"The night is darkest just before the dawn."
Two years ago to date, D'Angelo Russell was taken second overall in the 2015 NBA Draft. It was the last major bright spot Ohio State basketball would have for quite some time.
Throughout the 2014-15 season, Russell was a bandaid that covered up an otherwise bad team. He averaged 19.3 points, 5 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game and scored over 20 points 16 times in his one-year career. Oftentimes, Patient Zero seemed to carry the Buckeyes to victory kicking and screaming.
Once he left, well, things got out of hand quickly.
Ohio State signed a promising five-man recruiting class in 2015, with all five players ranking in the top-20 at their respective positions. The class ranked first in the Big Ten and fifth in the nation, but it never really worked out that way. All five players left the program early – four before the start of the next season – and unlike Russell, it wasn't to become lottery picks in the NBA Draft.
That 2015 season, the Buckeyes missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008. Things got even worse the following year as Ohio State finished in the bottom half of the conference and missed the NCAA Tournament for back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 1997 and 1998 seasons. This time, they didn't even earn an NIT invitation.
The offseason did Ohio State no favors, either. Trevor Thompson, one of the team's few bright spots during the 2016-17 season, declared for the NBA Draft. JaQuan Lyle, one of the team's lone remaining ball-handlers, left the team in April. Then, the team's prized 2018 recruit, Ohio's top-ranked player in Darius Bazely, decommitted and had some blunt things to say about the state of the program.
After losing another recruiting battle in late May, Thad Matta stepped down as head coach, ending his 13-year tenure and paving the way for the hire of Butler's Chris Holtmann.
Holtmann's arrival in Columbus appeared to stop the bleeding for a program that had been in pain for over two seasons, but it wasn't really the hire in itself that proved promising.
The new coach was not exactly in a great spot to start his coaching career. He was tasked with leading a team that did not even make the NIT the previous season without two of that team's best players and his only real weapon to improve that team was a two-man recruiting class which he inherited from his predecessor that ranked just 10th in the Big Ten and 57th in the nation.
By mid June when he took the job, it was far too late to recruit for the 2017 class, and it seemed Holtmann would be stuck with the roster he had until he could bring in his own class in 2018.
But the new Buckeye coach had an ace up his sleeve.
Kyle Young, a 6-foot-7 wing out of Massillon, Ohio, had been recruited by Matta and Ohio State before he committed to Holtmann at Butler. Following Holtmann's departure, Young was granted a release by Butler and the forward followed Holtmann to Columbus, signing with the Buckeyes.
Young, the No. 2 player in Ohio, joins guard Braxton Beverly as well as Kaleb Wesson, Ohio's No. 1 player in the 2017 recruiting class, giving the Buckeyes the two best players in the state for the first time since Ohio State signed B.J. Mullens and William Buford in 2008.
While it's hard to claim that Young, the nation's No. 82 ranked player, is one of the most important recruits in recent memory, that might not be too far from the truth. Young may not be a program changing talent or a one-and-done lottery pick, but what his addition does do is start the rebuilding process now instead of later.
With Young's addition, Holtmann now has multiple high-level young players to work with, one of whom he recruited and knew personally before even coming to Ohio State. Instead of waiting until the 2018 class to start building the future of this Buckeye basketball team, he can begin now. The 2017 class is not another storm he's going to have to weather, it's now a foundation he can build upon.
Additionally, Young will help Ohio State now. Having just nine scholarship players before his announcement, the Buckeyes desperately needed depth. Young is ready to play immediately and will no doubt play meaningful minutes during the 2017-18 season.
There's still a long way to go before this program is back to national prominence, and with a severe lack of ball handlers and depth on the roster for this upcoming season, it could still be a long, frustrating year for Ohio State hoops fans. But for the first time in a long time, the future seems bright for the Buckeye basketball program.
