I would think that a trip to the Sweet 16 would have to enter the conversation as the best team ever.  29 wins and two tournament wins, along with a MAC Tournament title would be pretty elite.  Not to take away from the '64 team (what they did sounds pretty impressive), but it will be the same # of tournament wins (2).  There were fewer teams in '64.

I think back in the 60's talent was spread out more since basketball wasn't the "business" it is today.  I recall Luckett wanted to be a "big fish in a small pond", thus why he came to Athens.  Not many guys today coming out of high school go that route. Look at DJ; not a lot of offers due to size 3 years ago. Look at the guy on Norfolk St. -- he had one offer. Big money (NBA) gets guys to commit to the big programs.  So I think it's tougher for mid-majors today than back then.

Oh boy, there's a lot more to the recruiting of Luckett to Ohio than that, though the reason you cite is true enough.  There was an Ohio alumnus who started recruiting him, unofficially, for Ohio back when the was very young.  That alumnus sold him on many benefits of Ohio, including the big fish in a small pond argument.  So that no one misunderstands, as far as I know, there were no payments to him or his family as might happen at, say, Auburn U, today.  Also, I disagree about the differences between the '60s and today.  Back in the '60s there were fewer schools that really put much emphasis on basketball.  There was also a smaller talent pool coming out of high school.  Ohio was lucky to have one of the best coaches in the country, and one of best eyes for spotting "under the radar" talent.  Today,  I think there is much more parity in college basketball than there has ever been.  Look at Norfolk State and Lehigh -- and we should have been able to add the first ever 16-1 upset with UNC-Asheville, who was totally screwed out of the upset by back-to-back bogus calls.  In recent years we've had VCU, Butler and George Mason make it to the Final Four. 

Until now I was on the fence as to whether DJ was the best Ohio b-ball player of alltime.  Now, I don't see how you say he's not.  For sure he's the best "primetime" athlete Ohio's had in any sport since Mike Schmidt IMHO.