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As his tooth sailed across Eddie Sutton Court, Roger Franklin’s look of concern quickly turned into a bloody smile.
Aside from the gash his pearly whites caused to junior Marshall Moses’ hand, Franklin, a freshman forward from Duncanville, Texas, has left an impression on the upperclassmen of OSU basketball.
Franklin will have a root canal Wednesday to repair his busted tooth but said he should be ready to go before the Cowboys tipoff against Southern at 7:05 tonight.
After Moses knocked out Franklin’s tooth in OSU’s 86-64 victory against Seattle Saturday, he went to check on Franklin but said he was greeted with a response he didn’t expect.
“I was like ‘man are you OK?’ ” Moses said. “He looked at me and smiled with his face covered in blood and said ‘Thank you man, you made me tougher’ with the most seriousness and he showed me what kind of player he is going to be in the future. He is going to be a real Cowboy like a traditional Cowboy type player.”
Franklin said when he went to retrieve his tooth, which slid under a woman’s chair who was sitting courtside, he was getting encouragement from fans for his toughness.
“She said I was kind of cute without the tooth,” Franklin said. “Maybe with the tooth I look a little bit better. She told me I was a tough player. She said just keep playing hard and she said was the heart of a Cowboy.”
Senior forward Obi Muonelo said Franklin’s tenacity is what he likes most about the 18-year-old.
“I knew he was tough already, but the tooth, that just made it better, made him even tougher,” Muonelo said. “Just the fact that he smiled, it’s one of those things you’ll never forget.”
Muonelo said Franklin will be one of the key additions to the Cowboys this year.
“He’s a hard worker, a workhorse,” Muonelo said. “He comes to practice every day to work hard. He’s rebounding hard. Finishing shots at the rim. Taking and hitting open shots.
“That’s what he does, he’s very important to our team.”
Franklin said he wants to bring an exciting, hardworking attitude to the Cowboys, which will pay off for years to come.
“I feel like I can bring a lot of energy,” Franklin said. “I know that we’ve got Marshall Moses, James Anderson, Matt Pilgrim, Obi Muonelo, Keiton Page — I just want to fall in line with these other guys.
“I just want to work hard and I want to be able to produce. I know that my time is coming sometime in the near future.”
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