When the Ohio State basketball team upset top-ranked Illinois on March 6 to foil the Illini's bid for an undefeated season, Buckeyes fans stormed the court and celebrated as if their team had just won the national title.
Four months later, that victory seems like the impetus behind Ohio State's putting together a recruiting class for 2006-7 that may be capable of doing just that.
The night before that triumph, Ohio State coach Thad Matta traveled to Indianapolis to recruit the 7-foot center Greg Oden and point guard Mike Conley Jr., two of the nation's top high school players, who will be entering their senior season in the fall.
They both noticed Matta in the stands at their game and watched with interest the next day when the Buckeyes upset Illinois. Oden and Conley, close friends since sixth grade, verbally committed to Ohio State last week.
"I think that game was the turning point," Conley said of the victory over Illinois. "To see him at the game the night before was awesome. He didn't get back until 1am He definitely knows how to get your attention."
Oden and Conley join the 6-foot-5 wing guards Daequan Cook of Dayton and David Lighty of Cleveland to give Ohio State a freshman class for 2006 that has coaches and recruiting experts drawing comparisons to Michigan's Fab Five of the early 1990s.
All four members of Ohio State's freshman class, which could still grow, are considered to be among the top 25 high school players in the country.
Oden, Conley and Cook will be playing this week at the Reebok ABCD Camp at Fairleigh Dickinson University, where talk of a gathering juggernaut has already started.
Oden, who weighs 260 pounds, is considered the linchpin of the class, the difference between its being very good and transcendent. For more than two years, Oden has been considered a lock to be the top pick in the 2006 NBA draft. But now that the collective bargaining agreement will bar high school players from going directly to the NBA, Oden will not get the immediate chance at the pros.
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