Going to be plenty of new faces next year. Lots of NBA early entrants and going to be some big time coaching changes as well.

Shaka to Texas
Hurley to Arizona State
Howland to Mississippi State
Barnes to Tennessee

Among the more curious coaching moves for next year...

Avery Johnson to Alabama
Dave Rice to UNLV
JTIII to Georgetown

Anyone watch Nike Hoops Summit?

Jamal Murray of the 2016 class just dominated the game. Dominated. Similar to what Andrew Wiggins did as a Junior.

Skal Labissierre also very impressive. It's not fair to call him Anthony Davis...but his game is almost identical, as is his build. Davis was superior on defensive instincts, but everything else is about equal.

Malik Newman and Chieck Diallo, but uncommitted prospects, also impressed me quite a bit.

As for Ben Simmons, he's the consensus #1 player by most sites, and he's tough to read. He's a mix of Jabari Parker and Kyle Anderson. A bit more athletic than Anderson and not quite as good with the shot as Parker, but he's going to be a match-up problem in college because he's going to be a 6'9 point guard.

reclegend22;1720776 wrote:Among the more curious coaching moves for next year...

Avery Johnson to Alabama
Dave Rice to UNLV
JTIII to Georgetown

Avery Johnson just keeps regressing in his coaching career.

Azubuike24;1720831 wrote:Anyone watch Nike Hoops Summit?

Jamal Murray of the 2016 class just dominated the game. Dominated. Similar to what Andrew Wiggins did as a Junior.

Fraschilla said on the broadcast and in a tweet that if Tyus Jones goes pro, Coach K should talk Murray into reclassifying into the 2015 class instead of going to prep school.

Thon Maker seemed kind of lost out there.

Agree. Maker isn't even one of the top 3, possibly 5 big men. Give me Diallo, Swanigan, Zimmerman and Labissierre over him, easily. You can see why he's highly rated, because he's huge, has like a 7'5 wing span and is an athlete. Skill-wise though, no. Kind of Willie Cauley-Stein esque before the proven defensive prowess.

IMO, both Jamal Murray and Malik Newman could play some minutes in the NBA right now. Both are extremely skilled and will both be SG's in the NBA, but good enough to dominate the PG position in college today.

Ohio State will probably continue their pattern of getting quality players, not developing them, and then getting no further than the Sweet Sixteen.

What's Thad Matta's story? Do Ohio State fans think he is a lifer? He's obviously an excellent recruiter -- though his prowess on the recruiting trail has somewhat depreciated of late -- and did wonders to make Ohio State basketball relevant nationally again, but has he lost some of that allure he might once have had to programs like, say, Indiana?

Thad Matta will be the coach at Ohio State until he decides that he can't handle it anymore with his health issues. For a lot of Ohio State fans basketball just gets them by until the Spring game, so Matta is 100% safe at Ohio State. The lack of development the last few years has been disappointing, especially the last senior class, but in my opinion that's as much or more on them than Thad. And remember, we're not that far removed from 4 straight years where they went Sweet 16, Sweet 16(and IMO the best team in the country that year, fucking Brandon Knight), Final 4, and Elite 8. The last 2 years have been rough, but I think the future is bright with the last 2 recruiting classes so we'll see what happens.

Terry_Tate;1721212 wrote:Thad Matta will be the coach at Ohio State until he decides that he can't handle it anymore with his health issues. For a lot of Ohio State fans basketball just gets them by until the Spring game, so Matta is 100% safe at Ohio State. The lack of development the last few years has been disappointing, especially the last senior class, but in my opinion that's as much or more on them than Thad. And remember, we're not that far removed from 4 straight years where they went Sweet 16, Sweet 16(and IMO the best team in the country that year, fucking Brandon Knight), Final 4, and Elite 8. The last 2 years have been rough, but I think the future is bright with the last 2 recruiting classes so we'll see what happens.

Appreciate the response. I was just interested in a Buckeye fan's take.

Matta is definitely a great all-around coach (recruiting, on-court success, outwardly done things the right way), so my previous post certainly wasn't stemming from a place of criticism, but rather from a place of curiosity. If the past decade is any indication of things to come, I don't doubt that Ohio State will once again find itself in the hunt for a Final Four.

reclegend22;1721217 wrote:Appreciate the response. I was just interested in a Buckeye fan's take.

Matta is definitely a great all-around coach (recruiting, on-court success, outwardly done things the right way), so my previous post certainly wasn't stemming from a place of criticism, but rather from a place of curiosity. If the past decade is any indication of things to come, I don't doubt that Ohio State will once again find itself in the hunt for a Final Four.

No problem. If he was in a Rick Barnes type situation then I'd say he needs to GTFO, but it's nothing like that at least. I don't expect Ohio State to ever be on the same level as Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina, or Kansas, but as long as they're in that second tier I'm good with it. We have football in the first tier which is most important.

Terry_Tate;1721228 wrote:No problem. If he was in a Rick Barnes type situation then I'd say he needs to GTFO, but it's nothing like that at least. I don't expect Ohio State to ever be on the same level as Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina, or Kansas, but as long as they're in that second tier I'm good with it. We have football in the first tier which is most important.

Understood. That's your sport.

The Billy Donovan coaching tree.

John Pelphrey, Arkansas, fired, back to Florida
Anthony Grant, Alabama, fired, back to Florida
Richard Pitino, Minnesota, ?

Terry_Tate;1721228 wrote:No problem. If he was in a Rick Barnes type situation then I'd say he needs to GTFO, but it's nothing like that at least. I don't expect Ohio State to ever be on the same level as Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina, or Kansas, but as long as they're in that second tier I'm good with it. We have football in the first tier which is most important.

Yeah sucks rooting for one school that wins national championships and big time bowl games every year in football and then having a basketball team that can make the sweet 16 every year and every couple years a final four or better. Right Duke? LOL

It is official. Duke's triumvirate of one-semester mercenaries have officially declared for the NBA draft. Since Kentucky's rent-a-player contingent have already declared the recruiting chips will begin to fall. How many OAD players will spend the next 8 months at Duke and Kentucky?

Prescott;1721615 wrote:It is official. Duke's triumvirate of one-semester mercenaries have officially declared for the NBA draft. Since Kentucky's rent-a-player contingent have already declared the recruiting chips will begin to fall. How many OAD players will spend the next 8 months at Duke and Kentucky?

Hopefully quite a few. Kentucky has about 5 players left and 1 is a walk-on.

Why on earth are Ohio State fans making condescending posts about Duke's OADs?

Regardless, the sport is going to have many new faces. A ton of players leaving early this year.

Azubuike24;1721666 wrote:Why on earth are Ohio State fans making condescending posts about Duke's OADs?

Regardless, the sport is going to have many new faces. A ton of players leaving early this year.

It's just one isn't it? And he hates Duke so it doesn't really matter who he likes, lol.

Well, yeah, but there have been quite a few in the Matta era, and even more so if you include the 2-and-done, which isn't much different from an academic and degree-pursuance aspect.

I mean, furthermore, if you look at the likes of some of the OAD's, many of those guys had offers from the same dozen schools. So in-theory, say Ohio State could've gotten Jahlil Okafor and Trey Lyles...along with Russell. They would've had 3 OAD's, and probably a title.

Azubuike24;1721674 wrote:Well, yeah, but there have been quite a few in the Matta era, and even more so if you include the 2-and-done, which isn't much different from an academic and degree-pursuance aspect.

I mean, furthermore, if you look at the likes of some of the OAD's, many of those guys had offers from the same dozen schools. So in-theory, say Ohio State could've gotten Jahlil Okafor and Trey Lyles...along with Russell. They would've had 3 OAD's, and probably a title.

No, I meant one person doing it, not talking about Russell. And I was pointing out with his Duke hatred it wouldn't even matter who he likes.

You know Shaka Smart got out at the right time. The way Virginia's program is rolling he probably figured he is going to have a tough time continuing to recruit in that region so he got out

Azubuike24;1721666 wrote:Why on earth are Ohio State fans making condescending posts about Duke's OADs?

Regardless, the sport is going to have many new faces. A ton of players leaving early this year.

Please don't act like Sleeper is in way representative of any fanbase as a whole.

My continued disdain for Duke was intensified by their one-and-dones. Calipari has always been upfront about the one-and-dones, while Coach K hated OAD players until he saw that he couldn't win without them. He didn't suddenly realize,as he has said, that some of those players wanted to go to Duke. Duke was once one of the premiere academic schools ( with special classes and majors for basketball players who did not want the academic rigors of Duke)with a great basketball team. Duke is now officially a basketball factory with academics a token gesture for b-ball players. Duke U: America's new #1 One and Done University.

I do think there is a difference a big difference between 2 and done and 1 and done.2 and dones must maintain academic eligibility for a year longer. That is a big difference.

As an OSU fan I don't consider any of the OAD players that have suited up for the Buckeyes true Buckeyes. They were just hired guns.

Azubuike24;1721666 wrote:Why on earth are Ohio State fans making condescending posts about Duke's OADs?

Regardless, the sport is going to have many new faces. A ton of players leaving early this year.

Because Duke is the only school who recruits OADs and pretends they are there for academics; and that they do things "the right way".