Here is how I see our scholarship situation currently. My math very well may be wrong here, and please feel free to tell me I'm an idiot if it is.
We currently have 13 players on scholarship:
Seniors: None
Juniors:
David Lighty
Kyle Madsen
PJ Hill
Jeremie Simmons
Sophomores:
Evan Turner
Jon Diebler
Dallas Lauderdale
Zisis Sarikopoulos
Nikola Kecman
Freshmen:
William Buford
Anthony Crater
BJ Mullens
Walter Offutt
This means that, if we have no departures, we have 0 scholarships to give for 2009, and 4 to give for 2010 (we currently have 5 committments, and Adrien Payne would make 6).
However, it is very probable that BJ will be gone after this season, as he is a top-5 NBA draft pick on potential and athletic ability alone. Assuming he does, that would free up one scholarship. Lets say we give it to Dashonte Riley. Assuming no one else leaves after this season, we would be at 13 scholarships for the 2009 season, with all the players listed above just moving up a class year and Riley replacing BJ as the only freshman.
Now looking at 2010- we would have 4 scholarship players graduating after the 2009 season. This means we would be one scholarship short for our current class of 5 committs, and 2 scholarships short if Payne does decide to become a Buckeye. I have no idea where we stand right now or the likelihood of this, and hopefully the staff has a better idea than we do. Lets say Payne does committ. This means, to accomodate the 2010 recruiting class, we need 2 more players to leave early.
Now, I don't know the odds of this happening, but I would say its not completely out of the realm of possibility. Evan Turner had a good freshman year last year, and looks to do even better this year. Some people are saying he may be able to go after this year- I don't know about that yet, but we are one game in. However, after two more seasons, with his size, if he can improve his outside shooting from last year (which certainly wasn't terrible, but wasn't NBA caliber) and improve his A/T ratio from last season, then I could definitely see him going early and getting drafted.
From what I have seen so far from William Buford, I would not be shocked to see him gone after this season, and would be suprised if he wasn't gone after next season (barring injury). Kid can flat-out score, he has great touch from beyond the arc, and he has very good size and athleticism for an NBA shooting guard. If he can put on some weight, I could definitely see him being gone by the end of the 2009 season.
(FWIW, Draftexpress.com is currently projecting Buford at 17 in 2010 NBA Draft, Turner at 33, and Lighty at 44).
I could definitely see this scenario coming true. And the point of me typing this ridiculously long breakdown is that I would love to get Dashonte in this class. While we wont desperately need a big in 2009 with DL, Kecman, Zisis, and Madsen, it would allow us to bring Dashonte along slowly (if he is indeed a project, as many people are claiming) and expect big contributions from him in 2011-2012 with his size. Clearly, the staff has a much better grasp of this situation than I do, but I hope they are able to find a way for us to get Dashonte this year.