When five-star prospect V.J. King released his top-five schools on social media Thursday afternoon, a number of Ohio State fans were puzzled the Buckeyes were not included on the list.
Some of the outrage was warranted. After all, King did spend his first two seasons playing at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron — the alma mater of the best basketball player in the world, LeBron James. But knowing what everyone knew about this particular situation, should this have really been such a surprise?
Following King’s sophomore season, he transferred from St. Vincent-St. Mary to Paul VI Catholic in Fairfax, Va. He’s no longer living, or playing, in the state of Ohio so it’s understandable that he may have distanced himself from the Ohio State program. Ohio State is also out of scholarships for the 2016 class at the moment.
King's announcement again brought up a couple of common questions when it comes to Ohio State's basketball recruiting, so let's try and answer them.
Why can’t Thad Matta recruit Ohio?
King eliminating Ohio State doesn’t mean Thad Matta can’t recruit the state of Ohio.
Ohio State is not an elite college basketball program. It is a second-tier program and there’s nothing wrong with that. The Buckeyes are not Kentucky, Duke, Kansas or North Carolina. Not in basketball. The sooner people come to this realization, the better.
Sometimes you lose elite in-state prospects to other elite programs. It happens to second-tier football programs, too. Top players from states with second-level programs leave home and go to play for Alabama or Ohio State. It happens.
In the most recent signed recruiting class (2015), Ohio State signed one player from the state of Ohio — A.J. Harris, the fourth-ranked player in the state according to 247. The top player, Carlton Bragg is going to Kansas and the second-ranked player, Luke Kennard, is going to Duke. Esa Amad, Ohio’s third-ranked player, is going to West Virginia.
In 2014, Ohio State signed Ohio’s top-ranked player, Jae’Sean Tate, and the state’s fourth-ranked player, Dave Bell. In 2013, Marc Loving was Ohio’s second-rated prospect and was the state’s Mr. Basketball award winner. Back in 2010, Ohio State signed four of the state’s top-five rated prospects. Both of Ohio State’s commits in 2016 are from Ohio.
The problem most people have is seeing guys like Caris LeVert, Trey Burke, Nigel Hayes, Travis Trice, among others perform well at Big Ten schools other than Ohio State. Well, the answer to that is simply Ohio has a ton of high school talent year in and year out. You simply can’t sign every good player from the state. There aren’t enough scholarships to hand out. Also, believe it or not, but every kid from Ohio doesn’t want to play for Ohio State.
Has Thad Matta lost his recruiting touch?
No. Despite contrary opinions, Matta is still, in fact, recruiting at a high level.
In the last six recruiting seasons (from 2010-15), Ohio State has signed a top-ten class four times. The only two times it didn’t were 2012 and 2013.
In 2012, Matta signed just one player, Amadeo Della Valle, and that was in part because the 2010 and 2011 classes were so large, scholarship numbers were the issue. It could have been a better player, sure, and the 2012 class was the only “down” year Matta has recently had recruiting-wise.
In 2013, Ohio State signed two players — Loving and Kam Williams. The Buckeyes were the second-highest rated class with just two commits. Florida was the only school ahead of Ohio State — the Gators signed a pair of five-star prospects while Loving and Williams were both four-star recruits.
The 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2015 classes, though, are all in the Top 10. That’s not easy to do at a second-tier program like Ohio State.
If you have an issue with the back-to-back down seasons on the floor, that's one thing. But I'd also be remiss if I didn't remind you that under Matta, Ohio State has won five Big Ten titles in 11 years and been to two Final Fours.
The Buckeyes are still chasing that elusive national title under Matta. It may come, it may not, but it's certainly not because of a lack of recruiting. Ohio State has plenty of talent and it will continue to come in.
