Men's Basketball Buckeye Tidbits 2006-2007 Season

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Dispatch

5/20/06

OSU recruits get a taste of Indy speed

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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INDIANAPOLIS — For a couple of minutes yesterday, Ohio State basketball fans should have been holding their breath because prized recruits Greg Oden and Mike Conley were playing in traffic.

And not just any traffic, but the start of practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Oden, Conley and Lawrence North (Ind.) High School coach Jack Keefer were honorary starters of the practice sessions.

They stood on a stand three feet above the track at the start-finish line, between two concrete walls. Below them roared the cars at more than 220 mph on the home straightaway.

Talk about being precariously perched.

"I’ve never had cars or anything else go by me that fast," the 7-foot-1 Oden said. "It was a lot of fun."

For Conley, it was his first trip to the track he has heard so much about.

"I didn’t know it was this big," Conley said. "The place is huge, and it’s loud."

Oden and Conley grew accustomed to big crowds and attention the past three years while leading Lawrence North to consecutive Indiana state championships. The big crowds should only increase when they join an OSU freshman basketball class rated second overall nationally. They’re both going to get a head start, enrolling at OSU for summer quarter.

"Yesterday was the 18 th, and we go to Ohio State June 18, and I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Just one month,’ " Oden said. "I was getting really hyped. I can’t wait to get there."

tmay@dispatch.com

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Canton

6/7/06

COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Cleveland State to host Ohio State in 2007-08 season

Wednesday, June 7, 2006


Cleveland State, looking to increase its profile under new Coach Gary Waters, will host Ohio State during the 2007-08 season.

It’s the first meeting of the universities in more than a decade and will mark the debut of the CSU McLendon Scholarship Series, said Alan Ashby, Cleveland State associate sports information director.

The scholarship is named for Hall of Famer John McLendon, a former Cleveland State coach who broke several racial barriers during his career and played at the University of Kansas in the early 1930s under basketball’s creator, Dr. James Naismith.

Cleveland State Athletics Director Lee Reed and Ohio State Athletics Director Gene Smith will announce the game and annual scholarship series at a news conference Thursday in downtown Cleveland.
Cleveland State and Ohio State last met in 1995 in Columbus with the Buckeyes winning, 75-52. OSU leads the series, 4-1.

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Scout.com (free)

6/15/06

OSU Ponders Seating Changes At The Schott.

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Dispatch

6/22/06

SUMMER LEAGUE

Matta puts Buckeyes on sideline

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH




The McDonald’s Summer League is offering a leaner menu in its 25 th year.

Ohio State men’s basketball players, who have been the star attractions of the Worthingtonbased league since it began, aren’t playing in it this summer by request of coach Thad Matta.

Matta said yesterday it is more important that the players, especially the four freshmen who began classes this week, "take care of business" in summer school than play two nights a week in the league, which began its monthlong schedule last Thursday.

"I’m more concerned about getting these guys off to a good start academically than I am anything else," Matta said. "Guys are (supposed to be) studying at the time they’re playing at the Worthington league."

By confining their summer games to the Schottenstein Center practice gym, the Buckeyes are getting a jump on playing as a team. NCAA rules prohibit more than two players from a college team playing on the same summer-league team, although incoming freshmen are exempt from that rule.

League director Alisha Colyer said she was blindsided by the move, learning of it two days before the start of the season.

"They never called to forewarn us. (It) was a little disappointing, to say the least," she said.

Colyer said attendance was down from past years for the first two nights.

Although NCAA rules prohibit the league from charging for admission, fewer fans will mean less revenue from concessions operated by the two host schools, Thomas Worthington and Worthington Kilbourne.

Meanwhile, Matta acknowledged it could be six months before 7-foot freshman Greg Oden of Indianapolis is ready to play for the Buckeyes after surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right wrist.

Oden suffered the injury Feb. 28 but finished his highschool season and played in two all-star games. Matta said Oden probably could have played this season without having surgery, "but I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize his future. He needed to have it."

bbaptist@dispatch.com

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Canton

6/23/06

Walsh to face ‘Thad 5’

Friday, June 23, 2006

By JOSH WEIR


NORTH CANTON - The Walsh University men’s basketball team will get an up-close look at the much-hyped “Thad 5.”

The Cavaliers have worked out an exhibition game with Ohio State during the first week of November at Value City Arena, according to Walsh Head Coach Jeff Young. The exact date and time will be finalized in the coming weeks.

The game should be the debut for OSU Coach Thad Matta’s heralded recruiting class, led by two-time Gatorade National High School Player of the Year Greg Oden.

The 7-footer from Indianapolis’ Lawrence North High School will be joined in Columbus by Dayton Dunbar’s Daequan Cook, Villa Angela-St. Joseph’s David Lighty, junior college transfer Othello Hunter and Oden’s high school teammate Mike Conley.

The Buckeyes also return starting point guard Jamar Butler and key reserves Ron Lewis and Ivan Harris from last year’s outright Big Ten Conference champions.

Although final details are still being worked out, the game promises to be a financial boon for Walsh. But that’s not the main reason for matching up with the Buckeyes, said Young.

“This has more to do with our program, having a chance to play in that atmosphere,” said Young, who coached the Cavaliers to the 2005 Division II NAIA national title. “It will help with recruiting, and this is something the guys deserve. They’ve worked hard.”

Led by senior point guard Jason Hicks and junior sharpshooter Corey Jones, Walsh returns all its starters and six of its top eight from last year’s team, which was ousted in the quarterfinals of the national tournament. Hicks, an NAIA honorable mention All-American, led the Cavaliers in scoring (13.8) and assists (4.9).

“I’ve been telling them for awhile that this was a possibility,” said Young, “and they were always like, ‘Yeah, come on.’ But they were excited when they found out we were going down there.”

Oden’s status for the early stages of Ohio State’s season is in question after his recent wrist surgery, which doctors have said could take up to six months to rehab. Young expects Oden to be ready once early November rolls around.

Young has worked with Matta and OSU assistant Dan Peters for two years on making the game a reality. Peters coached at Walsh in the 1980s and is a Central Catholic High School graduate. Young has also come to know Matta pretty well by taking his coaching staff to OSU practices and through Matta’s recruiting of GlenOak High School 7-footer Kosta Koufos, who committed to Ohio State in late May.
The game is expected to be a sellout, with Walsh getting a limited amount of tickets. Contact Young at (330) 490-7020 for more information. Reach Repository sports writer Josh Weir at (330) 580-8426 or e-mail:

josh.weir@cantonrep.com

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Dispatch

6/30/06

The debut of Ohio State’s touted freshman men’s basketball players, minus injured Greg Oden, will come the first week of November in Value City Arena in an exhibition game against Walsh University, Walsh coach Jeff Young told The (Canton) Repository. Walsh won the NAIA Division II national championship in 2005.
Ohio State has not released its 2006-07 schedule but is expected to open the season Nov. 10-12 by playing host to the eight-team Black Coaches Association Classic. Practice starts Oct. 14.