Northside Christian's Landon Vanderwarker relishes workout with Ohio State's Evan Turner

A chance meeting at a golf store led to a once-in-a-lifetime basketball opportunity for Landon Vanderwarker.

It was roughly a year ago that Vanderwarker’s dad, Ryan, was working at the Golf Room in Dublin when a familiar face walked into the room. Evan Turner, one of Ohio State’s most decorated players, was in need of a fitting for some new golf clubs, so while he got busy with that Ryan Vanderwarker asked if he could call his son in to meet him.

Turner acquiesced and that led to the 2010 college basketball player of the year spending some time inside the Northside Christian gym working out with Landon as he goes through his sophomore season.

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“My dad after one of our games was like, ‘Oh, yeah, Evan Turner offered to come train you on Monday. You cool with that?’ ” he said. “Then my dad gave him a call and said we were cool.

“I’m very grateful because any time you can get in with college guys, NBA guys, it’s a blessing. They’ve learned and seen stuff that, as a high schooler, I haven’t seen yet. He’s given me a ton of insight into what it’s like to play against the best players and be one of the best players in college and in the NBA.”

The workout lasted roughly an hour and took place before the Lions held their team practice for the day. Vanderwarker said the focus was equal parts shooting, dribbling and mental focus.

“I missed a couple shots, and he’d be like, ‘It’s OK, man. Most people who shoot 10 shots, they miss the first seven but as long as you make the last two or three, those are the ones that count,’ ” Vanderwarker said. “He talked through how Damian Lillard shoots and how Evan has learned through the years that some people have bad days of shooting but you’ve just got to keep shooting.”

Scoring hasn’t been too much of a problem for Vanderwarker, who averaged 18.5 points per game as a freshman and said he’s assumed more of a go-to player role after losing six seniors from last year’s team. He’s worked out with local trainer Jason Dawson alongside the likes of Gahanna’s Sean Jones (now at Marquette), Pickerington Central’s Devin Royal (Ohio State signee) and Africentric’s Dailyn Swain (Xavier signee).

Turner also told him to play with appropriate pace.

“Another thing he said was when you’re training, when you’re going to your moves, you want to go at your pace,” he said. “In games, you want to go at your pace. Don’t let people make you play faster or slower.”

Vanderwarker took an unofficial visit to Ohio State during the fall as the football team hosted Arkansas State on Sept. 10, one of six unofficial visits the sophomore said he took during the fall. Virginia, Ohio and Miami (Ohio) were also on the list.

Cavaliers assistant coach Kyle Getter watched a 6 a.m. open gym session and invited Vanderwarker to campus for a game this season.

“We went down a little bit early, so we got into their practice gym and got an hour workout in,” he said. “We stayed on campus the whole day, stayed for the game that night and went home the next day. You see all the other campuses, and obviously there’s no stadium bigger than the Schott, but go to UVA and it’s crazy. You sit down for one of the games and you’re watching them play in front of all these people and it’s like, man, I can’t wait to get to the next level.”

Shawnee State is the only school to have offered Vanderwarker a scholarship to this point. His dad remains in contact with Ohio State associate coach Jake Diebler, Vanderwarker said, and it was at his invitation that he was behind the Ohio State bench for the Big Ten opener against Rutgers. Seeing Tanner Holden hit the buzzer-beating 3-pointer to win the game was a crazy experience, Vanderwarker said.

Turner wasn’t the only Buckeye to make the trip to Northside Christian, either. Vanderwarker said Turner arrived with former teammate William Buford and his son in tow.

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“I didn’t really get a chance to talk with (Buford) because he was working out, but (Turner) brought him in,” he said. “Watching him play with his son, I was like, ‘This dude’s legit.’ He’s a bucket.

“Any time you can get into the gym with an NBA player and get that wisdom, he still has it. He’s still got the dribbling and the handles and everything. It’s amazing, because him taking time to help improve kids like me and any other kids he meets, it’s cool to see.”

ajardy@dispatch.com

@AdamJardy

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Evan Turner works out with Northside Christian's Landon Vanderwarker