Thad Matta, Ohio State head coach, announced the addition of six student-athletes to the Buckeye men’s basketball program Wednesday. The class of six high school seniors is rated by many analysts as the No. 1 class in the nation and will be eligible to play for the Buckeyes in the fall of 2010. The highly-touted class includes a quartet of Ohioans and natives of Illinois and Indiana.
We don’t cover the basketball team with as much regularity as we do with football (hopefully that will change) but we do follow the basketball team as close as we can. We love Thad Matta and we’re very excited about the team they’ve got this year.
But with the class coming in next year, along with the possiblity of Turner, Diebler, Lighty and Buford coming back for senior seasons, this could be one heck of a team. Very exciting.
I remember hearing that there were no freshmen coming in this year. Does anyone know why this was? I know we had a couple transfers, but that was it. Is Thad counting on next year’s class?
The reason no freshmen came in this year was because, for much of last season, we had no ‘ships to give out.
Then, the transferring happened too late in the recruiting cycle to add anyone of real value to the program, so Thad pocketed the scholarships to give out to future classes.
All of the players leaving early have cost us scholarships, so Thad didn’t have any available to offer for this year.
That’s also somewhat of a concern if Turner decides to stay another year – we’re one scholarship short for the next. There are ways to work around it (ways that normally involve convincing someone low down on the bench that they might be more playing time elsewhere) but it’s still a slightly rough situation if it happens.
Actually, we had one or two we could have given out this year, but we held on to it for next year knowing we were basically set for this season with so many returning players. It does still bring us one scholly short for next season if someone doesn’t leave early, though.
Turner’s not staying, unfortunately. We’d be talking Final Four if he did though.
@Mike, MikeL and Eric G – thanks for clearing that up. I knew it had to be something, but I was genuinely surprised when I heard there would be no incoming freshmen.
@Greg – Part of me still believes that Turner is going to stick around. I wouldn’t begrudge him at all if he left early for the NBA (where I think he’ll be a star) but I sure would like to see what would happen if he stuck around for his last year.