basketball recruiting
Is this the finest class of all time?
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• Ohio State expects more penalties
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Ohio State's Class of 2006 has a chance to join the debate for best ever. Other contenders for the crown:
Indiana, 1972
Scott May, Quinn Buckner, Bobby Wilkerson, Tom Abernethy, Jim Crews -- last unbeaten season in 1976
Michigan, 1991
Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King, Ray Jackson -- reached two NCAA finals before breaking up
Duke, 2002
J.J. Redick, Shavlik Randolph, Shelden Williams, Sean Dockery -- reached 2004 Final Four
North Carolina, 2002
Sean May, Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants -- won 2005 NCAA championship
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By Jeff Rabjohns
<SCRIPT language=JavaScript><!--document.write(''+'jeff.rabjohns'+'@'+'indystar.com'+'');//--></SCRIPT>[email protected]
Though Ohio State's recruiting class isn't complete, it already has a nickname: the Thad Five.
Never mind that only four players have orally committed to play for the Buckeyes and coach Thad Matta. With Lawrence North High School teammates Greg Oden and Mike Conley heading to Ohio State, the Buckeyes are lining up an incoming class for 2006-07 that is being mentioned with the best of all time.
Oden is the No. 1 player in the Class of 2006; the other three who plan to join him are also among the highest ranked in the nation.
Shooting guard Daequan Cook of Dayton, Ohio, is No. 8; shooting guard David Lighty of Cleveland is No. 21; and Conley, a point guard, is No. 26, according to scout.com.
"This is shaping up to be one of the best recruiting classes in the history of Ohio State and certainly in my estimation could be better than the Fab Five class," said Bob Gibbons, who has been scouting and ranking high school basketball players for more than two decades.
The standard of reference in college basketball recruiting is the Fab Five, which entered Michigan in the fall of 1991.
Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson all started by the end of their freshman year. They reached consecutive national title games, losing to Duke in 1992 and to North Carolina in 1993, before the group broke up as players began heading to the NBA.
Whether that is the best class is one of those never-ending sports debates, but it is the most well-known. Ohio State now is on the verge of matching or even surpassing it.
The Buckeyes have three more scholarships available, and the current thinking in basketball circles is that the four players already committed will be a magnet for others.
"We could be talking about a super six or sensational seven," Gibbons said.
No matter who else joins, Ohio State's Class of 2006 already has an enormous buzz in basketball circles.
"It really is amazing, and they're not done; that's the scary thing," said Rob Matera of rivals.com.
Oden is the headliner. He is considered one of the best high school players ever to head to college. He has been compared to Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), who was a star at Power Memorial in New York before going to UCLA, and former Celtics great Bill Russell.
Oden was projected as the No. 1 pick in the 2006 NBA draft until new rules were adopted that bar players from the draft until they are at least one year out of high school.
"When you think of him as a college player, this is a guy if you put him on a team that would finish in the middle of a league, it automatically becomes a contender to win the league and go to the Sweet Sixteen," said Dave Telep of scout.com. "You package him with the quality of Cook and Conley and the athleticism of Lighty, and the expectations of your program rise."
On paper, the class needs a power forward. Ohio State has been recruiting 6-8 Thaddeus Young of Memphis, the No. 5 player in the 2006 class. Raymar Morgan, a 6-7 forward from Canton, Ohio, ranked No. 49, has the Buckeyes high on his list. Gary West's Jamil Tucker, a 6-9 forward ranked No. 54, has stated his interest in playing for Ohio State.
There also has been talk connecting Ohio State and Vernon Macklin, a 6-9 forward ranked No. 10, from Portsmouth, Va.
The group should have some cohesiveness immediately. Oden and Conley, in addition to being high school teammates, are on the same AAU team with Cook.
So how good can this group be?
"With Thad Matta coaching, I feel we can get as far as the national championship," Conley said.
Dream teams
Where the players were ranked in two of the most heralded classes of all time:
<TABLE rules=all width="100%" border=0 frame=box><TBODY><TR><TD class=related colSpan=2>Michigan's Fab Five class of 1991*</TD><TD class=related colSpan=2>Ohio State's class of 2006**</TD></TR><TR><TD class=related>Rank</TD><TD class=related>Player, Pos.</TD><TD class=related>Rank</TD><TD class=related>Player, Pos.</TD></TR><TR><TD class=related>1.</TD><TD class=related>Chris Webber, forward</TD><TD class=related>1.</TD><TD class=related>Greg Oden, center</TD></TR><TR><TD class=related>5.</TD><TD class=related>Juwan Howard, forward</TD><TD class=related>8.</TD><TD class=related>Daequan Cook, guard</TD></TR><TR><TD class=related>8.</TD><TD class=related>Jalen Rose, guard</TD><TD class=related>21.</TD><TD class=related>David Lighty, guard</TD></TR><TR><TD class=related>18.</TD><TD class=related>Jimmy King, guard</TD><TD class=related>26.</TD><TD class=related>Mike Conley, guard</TD></TR><TR><TD class=related>48.</TD><TD class=related>Ray Jackson, guard</TD><TD class=related></TD><TD class=related></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
* - rankings by Bob Gibbons
** - rankings by scout.com
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2>July 2, 2005
Who's next on the hoops radar? <HR width="100%" noShade SIZE=1></TD></TR><TR><TD>Jeff Rapp
BuckeyeSports.com Staff Writer </TD><TD noWrap align=right>
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Gordon Gekko once surmised that "greed is good." While that is a debatable point at best, it may not hurt Ohio State men's basketball coach Thad Matta as he now looks to add to what already is being hailed as the best recruiting class in the country.
<!--Start Matta Image--><SCRIPT language=Javascript>document.write(insertImage('http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/917/163623.jpg', '163623.jpg', 1, 322, 276, 1, 'Ohio State coach Thad Matta\'s tireless work ethic is enticing many of the nation\'s top players.', '', 1120253844000, 'Matta', 917, 'Align=Left'));</SCRIPT><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=284 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=278></TD><TD width=6 rowSpan=4>
</TD></TR><TR><TD align=right>Associated Press</TD></TR><TR><TD height=3>
</TD></TR><TR><TD align=middle>Ohio State coach Thad Matta's tireless work ethic is enticing many of the nation's top players.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- End Matta Image-->Matta was able to land verbal commitments from consensus No. 1 schoolboy Greg Oden and his prep teammate Mike Conley (No. 40 among seniors-to-be according to Rivals.com) with their landmark announcement Wednesday at Indianapolis Lawrence North High School.
They doubled a recruiting class that already included the top seniors-to-be in Ohio -- 6-4 Daequan Cook of Dayton Dunbar (No. 8) and 6-5 David Lighty of Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph (No. 20).
Matta has as many as three more scholarships at his disposal for the class and is all but certain to spend at least one of them on a power forward or combo forward, meaning the class could one day share the court like the storied "Fab Five."
Not coincidentally, OSU is right in the mix for as many as six such players, and that doesn't even count 6-8 Josh Chichester of West Chester (Ohio) Lakota West (No. 136), a two-sport star who committed to the Ohio State football program July 1 but admitted he is entertaining the idea of joining the men's basketball team.
Chichester has promise as a collegiate four-man but would not be able to join the Buckeyes on the hardwood until January 2007 at the earliest, and that would be as a walk-on. He told BuckeyeSports.com earlier this summer that Matta had given his blessing for such a scenario but he wasn't sure if he would indeed try to play both sports.
That then begs the question, who is going to complete the Thad Five?
The most prominent candidates at the moment appear to be 6-8 Thaddeus Young of Memphis (Tenn.) Mitchell (No. 3 on the recently updated Rivals Top 150), 6-8 Lance Thomas of Fanwood (N.J.) St. Benedict's (No. 22), 6-9 Jamil Tucker of Gary (Ind.) West (No. 45), 6-7 Luke Harangody of Shereville (Ind.) Andrean (No. 80) and 6-7 Raymar Morgan of Canton (Ohio) McKinley (No. 85).
Another possibility is 6-9 Bryce Webster of Mendota Heights (Minn.) St. Thomas Academy (No. 113), but his interest in OSU has apparently wavered.
Cook said he chatted up Young while the two played together in the USA Basketball Youth Developmental Festival in San Diego in early June.
"We talked a lot," he said. "We talked about what it's going to be like in college ball. It wasn't about what school he was going to go to, we just talked about how fun it would be to play together."
Cook and Conley also popped the idea on Thomas, who like Young is a premier athlete and scorer but not a classic power forward.
Conley and Oden got their first look at Harangody recently when the three played together in a state all-star series. Harangody reportedly is favoring Notre Dame but could get a full-court press from Matta soon since Conley offered him a glowing report.
"He was very good," Conley said. "I like the way he played. He's physical and tough and would do all the dirty work, and I feel that we need somebody like that. We don't need all superstars who can jump out of the gym. We need big men who can do the little things as well."
Tucker has listed OSU as a favorite along with Purdue and Indiana. Somewhat soft inside but well-skilled, Tucker has not yet received a firm offer but one could be on the way.
"He really likes Ohio State a lot," Conley said. "He wants to be with us and go to the same college with us. I think he's really sold on Ohio State. If the scholarship's open for him, I think he would take it."
Morgan also has not been offered yet as he is trying to attain a qualifying test score. He has had two clear favorites for months: Michigan State and Ohio State. Like the four commitments, Morgan is a winner, having led McKinley to the 2005 state title.
He is considered a 3-4 but can rebound in the trees when the situation calls and has the athleticism and passing ability to mesh in with the likes of Conley, Cook, Lighty and Oden.
"We need somebody that can rebound and play defense, score some," Cook said. "That's about it."
Matta may agree and go after Harangody, a classic banger who could take a lot of physical toll away from Oden. Or he could play it safe and tab Tucker or Morgan, who apparently wouldn't take long to jump on board.
However, the inside word is that Matta will go the way of Gekko and hold out for Young or Thomas -- whose recruiting likely will stretch into the late fall if not next spring -- with dreamy thoughts of employing four players flanking Oden who all can shoot outside, score, handle, pass and drive.
As it is he'll have Conley, Cook, Lighty, Sylvester Mayes, Ron Lewis and Jamar Butler in 2006-07.
Maybe greed is good.
crazybuckfan40 said:
A good read about how Matta has sold this class on bringing National Championships to Ohio State in basketball.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2><!--matta0701--><!--matta0701--></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top><!--PLACE MAIN PHOTO CODE BELOW HERE --><!--ThadMatta385--><!--ThadMatta385--> </TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>
<!----------- MAIN STORY SUMMARY ----------------->Ohio State is a football school, and that will probably always be the case. But thanks to the recent recruiting efforts of coach Thad Matta, Buckeyes fans are dreaming big hoops dreams. How is Matta drawing top basektball talent to Columbus?[more]
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