Ohio State is adjusting to life without Aaron Craft in Columbus

The Buckeyes' point guard averaged at least 30 minutes per game in each of the past four seasons and became the face of the Ohio State program. Now he's gone. And Thad Matta is spending this preseason adjusting.

Aaron Craft might never have been Ohio State's best player, but he leaves big shoes to fill. (USATSI)

The Thad Matta era at Ohio State has featured 10 straight 20-win seasons, eight NCAA Tournament appearances, five Sweet Sixteens, three Elite Eights, two Final Fours, a No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft (Greg Oden), a National Player of the Year (Evan Turner) and multiple All-Americans, including Jared Sullinger and Deshaun Thomas.

In other words, the Buckeyes have won a lot with lots of great players.

An ever-changing roster has barely mattered.

And yet this feels different, doesn't it?

Again, the Buckeyes have lost at least one great player pretty much every year for a decade; it would be silly to suggest otherwise. But they've never lost anybody (under Matta) so closely associated with the program as Aaron Craft, if only because Aaron Craft has been closely associated with the program forever. Or, at least, it feels that way.

Oden?

He was the face of Ohio State for one year.

Sullinger had two.

And Turner was relevant for two years, tops.

But Craft was an important part of Ohio State for four years -- proof being that he averaged at least 30 minutes per game for four years. He was never the Buckeyes' leading scorer, and it's debatable whether he was ever the Buckeyes' best player. But it's undeniable that Craft was the rosy-cheeked face of Ohio State's program for much of his career, which means OSU is now embarking on LAAC.

That, obviously, is ... Life After Aaron Craft.

I asked Matta on Wednesday how he and his players are adjusting.

"There were a lot of things, when we had Aaron, that we knew were givens on game nights, and so I think one of the biggest changes is probably that we now know we don't have ... whatever that was," Matta said. "I don't even know if I can describe what that was. But I knew I had it, and now we don't have it."

I promise, hand-to-heart, this isn't going to turn into one of those columns, where I go on and on about how Craft was the consummate student-athlete, leader, coach-on-the-floor, so on and so forth. Nobody needs to read another one of those. But it's worth pointing out that Matta's quote above highlights what Craft meant to Ohio State better than any box score ever could, and his departure -- players only get a maximum of four seasons of college basketball, you know? -- has the Buckeyes totally reshuffling in a variety of ways.

And, honestly, it's not just his departure.

The Buckeyes lost LaQuinton Ross and Lenzelle Smith, too.

So that means Ohio State is without its top three scorers from last season.

"It seems like people forget that," Matta said, at which point we started talking about Shannon Scott, the senior who will start at point guard for the Buckeyes this season.

"He's been really good," Matta said. "But this is different for him because, heading into this year, I don't need him to be in a support role. I need him to be a take-charge guy."

Which is what Scott is in the process of trying to become.

He was a top-35 prospect in the Class of 2011 who never planned to be a part-time starter, at best, for much of his career, but that's mostly because nobody knew, at the time Scott signed with Ohio State, just how good Craft would become. Either way, this is now his team to run, and the good news for Ohio State fans who enjoy scoring is that the offense is expected to be more efficient this season than it was last season -- when it ranked 128th nationally in adjusted efficiency, according to KenPom.com -- thanks to the Buckeyes really focusing on playing faster, spacing better and cutting more.

"We just want to be more active," Scott said. "There were times last year when we just got very dull and very stagnant, and we just didn't make a lot of things happen. So this year we want to be in attack-mode all the time and keep the defense on its heels."

Matta described things more directly.

"Hopefully we're gonna score better," he said with a laugh. "That's kind of been the big objective this preseason. 'Let's just put it in the bucket every now and then.'"

It'll be interesting to see how that goes.

And if it goes well, Ohio State could be a factor at the top of the Big Ten.

Either way, the Buckeyes will look different, that's for sure.

It's LAAC time in Columbus.

The first exhibition is three weeks from Sunday.