What a relief. The Buckeyes will be able to play in the NCAA tournament, and next year they’ll be able to enjoy the top recruiting class in the country. The NCAA has placed the Buckeyes on three years of probabtion, and they have to take down some banners from the past, but Thad Matta and the boys will not have to pay for the sins of the past.
“To have this burden lifted off us, the smoke cleared, my wife cried tears of joy,” Matta said, “because I have been tough to deal with for a long, long time.”
“It’s wonderful,” said David Lighty, a senior at Villa Angela-Saint Joseph who is part of Ohio State’s 2006-07 recruiting class. “I don’t have to worry about it anymore. People can move on.”
The price to save the future is to erase part of the past.
Ohio State also will have to take down its 1999 Final Four banner, but that’s a trade OSU is more than willing to make when two other successful seasons were on the line: The current 24-4 team is gunning for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and the 2006-07 team will feature one of the top two recruiting classes in the country.
Meanwhile, the Buckeyes are still fighting for a possible #1 seed in NCAA tournament after a tough 63-56 wi over Penn State in the Big Ten tournament.
Go Bucks!
