O-Zone Recruiting
Commentary
03/05/01
OSU Basketball Future (Part 1 of 2)
By Jim Pickens
The 2001 Big Ten season is winding
down and it is time to take a peek at next season.
Ohio State should enjoy added depth at all positions
next year. Over the last several seasons, Ohio State
has not enjoyed the kind of depth they enjoyed with
the Jimmy Jackson led teams that competed
consistently for the Big Ten title. That will change
with the 2001-2002 version of the Ohio State
Buckeyes.
There will be another similarity to
the Jackson led teams when the Buckeyes take the
court next fall. Chris Jent came out of high school
highly regarded as an outside shooter. His picture
appeared in the Street and Smith’s
Basketball yearbook. Throughout his career, the
6-7 Jent played out of position as a power forward
because of the competition for playing time on the
perimeter at Ohio State during his stay. Jimmy
Jackson, Mark Baker, Jamaal Brown, Alex Davis and
Jamie Skeleton held down the three-man perimeter for
Randy Ayers.
This year Matt Sylvester comes out
of high school as a highly touted three-point shooter
who also checks in at 6-7. He will find a crowded
perimeter as well when he joins the Buckeyes. Lets
look at next years Buckeyes by first looking at the
buckeye frontcourt.
Will Dudley – Dudley
becomes the center next year as Ken Johnson moves on
to the NBA. Will has demonstrated that he will be
able to provide points from the center position. The
big question will be on defense. Dudley should have
plenty of help next year but Dials, Marinchick,
Radinovic and Williams will all be freshman or
sophomores. Dudley will be counted to provide
leadership to the young Buckeye frontcourt. With the
status of Bruce Parkhill, who coaches the big men, up
in the air for next season, Will’s role with the
team will be very important.
Velimir Radinovic – Radinovic
shows plenty of promise on the offensive end of the
court and is athletic enough to be a fine defender.
There was speculation that Velimir would play either
the SF or PF position at Ohio State. Depending on the
readiness of Dials and Marinchick, Velimir will
probably see time competing with Will Dudley at the
center position next year.
Matt Marinchick – Marinchick
has a nice shot and is expected to contribute at
either the PF or C slot over the coming years. Matt
has been compared to another member of the Jent and
Jackson teams, Bill Robinson.
Zach Williams – Williams
is expected to hold his starting job at the four
position next year and will be counted on to help the
first year players get acclimated to the Big Ten
level of play. While Dudley, Radinovic, Marinchick
and Dials all may be competing for playing time at
both the PF and C position, Williams will definitely
be concentrating on the PF position.
Terrance Dials – Dials
has been compared physically to Perry Carter. He will
provide welcome athleticism to the PF and C positions
and should compete for playing time at both spots.
Although recruiting experts have spoken of him as a
center, I think that he will compete with Williams
for playing time at the PF position. That leaves
Dudley, Radinovic and Marinchick to man the middle
next year.
Cobe Ocokoljic – Cobe
spent a large portion of this season competing for
playing time at the SF position. He has also seen
time at the PF spot and continues to be an option for
both slots. Next year will be a critical year for
Cobe, he has shown a lot of potential in practice but
has not been able to garner the kind of minutes
needed to demonstrate that ability in game
conditions. With the crowded perimeter next year, I
would envision Cobe again competing for playing time
at the PF position.
Matt Sylvester –
Sylvester is in a similar situation to Chobe in that
in an ideal environment, he would be competing for
playing time on the perimeter. Bob Gibbons All-Star
Report says that Sylvester is the kind of player
that can play anywhere on the court. I look for him
to compete for playing time at both the SF and PF
positions as he tries to find playing time next
season.
Tim Martin – Martin
will be asked to walk-on again next season. He has
shown great competitiveness and an ability to rebound
during this season. Martin will provide good
leadership and will continue to push the scholarship
players in practice. He should challenge for playing
time early on in the 2001-2002 season.
Next time, I will look at the OSU
backcourt for the 2001-2002 season.
02/25/01
[Editor's Note: The O-Zone welcomes Jim Pickens to the
O-Zone staff. Jim has agreed to update us from time to
time on OSU basketball recruiting. Below is Jim's first
O-Zone installment]
OSU Looking for Big Men
By Jim Pickens
The Ohio State basketball team will
have four scholarships available to offer for the
2002-2003 basketball class. The Buckeyes will be
losing C Will Dudley, 2G Boban Savovic, SF/2G Doylan
Robinson and 2G/PG Brian Brown after the 2002 season
concludes.
Even with the apparent loss of
perimeter talent, OSU has been working hard to secure
added bulk down low. The Buckeyes are actively
recruiting the following:
6-8 260 C/PF Sean May from Bloomington
Indiana. If the name sounds familiar, it is because
Sean is the son of former Hoosier great Scott May who
played for Bobby Knight on the undefeated 1976 team.
Sean is not a lock for the Hoosiers though as their
coaching situation remains up in the air at this
time.
Sean has narrowed his list to five
schools: Duke, North Carolina, OSU, Indiana and Iowa.
He was also looking at Notre Dame and Iowa State
earlier.
Sean was injured in late February
when he suffered a bruised kidney in practice but is
expected to make a full recovery. The recruiting
pundits are saying that Duke has the early lead with
Sean, but OSU is definitely in the mix. Sean has been
rated as high as #3 nationally but on most accounts
is rated as the 8th or 9th best
PF coming out in 2002.
[Editor's note: Sean May's
father, Scott May, is originally from Sandusky, Ohio
and played his high school basketball there.]
6-7 200 SF/PF Curtis Sumpter
from Brooklyn New York. He plays his high school ball
at the same school that Brian Brown and Will Dudley
starred at during their high school days. Sumpter can
play either forward position and is a solid
rebounder. He has a list that includes Uconn,
Illinois, Maryland, UNC, OSU, Seton Hall, St.
John’s and Villanova.
Both Sumpter and May are top 25
recruits nationally.
6-6 300 PF Mario Boggan from
Mouth of Wilson, Virginia. That is no misprint, this
big guy weighs in between 290 and 310 pounds. He is
considering Clemson, Virginia Tech, Seton Hall,
Virginia and OSU.
6-8 220 PF Jason Fraser from
Amityville, New York. The Buckeyes will be competing
with Georgetown, Illinois, Maryland, UNC, Seton Hall,
Villanova and St. John’s for his services.
6-5 190 SF Zakee Boyd from
Jersey City, New Jersey. Zakee plays at the famed St.
Anthony’s that produced Bobby Hurley among
others. Zakee has Seton Hall and Rutgers as his early
leaders and the Buckeyes are one of a host of schools
tracking his progress.
6-5 190 SF Alex Carmona from
Troy, Ohio. Alex is considered to be one of the top
two players in Ohio. He has reportedly decided to
look at Cincinnati, OSU and Xavier. Cincinnati seems
to be a strong leader at this time.
There is also some good news on the
recruiting front concerning the backcourt. The
Buckeyes are pursuing Chris Quinn, a 6-1 PG who is
rated as the number 3 player in Ohio. He is very
interested in the Buckeyes and he is looking at OSU,
Notre Dame and Penn State.
In the junior class, 4 of the top
25 juniors in the country have committed to a college
program. Duke has two commitments, Michigan State one
and Memphis one. Other schools in the Big 10 that
have secured junior commitments include Iowa and
Michigan with one each.
Looking into the future, the
Buckeyes continue to pursue super-sophomore, Lebron
James from Akron, Ohio. He is regarded as the number
2 player nationally in the sophomore class. The big
question seems to be whether James will go straight
to the NBA or enroll in college. Everyone is
recruiting him but Hoop Scoop is reporting
that OSU would be considered the leader at this time.
It is also speculated that he will play college
basketball for at least a couple of years. He still
has a lot of time to sort things out.
A final note regarding the current
OSU squad and recruiting. Brent Darby was the most
celebrated member of the current OSU basketball team
coming out of high school. Others that were regarded
highly included Zach Williams, Sean Connolly, Doylan
Robinson and Brian Brown in that order. Velimir
Radinovich played his high school ball in Canada and
was not included in most of the recruiting lists. It
is worth noting that some reports had him as one of
the top two players in Canada.
The OSU recruits that are signed
and delivered will shake up the above list. Brandon
Fuss-Cheatham may end up being the highest recruited
player once the final rankings are in next year.
Fuss-Cheatham just poured in 35 points in a play-off
game tonight according to Insider's Report.
Matt Sylvester will also challenge Brent Darby for
the top spot. Terrance Dials could also check into
the list if he continues his strong play after
rebounding from off-season surgery.
Ironically, the Buckeye that is
expected to be a first round draft choice next year,
Ken Johnson, did not appear on any top 100 recruiting
lists even though he averaged 11 blocks a game in
high school.
02/19/01
The Buckeyes have now made an
official scholarship offer to LB/TE Stan
White Jr. from Maryland. White is the son of
former Buckeye and NFL linebacker Stan White Sr.
"I guess you could say it was a
confirmation of the original offer," Stan White
Sr. said a short time ago. "They offered him.
They told him they were going to offer him when we
were at the Ohio State vs. Michigan game last year,
then sent the letter out after Tressel became
coach," said White.
Stan White Jr. played both ways,
leading his team in tackles on defense and was
outstanding as a receiver as a tight end.
"He had a real good year. I
think he caught 30 passes for an average of about 16
yards per catch. He also led the team in tackles and
had five interceptions. We only give credit for solo
tackles, and I think he had 83 solos last year,"
said Stan Sr. who is a volunteer coach on this son's
football team.
Stan Jr. has all the tools to play
D-1 football.
"He continually gets
bigger," said Stan Sr. "He's up to 220
something now, and he's getting close to 6-3. He's
6-2 1/2 to 6-2 3/4 now. He hasn't been timed lately,
but he's been running real well and I think he'll
continue to improve his speed. He ran a 4.62 at Ohio
State's camp last year. I was very happy to see
that," said White.
Academically, White is in great
shape. He attends Gilman High School in Baltimore and
is in a program that is known for its academics.
"He got over 1300 on the PSAT
and will take the SAT this year. Normally they will
raise their score some on the SAT. He has a 3.88
point hour. The school he goes to has about 100 in a
class. Out of last year's class, 57 of them went to
either the Ivy League or Stanford,"
said White.
Stan White senior had more than a
passing interest in the recent coaching change at
OSU, and that change may have an impact on how the
White's see OSU for Stan Jr.
"Obviously, Glen Mason was a
teammate of mine at Ohio State, so I was hoping he
would get the job," said White. "Not just a
teammate, a classmate. We've know each other since
the first day of orientation. He was the first guy I
met," said Stan.
With the connection between Stan Sr.
and Mason, Jim Tressel probably had some things to
prove to the White family. According to Stan Sr., so
far, they like what they see in Tressel.
"I've heard a lot of good things
about Jim Tressel and I keep reading a lot of good
things, about his character and his spiritual side,
so a lot of good things about him that I'm impressed
with," said White.
White is being recruited by a number
of top programs.
"Jon Tenuta was recruiting him
before and he's down at North Carolina, so they're in
the mix. John Bunting was a guy that I played against
for may years. We had the same exact career
basically. We started in the NFL at the same time,
went to the USFL at the same time and were on the
executive committee of the player's association
together, so North Carolina will probably be one we
will look at. Duke is another, as well as
Northwestern, and of all things, both Michigan and
Penn State are doing a lot of calling," said
Stan Sr.
01/30/01 8:30 PM
It has been a long time since there
has been anything on this O-Zone page. At one time,
there were posts here several times a week, but since
we were fortunate enough to make our arrangement for
recruiting information with Bill Kurelic, the old Recruiting
Commentary page has become somewhat of an O-Zone
stepchild. Bill does such a great job with recruiting
that we feel we have little more to offer or add. But
with national signing day coming up, it's probably
appropriate to make some comment here on how the OSU
recruiting effort is being perceived and how the
class is shaping up this year.
There was a fair amount of hand
wringing done by those who follow recruiting closely
when John Cooper's firing was announced. Coop, after
all, has the reputation of being a very, very strong
recruiter. That, by the way, is a fact. Over his 14
years at OSU Coop did a great job of recruiting.
Sure, some years were better than others, but by and
large, Coop did a nice job with recruiting.
The timing of Coop's firing made the
OSU football program a ship without a captain right
smack dab in the middle of recruiting season. To make
matters worse (according to those who follow
recruiting and spend hours analyzing it), the length
of time it took to hire a new coach was disastrous.
An entire official-visit recruiting weekend was lost.
Some previously committed players suddenly downgraded
their commitments to maybes because of the
uncertainty over not only the head coach but the
entire coaching staff.
If you are worried about recruiting
this year, you are not alone. Buckeye recruiting fans
see the wolf at the door. The Ace Recruiter
has been fired, and this year's effort is in
disarray. If you fall into that category, we have
something to tell you. After giving the matter
careful and serious consideration, we think you are
wasting your time worrying. The Buckeye football
program, including the recruiting effort, is just
fine.
Before you start that email program
to send us your arguments why we're crazy for making
that statement, do us the favor of reading on.
To start, the O-Zone staff has had
the fortune (or misfortune, depending on your point
of view) of acquiring a fair amount of gray hair.
That is usually a rather slow process, which means
we've been around as Buckeye fans for some time now.
So long, in fact, that we can remember not just the
last time the Buckeyes changed coaches, but the last
couple of times.
When Earle Bruce replaced Woody
everybody thought recruiting would go in the toilet.
All Earle did early in his regime was bring in folks
like Chris Spielman, Chris Carter, Keith Byars, Jim
Lachey, Mike Tomczak, Jim Karsatos, Tom Tupa, John
Frank, Kirk Lowdermilk, Tim Spencer, Jeff Graham,
William Roberts, Rory Graves, and on and on. Earle's
recruiting success may have tailed off later in his
career, but early on, Earle brought in plenty of
talent.
When Coop took over, it was the same
deal. Robert Smith, Orlando Pace, Corey Stringer,
Shawn Springs, Eddie George, Steve Tovar, Bob Hoying,
Dan Wilkinson, Carlos Snow, Terry Glenn, Raymont
Harris, Joey Galloway, and on and on again. Those are
just a few of the players that Coop brought
relatively early in his OSU career.
The point is, coaching changes, at
least the recent ones, are usually followed by some
pretty good recruiting. Players want to come in to a
situation where there is a "fresh start."
They like the idea of establishing the legacy of
whoever the new coach is. The coaching change should
not have a negative impact on OSU recruiting long
term, or even next season. It should actually be a
positive, beginning no later than next recruiting
season. That's what history tells us.
Yes, you say, but what about this
year? This year is the year when the damage
is being done.
Not to worry. Yes, every recruiting
year is important. There's no arguing that. But the
fact is, this may be one of the least important years
in recent memory. As a matter of fact, it may be one
of the least important years in long-term memory.
Think about it.
Check the 2001 roster as
it stands right now. I count 60 scholarship players
(not counting Alphonso Townsend.) Then count the
number of players that will be seniors next year. By
my count, there are a grand total of 11.
Here's where things get a bit
subjective and open to argument. That being said,
here is what seems to be the case.
This year is definitely a down year
in Ohio High School Football. The usual crop of
offensive linemen is not there. There aren't any
great quarterbacks out there. The skill players are
just average. The linebacking crop doesn't appear to
have a true impact player in it. There is not much
denying it. This is NOT a good year in Ohio.
Ah, but next year. Tons of talent
coming out of Ohio. Quarterbacks, running backs, DBs,
linemen, a virtual cornucopia of talent. We won't
bore you with names here. Suffice it to say, they
will become very familiar beginning in about two
weeks.
OK, here's the point. The Buckeyes
will want to take a big class NEXT year. As a matter
of fact, they will most likely want to take the full
complement of 25 players. If they want to do that,
they will be limited to just 11 or so players (the
number of seniors on next year's roster) this season.
Sure, a few players drop out of the program every
year for various reasons, but you can't count on more
than maybe two. That means that this year's class
can't be many more than 13.
In a weird sort of way, the Buckeye
football program was lucky. The coaching change most
likely did impact recruiting this year, but if you
really think about it, it won't much matter. OSU
really had to bank some scholarships for next year
anyway. This year's class was going to be one in
which the goal was to recruit to needs like TE, WR,
OL, S, and RB. Beyond that, the OSU staff had to go
for quality at other positions.
Will this class meet those criteria?
That remains to be seen on signing day. Adams Olds,
Ryan Cook and Alphonso Townsend will be a nice
band-aid at OL. Throw in Marcus Green, and the
Buckeyes would have a respectable haul of offensive
linemen. Angelo Chattams and Chris Vance would help
at WR. Jaja Riley will help at RB, and the addition
of Maurice Hall and/or Jeff Backes would make that
position look a lot deeper. Dustin Fox would
certainly help out at S, and Ryan Hamby could help as
a pass catching TE. Simon Fraser and Reggie Arden are
both quality players, and Andri Tyree may just be
the sleeper of the year in this class. Watch for
Andri to make some noise before his OSU career is
over.
From where we sit, the Buckeyes need
to be concentrating on exceptional prospects for the
rest of this class. It looks like they either have or
will address their immediate needs. Anyone added to
this class now is taking one out of next year's
class, and that could be prove to be a long-term
mistake if that player is not a great one. If the
Bucks can land an Antrell Rolle or Mathias Askew or
Thomas Carroll, they should do so. Quality players
are always good pick- ups, no matter what's coming
down the pipeline the next year. If a player is not
an elite player, however, this is probably a good
year to take a pass. This year's class should be
limited in size to make room in the great class the
new staff should land next season.
Previous Recruiting Commentary
Return
to O-Zone Front Page
(c)2001 The O-Zone,
O-Zone Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast,rewritten,
or redistributed.
|