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Ohio Basketball Topic
Topic: Highest rated recruit ever to commit and play at Ohio
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OhioCatFan
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Posted: 5/12/2015 11:55 PM
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I'm not sure what Nat Thurmond's ranking was out of high school, but he must have been the equivalent of the five star recruit today. In his freshman year he looked like a man among boys. He was totally dominant. His teammate Howard Komives, must have been at least 4-star. That was one good basketball team. In 1962-63 BG was the first team to beat Loyola of Chicago, and one of only two teams to beat them the whole season, which ended with Loyola winning the national championship.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1962%E2%80%9363_Loyola_Rambl...
OhioCatFan
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Posted: 5/12/2015 11:58 PM
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OhioCatFan wrote:expand_more
I'm not sure what Nat Thurmond's ranking was out of high school, but he must have been the equivalent of the five star recruit today. In his freshman year he looked like a man among boys. He was totally dominant. His teammate Howard Komives, must have been at least 4-star. That was one good basketball team. In 1962-63 BG was the first team to beat Loyola of Chicago, and one of only two teams to beat them the whole season, which ended with Loyola winning the national championship.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1962%E2%80%9363_Loyola_Rambl...]


This was in answer to cc-cat's question about how the whole MAC might far in this competition.
Last Edited: 5/12/2015 11:59:07 PM by OhioCatFan
GoCats105
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Posted: 5/14/2015 11:32 AM
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UpSan Bobcat wrote:expand_more
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.
I never knew Sonny was that highly rated. He could do a lot of things and could play 3 positions, so I guess that probably played a part in it. Probably the most versatile player (stat wise) not named DJ Cooper. Had over 1,000 pts, 400 rebs, 300 assts, and 200 stls.

He was always one of my favorite players to watch. I also got the chance to play some pick up games with him at Ping a couple times.

Who else was recruiting him? All I can find through some random Google searching is Indiana and Xavier.
shabamon
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Posted: 5/14/2015 11:38 AM
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Wow, just reviewing Sonny's career stats... he really regressed offensively from a rock solid sophomore year.
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Posted: 5/14/2015 1:24 PM
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Never saw Luckett play, unfortunately. The following is based on something I read or someone told me a long time ago. My recollection of details is a little fuzzy and I'm not sure how accurate it is:

But the story goes that Luckett showed up at preseason workouts with the Detroit Pistons driving a brand new Cadillac and wearing a fur coat. Veteran Bob Lanier didn't take too kindly seeing the rookie arriving all high and mighty before playing his first NBA game and promptly put him in line during the day's first scrimmage.
100%Cat
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Posted: 5/14/2015 3:26 PM
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BillyTheCat wrote:expand_more
Wasn't Basra Fakir(sp?) a top 50?
God I hope not. I played a few pickup games in Ping with Basra, if he was top 50 I have lost all respect for recruit rankings.

How highly was Shaun Stonerook rated?
Last Edited: 5/14/2015 3:27:15 PM by 100%Cat
mcbin
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Posted: 5/14/2015 3:29 PM
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i think Sonny really had to play a position where the team needed him most, but it hurt his stats somewhat .

Thanks to Jeremy, or Will, or TOS, whoever....
shabamon
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Posted: 5/14/2015 3:47 PM
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Oh right, I forgot about us playing 2/3 of the 2007 season without a point guard.
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Posted: 5/15/2015 8:29 PM
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Re schools who recruited and offered Walter Luckett:
I quote from page 10 of Pat Jordan's excellent book, "Chase the Game"(Dodd,Mead &
Company New York City 1979):
"It (his offer from Ohio) was only one of the 200 or so offers he had received from every major college in the country, including UCLA, Maryland, Notre
Dame and Providence, all of which had sent so many scouts to his every high school contest that they often outnumbered the fans."
perimeterpost
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Posted: 5/15/2015 9:57 PM
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"A good family friend of mine took me on a trip to Ohio University. It was actually my first college visit. I grew up pretty much in the inner city, but I always liked the country. There was great diversity on campus and the university had a business school I was very interested in. It met all my needs. Plus I loved the Convo! It blew me away. It was just a beautiful school."

- Walter Luckett



Saul was right, all you need to do is get them on campus.




http://www.ohiobobcats.com/sports/varsityohio/spec-rel/01...
bigtillyoopsupsideurhead
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Posted: 5/15/2015 11:18 PM
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cc-cat wrote:expand_more
What about in the MAC overall?
In the modern era of ranked recruiting it's probably Trey Zeigler of CMU. He was #28 in the country from Rivals, #33 from ESPN.
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Posted: 5/21/2015 7:57 AM
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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. 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.
Great to see Flash's post on Luckett. I would only add that we can do far more to treat/repair knees now than we could 40 years ago, and I don't think Walter's knee was ever 100%. He wore a bulky brace for much of his time here. It hurt him particularly on defense.

As far as Trent is concerned, Randy Ayers was coaching OSU at the time Trent graduated from Hamilton Township, and said he was the best player in the state. As others have said, he had several issues that scared most major schools away. Also, Larry Hunter was after him early. Hunter was never afraid to take chances with kids, and still does at Western Carolina.
OhioCatFan
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Posted: 5/23/2015 10:44 PM
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OhioCatFan wrote:expand_more
I'm not sure what Nat Thurmond's ranking was out of high school, but he must have been the equivalent of the five star recruit today. In his freshman year he looked like a man among boys. He was totally dominant. His teammate Howard Komives, must have been at least 4-star. That was one good basketball team. In 1962-63 BG was the first team to beat Loyola of Chicago, and one of only two teams to beat them the whole season, which ended with Loyola winning the national championship.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1962%E2%80%9363_Loyola_Rambl...]


This was in answer to cc-cat's question about how the whole MAC might far in this competition.
Let me correct myself. That was probably his sophomore year, as I think freshman weren't eligible at that time. At any rate, his in his first year of varsity ball it was clear he was going to be a star at the next level. It was kind of like watch Randy Moss at Marshall play against college competition.
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