Five Student-Athletes Added to Men’s Basketball Program – Ohio State Buckeyes
11/9/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 9, 2005
Press Conference Video (.wmv)
COLUMBUS, Ohio–Thad Matta, Ohio State head coach, announced the addition of five student-athletes to the Buckeye men’s basketball program Wednesday. The class of four high school seniors and one junior college transfer is rated by some analysts as the No. 1 class in the nation. The quintet will be eligible to play for the Buckeyes in the fall of 2006.
The highly-touted class is comprised of a pair of Ohio seniors, two prep players from Indiana and a junior college transfer from Florida.
All four high school seniors have been ranked among the Top 30 players in the country by various recruiting analysts.
Matta looks forward to working with this class next year.
“We are excited about the five young men who have decided to become Buckeyes,” Matta said. “It’s been a long hard rewarding road. These five players trust The Ohio State University and our program.
“This class is made up of five young men who come from winning high school programs,” Matta, in his second year at Ohio State, said. “They are all well-coached. Their coaches have done a great job with their dedication and overall teaching of the game.”
Greg Oden, a 7-foot center from Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis, Ind., rates as the No. 1 high school basketball student-athlete nationally. His classmate, 6-1 guard Mike Conley, rates among the Top 20 overall players and as one of the top point guards in the country.
Dayton (Ohio) Dunbar’s Daequan Cook, a 6-4 guard, and Cleveland, Ohio, native David Lighty (6-5, guard) round out the high school additions to the Ohio State program. Othello Hunter (6-9, forward) will be a junior at Ohio State next year after spending two seasons at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Fla. He played high school basketball in Winston-Salem, N.C., at Reynolds High School.
Oden, following his junior season, was named the 2005 Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year, the 2005 USA Today Player of the Year and PARADE Magazine’s Player of the Year for 2005.
Oden and Conley led Lawrence North to a 24-2 record, the school’s second-consecutive Indiana Class 4A state championship and the No. 6 spot in the final USA Today Super 25 boys’ basketball rankings in 2004-05.
For the 2004-05 season, Oden averaged 20.0 points (521 total), 9.6 rebounds (249 total) and 3.7 blocks per game. Two of his top individual performances last season came in the state tournament. Oden blocked 18 shots in Lawrence North’s 60-45 sectional semifinal win over previously unbeaten and nationally-ranked Arlington. In the finals, Oden scored a championship game record 29 points (14 of 19 from the field), snared nine rebounds and blocked six shots in the Wildcats’ 63-52 victory over Muncie Central. Conley added seven points and four assists. Oden’s 14 field goals made and six blocks also are Indiana state tournament records.
Lawrence North won its last 16 games of the season a year ago and repeated as champions for the first time in Indiana Class 4A history. The Wildcats defeated Columbia City in 2004, 50-29, for the 4A title. Lawrence North head coach Jack Keefer has three state titles to his credit at the school.
Following his junior year, Oden was named the top vote-getter on the Associated Press’ All-State team for a second-consecutive season and was named PARADE Magazine’s Co-Player of the Year and first-team All-American after being a third-team PARADE All-America selection as a sophomore. Conley was an AP honorable mention selection a season ago.
Oden and Conley, who averaged nearly 11 points and five assists a game last year, will attempt to lead Lawrence North to an unprecedented third-consecutive Indiana 4A state championship in 2005-06. Oden will have the opportunity to join Ohio’s LeBron James as only the second player to win Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year honors in consecutive seasons.
Cook averaged 21.8 points, 10.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists as a sophomore at Dunbar, shooting 42.4 percent from 3-point range. Cook won team MVP honors during the ABCD underclassmen all-star game later that summer. He scored 21 points in a 135-132 victory.
Dunbar (22-5) lost to Upper Sandusky in a Division II state semifinal at Ohio State’s Value City Arena as a junior.
Cook, who plays for Pete Pullen at Dunbar, has played with Oden and Conley on the SPIECE Indy Heat team in AAU tournaments. Cook was the team’s leading scorer in the 2004 Big Time event in Las Vegas. The team was unbeaten and won the championship.
Cook’s USA Red team won the bronze medal at the International Sports Invitational in San Diego last summer. He led the team with 28 points in a 92-77 win over Russia in the third-place game of the event. Cook averaged 16.2 points and 4.8 rebounds at the tournament.
Oden and Conley’s USA White team was the gold-medal winner at the event. Oden averaged 17.0 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.8 blocks. Conley contributed nearly four assists a game at the event. The USA White team was 5-0, winning the title game 107-85. The squad won all five games by 19 or more points. Oden had 21 points and 11 rebounds while connecting on all nine field goal attempts in the gold medal contest. He shot 74 percent from the field (32-43) during the event.
Cook earned Ohio Division II third team all-state honors as a sophomore and was a first team selection and the Division II co-player of the year as a junior. He averaged 22.6 points and 11 rebounds for Dunbar in 2004-05.
Lighty has been an Associated Press Ohio Division III first team honoree each of the last two years at Villa Angela-St. Joseph High school in Cleveland. He averaged 24.5 points and 11.8 rebounds a game as a junior after contributing 19.4 points a game during his sophomore campaign.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer named Lighty its player of the year for 2004-05.
Lighty, who plays for Dave Wojciechowski, has not played competitively since injuring a knee during the later part of his junior year. He is on course to begin his senior season in a few weeks.
Hunter has been playing competitively for about four years and continues to develop skills at the junior college level. Ohio State coaches like his long frame, shot-blocking and overall athleticism. He averaged just shy of nine points and six rebounds as a freshman at Hillsborough. He is coached by Derrick Worrells at HCC.
Matta on Mike Conley:
“Mike is a point guard in the truest sense. He has a great command both offensively and defensively during the game. He has started to add strength. Conley has great quickness and ball-handling skills to penetrate defenses and create opportunities in the middle of the floor.”
Matta on Daequan Cook:
“Daequan is a tremendous talent who knows how the game of basketball is played. He is another Ohio product who chose to stay home, which really means a lot to us. He can shoot outside and finish around the basket. He and Lighty are quality defenders.”
Matta on Othello Hunter:
“He is a player we’ve watched over the last couple years. He has demonstrated improvement over the four years he has been playing basketball. He has a tremendous feel for the game. He is a very athletic forward who will fit in well with our system.”
Matta on David Lighty:
“He is a guy, along with Daequan Cook, who chose to stay home in the state of Ohio. He is a wing man who possesses great versatility. He has strength and the size to finish around the basket. He is someone who can rebound at 6-6, 210-pounds, which will help us inside.”
Matta on Greg Oden:
“He has great size and athletic ability. Greg is another player with a great feel for the game. He has the ability to block shots, rebound and score. He can score in close or step out and hit shots from 12-15 feet. One of his greatest attributes is his humility and his focus on the team.”
Ohio State Men’s Basketball 2006 Recruiting Class
| Name | Pos. | Ht. | Wt. | PPG* | RPG | Hometown/HS or CC |
| Mike Conley | G | 6-1 | 170 | 10.7 | 5.0 apg. | Indianapolis, Ind./Lawrence North |
| Daequan Cook | G | 6-4 | 185 | 22.6 | 11.0 | Dayton, Ohio/Dunbar |
| Othello Hunter | F | 6-9 | 225 | 8.8 | 5.8 | Winston-Salem, N.C./Reynolds HS/ Hillsborough CC |
| David Lighty | G | 6-6 | 210 | 24.5 | 11.8 | Cleveland, Ohio/Villa Angela-St. Joseph |
| Greg Oden | C | 7-0 | 240 | 20.0 | 9.6 | Indianapolis, Ind./Lawrence North |
*Averages from junior seasons in high school or freshman seasonat junior college level
