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Ohio Basketball Topic
Topic: Highest rated recruit ever to commit and play at Ohio
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bobcatbucknut
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Posted: 5/11/2015 1:46 AM
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Hey guys just wanted if you know who the highest rated national recruit ever was to commit and play for Ohio. I know weve had a few 4-star transfers in Armon Bassett and Walter Offutt. The question is though who was the highest ever to commit and play straight out of high school as a freshman. Was Gary Trent highly rated or did he just make a huge jump after he went to college.
Jeff McKinney
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Posted: 5/11/2015 2:21 AM
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Diante Flenorl was highly rated.
perimeterpost
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Posted: 5/11/2015 2:35 AM
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Walter Luckett was the top recruit in the country and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in a Bobcat uniform before the start of his freshman season at Ohio in 1972. Doesn't get any bigger than that.

His senior year of high school he averaged 39.5pts, 16rebs, and 13assts per game. A knee injury his senior year scared him into passing on high majors that might not be patient while he rehabbed from surgery in the summer so he signed with OU. Luckett was quoted as saying that the MAC had sent 6 or 7 guys to the pros that year so he didn't really view it as a step down in competition.
shabamon
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Posted: 5/11/2015 8:44 AM
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Sonny Troutman was a top-100 recruit, I thought. Coop was up there... I think one recruiting service ranked him as a top 20 PG in his class.
OUVan
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Posted: 5/11/2015 9:01 AM
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shabamon wrote:expand_more
Sonny Troutman was a top-100 recruit, I thought.
He was ranked top 75 on ESPN...up until he signed with us and then he dropped about 100 spots overnight.

I think Jeff has the player that was highest rated since I came to Athens in Diante Flenorl. Victor Alexander was a pretty big recruit as well if memory serves me.
bn9
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Posted: 5/11/2015 9:16 AM
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OUVan wrote:expand_more
Sonny Troutman was a top-100 recruit, I thought.
He was ranked top 75 on ESPN...up until he signed with us and then he dropped about 100 spots overnight.

I think Jeff has the player that was highest rated since I came to Athens in Diante Flenorl. Victor Alexander was a pretty big recruit as well if memory serves me.
How well known were recruiting rankings before ten or fifteen years ago?
Andrew Ruck
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Posted: 5/11/2015 9:20 AM
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bobcatbucknut wrote:expand_more
I know we've had a few 4-star transfers in Armon Bassett and Walter Offutt.
And Johnnie Jackson and Marin Bota.
Pataskala
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Posted: 5/11/2015 11:27 AM
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perimeterpost wrote:expand_more
Walter Luckett was the top recruit in the country and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in a Bobcat uniform before the start of his freshman season at Ohio in 1972. Doesn't get any bigger than that.

His senior year of high school he averaged 39.5pts, 16rebs, and 13assts per game. A knee injury his senior year scared him into passing on high majors that might not be patient while he rehabbed from surgery in the summer so he signed with OU. Luckett was quoted as saying that the MAC had sent 6 or 7 guys to the pros that year so he didn't really view it as a step down in competition.
Not sure if there were national recruiting rankings back then (this was pre-ESPN), but Wikipedia says he was national HS player of the year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Luckett
MedinaCat
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Posted: 5/11/2015 11:44 AM
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Luckett immediately came to mind. Wasn't Jeremy Fears top 100?
bobcatsquared
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Posted: 5/11/2015 1:00 PM
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How many combined stars did the LaFerla twins garner?
stub
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Posted: 5/11/2015 1:59 PM
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bobcatsquared wrote:expand_more
How many combined stars did the LaFerla twins garner?
I don't know but the 2nd worst player Ohio ever had was Twin 2.
Casper71
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Posted: 5/11/2015 2:30 PM
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Uh, I thought Luckett started out at UCLA? If not, wasn't there some relationship/offer/interest/whatever by UCLA in him? I was thinking he came to OHIO as more than just a frosh?
The Optimist
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Posted: 5/11/2015 2:55 PM
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Wasn't Allen Hester very highly regarded coming out of Ohlone?
Lande71
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Posted: 5/11/2015 4:29 PM
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Casper71 wrote:expand_more
Uh, I thought Luckett started out at UCLA? If not, wasn't there some relationship/offer/interest/whatever by UCLA in him? I was thinking he came to OHIO as more than just a frosh?
Casper,

Luckett came to Ohio as a freshman. I think he may have dismissed an offer from UCLA to come and probably others as well. He stayed 3 yrs. and won Mac championships his freshman and junior yrs. before declaring for the draft after his jr. Yr. I still have the SI issue somewhere and he wanted to be a big fish in a little pond. I would have to say he would be the highest profile player to play at Ohio. This is all from memory, but I'm pretty sure this is all correct.
OhioBobcat
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Posted: 5/11/2015 6:21 PM
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I don't remember his recruiting ranking but I believe Trent was pretty highly ranked, but it was his grades that scared off a lot of schools. I'm pretty sure he came to Ohio without even visiting Athens because OU offered him and took a chance on him.
BillyTheCat
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Posted: 5/11/2015 8:00 PM
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Wasn't Basra Fakir(sp?) a top 50?
HeHateMiami
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Posted: 5/11/2015 10:43 PM
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Andrew Ruck wrote:expand_more
I know we've had a few 4-star transfers in Armon Bassett and Walter Offutt.
And Johnnie Jackson and Marin Bota.
You already beat me to this joke, but I'm saying it anyways... Not sure where Marin Bota was ranked but he was said to have NBA skills. hahaha.

Also, I had a video game on PS2 that Johnnie Jackson and Sonny Troutman absolutely destroyed fools (the CPU) on. Johnnie Jackson never emerging is one of the great mysteries of OHIO basketball to me.
Casper71
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Posted: 5/12/2015 9:33 AM
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Thanks for clarifying that for me Lande...funny how the mind can play tricks on ya once you get as old as we are!
Deciduous Forest Cat
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Posted: 5/12/2015 9:52 AM
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I recall Sanjay Adell as being a very highly touted recruit. I think he lost a year of eligibility due to grades or qualification, but was an Ohio commit all the way.
OU_Country
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Posted: 5/12/2015 10:03 AM
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Deciduous Forest Cat wrote:expand_more
I recall Sanjay Adell as being a very highly touted recruit. I think he lost a year of eligibility due to grades or qualification, but was an Ohio commit all the way.

Agreed. I don't know what the ratings or scouting services said, but I do know he was being recruited by some "bigger" basketball schools including UConn at the time.
UpSan Bobcat
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Posted: 5/12/2015 10:26 AM
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I think Luckett is the obvious answer.

Trent is an interesting case because of various factors that kept others from offering him. It would be interesting to see how he would have rated if there were recruiting rankings like there were today.

Since recruiting rankings started to become a bigger thing, I think Troutman probably was the highest rated player. As someone mentioned, he was ranked as one of the top 75 in the country. I don't think Ohio's had another top-100 guy since. I think most of the top-rated players at Ohio were just outside of that range. Some of the best players Ohio has had like Hunter and Cooper probably weren't even that close to being top 100, though they proved they should have been.
OhioCatFan
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Posted: 5/12/2015 11:55 AM
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Larry Slappy and Ulice Payne were both very highly ranked. Would have been four-stars in today's ranking systems. Unfortunately, they both transferred before their playing days at OHIO were over, and Payne was on the national championship Marquette team.
cc-cat
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Posted: 5/12/2015 1:00 PM
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What about in the MAC overall?
FlashGary
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Posted: 5/12/2015 7:42 PM
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There aren't that many slam dunks, but this is one of them! You can't get rated any higher than Walter Luckett was. He was the National High School Player of the Year as a senior at Kolbe High in Bridgeport, Ct., and he was a THREE-TIME first-team high school All-American. His numbers were obscene as a senior prior to injuring his knee toward the end of the season--I do believe he was averaging around 45 points per game--and he still wound up averaging 39.5 points per game after all was said and done. This, along with 16 rebounds and 13 assists from a 6-4 guard! Beat out Phil Sellers of Brooklyn's Thomas Jefferson High for national player of the year honors. I saw all of Walter's home games and many of his road games as I covered the Bobcats for The Post (yes, I was a Postie!). Walter's range was unlimited. He averaged more than 22 points as a sophomore for the Bobcats and 25 as a junior and that was BEFORE the three-point shot was instituted. So no, Walter didn't attend UCLA. That, however, was about the only school that didn't go hard in recruiting him. Walter seemingly had more scholarship offers than there were schools.
stub
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Posted: 5/12/2015 8:00 PM
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FlashGary wrote:expand_more
There aren't that many slam dunks, but this is one of them! You can't get rated any higher than Walter Luckett was. He was the National High School Player of the Year as a senior at Kolbe High in Bridgeport, Ct., and he was a THREE-TIME first-team high school All-American. I saw all of Walter's home games and many of his road games as I covered the Bobcats for The Post (yes, I was a Postie!).
I grew up in Connecticut so I knew all about him. And I had just graduated from Mizzou and was working in St. Louis when Mizzou was to open their new fieldhouse in Columbia, the Hearnes Center. They were to open against Ohio. And Luckett was on the cover of SI. I had to be there. My connections were Connecticut and Mizzou but I'm probably one of very few Bobcats who saw that game.
Last Edited: 5/12/2015 8:38:30 PM by stub
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