Focus on the future
Buckeyes building for success, putting scandal behind
Posted: Thursday July 7, 2005 9:40AM
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Mike Conley, Daequan Cook and Greg Oden are three of the recruits who will enter OSU in 2006.
AP
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</TD><TD width=300><TABLE class=cnnTMbox cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=cnnIEBoxTitle>OHIO STATE'S CLASS OF 2006</TD></TR><TR><TD class=cnnTMcontent><TABLE class=cnnTM cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=cnnIEColTxtL>Ps.</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtL>Name</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtC>Ht.</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtC>Wt.</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtL>HS (City)</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtC style="BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px">Rk.</TD></TR><TR class=cnnIERowAltBG><TD class=cnnIEColTxtL>C</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtL>Greg Oden</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtC><NOBR>7-0</NOBR></TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtC>235</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtL>Lawrence North (Indianapolis)</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtC style="BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px">1*</TD></TR><TR><TD class=cnnIEColTxtL>SG</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtL>Daequan Cook</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtC>6-5</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtC>210</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtL>Dunbar (Dayton, Ohio)</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtC style="BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px">8</TD></TR><TR class=cnnIERowAltBG><TD class=cnnIEColTxtL>SF</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtL>David Lighty</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtC>6-6</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtC>205</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtL>Villa Angela St. Joe's (Cleveland)</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtC style="BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px">21</TD></TR><TR><TD class=cnnIEColTxtL>PG</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtL>Mike Conley Jr.</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtC>6-1</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtC>165</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtL>Lawrence North (Indianapolis)</TD><TD class=cnnIEColTxtC style="BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px">24</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=cnnTMfooter>* National player rank, according to Scout.com</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD width=10>
</TD><TD width=300></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>HACKENSACK, N.J. --
Thad Matta, while on his way to the opening games of the Reebok ABCD camp at Fairleigh Dickinson University Wednesday, turned to assistant
John Groce, laughed and said, "It's amazing what a difference a year makes."
It was the morning of July 7, 2004 -- exactly 365 days ago -- that then Xavier head coach Matta was in Columbus, meeting with OSU athletic director
Andy Geiger about the Buckeyes' basketball vacancy. By 6:30 p.m., a deal was done: After consulting with his wife and the Musketeers staff, Matta accepted the job.
The next day, Matta and Groce (who followed him from Xavier to OSU) took a flight to the East Coast and arrived at the '04 ABCD camp in street clothes -- not the customary school-logo attire -- to observe recruits, because as Matta recalled, "we didn't even have any Ohio State gear at the time."
They were anonymous suitors in a gym full of coaches vying for the nation's top prep prospects. Both had, on the heels of an Elite Eight run with the Muskies, given up a successful, private-school squad in the basketball-mad Queen City for a sub-.500, state-U team in football-crazy Columbus -- not to mention a program facing the possibility of heavy NCAA sanctions following the firing of
Jim O'Brien, who admitted to paying a recruit $6,700. Matta and Groce traded job security for a new challenge. Their bigger paychecks came with increased pressure to revitalize a once-great -- now scandal-marred -- OSU program.
Return to the present day, and Matta and Groce sit side-by-side in the stands at the '05 ABCD, sporting Buckeyes shirts and gazing happily down at the court, where the fruits of their first-year recruiting efforts are dominating on the camp's Sonics squad. No. 1-overall player (according to Scout.com)
Greg Oden, a 7-foot center; No. 8-ranked
Daequan Cook, a 6-5 shooting guard; and No. 24-ranked
Mike Conley Jr., a 6-1 point guard -- the three golden apples of the Class of 2006 -- have all verbally committed to the Buckeyes. A fourth, No. 21-ranked
David Lighty, a 6-5 swingman, is also on board, but is sitting out the camp to rehab a knee injury.
Matta returned respect to OSU during the '04-05 regular season, leading the team to a 20-12 record despite a school-imposed ban on postseason play as a result of the O'Brien violations, and handed Illinois its lone regular-season loss. Matta's recruiting, however, is what has put Buckeye hoops back on the national map. By landing Oden -- who, before the NBA's new age-limit rule was instituted, was expected to be the No. 1 pick in the '06 draft -- and his teammate Conley on June 29, OSU left other recruiting classes in the dust.
"It's amazing how Matta was able to do this -- OSU didn't have any big-name guys, and it all changed pretty quick," said
Jeff Goodman, a national recruiting analyst for Scout.com. "There is little chance that OSU won't be No. 1 [in the '06 class rankings]."
Although he is widely believed to be a one-year rental for Matta and the Buckeyes on his way to the NBA, Oden is the crown jewel of OSU's '06 recruiting class, which is being compared to Michigan's famous haul in 1991 --
Chris Webber,
Juwan Howard,
Jalen Rose,
Jimmy King and
Ray Jackson. Oden, who resembles a young
Bill Russell, was dunking at will on opponents in ABCD's morning session Wednesday -- he shot 12-of-15 from the field in two games. "Certainly," said Goodman, the talent OSU has compiled "would compare with the Fab Five."
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The class -- Oden, Conley, Cook and Lighty -- has been tabbed the Thad Five; never mind it's still a quartet. OSU has seven scholarships available for '06, and may use up to six of them. The Buckeyes will likely add a power forward or another center to back up Oden and take the 7-footer's place in the starting lineup once he turns pro.
Matta had an assist in pulling the class together from Conley, the son of 1992 Olympic triple-jump champion
Mike Conley. As Oden's omnipresent right-hand-man -- at Lawrence North High, on the Spiece Indy Heat AAU team and at ABCD, where he displayed skill as a passer and ambidextrous shooter in the lane -- Conley has plenty of influence on the blue-chip center. "Once Mike started to want to go [to Ohio State], I knew I wanted to go there, too," Oden said.
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</TD><TD width=300></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Credit Matta for selling Conley on OSU, impressing the young floor general by attending Lawrence North's sectional championship game March 5, then driving back to Columbus late that evening to knock off No. 1 Illinois the next day. "I watched him coach that game against Illinois, I was amazed to see how he handled himself," Conley said. "Normal coaches would jump around and go crazy -- he tried to stay cool and act like he had done it before."
With this heralded crop of recruits, Matta won't be sneaking up on anyone -- and with Oden likely to be one-and-done, there will be a sense of immediacy to make a tournament run. Cook, a two-guard whose shooting talents have kept him from being overshadowed by his AAU teammates Oden and Conley, is aware of the pressure awaiting in Columbus. "I'm very excited," Cook said at the camp Wednesday, "but there's going to be a lot expected of us when we get there."
Conley and Oden were just as wary of the Fab Five/Thad Five label. "I don't really like it that much -- I'd rather just go to college and be able to play ball," Conley said. "We've got to focus even harder, though, because everyone's comparing us."
The ever-modest Oden -- who regularly insists he's not the best player on the floor, despite visual evidence to the contrary said, "I don't think we're there yet [at a Fab Five level]. ... We haven't even finished our last year of high school."
While the Buckeyes' future foursome worry about the weight of expectations, there is one other concern: whether or not the program will be eligible for the NCAA tournament in the 2006-07 season. All the people involved in the O'Brien scandal are gone from OSU -- the coaches, the athletic director and the players -- and the school voluntarily barred itself from the '04-05 postseason, but the NCAA's official ruling on OSU's penalty won't be revealed until this fall. Oden said the coaches told him it "most likely won't affect our class' postseason" -- but the possibility remains. It is the only cloud still lingering from the mess that created Matta's job opening, and something upon which he would rather not dwell.
"What's happened, happened, and nobody involved with our program now had anything to do with it," Matta said Wednesday. "We're just focused on the future -- and we think the future is going to be in good shape."
One year ago, had Matta made that last statement at his introductory press conference in Columbus, it could've easily been dismissed as run-of-the-mill, optimistic coach-speak. But with Oden and Co. running on the hardwood below at ABCD, and the Buckeye program reinvigorated with hope, when Matta spoke of the future, he was speaking the truth.
Luke Winn covers college sports for SI.com.