By: Bill Livingston (Cleveland Plain Dealer) -

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The bodyguard sat quietly in the Ohio State locker room last Sunday afternoon. His thoughts were his own, but, as usual, they were not about himself.

“I see myself as the protector,” said Lauderdale, a junior center from Solon.

At 6-8, 260 pounds, with a condor’s wingspan fitting for a man who stands 7-6-1/2, Lauderdale is the Buckeyes’ only big man.

“I think it’s my personality. I think the other players look up to me to be a protector,” he said.

There is always room in sports for a man who can provide safe conduct to those at risk from blackguards and highwaymen. Lauderdale, with his hulking build and black beard, understands that part of his role on Ohio State men’s basketball team is deterring ruffians.

With a scowl last weekend, Lauderdale spoke about how disturbed he had been by Georgia Tech’s several instances of nearly flagrant fouling, particularly the takedown of David Lighty in the last minutes on what was finally called an intentional foul.

“This fool here is like my brother,” said Lauderdale, smiling and jerking a thumb toward Lighty, who was seated next to him. “I didn’t appreciate the hard fouling of him and my other teammates.”

Lighty, from Villa Angela-St. Joseph, and Lauderdale have known each other since the seventh-grade AAU leagues in Cleveland. But the sense of Lauderdale as the team’s stalwart shepherd goes beyond the ties of boyhood.

It is also evidence of the Buckeyes’ discipline.

Angry as Lauderdale was, for example, he did not lose his head and try to retaliate…..

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