With Kosta Koufos officially heading off from Columbus to pursue NBA (or Greek League) dreams, Thad Matta loses his fourth player in the last two years to the professional ranks, after just playing one season in Columbus for the Buckeyes. With Greg Oden, Mike Conley Jr., Daequan Cook, and now Koufos departing from school after just one year, Thad Matta’s recruiting strategy of targeting high profile recruits may not be working out according to plan. While some OSU fans love the fact that Matta has put the school on the map in terms of basketball prestige, others feel that this is not the proper way to build a program up to the elite status OSU Basketball fans desire. This dilemma raises the question: Would you rather have one-and-done stars or less-talented players who will stay for three or four years at Ohio State?

I for one feel that a mixture of both star-studded talent and team-oriented players is the best possible scenario for the Buckeyes, but we all know the world is not perfect. Players make immature decisions to leave before they are ready to play professional basketaball and some players become stars on the court earlier than expected. Coach Matta, for one, knew that Greg Oden and Kosta Koufos, both who were highly touted recruits coming out of high school, were most likely gone after one year, but certainly did not think he would be without Daequan Cook and Mike Conley Jr. for at least three seasons in “The Schott”. Players like Conley and Cook, who make that decision to leave early are drastically effecting the way Ohio State basketball operates year in and year out and has made fans call for a new way to go about recruiting players.

Many OSU fans now want Coach Matta to target players who plan to wear the Scarlet and Gray for at least three seasons before turning pro. While the Buckeye faithful could most likely deal with a two-year stay from a star player, I do not know if they could handle being teased by another contending tournament team this season, only to see 2-3 star players leave after the year is up. If the Buckeyes made the Elite 8 this season with all freshman, sophomores, and juniors on the roster, they would be poised to make a championship run in 2009-2010 with every player returning right? Well, it’s actually wrong and this season could be deja vu of the 2006-2007 season, where the Buckeyes were national runners-up and lost their 3 youngest stars, only to start rebuilding the program again in ‘07-’08 and missing out on the NCAA Tournament (make what you will of a NIT championship). If the Buckeyes have a successful run this season, BJ Mullens, Evan Turner, and another player (maybe William Buford) could all decide they are ready for NBA stardom and bring Matta’s Buckeyes back to square one, crushing the hopes of Buckeye fans for a long, elustrious run of title contending seasons for the program.

Whether you feel the Buckeyes should keep going after the Oden’s, Koufos’s and Mullens’s or start targeting more David Lighty’s is irrelevant. The issue at hand here is that college basketball needs to change. Yes, progress was made by the NBA adopting the one-year rule, but that rule needs to have players playing in the NCAA ranks for longer. When thinking hard about the possible solutions for this problem, I came up with one of my own. Use the MLB draft rules. Basically, in baseball a prospect must either leave after high school, after 2 years at a junior or community college, or after 3 years at a four year university. Simply, a player must either make the decision to leave immediately after high school or play three years at college (they can go for four) before signing with a MLB team. I would propose that the NBA adopt a similar rule where a player must either leave from high school or go to college for at least two seasons. The reasons I say two and not three is because this would be more likely to fly with the NBAPA (players association) in a new collective bargaining agreement than adding a third season of NCAA requirement. I feel the NBA would need to give high school players a better evaluation system of their draft stock so they can make the most educated decision on their future and this would allow the Jonathan Bender’s and Kwame Brown’s to maybe play in college for a mere two seasons to polish their game and actually play instead of riding the pine for one of the league’s worst teams. This system would also improve college basketball as the talent pool would be stronger than ever. Imagine the possibility of this starting line up: PG Mike Conley, SG Daequan Cook, SF David Lighty, PF Kosta Koufous, and C Greg Oden. With Hunter, Diebler, Turner, Terwilliger, Lauderdale, and Hill coming off the bench this past season the Buckeyes would have certainly been a heavy contender to win in San Antonio. Overall, with my new proposal for eligibility rules, college basketball AND the NBA would both become stronger and the problems OSU has faced the last few seasons of “one and done” stars that bring a program back to square one by leaving early, would be eliminated.

What’s your opinion on Coach Matta’s recruiting strategy? What do you think the college basketball eligibility rules should be? What do you think about the leave high school now or play two years of college basketball proposal?