Mark Titus is a walk-on for Ohio State University, who is looking forward to a long stay in NCAA tournament as a number 2 seed. Mark may not be the most famous player in OSU’s history, but his blog ‘Club Trillion’ may go down as the greatest college basketball blog ever. NBAtoday was able to take Mark away from his excellent blogging for an exclusive interview. Enjoy!

NBAtoday: Mark, what were your averages in your senior year of high school and where did you go?

Mark Titus: I played high school basketball at Brownsburg High School in a suburb of Indianapolis.  I don’t remember exactly what I averaged, but I think it was something like 16 ppg and 7 rpg.

NBAtoday: What made you decide to tryout for the Ohio State University team as opposed to trying to get some burn for a less power house D-I school or even D-II and D-III?

MT: I always wanted to go to college at a big, BCS school because that was what I had been exposed to growing up.  My parents went to Big Ten schools and my brother went to a Big Ten school, so to me the “college experience” was always a big school.  I never once thought that I had to play basketball in college.  When it came time for me to pick a school, I wasn’t good enough to play at a big school, so I thought I’d just be a regular student at Ohio State.  Then I had the opportunity to walk-on and everything worked out pretty well for me.

NBAtoday: For the readers out there who may not know, explain how you came up with the blog name itself, Club Trillion.

MT: The trillion concept is derived from what my box score looks like after I play one minute and register no stats–a “1″ followed by a bunch of zeroes.

NBAtoday: What’s the best part about being a walk on the OSU team?  Do you still get treated like any other teammate would?

MT: The best part about being a walk-on is that I get all the perks of being a college basketball player, but I have a very low-pressure role on the team.  I get treated the same as everyone else, which is something that I’m sure doesn’t go on in every college basketball locker room in the country.  The equality and overall respect our guys have for one another is really a testament to how close of a group our team is.

NBAtoday: What is your role as a walk-on?  Do you partake in full practice all the time?

MT: My role is to basically fill in wherever they need me.  Some practices I do everything the other players do and some practices I don’t.  I’ve had practices where I got plays drawn up for me and I’ve also had practices where I didn’t even break a sweat.  It’s really a variable thing, but that’s kind of what makes it fun.  I have to be prepared for anything.

NBAtoday: Is Evan Turner really as good as advertised and how much lock down D do you play on him during practice?

MT: Evan “The Villain” Turner is every bit as good as advertised.  When I get switched onto him in practice, I immediately yell “help!” even before he starts making a move.

NBAtoday: Truth be told, did you really put your name in for the NBA draft last year, if so what did you have to do and what did David Stern and the NBA do when they heard about that?

MT: It’s true that I did submit my name for the draft and it’s true that I was told to take my name out of the draft.  I doubt that David Stern actually had anything to say about the matter, but someone within the league office called the Ohio State basketball office and said that I needed to take my name out because I was “mocking the draft process” or something along those lines.  I was a little surprised at their reaction, but it ended up getting my blog a lot of publicity, so I guess that’s good.

NBAtoday: What made you start a blog?  Do your teammates find it as funny as we do?  Do the coaches mind when you talk about not always showing up for “voluntary” preseason practice?

MT: My teammates don’t read my blog unless they heard from somebody that I wrote about them. They already spend enough time around me and they are living out all the stories I write about, so there’s no need for them to read. They just want to make sure I’m not dissing them too much. The coaches are pretty cool with everything. I have never had any problems with our coaching staff, mostly because they are all very likable people and are easy to get along with. They understand that I’m not exactly held to the same standard as the scholarship players when it comes to basketball matters, so they are willing to be lenient for me.

NBAtoday.net: Tell us some long term goals of yours now that this is your senior year at OSU.

MT: I plan on writing a book after the season that will basically be about my entire tenure at Ohio State.  Hopefully people will want to buy it, because I have a lot of fun stories I haven’t been able to talk about on my blog.  From there, I have no idea what my future holds.  I can see myself doing just about anything, from acting and writing scripts to having some sort of sports column.

NBAtoday: What do you like more:  Blogging?  Or being a walk-on?

MT: It’s hard to say that I’d even have a blog if I wasn’t a walk-on, but I don’t think I could survive four years of being a walk-on if I didn’t have a place to vent about some of the stuff that upsets me.  I think I’ll ultimately be better known for my blogging/writing than I will for being a walk-on/basketball player, so I’d say that I enjoy the blogging the most.  I’ve spent much more time working on my basketball game than I have my writing, yet most people would agree that I’m a much better writer than basketball player.  It’s a cruel world sometimes.

NBAtoday: Who is the best player you’ve ever seen play in college while sitting on that lonely bench?

MT: Without a doubt, Greg Oden.  And I’m not just saying that because he’s a personal friend.   I’ve never seen somebody dominate a game like Greg dominated the National Championship against Florida in 2007, even though we lost.  He was playing with basically one hand and dominated against Al Horford and Joakim Noah.  It was remarkable watching him that entire season.

NBAtoday: What’s your favorite bashing you took from fans over the last four years?  The worst?

MT: I have never actually been bashed all that badly by the fans, which is pretty weird.  Most fans on the road have nice things to say to me and some places even chant for me to get in at the end of games.  It’s a bizzare sight to see opposing fans cheering for me, but everything about my experience at Ohio State has been out of the ordinary so I’m kind of getting used to it.

We would like to thank Mark for his time and if you haven’t checked out Mark’s blog yet, check it out here. Hopefully he’ll get into Friday’s first round game against UC-Santa Barbara. Root for a blowout everyone!