Buckeyes lose fifth freshman to NBA in last 3 years...

[AJBuckeye]

I love Thad Matta and what he has brought to OSU basketball but it does get a bit frustrating when you land these top notch recruits and only get one mediocre year out of them. In the past 2 years they lost 7'0 Kosta Koufas and 7'2 BJ Mullins. Neither were dominating players but were drafted largely on potential. In both cases it will be many years before we find out if they were truly worthy of the first round selection. How do schools like NC and UF keep these type of players for several years? You certainly don't want to lay off of these type of players but if you have them in your program for only 1 year I think it hurts you more than helps you. Of the 5 players Ohio State has lost 2 of them weren't even starters.

[Hail to the Victors Valiant]

There was a nice piece on ESPN's Outside The Lines last week about this issue and Matta was one of the coaches interviewed. He said that it makes it difficult to plan for the next year or two as to personnel and schemes, and he pushed for 2 and done or none and done, if I may.

The counter was that wouldn't we all like to have the same problem as Matta. I did notice that more 5-stars are committing to Matta's program early and it could be a sign that one and done is available at Ohio State hoops for better or worse.

[GatorGrad]

I think one and done is a joke. I would like to see them go to the NFL or even college baseball rule where once you commit to going to college, you cannot go pro until after three years. Or even TWO years I think would be OK.

FWIW, while we haven't had the one and done players like OSU has, I think we've suffered from early departures as well. This year our best player (Nick Calathes) left after two years to be a 2nd round pick and will be playing in Greece. The year before our best player (Mo Speights) left after two years. Anthony Roberson and Matt Walsh both left a year early and didn't get drafted. Mike Miller left after two years. Donnell Harvey after one. Kwame Brown signed with us, but never made it to campus...he went straight pro out of high school (before the new rule.) The great front court trio of Brewer, Horford, and Noah all came back for their junior seasons to repeat, but then skipped their senior seasons to become lottery picks.

I guess this is the trade off to recruiting elite players. I don't blame the players - I blame the system. I wish there were a way to keep recruits on campus a minimum of 2-3 years.

[Akahikea]

People should stop recruiting these guys if it's such a problem then. No one's forcing them to go to college for a year though. They can go to Europe, they can go to the NBA Developmental League, a junior college, where they don't have to pretend to be a student etc. The NBA, though I don't care in the least about it, has the right to define their employees just like anyone else. But one year removed from HS or whatever the exact rule says, doesn't force anyone to go to college for one year. College Basketball can't do anything about the rule, so they either need to accept that this is a strong possibility if they recruit these types of guys, or they just need to stop recruiting them.