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This week's excerpt is from the most recent issue of Bucknuts, the summer football preview issue that will be available on newsstands throughout the coming weeks. This article dealt with the state of OSU hoops recruiting at the time of print and takes a look back at OSU's first two commitments -- Daequan Cook and David Lighty -- and what caused them to choose the Buckeyes.
Headline: The Foundation Is Set
By Steve Helwagen
It was just one year ago when the fortunes of the Ohio State men’s
basketball program looked pretty bleak.
Athletic director Andy Geiger fired head coach Jim O’Brien after the coach
admitted he had committed recruiting violations. The program was sent into limbo
as Geiger began a monthlong search for the new coach.
Of course, by early July Geiger introduced his selection, former Xavier head
coach Thad Matta.
Fast forward a year and, well, things look pretty bleak – for the rest of
the Big Ten, that is.
Matta enjoyed a 20-win season in his debut as the OSU coach, capping the year
with an upset of previously unbeaten and No. 1-ranked Illinois.
It was just a few weeks after that landmark win when Matta and the Buckeyes
reaped the rewards of their sudden success. Dayton Dunbar junior guard Daequan
Cook, the state’s top junior and the nation’s eighth-best junior prospect
according to ScoutHoops.com, ended the suspense when he committed to OSU on
March 23.
The good news kept coming on May 2, when Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph
wing David Lighty, the state’s No. 2 junior and No. 21 nationally, committed
to the Buckeyes.
But, as the deadline for this edition of Bucknuts The Magazine had passed,
Matta seemed to only be warming up.
It seemed entirely possible that Matta and the Buckeyes could also land a
pair of national top-30 prospects from Indianapolis Lawrence North in center
Greg Oden and point guard Mike Conley Jr. Oden was USA Today’s national player
of the year as a junior and ScoutHoops.com’s No. 1 overall junior prospect.
Conley checked in at No. 26 nationally. Oden and Conley, AAU teammates of Cook’s,
were pretty much down to OSU and Wake Forest.
And OSU was also working hard to go after more top-30 talent in Memphis
standout Thaddeus Young (No. 5) and New Jersey star Lance Thomas (No. 15).
And, even better, this class – which some were already comparing to
Michigan’s famed Fab Five of 1991 – was seen by many as just the beginning.
Ohio State and Matta were already in good shape on some of the nation’s top
sophomores, including Indianapolis North Central point guard Eric Gordon (also a
member of the Spiece Indy Heat AAU team that includes Cook, Oden and Conley) and
Solon, Ohio, power forward Dallas Lauderdale.
Of course, the Buckeyes already have a verbal for the Class of 2008 in Canal
Winchester (Ohio) World Harvest Prep center B.J. Mullens. Several of Mullens’
talented AAU teammates in that class were also strongly considering the
Buckeyes.
Add it all up and it is quite clear that Matta and his staff of assistants
– John Groce, Alan Major and Dan Peters – have kept themselves pretty busy
over their first year on the job at Ohio State.
The prospect that OSU would land a Duke-like four or five national top-30
prospects in the Class of 2006 was not lost on recruiting analysts.
“Talking in general, the ability for Ohio State to get all four of those
guys is unbelievable,” said Dave Telep, national recruiting editor for
ScoutHoops.com. “Now, whether Greg Oden becomes a Pacer or a Buckeye or a
Spartan or whatever, you have to look at the big picture. The state and the
region are so loaded over the next three years behind this class.
“There are a handful of guys who if they’re able to get them you can say
they are loading up to make a run at the big one. That’s how good the talent
is there for ’06, ’07 and ’08. They have a chance here over the next five
years to make a run (at a national title).”
Chris Johnson, the Ohio editor of HoopScoopOnline.com, said the verbals by
Cook and Lighty give OSU a dynamite backcourt.
“They have two wings now,” Johnson said. “Obviously, Conley is their
point guard of choice. After that, they are after several bigs who can rebound,
whether that is Oden or Thaddeus Young. It seems like they are trying to get in
on some other big kids.
“It is a lot easier to sell out-of-state guys on the program when they have
this kind of credibility. Any time you can land the top two players in Ohio,
that’s quite an accomplishment. To top it off, they are two recruits in the
top 30 nationally. This also sends a message that they intend to build a fence
around the state of Ohio. More important, it sends the message nationally that
this is shaping up to be a tremendous recruiting class. If you can get the ball
rolling sometimes you have that domino effect.”
Telep believes a Lighty-Cook backcourt could be dynamite.
“In college, the way the whole thing sets up you can play two guys like
this together,” Telep said. “Lighty can probably play a little bit of the
three. The big thing is the size of each of these players. This is not like they
got a 5-11 point guard and a 6-1 shooting guard. These guys are each in the 6-5
range.”
Cook Sets The Tone
Cook will be remembered as the first player in this class, the one that got
the ball rolling.
The 6-5 Cook averaged 22 points and 11 rebounds per game as a junior, earning
co-state player of the year honors and leading Dunbar to a 22-5 record and a
berth in the Division II state semifinals. Cook attended OSU's win over No.
1-ranked Illinois in early March, then enjoyed playing in Value City Arena for
the state tournament.
He ended up picking Ohio State over the likes of Illinois, Wake Forest,
Cincinnati, Michigan, Michigan State and North Carolina.
Cook was asked if there were any specific players he would like to see commit
to OSU.
“Well, a few of my AAU friends, like Greg, Mike, and David Lighty. We have
all been talking about going to the same school and playing together.”
Cook would be eligible to sign in the early signing period for college
recruits in November and would be a freshman at his college of choice in
2006-07.
If it is, indeed, Ohio State, Cook, as a national top-10 prospect, could be
viewed as OSU's biggest basketball recruit since Jim Jackson committed to head
coach Gary Williams and assistant Randy Ayers in 1989.
Cook says there is still about a “30 percent chance” he will opt for the
NBA directly out of high school. He says it will depend on whether or not he is
expected to be a lottery pick.
Cook talked about what it will take to put OSU on top: “Work and players.
That’s it. I can’t say much about the team they have because I’m not
there. But when I get there, I’m going to make it big time. The guys I’m
going to bring with me will help us get there.”
He said Matta’s move from Xavier to Ohio State was huge in his eyes.
“When I heard he moved from Xavier to Ohio State, that made me like Ohio
State even more,” Cook said. “At one point in time, I did like Ohio State
until they had that incident.
“I just love Coach Matta,” Cook said. “He’s been a winning coach
everywhere he’s been. He has been in March Madness and has pulled out some big
wins. I just like his coaching.
“I love Ohio State,” he added.
Dayton Dunbar boys basketball coach Peter Pullen talked about some of Cook’s
qualities as a player.
“He is able to handle pressure,” Pullen said. “He is determined. I tell
him he’s one of those guys early in the game who is laid back and then decides
to take over games in the last minute. I said, ‘Daequan, you’ve got to play
hard all the time. You can’t turn it on and turn it off all the time.’ In
the state tournament, he tried to turn it on and it wasn’t there for him.
“He just brings so much to the team. He makes everybody around him a lot
better. He likes it that way. The more quality players there are on the floor,
the better he does. He rebounds and makes good passes to set his teammates up
for easy baskets. That’s what I like to see.”
Pullen said Cook is a competitor all the way. That’s why his lackluster
showing in a state semifinal game – Cook was 10 of 23 from the floor and had
26 points and 12 rebounds in a 95-90 loss to eventual state champion Upper
Sandusky – upset him a bit.
“After the state tournament he said, ‘I’m disappointed I let you down,’
” Pullen said. “But I said, ‘You didn’t. You played. Their shots were
falling and ours (weren’t).’ We played a good game and we showed we didn’t
have any quit in us and we fought back. It really hurt him after the game
because he thought this was the game where he needed to turn it on.”
Turning On Lighty
The 6-5 Lighty verbaled to Ohio State over Syracuse, Michigan, Arizona and
many others.
“For the last two years or so, I've been trying to decide on what college
I'm going to go to,” Lighty said at the beginning of the conference. “To
extend my career at the next level, I have decided to attend Ohio State.”
Lighty put on an OSU cap during the announcement to a round of applause.
“It was a long process, a tough process,” Lighty added, after thanking
all the schools that had recruited him.
Lighty averaged 24.5 points and 11.8 rebounds a game last season, although
his season was cut short by an ACL tear. Lighty is currently rehabilitating his
injury.
He discussed the fact that he will be playing with Cook.
“It really didn't have much to do with me going there, but it's good that
he's going there, too. We could have one of the best backcourts in the nation,”
Lighty said.
An outstanding athlete, Lighty was also among the top football prospects in
his class and for a while was rated as the No. 1 overall prospect by Ohio High
recruiting editor Duane Long. Lighty chose to give up football and concentrate
on basketball before the start of the 2004 football season.
Now, Lighty is setting his sights on doing being things on the hardwood with
the Buckeyes.
“Hopefully we can be the next North Carolina, have like a new Fab Five and
hopefully win a national championship,” he said. “I think there’s going to
be a good camaraderie and everyone is going to get along I feel, because they
already play together. And me, I like to share the ball all the time and get
people involved in the game so it’s going to work out real good.”
But first, Lighty has to get back to becoming the player that he was before
he injured his knee on a dunk in the district finals this past season.
“I came down on it wrong after a dunk,” Lighty said. “I got up and I
thought I was fine, my knee just got a little tight. I fell on the ground wrong
but I just got up and finished the game and the next morning it was swollen. I
finished the game; there was about six minutes left in the third quarter. I
played through it. I was happy and I got to cut down the nets. The next morning
it was swollen the size of the watermelon.”
It was an injury that cost him and his Viking teammates a legitimate shot at
winning a state title last year.
“We were going down to the regionals, trying to get to the state
championship, and I couldn’t play and I couldn’t help my team any more,”
Lighty said. “So it was real devastating to me.”
But he’s certainly learned from the whole experience.
“I appreciate things a lot more now, like walking. You really don’t
notice it until you can’t walk any more. It would take me like 20 minutes to
go from my room to the kitchen,” Lighty said. “So the little things mean a
lot more to me now.”
Lighty gives Matta much of the credit for bringing in the guys like himself
and Cook to try to win a national title at OSU.
“I don’t really know if I would be a Buckeye if he wasn’t there because
he had a lot to do with it,” Lighty said of Matta. “But I like the whole
campus, the atmosphere, the fans and the location. Everyone there is about Ohio
State and that’s what I like the most about it.
“I feel very excited when you talk about Ohio State. I took a couple of
visits down there and watched a couple of football games and it’s just
something that you’ll always remember. When you go down there (to Ohio State)
you feel like you’re a part of it all.”
Gary Housteau contributed to this report.