Buckeyes, not Illini, major recruiting force
By MARKTUPPER- H&RExecutive Sports Editor
CHAMPAIGN - With Jon Scheyer due to arrive on the University of Illinois campus Thursday evening, it's an important recruiting weekend for Illini basketball coach Bruce Weber.
Scheyer, who plays for Weber's brother, Dave, at Class AA state champion Glenbrook North High School, is an explosive scorer who would be a peacock-sized feather in Weber's cap.
But while we wait to see what Scheyer will do (he's also considering Duke and Arizona), there's a building bombshell to the east if Ohio State coach Thad Matta can work a little magic.
In what Buckeye dreamers are longingly referring to as their own potential "Fab Five," Matta already has landed the first in what could be a five-player bonanza for the class of 2006.
Committed is Daequan Cook, a 6-foot-4 guard from Dunbar High School in Dayton, who averaged 22 points and 11 rebounds as a junior and already is being hailed as the best recruit the Buckeyes have landed since Jimmy Jackson.
Matta is still very much involved with the Indianapolis Lawrence North High School duo of 7-foot center Greg Oden, the Gatorade National Player of the Year, and teammate point guard Mike Conley.
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</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Conley continues to list Illinois (Oden does not), and both players are being courted by Wake Forest.
Should Matta land both Oden and Conley to go with Cook, any other two players would potentially qualify as a "Fab Five." But Matta is involved with two or three more players who could end up being special.
One is Thaddeus Young, the brilliant forward from Memphis, another Illini recruit. He's probably a long shot, unless he becomes infatuated with the idea of playing along side Cook, Oden and Conley.
The next prospect most likely to commit is David Lighty, a 6-5 small forward from Cleveland.
And if that's not enough, Matta is also solidly in on Like Harangody, a 6-7, 245 bruiser from Merrillville, Ind., along the lines of the muscle men Gene Keady used to recruit at Purdue.
I'm already on record as saying Matta will end up being one of the top two or three Xs and Os coaches in the league. He is, after all, the only Big Ten coach who can boast of having defeated Illinois this past season.
For next season, he has two incoming recruits in Sylvester Mayes, a 6-3 junior college guard out of Oklahoma, and Braden Bell, a 6-9 power forward from Salt Lake City.
Plus he has a transfer, guard Ron Lewis from Bowling Green, who becomes eligible and may start.
So, things are looking up for an Ohio State program that voluntarily skipped post-season play this past season as a pre-emptive strike while the NCAA looks into infractions committed during the Jim O'Brien coaching era.
Meanwhile, back on the home front, Weber will make a strong pitch to Scheyer and to slender 6-9 forward Richard Semrau from Rocky River, Ohio, who's also scheduled to be on campus.
Illinois has had mighty poor luck recruiting head-to-head with Duke (Corey Maggette, Michael Thompson, Sean Dockery, Shaun Livingston), but has a good deal more ammunition now that the Illini raced all the way to the national championship game this season. And players have to like what they've seen from Weber's engaging style of ball.
I wouldn't put too much stock in the fact that Scheyer played for Weber's brother. That's nice, but it really doesn't matter. Scheyer is a bright kid who had plenty of opportunities to judge the Illini program on his own this year. No question Weber has made up a lot of ground, and the performance of the 2004-05 team had a great deal do with that.
Now, can Scheyer be convinced to stay close to home? The answer - as well as when it will come - remains the great unknown.
Mark Tupper can be reached at
mtupper@;herald-review.com or 421-7983.
