Buckeyes miss 4 who went to NBA

February 24, 2009 at 12:10a.m.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Feeling the frustration of a third consecutive loss on Sunday, Ohio State’s Jon Diebler said when the Buckeyes go over the video of the defeats they ask, “What if?”

For an entirely different reason, that’s the question that nags coach Thad Matta.

No team in the nation over the last three years has been hurt more by one-then-done freshmen moving on to the NBA.

Instead of jockeying a team that must win at least two or three more games to make it into the NCAA tournament, Matta knows that he could easily be in charge of the dominant program in the nation.

“[CBS basketball analyst] Bill Raftery and I were laughing about it the other day,” Matta said on Monday.

“You could conceivably be starting Michael [Conley Jr.], Daequan Cook, Evan Turner, Kosta Koufos and Greg Oden — and still not be starting a senior.”

Conley, Cook and Oden helped the Buckeyes go 35-4 two years ago, capped by a second-place finish in the NCAA tournament to defending champion Florida. All three freshmen were taken in the top 21 picks in the NBA draft the next spring.

A year ago, the Buckeyes went 24-13 and, spurned by the NCAA tournament, went on to capture the NIT title.

Then Koufos, like Oden an athletic 7-footer, also skipped town to play in the big league.

Now the Buckeyes (17-8, 7-7) need some good news and fast when they play host to Penn State (19-8, 8-6) tonight.

Matta needs three more wins — the Buckeyes have four more regular-season games remaining, in addition to the Big Ten tournament — to go 9-for-9 in 20-win seasons as coach at Butler, Xavier and Ohio State.

In his five seasons with the Buckeyes, his teams are 122-43 (a 74 percent success rate), won two regular-season and one Big Ten tournament title.

Yet, in an odd circumstance, some Ohio State fans grumble that Matta may be too good of a recruiter.

Matta is not about to dumb down his recruiting to get players who are not projects just so they’ll stick around for four years.

But even he gets winsome about what might have been.

Asked if he thinks about the players who left early, he said, “Oh, maybe once or twice.”

As a result of the defections by Conley, Oden, Cook and Koufos, the Buckeyes have no seniors on their roster.

The starting lineup consists of a freshman, three sophomores and a junior-college transfer.

When swingman David Lighty broke his foot in December, the Buckeyes lost their captain, their most experienced player and the only player who had seen much playing time in the run to the national championship game.

And Lighty is just a junior.

Suddenly, Ohio State is seen in some quarters as a steppingstone to the pros.

“I want kids to come here for the right reasons. Obviously, getting to the NBA is something that every kid aspires to do,” Matta said.