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Benedictine guard, OSU go their separate ways - Cleveland.com

4/24/09

When Cameron Wright got off the phone with Ohio State men's basketball coach Thad Matta on Tuesday night, the junior guard from Benedictine knew he was not going to fulfill his dream of playing basketball for the Buckeyes.
Eighteen months after giving an oral commitment to Ohio State, Wright dropped that pledge and opened up his recruiting after getting the feeling the Buckeyes didn't want him anymore.

While recruits in football and basketball backing out of non-binding oral commitments isn't unusual, this wasn't a case of a kid changing his mind. Ever since OSU assistant John Groce, the primary recruiter for Wright, left to become the head coach at Ohio last June, Wright said contact from the Buckeyes had been sparse, and the call from Matta on Tuesday led to the final parting.

"I was definitely going to stick with Ohio State," said Wright, who had been one of five players pledged to Ohio State's Class of 2010. "I had thoughts when coach Groce left because I always thought I was one of his guys. But my dream was to go to Ohio State. But things became evident when they didn't show me any respect by giving me one call per month like they said they would do."

The NCAA limits contact with recruits during the season but it's not hard to send a message. Wright's high school coach, Rob Stircula, said Wright had contact with Buckeyes just four times since Groce left, and three of those were unofficial visits Wright instigated.
"He's been really down and disappointed, but he's had a bad feeling for a while," Stircula said. "He always kept putting it off because he wanted to go there so bad, so he kept ignoring the signs."

Schools sometimes rescind scholarship offers if players have troubles with academics or off-field issues, but that didn't happen here, with Stircula saying Wright's GPA is above 3.5. He was also a first-team all-state choice in Division II after averaging 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists per game.