great class coming in. We have great players who are going to be returning. It’s only going to go up and up.”

Turner admitting he looked into leaving at the end of his sophomore season – “When I first found out I could I thought, ‘That would be cool,’ but at the same time what really just stuck with me was realizing I hadn’t done anything. I hadn’t left my mark. If I never win a Big Ten title or anything that would nag at me for the rest of my life.”

Turner on the human temptation to look ahead – “In that certain situation, how could you not get anxious. Let’s compare it to you guys working all day and you’re super hungry. You might be rushing through stuff to try to hurry up and get home and get food. That’s kind of how it is sometimes, unless you have a certain type of discipline and certain type of patience it’s almost hard.”

Turner on why he wears No. 21 now – “One of my good friends, John Moll, he passed away when we were sophomores in high school. He was No. 21 and when I got here I had the opportunity to wear No. 21. He had dreams to play big-time basketball. He wasn’t fortunate enough to do it and I was. This is a way to represent him. A lot of people loved him.”

OSU quarterback Terrelle Pryor on watching Turner this season – “Evan Turner is a beast, man. I can’t even go watch him because I miss basketball so much. That’s my favorite sport. But I have a love for football, too.”