Ohio State basketball loses another freshman
Posted by Doug Lesmerises April 23, 2008 19:38PM
Kosta Koufos isn't the only Ohio State freshman ready to leave Columbus.
The university announced today that forward Eric Wallace will
transfer from OSU after playing almost no role on the team as a
freshman. Still, the loss will be felt.
Wallace
and Koufos were two of five members of Ohio State's class of 2007,
which was ranked as the No. 7 class in the country by Scout.com and was
seen as a worthy followup to the Greg Oden-Mike Conley class of 2006.
While Koufos and forward Evan Turner started most of the season for
the Buckeyes as freshmen, and Jon Diebler saw significant time as a sub
and Dallas Lauderdale worked his way into the rotation late in the
season, Wallace was nowhere to be found, his explosive game too
inconsistent, from all reports, to make an impact.
He played in just 15 games and averaged fewer than 2 points per game while maintaining a reputation for jumping out of the gym.
And he would have been a body. Koufos declared for the NBA Draft but
did not hire an agent, so there's a slim chance he could return to the
Buckeyes. If he doesn't, the Buckeyes will be losing five players -
seniors Jamar Butler, Othello Hunter and Matt Terwilliger, Koufos and
Wallace - off the the NIT title team. They are adding four players in
their incoming recruiting class and continue to keep the options open
at the junior college level, but at this point they are left with just
10 scholarship players.
That includes the four freshmen, with center B.J. Mullens and point
guard Anthony Crater sure things to start and swingman William Buford
expected to play major minutes, with swingman Walter Offutt also in the
mix.
Also remaining are backup point guard P.J. Hill, swingmen David
Lighty, Turner and Diebler and big men Lauderdale and Kyle Madsen.