"It's been a rough 24 hours for our program."
Those were the words of Thad Matta on Friday afternoon as the Ohio State head coach delivered some difficult news regarding family members of two players on his team.
Matta said point guard JaQuan Lyle would miss Saturday's game at Maryland to be with his sister, who is dealing with "complications" following the birth of a child, and Keita Bates-Diop is also with his family after his younger brother, Kai, collapsed Thursday during practice. Kai Bates-Diop is a 16-year-old high school sophomore.
A very emotional Matta fought back tears as he discussed the two different situations.
“I want to address a couple of issues first that we’ve been dealing with here," Matta said to begin his press conference. "JaQuan Lyle will not play tomorrow. His 19-year-old sister had a baby a few days ago and there has been complications. Not doing well at all. I got a text message a little bit ago that said she had taken a turn for the worst. ... We’ve spoken to his mother, and we’ve advised him to stay with her."
"[Thursday] afternoon, got a phone call from Keita and his brother Kai, a 16-year-old and one of the best players in the state of Illinois who we are recruiting, collapsed in practice and had a heart attack," Matta continued. "They brought him back and they flew him to Peoria last night. Hopefully, everything is going to be OK with those guys. Kai is alert and talking and all that stuff."
All of this was revealed on the eve of what could possibly be Ohio State's biggest game of the season. The Buckeyes play at No. 21 Maryland on Saturday and now will be without one of their best players. Bates-Diop, of course, is out for the season following surgery to repair a stress fracture in his shin.
Junior forward Jae'Sean Tate and redshirt junior guard Kam Williams said they were both surprised by the news.
“I’ve never been a part of nothing like this, especially happening back-to-back," Tate said. "God works in mysterious ways so we’ve just got to be there for them, be there for their family and let them know that they’re not going through this alone and just pray for the best. It’s just terrible what’s happened and I really don’t have any words. I’m hurting. I know they’re hurting and we’re here for them and they know that. We let that be known.”
Added Williams: "Having something like that happen with two big parts of our team, this time right now is when we have to be the most together. We all have to be on the same page. This is a very big game for us and moving forward we feel like we have to have this game. So if there was a time when we felt we had to be at the most together it should be right now.”
Ohio State will travel to College Park late Friday night following practice, but the Buckeyes will be doing so without Lyle and Bates-Diop.
"What’s hard is these guys are your kids, man," Matta said, "and you hate to see them going through this with family members at their age.”
