Just a couple weeks ago it appeared all was right with the Ohio State basketball program. The Buckeyes came out of fall quarter exam week with no injuries or defections, they were confident, undefeated and ranked in the top 20 of the major polls and they had nipped a very difficult-to-put-away Butler team on Dec. 13, a victory that figures to only aid their postseason campaign.
But underneath all that, freshman point guard Anthony Crater was “miserable,” according to a confidant. The 6-1 Crater was not figuring much into the rotation and didn’t feel he was able to show all of what he could do in his limited time on the floor.
Since then, team captain David Lighty was lost for as much as 12 weeks with a broken foot, the affected minutes were dispersed without many going to Crater and the team fell hard from the ranks of the unbeaten yesterday in a 76-48 loss to West Virginia.
As a result of all that, Bucknuts.com has learned, Crater is effectively off the team and looking for another Division I school that can better showcase his wares.
Carlos Fordham – a close family friend, mentor and former assistant coach to Crater at the prep and AAU levels – confirmed today that Crater has left campus and is back in Akron with his mother and younger brother. Fordham said Crater’s mother called Ohio State head coach Thad Matta on his cell phone soon after the loss to WVU and told him that her son was leaving the program.
Matta was aware of the bubbling frustration and spoke with Crater and his mother a week ago after the team’s 71-53 win over Iona, OSU’s first full game with Lighty on the sidelines. Crater has averaged 13.1 minutes per game in 10 contests this season and played 15 minutes in that game and 21 minutes in the subsequent 83-59 victory over UNC-Asheville on Dec. 22. He scored four points vs. Asheville and compiled a career-high five assists.
However, yesterday he played only 12 minutes in the blowout loss to the Mountaineers and didn’t do anything to distinguish himself, logging just one assist, one turnover and zero points.
Fordham characterized the meeting on Dec. 20 as settling but also noted that Matta said that he wouldn’t get in the way of a player who didn’t want to be in his program. Crater reached for that open door a week later after sensing his playing time would continue to be limited against quality teams like WVU.
Midday today, Matta granted Crater a release from his scholarship. Ohio State confirmed that action in a terse release this afternoon.
“We appreciate the contribution Anthony made to our program,” Matta said in the statement. “We wish him the best.”
Crater totaled 12 points and 19 assists in his 10 games as a Buckeye, but that doesn’t mean he will not be a hot commodity. He was considered a top-25 prospect nationally at one point and Ohio State had to outrecruit some of the top programs in the country to land him.
He issued a verbal commitment in November 2006, ironically after assurances from Matta that he likes to play more than one point guard at a time. Crater sat courtside for an early-season OSU win that fall and witnessed that then-junior Jamar Butler and freshman Mike Conley Jr. worked in tandem for much of the game. He also saw the Buckeyes push the ball and score in transition.
“Anthony chose Ohio State because he loved Conley, to be honest with you,” Fordham told Bucknuts.com. “He probably sold that program on him better than anybody did.”
Crater originally thought they’d get to play together, but Conley left after his only season in Columbus and became the fourth pick of the NBA draft. Crater left his crime-ridden neighborhood in Flint after his junior season at Southwestern Academy and attended the more isolated and academically oriented Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H., at the request of the OSU coaching staff.
“We feel like Anthony gave up a lot for them and he didn’t get much in return,” Fordham said. “He left his home to go to a prep school, which he didn’t want to do. He gave up “Mr. Basketball (in Michigan) and his senior year. So, yeah, he’s disappointed.”
Adding to the confusion for the Crater camp was the emergence of junior guard Jeremie Simmons, who also arrived this summer after two seasons at Mott Community College, which, ironically, is located in Flint. Simmons has started every game this season at the point and has averaged 7.5 points and 2.4 assists per game.
“He’s a combo guard,” Fordham said of the 6-2 Simmons. “Even Jeremie would tell you he’s not a true point guard. That just doesn’t make sense to play him that much over Anthony. That’s no knock on Jeremie. I knew about him when he played high school ball in Chicago and I watched him at Mott. He’s a good player and a good kid. But he was always a two-guard. When they brought him in of course we had questions about it and Thad said they needed more shooting and they liked that he was a combo guard. Fine.
“But Anthony was promised he would be the starting point guard for the Buckeyes. When it didn’t happen right away I thought, ‘Maybe Thad is doing this right now to make sure Anthony is comfortable and understands the system.’ We didn’t like it but Ohio State was winning and Anthony didn’t want to make any waves.”
The tipping point, though, came yesterday.
“Here Lighty is hurt and Jeremie is playing 28 minutes, Diebler is playing 32 and Anthony 12 – and they’re not that deep,” Fordham said. “I just don’t get that. I’ve had conversations with the assistant coaches and they’ve told me that they feel like he should have had more of a chance and that they don’t understand it, either. That’s the assistants.
“Anthony has a dream. He wants to play in the NBA. People say, ‘Well, he’s a freshman.’ No, he’s a player. Let’s take class out of it. B.J. (Mullens) is a freshman but he’s a top-five pick. He’s gone. The best players in the country last year were freshmen, like (Derrick) Rose and Michael Beasley. You’ve got to let players play.”
Still, Fordham said, Crater made the decision with great reluctance.
“Anthony loves his teammates,” he said. “Will Buford is his best friend. He’s also really close with (Evan) Turner and Lighty. This really hurts him to leave. He didn’t want to do it. He loves the fans here. I told him that the coaches have made a business decision to start Jeremie and now he needs to realize he’s making a business decision that’s good for him.
“It’s nothing against the program, the fans or the parents (of the players). They’ve all been great to Anthony. This just goes down to a mismanagement of minutes, in my opinion. They have their side of it, too. Only time will tell. But I think people are going to see what this kid can do when he goes somewhere else.”
The release of Crater’s scholarship effectively makes the youngster free to sign with another program, although he would have to sit out a full year. Fordham said he’s already received several phone calls from major programs expressing interest and that Crater likely will pick a new school this week so he can enroll in time for the winter term and be eligible right around the first day of 2010.
Among the schools that could be courting Crater once he gets his release are Florida, Louisville, Tennessee, Arkansas, Notre Dame, Cincinnati and South Florida. Fordham said Crater, who used to answer to the nickname “Noopy” when he was a star prep player, seems to be most enamored with Louisville, South Florida and Tennessee.
“He’s going to go somewhere where they go up and down, there’s no question,” Fordham said. “We didn’t like the style of play (at Ohio State). That was an issue. Anthony is best in the open court, he might be the best passer in the country, and Ohio State never really allowed him to show that because of the way that they play there.
“I wish I would have done more homework on the situation, to be honest with you. Anthony passed up offers from schools like Kansas – they won a national championship and that was his second choice – and Florida and a whole list of really good teams that go up and down because he wanted to be a Buckeye. Thad told him they aren’t like the other Big Ten teams, that they like to play a wide-open style. Well, that’s not what they’re doing.
“Anthony said they run 30 different (halfcourt) sets. They don’t push the ball. That’s not his game to walk the ball up. Everyone back in Flint who is watching him, they don’t even know him now.”
Ohio State currently has just nine available scholarship players with the 6-5 Lighty hurt, Crater departed and 6-8 forward Nikola Kecman suspended until the Jan. 6 contest at Michigan State. Simmons may have to play more than the 26.6 minutes he’s averaged thus far, although Matta could offer more time to freshman combo guard Walter Offutt and seldom-used backup point P.J. Hill.
The Buckeyes begin Big Ten play Wednesday as they host Iowa at Value City Arena (4 p.m., Big Ten Network).
