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OSU Men's Basketball Recruiting/Projections/General Discussions

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LitlBuck said:
I guess the big question that I have are all these offers to 2020 wings Offers or offers or is Holtmann just getting acquainted with a lot of people.
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with the understanding that none of the offers will commit prior to 8/6, my guess is that they're offers with a capital "o."

what i take from the offers more than anything else is that coach doesn't really care if a 2020 wing -- any 2020 wing -- commits as the last available scholarship. in other words, either he'll take a post player even if it means oversigning or he's content scrambling for a post player after kaleb's possible/likely departure announcement next spring. or it means that coach is expecting -- even pushing for -- attrition this off-season.

my position all along is that you take keon (and only keon) and roll the dice with a post player only when a scholarship opens up or you focus only on the one true necessity, which is obviously a post player. another wing is a luxury, a want. on the other hand, a post player is a necessity, a need. but i certainly don't have coach's understanding of the situation, so it's not as though i'm judging ho1tmann's decisions... unless, that is, he takes a wing and we're then stuck with a lukewarm grad transfer center next spring.
 
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OSU_Buckguy said:
with the understanding that none of the offers will commit prior to 8/6, my guess is that they're offers with a capital "o."

what i take from the offers more than anything else is that coach doesn't really care if a 2020 wing -- any 2020 wing -- commits as the last available scholarship. in other words, either he'll take a post player even if it means oversigning or he's content scrambling for a post player after kaleb's possible/likely departure announcement next spring. or it means that coach is expecting -- even pushing for -- attrition this off-season.

my position all along is that you take keon (and only keon) and roll the dice with a post player only when a scholarship opens up or you focus only on the one true necessity, which is obviously a post player. another wing is a luxury, a want. on the other hand, a post player is a necessity, a need. but i certainly don't have coach's understanding of the situation, so it's not as though i'm judging ho1tmann's decisions... unless, that is, he takes a wing and we're then stuck with a lukewarm grad transfer center next spring.
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Well, I just hope that there is a post player out there that we do not know about especially with all the offers to the wing players and silence about 2020 post players. Barring injury, it is almost a foregone conclusion that Kaleb will not be around in 2020 so the need is glaring. Maybe Holtmann sees something in Diallo that others are missing. Even if we do get a post player we are going to be hurting in 2020 unless we get a surprise grad transfer but how many really good grad transfer post players stick around and transfer. I do not know but call me concerned after this season.
 
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LitlBuck said:
Well, I just hope that there is a post player out there that we do not know about especially with all the offers to the wing players and silence about 2020 post players. Barring injury, it is almost a foregone conclusion that Kaleb will not be around in 2020 so the need is glaring. Maybe Holtmann sees something in Diallo that others are missing. Even if we do get a post player we are going to be hurting in 2020 unless we get a surprise grad transfer but how many really good grad transfer post players stick around and transfer. I do not know but call me concerned after this season.
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to be sure, there are plenty of concerns surrounding 2020's center. kaleb's departure is expected and even assumed, but it's still not a certainty. diallo is a complete question mark. there is little publicized smoke among the 2020 post offers. we may end up not even having a scholarship available for a 2020 post player until the spring. and if we do go the grad transfer route for a 2020 post player, then we are at the whim of a talent pool that can't be forecasted.

two rebuttals to the above that allay most of my concerns:

1. ho1tmann is our coach. pedon, johnson, and diebler are the assistants. i wasn't all that optimistic about our point guard situation shortly before carton's announcement. and then carton chose to become a buckeye. so far on the recruiting front, any grade from an a- on down would be an insult to our coaching staff. i'll just have to continue assuming that ho1tmann & co. will hit triples and home runs despite being down in the count.

2. provided that the players do not depart and that the players progress from this season to the next, an interior quartet of liddell, gaffney, young, and diallo shouldn't be too shabby. without consideration of the fifth player to join the frontcourt, it's obvious that the offensive approach and overall scheme will have to change, which is exciting to consider. zero doubt that the 2020-21 team will be one built to push tempo and harass from baseline to baseline.
 
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OSU_Buckguy said:
like an evan boudreaux?
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It will be interesting to see what he does this year at Purdue now that more PT will be available at the 4 (will probably split time at both positions).

Don't know that I have anyone in particular in mind and understand there is a lot of competition to land any good big transfer. However, if Wesson is truly gone, we'd have a lot of PT to offer on what should be a pretty good team. Could we entice someone like Sestina to come here instead of a school like Kentucky? I don't know how great the odds are, but if we are looking to replace Wesson with someone that at least provides some kind of scoring ability, a transfer seems a better option than hoping to get a frosh that is ready.
 
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wigmon said:
It will be interesting to see what he does this year at Purdue now that more PT will be available at the 4 (will probably split time at both positions).
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highly doubt, though, that painter would have gone after boudreaux if he knew boudreaux would be a complete non-factor in 2019. so far, he's a waste of a scholarship who played all of 1 minute over the last 6 games.

my position is that taking a grad transfer shouldn't be something you plan for 9 months in advance when you have a scholarship available right now. but fill that remaining scholarship with a wing this summer/fall and that's what will have to be done unless a current player departs sometime soon or ho1tmann oversigns, which would really disappoint me.
 
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OSU_Buckguy said:
highly doubt, though, that painter would have gone after boudreaux if he knew boudreaux would be a complete non-factor in 2019. so far, he's a waste of a scholarship who played all of 1 minute over the last 6 games.

my position is that taking a grad transfer shouldn't be something you plan for 9 months in advance when you have a scholarship available right now. but fill that remaining scholarship with a wing this summer/fall and that's what will have to be done unless a current player departs sometime soon or ho1tmann oversigns, which would really disappoint me.
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ITs tough to say he's a waste of a scholarship given you usually only play 7-9 guys and have 13 guys on roster (5-6 guys are going to be on scholarship and not play much). May not have worked out in the first year like they hoped. OF course you also could have used Reid Travis as an example of the impact a transfer can have. Some work out, some don't.

I wasn't talking about whether we should take a top 30 wing this fall. The conversation was about a replacement for a departing Wesson. Its my opinion that very few hs bigs are going to come into college ready to make much of an impact if any and almost all will be have issues with strength. The '20-'21 season seems like its going to be our best shot at a conference title and final 4 run (especially if Carton is gone after 2 years). In think a transfer big helps the team a lot more in that one season than any of the '20 bigs we have a decent chance of landing (the assumption being that Kaleb is gone). IF we could land a college ready center, then you take him, but doesn't seem like thats in the cards.
 
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my overall point is that in comparing 2020 conventional recruits to 2020 graduate transfers, you know the talent pool of one but not at all the talent pool of another. sure, recruits and transfers alike are gambles, but one set of players is at least a known commodity right now. banking on getting a good grad transfer next spring is something you do when you have the luxury of doing so. with kaleb likely departing and diallo being as green as it gets, osu is by no means in the position to call a 2020 frontcourt player a luxury. and yet we just picked up sueing and are making plans to get yet another wing for the 13th scholarship to join muhammad, washington, jallow, ahrens, sueing, liddell, and gaffney.

all of that really seems odd to me when everyone and his brother knows that by far the greatest need is a center. as i've stated before, grabbing either johnson, bridges, galloway, or leal seems like something ho1tmann does when he knows that a current player will be departing this offseason. or that ho1tmann is nudging a player toward the door, which would surprise and disappoint me.
 
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LitlBuck said:
I think any post player who is any good will not grad transfer to another school next spring but will rather declare for the NBA like every other good post player does with the emphasis on good.
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high-caliber grad-transfer centers like travis and blackshear are certainly the exception. i'd put the over/under on the number of them per year at 0.5. even with the obvious opportunity for immediate playing time on what should be a good-to-very-good 2020-21 ohio state team, i certainly wouldn't assume that we'll get a travis or blackshear next year. so that probably means getting a productive grad transfer from a mid- or low-major program, which is much more of a crapshoot if the player hasn't been consistent against the good high-major teams that he's faced. that's a big ask for a center you expect to get 25+ minutes. of course, it's also a big ask for an incoming true freshman. at least with a conventional 2020 recruit, we won't be scampering yet again the following season for a center to play immediate major minutes. we really need for diallo not to be a dud.
 
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something else to consider is that you could take a 2020 post player this fall and take another post player as a grad transfer next spring if there are doubts that the 2020 post player will be immediately ready. good grad-transfer post players should still view osu as an attractive landing spot even if ho1tmann signs a 2020 frontcourt player. i think that might make more sense than taking another wing (who is not keon) if there is no further attrition in the offseason.
 
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