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OSU Men's Basketball Recruiting/Projections/General Discussions

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nomatta said:
Here's a fun exercise in reading between the lines for those who care. From 11W signing article on our 2020 class:

By receiving Letters of Intent from Key and Brown, Ohio State has officially "oversigned." It has one senior – Andre Wesson – on its roster, meaning attrition via transfer or professionalization must happen by at least one player currently on the roster who's not a senior.

Holtmann, though he said he hasn't ever been in this situation before, doesn't feel concerned about the situation.

"I don't think honestly we were in a situation where we found ones that we really liked enough to do that," Holtmann said. "In this case, we did. That'll all take care of itself. I've got no uncertainties about that."

The possibility of Kaleb Wesson heading to the NBA after this season exists, which could put Ohio State at or below the scholarship limit. As a junior, he has another year of eligibility after this season. However, he playing in the NBA has been a stated goal of his for a while, and he already went through the pre-draft process in the spring before ultimately deciding to remain in school for a third season.

The Buckeyes signing Key somewhat guards against the impact to the frontcourt of Wesson going to the NBA, should he take that route.

"It was a factor, for sure, because you're always trying to prepare for the unknown," Holtmann said. "But obviously that'll be something that we'll – we didn't do it just because of that reason by any stretch, because Kaleb's certainly going to have options at the end of the year, and he and his family will sit down and determine what's best for him and his future and his career. That's months away. And obviously he's a huge part of our program. I think it's something you consider, but by no means was that exclusively the reason."
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Either Kaleb has strongly indicated he is going to leave or this seems extremely risky
 
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I find it funny people seem to get seriously concerned about oversigning in college basketball. At this time oversigning is actually quite common among the better programs in the sport. The better your talent, the more unexpected/early losses you will have.

While not oversigning in theory gives some comfort and loyalty to the players, Matta and OSU got burned by losing guys he wasn't prepared to replace. Just two years ago OSU barely had enough scholarship players to be able to practice 5 on 5 without walk-ons, and that was after Coach Holt added two guys in the summer immediately before the season to get the numbers up. Coach Holt is doing exactly what he should be, preparing for the inevitable and getting players that fit his style now rather than waiting to get weaker additions in the Spring.
 
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What will be interesting is if DJ Carton plays himself onto draft boards and goes pro along with Kaleb--and no one else wants to leave.

Completely hypothetical but not one that's too implausible (and at least means we likely had a pretty good season). If that happens and assuming Holtmann's not going to force anyone out, then we would have one open scholarship for a grad transfer big OR a grad transfer PG.

I'd say that's a bit of a pickle as there would be a definite need for both at the same time there is a sort of less-than-ideal-by-committee solution for either position with Walker-Luther-Duane for the PG/lead guard role and Diallo-Key-Young (and maybe Liddell and Gaffney?) for the 5. Purely from a numbers standpoint it seems like guard would be the bigger need, but talent or physicality wise it would seem like a guy really ready to play at the 5 would be the iffier prospect as opposed to having Walker play the majority of the PG minutes. So yeah. Based on how we recruited this fall, I would guess losing Carton would mean that Holtmann would then be looking at grad transfer PGs to back-up Walker, not trying to add a viable big who would be better than we'd already have--something probably far more difficult to do with the limited grad transfer market and how the blue-bloods tend to pounce in the spring on the very top guys to fill whatever early entry holes they have.
 
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nomatta said:
What will be interesting is if DJ Carton plays himself onto draft boards and goes pro along with Kaleb--and no one else wants to leave.

Completely hypothetical but not one that's too implausible (and at least means we likely had a pretty good season). If that happens and assuming Holtmann's not going to force anyone out, then we would have one open scholarship for a grad transfer big OR a grad transfer PG.

I'd say that's a bit of a pickle as there would be a definite need for both at the same time there is a sort of less-than-ideal-by-committee solution for either position with Walker-Luther-Duane for the PG/lead guard role and Diallo-Key-Young (and maybe Liddell and Gaffney?) for the 5. Purely from a numbers standpoint it seems like guard would be the bigger need, but talent or physicality wise it would seem like a guy really ready to play at the 5 would be the iffier prospect as opposed to having Walker play the majority of the PG minutes. So yeah. Based on how we recruited this fall, I would guess losing Carton would mean that Holtmann would then be looking at grad transfer PGs to back-up Walker, not trying to add a viable big who would be better than we'd already have--something probably far more difficult to do with the limited grad transfer market and how the blue-bloods tend to pounce in the spring on the very top guys to fill whatever early entry holes they have.
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Where does Sueing fit in your scenario.
 
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Hmm?

I see Sueing as a scoring wing/forward, plain and simple. He's not really going to be a guard or an interior forward. He might play a little stretch 4 but I tend to think he is going to play 20+ mpg next season at the 3.

And the 3 is going to be this really interesting thing next season. I was not down on Ahrens when we signed him, I thought we needed a potential outside threat at his position, but at the moment it feels like that back injury has been a major setback for him. Ditto to Jallow, who it seems like every time he's about to turn a corner in his career here, he has some sort of injury thing pop up or rob him of developmental time. Based on how he ended last season, without the injury this summer that he had to get surgery for, I think it's probable that Jallow would be in the starting line-up right now with Andre out. Instead, he is out and missing that opportunity and Ahrens is too stiff and uncomfortable out there to do anything positive.

So yeah, I'm very curious this off-season about what happens with Sueing/Ahrens/Jallow.
 
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OSU_Buckguy said:
day before keon johnson's announcement pretty much tells the story there.

247 profile



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while this is meaningless, it's still odd.

edit: deleted tweet is below. perhaps osu's inclusion is the reason for the deletion.


Jake
‏Verified account @jakeweingarten
20m20 minutes ago

Four-star senior Kerwin Walton is down to five schools: Arizona, Kansas, North Carolina, Ohio State and Minnesota. One of the nation’s top shooters.
 
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OSU_Buckguy said:
there are still some 2021 players whom osu has offered but do not have their own threads, though i think each offer has been posted in this catch-all recruiting thread. unless someone else wants to start the threads, i'm holding off until there is further interest between the two parties (e.g., as with trevor keels). i doubt carter whitt will need a thread since moochie committed to osu. i can see further interest in bryce hopkins and certainly julian roper. perhaps michael foster, too.
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OSU_Buckguy said:
osu is still recruiting carter whitt, which is interesting.
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yeah, i don't think the staff has finished recruiting 2021 point guards. still contend that a grad transfer (or a conventional transfer if the 2020 numbers allow) is much better than two freshman guards for the 2021-22 season, though.
 
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albeit probably nothing, it's peculiar that pedon just followed donovan williams, who is the 4-star shooting guard who very recently decommitted from nebraska. williams is a 2020 player. williams has followed back the twitter accounts of the programs who have ostensibly reached out to him. ohio state is one of those follows.

williams isn't the first 2020 recruit that pedon has followed in the last couple weeks. here is the other: johan crafoord. heck, the staff also recently reached out to zaire wade.

can't help but wonder if kaleb and one other player will depart after this season. maybe the staff is preparing for the possibility of carton showcasing himself as a draft prospect. so far, though, i wouldn't even have dj in the second round. he's first gotta show that he can reliably run an offense. in other words, he's first gotta show that he's a point guard. i know the nba draft is first and foremost about potential, but still. nonetheless, as i've stated before, if kaleb and a player depart, i hope the staff instead goes after a grad-transfer frontcourt player. the 2020-21 team projects to be too good (as in, championship good) to rely on a project and a 3-star true freshman at center.
 
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