Keita Bates-Diop declaring for NBA draft
This is a pretty big deal as OSU's best player the B1G POY is going to confirm his entrance to the draft today at 2 pm. This isn't a huge surprise as Bates-Diop is a projected first round pick and already graduated, but of the rival B1G players who were projected to declare (him, Bridges, Jackson), Bates-Diop was the least certain to go.
This is a fairly big blow to OSU. OSU now loses 3 starters from this year's team (Bates-Diop, Tate, Williams) and a 4th guy in Dakich. Those are 4 of their 7 players who played at least 34% of minutes this year. This was a great first year for OSU under Holtman, but it was apparent they over acheived and I think we see a sizeable step back from OSU next year.
March 26th, 2018 at 10:08 AM ^
Breaks my heart.
Wait. No it doesn't . Bye Felicia.
March 26th, 2018 at 10:10 AM ^
Yeah, I'm really interested to see how they do. This year felt a little flukly, i.e won games, but not in great fasion, bouyed by 1) the B1G POY, who was legit really really good, and 2) the unbalanced schedules. I think they played MSU, Purdue only once, lost to Penn State twice, split with UM, played Nebraska once at home. What kind of recruiting classes are they bringing in?
March 26th, 2018 at 10:15 AM ^
2018:
March 26th, 2018 at 10:22 AM ^
March 26th, 2018 at 10:20 AM ^
A solid not great one. 24th nationally, 6th in the B1G on 247. 4 commits, all in the 6-3 to 6-7 height range. The 6-7 guy is listed as a PF, the others are a SG, SF and CG (combo guard).
The best player is 77th nationally Luther Muhammad, a 6'4 SG from NJ. The 6'7 PF is Jaedon LeDee, 92nd nationally from TX. The other two are generic 3 stars ranked around 200th nationally.
They brought in a similar class last year without one of the generic 3 stars. They got good play from Kaleb Wesson as a freshman but the other two really didn't play a ton. I don't think you'll see high level contributions from OSU's incoming freshman this year. Maybe they hit on one initially, but they'll have trouble replacing the production they're losing for sure.
March 26th, 2018 at 10:20 AM ^
WHOAWHOAWHOAWHOA hold on.
They lost to Penn St. THREE times
March 26th, 2018 at 10:21 AM ^
as "OSU lost 3 of 4 halfs to UM".
March 26th, 2018 at 10:10 AM ^
March 26th, 2018 at 10:18 AM ^
Love Dakich, I really do. But the fact that OSU was as good as it was with Dakich playing that much is a testament to the job Holtmann did this year
March 26th, 2018 at 10:24 AM ^
Ohio State guys and looking old? Bates-Diop honestly looks 35-40, and we all know about Greg Oden.
Bates-Diop can ball though. He'll find an NBA career.
March 26th, 2018 at 11:48 AM ^
March 26th, 2018 at 10:25 AM ^
Obviously depends on who leaves for us, but are we the Big Ten favorites next year? A lot of the good teams lose a ton.
OSU: Tate, Dakich, Williams, KBD
Purdue: Haas, Mathias, V Edwards, Thompson
MSU: Jackson, Bridges, Schilling
I can see Maryland, Penn St., and Wisconsin all being really competetive next year, but I don't think anyone comes close to what we have.
March 26th, 2018 at 10:47 AM ^
March 26th, 2018 at 12:30 PM ^
If Carter comes back, we should come out in a zone against MSU, just so Izzo plays him.
March 26th, 2018 at 12:35 PM ^
He can't come back since he already signed a pro contract with Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem.
March 26th, 2018 at 10:50 AM ^
There are some rumors of other MSU players (Ward?) looking to leave. They could have a drastically different roster next year.
March 26th, 2018 at 10:56 AM ^
March 26th, 2018 at 11:03 AM ^
If he wants to follow Bridges in spurning a top 10 draft choice to come back to a place where he was benched for 25 minutes in an NCAA tourney game where he won't develop and will drop his draft stock, by all means go ahead JJJ. I'd love to Miles Bridges him next year.
March 26th, 2018 at 11:11 AM ^
There is absolutely no reason to return to MSU for him, unless he just loves playing college basketball. Financially - poor decision. He's a top 8 pick, guaranteed, probably a top 5-6 pick. Would be hard to improve your stock from that. I don't know if anyone ever has. Far more likely to drop your stock through play or injury and cost yourself a year of a multimillion dollar income and subtracting that from your Developmentally, no reason to. Izzo does not have a track record of getting players to develop on an individual level in the recent past.
But he'll somehow stay thorugh his junior year.
March 26th, 2018 at 11:23 AM ^
For the sole fact that he seems like a good kid and I don't want a projected top 5 pick to end up being taken in the second round because Izzo benches him for another walk on.
March 26th, 2018 at 11:52 AM ^
What the hell does Izzo tell these kids that want to make them stay even though they are lottery picks?
JJ was projected as the #3 pick.
Not that he won't come back as, after all, he is a Sparty and probably didn't score well on the SAT.
March 26th, 2018 at 11:35 AM ^
The MSU guys haven't left yet. Michigan is also losing MAAR, Duncan, and potentially Wagner so could get off to a slow start that year.
I'd imagine MSU will be the likely deserving pre-season favorite, depending on NBA decisions MD might have the most talented team but they have a super mediocre coach. Holtmann is a damn good coach so I'd expect OSU to be at least decent again.
March 26th, 2018 at 11:50 AM ^
Rutgers (yes, Rutgers) and Penn State will be in contention for the B1G next year as well.
March 26th, 2018 at 10:35 AM ^
March 26th, 2018 at 10:55 AM ^
March 26th, 2018 at 11:09 AM ^
March 26th, 2018 at 11:23 AM ^
No way was Beilein going to teach him the "kick him in the nuts" moves that Izzo did.
March 26th, 2018 at 12:15 PM ^
Now that he's our winningest coach in history, it's time to get his name down.
Beilein. B-E-I-L-E-I-N.
March 26th, 2018 at 10:42 AM ^
March 26th, 2018 at 11:12 AM ^
Big loss. With him, I think they could be a 6-7 seed. Without him, they're on the bubble. They lose alot but Holtman is a very good coach.
March 26th, 2018 at 12:13 PM ^
He'll be fun to watch in the NBA where his game will translate well.
March 26th, 2018 at 12:47 PM ^
How far they step back next year largely depends on how well he can develop his first two recruiting classes, because they'll be really young next year. The coaching piece appears to be there, because they took a quantum leap from last season. All the same key pieces were there from Matta's last season. But he had a couple of talented seniors who just needed some direction, so they definitely did over-acheive this year.
They really didn't have a true PG this year, and losing Dakich is addition by subtraction on that front. Whoever steps into that role next season is better just by default. They've got a couple four stars coming in next year. Not an elite class like what Matta hauled in year after year, but still good. My guess is they're still a 20-22 win team next year and make the tournament, but being young costs them in a few games.
Just saw that Carsen Edwards is declaring for the draft but not hiring an agent. With his size I have to imagine he'll come back to school but if he left that would be a huge blow for Purdue.
Assuming Bridges and Jackson actually cooperate and declare for draft (big if), this could leave a somewhat open power vacuum in the Big Ten next year. Doesn't Purdue lose at least three senior starters, too? Penn State might actually have a say in who wins in the Big Ten next year as I'm guessing mostly all of them will want to stay
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