Optimism about the future of Ohio State basketball

Aaron Craft's college basketball career did not end the way he had hoped. He didn't lead his team to the Final Four, or even to the Sweet 16. Instead, his career ended in the Round of 64, against a double-digit seed, with a missed shot as time expired.

Next year, Craft and Lenzelle Smith will be gone. LaQuinton Ross may also be gone, and it looks like Amedeo Della Valle is taking his talents to Europe. But the Buckeyes will be returning plenty of talent, and they should be much better than they were this season.

Even if Ross and Della Valle leave, Ohio State will return five players who played significant roles this season: Shannon Scott, Sam Thompson, Amir Williams, Marc Loving, and Trey McDonald. Loving should be ready to play a much bigger role next season as a sophomore. Another highly-touted recruit from that class, guard Kam Williams, should also be ready to step in.

In addition to these returning players, Thad Matta has his best recruiting class in a some time coming to Columbus. That class is led by D'Angelo Russell, who is rated as the top shooting guard and 13th overall prospect by ESPN. Russell is a scorer, and he should give the team some of the offensive punch they've been missing. The other incoming prospects include Keita Bates-Diop (ranked as the #6 small forward by ESPN) and Jae'Sean Tate (#8 small forward).

In theory, next year's starting lineup would probably look like this:

Shannon Scott
D'Angelo Russell
Sam Thompson
Marc Loving
Amir Williams

The Buckeyes won't have a ton of depth (what else is new?), but that lineup could be good enough to win the Big Ten, in my opinion. I think Scott will look much better now that he doesn't have to worry about sharing the point guard duties with Craft, and maybe Williams will finally turn into at least a solid big man.

While the loss to Dayton on Thursday was frustrating, this season always felt like it was kind of a throw-away anyway. Next season, Matta should have this team back to its normal place atop the conference, and the national polls.