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A change is gonna come

I'm Just Sayin' ...

By Travis Hoewischer

More than a week since the end of the NCAA basketball season and almost three since the OSU basketball team began their offseason, I've still got the Buckeyes on the brain.

Christ, we're closer to the football team's spring game on the calendar than we are removed from the dreadful Siena loss. You'd think I'd have already turned my attention to Terrelle Pryor and a hopefully-improved offensive line.

But, like so many soft serve cones at the Chinese buffet, I haven't quite had my fill yet.

To me, the latest installment of the new Ohio State basketball program (devoid of walk-on starters and NCAA restrictions) will be remembered as ... wait, will it be remembered?

I say that with less than malice than some are thinking. In truth, I think this season largely goes in to the forgettable file for more positive reasons; at least to me, its meager results were matched only by its meager expectations.

A lot of times - beat writers like myself very much included - we get caught up in gauging the team on an ever-sliding scale, i.e. according to the weeks, or games previous. And for good reason; you guys have to read something every week, after all.

There was a lot of that this year. Not to isolate certain Buckeyes, because even the ever-present Evan Turner had his ups and downs, but, as an example, it was hard not to be puzzled by a B.J. Mullens highlight reel one night, and a disappearing act 72 hours later. Or watch Dallas Lauderdale make geniuses of all of us writers when he shoved the statement dunk of the year down the throats of the Miami Hurricanes in the fall, only to watch him struggle to stay on the floor down the stretch.

As fans, or analysts of the team, it gets hard to see the big picture. But, now, I can take a few steps back and take a wider stance, breaking down the season the way an outside would:

No seniors, one junior and three inexperienced point guards, and they knocked off two ranked teams, followed by a solid win over Butler?

From there on out, there were no seniors AND no juniors, and one less point guard? And they knocked off the eventual NCAA runner up?

I'd say take another 20-plus wins and be happy, Buckeye fans.

But, hey that's the outsider talking, remember? Within Thad Matta's kingdom, we saw more potential. As much as the season on the whole may look nice, we knew there were more than a couple games that slipped out of reach when they didn't need to.

Or, that a Top 10 team within our own league was never light years ahead of us - the last upset in the tournament serving as proof.

But, nonetheless, at year's end, Tom Izzo and his evergreen, ever-ready, ever-present Spartans were trying to steal an NCAA title on their home turf, sneaking out of the Buckeyes' same bracket, while Mullens struck out for the league and the rest of us were left sulking on Spring Break.

So, why them and not us? Well, that's easy. There's more of 'em.

Sure, OSU needs some muscle, they need a suffocating defender or four, and they could use a point guard that can both punish the defense on the press and on the pull-up.

So, those are the thin areas. But, none of them are as slender as OSU's hopes of putting together a Final Four team without getting a two-faced monkey - check that, gorilla - off its back.

I'm talking about the NBA Draft.

Look, it's great, it's sexy, it's BIG TIME. It brings the talent. For the last two decades, you could check the status of all former Buckeyes in the NBA in two seconds. At one point, there were more former Buckeye players coaching in the NBA than playing.

To see that trend completely reverse itself in the last three seasons demonstrates a tremendous upside. Columbus has now been added to the train schedule as an official non-stop to the league and I don't for a second condone the nonsense some of you might secretly spew about how Matta should recruit only "four-year" guys.

But, nonetheless, it's hard not to see that expecting OSU to be an elite program in its current state is asking too much. I recall a Buckeye fan saying to me toward the end of the season that Matta should have better players than he does, because he was a "universal recruiter."

Is he really? And, in his defense, is any college coach? Maybe for a certain rumored-to-be-dirty, newly hired richest coach in college basketball who seems to be able to pull All-Americans from his ass, but besides him, there are schools that have universal appeal; places like North Carolina, Duke, UCLA - where great coaches reside, but where kids attend for reputation and tradition as much as anything.

Most of the rest of elite college basketball programs are only as good as the talent in the tri-state areas surrounding them, and in the Big Ten - they're all swimming in the same lane. Izzo's roster feature three poached Buckeyes, one guy from Georgia (Chris Allen) and one from Wisconsin (Korie Lucious).

Ironically, the one big-time recruit to almost become a Buckeye, who would have been considered a geographical coup - Reno's Luke Babbitt - elected to stay closer to home at Nevada. His 17-plus points, nine or so rebounds and sharp three-point shooting would have given the Buckeyes less excuse this year.

Instead the Buckeyes did pretty damn well with a surprise stud (Chicago's Turner) and their guys behind the guys; the unfortunate result of two recruiting classes cannibalized by two much success, too early.

Originally Published: April 15, 2009

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