Not too many coaches in the college ranks can recruit as well as Ohio State Buckeye head man Thad Matta. He annually reels in one of the Top 10 recruiting classes in the country and has seen many of his players move on to the professional ranks like most recently Greg Oden, Mike Conley, and Evan Turner.
Just last season, Matta relied heavily on the nation’s 2nd ranked class, led by All American Jared Sullinger and DeShaun Thomas. With upwards of 3 starters leaving via graduation from last year’s Big Ten title team, Matta and staff will be forced to rely even more on yet another highly touted freshman class.
For the upcoming season, he Buckeyes have secured the #8 ranked class, led by PG Shannon Scott, C Amir Williams, and SF LaQuinton Ross. With the returning Aaron Craft, Jared Sullinger, and William Buford probably already penciled in as starters, any number of the elite level incoming freshmen could be vying for significant playing time.
But this year’s prized crop of youngsters will unfortunately be without one of it’s key members with news that 6‘8 and 195lb SF LaQuinton Ross has been ruled academically ineligible because of a sliding scale used to attain grades at a former school in Mississippi prior to his arrival at Life Center Academy in Burlington, NJ. Ross is rated as the #53 ranked recruit in the 2011 Class by ESPN.
Apparently the plan is to return home to Mississippi to retake a Math and English class, in addition to the SAT or ACT to improve his cumulative scores, re-qualify and attend Ohio State in January.
Ross has been an elite level prospect as early as his 9th grade year, since he was the lone freshman invited to the prestigious Lebron James Skills Camp back in 2007. If he returns this Winter, the prized recruit probably will come off the bench to spell sophomore forward DeShaun Thomas.
Check out Ross vs Georgetown recruit Dom Pointer:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
