COLUMBUS — Here is the Ohio State men’s basketball team in a nutshell: no seniors, missing its top three scorers, but lots of promise.
For the third year in a row, coach Thad Matta will be overseeing a Buckeyes team that has more newcomers than veterans, more freshmen than upperclassmen, more questions than answers.
“I really like this team,” Matta said during media day. “But there are so many unknowns. We have to get into it and see what happens and how things shake out. There are some pieces here.”
The first time Matta had to rebuild was two years ago, when freshmen Greg Oden, Michael Conley and Daequan Cook led the Buckeyes to the national championship game, where they lost to Florida. Then all three left for the NBA.
A year ago, Matta built a team around senior Jamar Butler and freshman 7-foot post Kosta Koufos. They ended up 24-13, missing out on an NCAA Tournament berth but going on to win the National Invitation Tournament.
Now Butler, Othello Hunter and Matt Terwilliger have graduated. Koufos jumped to the NBA (Utah Jazz). And Matta is left with eight new faces, seven of them freshmen and sophomores. Only one scholarship recruit (David Lighty) is around.
“I guess you could say with so many people leaving my freshman year and then so many people leaving last year and then so many new people coming in this year, it is kind of like three different teams,” said Lighty, the elder statesman of the team with just two years on campus.
Matta, like just about everyone else, doesn’t have any idea what to expect.
“There are a lot of new, young guys with a lack of experience,” he said. “It’s like I told a group of freshmen the other day: ‘I don’t have a drill … we can dedicate to getting you experience. You’re going to have to go through the wars.”‘
The Buckeyes have talented personnel.
Two McDonald’s All-Americans in Ohio Mr. Basketball William Buford, 6-5 from Toledo, and 7-0 post B.J. Mullens from suburban Columbus are on the roster. Mullens is touted as the nation’s top big-man recruit.
Other top recruits are Anthony Crater (Flint, Mich.) and Walter Offutt (Indianapolis). Also signed are a pair of junior-college transfers, Jeremie Simmons (Chicago) and Nikola Kecman, a sophomore from Belgrade, Serbia. Kecman is waiting word from the NCAA on his eligibility after he reportedly played for a Serbian club team which may have included professionals.
The veterans are three juniors, Lighty, a 6-5 defensive specialist, 6-9 former Vanderbilt transfer Kyle Madsen and holdover point guard P.J. Hill.
Hill said there’s no reason why the young Bucks can’t win the Big Ten and go to the Tournament.
“It’s definitely reasonable,” he said. “Young is no longer an excuse. We know how hard we work, and when the season comes, everybody else will know.”
The sophomore class features returning starter 6-7 Evan Turner, along with two others who saw considerable action: 6-8 Dallas Lauderdale and 6-6 Jon Diebler. Diebler was Ohio’s Mr. Basketball in 2007 and Lauderdale has honed his once-soft physique until his body-fat percentage has been cut in half to 8.8 percent.
Lauderdale, who could make a power-packed duo with Mullens underneath, said the Buckeyes can force their will on people.
“In my mind, I’m just that confident. It’s not cockiness, it’s just bold,” he said. “I really see the only team beating us is ourselves.”
Turner, who ended up averaging 8.5 points a game while starting 30 times, said he’s not afraid to predict big things for the team.
“You can say, ‘Expect the unexpected,’” he said.
Matta said it is frustrating and tiring to have to rebuild a team so often, regardless of the talent on hand.
“But it’s something you have to deal with,” he said. “You’d like to think with no seniors on the team that next year at this time we’re going to be talking about the exact same group of guys. … But you never know.”
But Matta does know. After all, some NBA Web sites have already projected the 264-pound Mullens as one of the top picks in next spring’s draft.  

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