JaQuan Lyle action 2017

Ohio State guard JaQuan Lyle (right) left the team a month ago, Ohio State said Saturday.

(Charlie Neibergall, AP)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Forget the seasons.

Sometimes a team and a coach may go 21-14 and land in the NIT. Sometimes a team and a coach may follow that with a 17-15 record that doesn't lead to any kind of postseason.

It happens.

But losing during the season isn't the most critical issue with Ohio State basketball right now.

The problem is losing the off-season.

A year after four players transferred out of the Buckeye basketball program, Ohio State on Saturday revealed that JaQuan Lyle, the third-leading scorer a year ago, quit the team more than a month ago. A month ago.

Here's what is not a great situation: One of team's top players arrested for allegedly punching a police car.

Here's what is not a great solution to that situation: Oh, that's not really our deal any longer, because he secretly left the team on April 11.

Thad Matta earned the benefit of the doubt through a couple down years on the court because of that run to the national title game in 2007 and four straight Sweet Sixteen trips between 2010-13. Matta is the second-longest tenured coach in the Big Ten, behind only Michigan State's Tom Izzo, for a reason. He's good at this.

But then there also has to be a reason for all five players from the 2015 OSU recruiting class departing by the middle of 2017. Four bench players -- Austin Grandstaff, Mickey Mitchell, A.J. Harris and Daniel Giddens -- left either during or after the 2015-16 season. The Buckeyes survived it, though you could see their lack of depth last season.

Now it's Lyle, the most productive player from that group, who makes it a clean sweep. He averaged 11.2 points and 4.2 assists as a freshman and 11.4 points and 4.6 assists as a sophomore, and now he's done.

Ohio State isn't saying why. And the whys always matter. So we'll reserve some judgment for if/when anything more is known about the end of Lyle's time here. Regardless, releasing the news of his departure only in reaction to an arrest in his hometown of Evansville, Ind., is an odd way of closing his Ohio State career.

But that wasn't the only thing this off-season.

Darius Bazley, the No. 2 player in Ohio in the Class of 2018, decommitted a few weeks ago. He told the Columbus Dispatch, "They didn't even make the NIT, which is unfortunate, but I looked into the recruits they have coming into next year, they didn't look too good for the future."

Bazley may still consider Ohio State, but that's not how you want one of Ohio's top players viewing the major state university's basketball program. And backup big man David Bell transferred. He said it was for personal reasons, but it's another scholarship player gone.

So here's where we stand, and I'll be as honest and straightforward as I can about Matta and the basketball Buckeyes.

I've known Matta since I began covering Ohio State during his second season in Columbus in 2005-06. I like him as a person. I think he's real and human and self-deprecating and funny. All of us know what the behind-the-scenes world of college basketball can be like, and we know the relationship between AAU basketball and college recruiting. There's a lot of talk and little proven. But in that world, my belief is Matta, to his credit, walks a straighter line than most coaches.

Matta raised the bar for Ohio State basketball, and that can't be taken for granted. To those who simply looked at losses last season and called for a coaching change, I'd say this isn't Kentucky, Kansas or Duke. To nonchalantly end a coach's tenure when he's never had a losing record and never had off-court troubles would have been an overreaction. Ohio State should be better than that, and was.

But before last season, I wrote Matta had to prove something was changing. The record got worse, and here we are with another player leaving. Plus, big man Trevor Thompson, who almost certainly won't be drafted, left to be a pro. That's his right, and best of luck to him. But that's another Buckeye out the door, and it seemed like both player and program were just ready to be done with one another.

I think Matta can still coach, and I think he still wants to. His physical issues with his back are real, but he's still a young man at 49, three years younger than Urban Meyer.

Transfers, decommitments and players leaving for the pros are all normal parts of college basketball. But at the moment, it appears that too many people don't want to be part of Ohio State basketball.

Many former players love Matta, but too many current players are leaving and too many prospective players aren't coming. In a high-volume transfer market, including grad transfers who could play right away, the Buckeyes haven't signed anyone yet this off-season.

That leaves nine scholarship players for next season, with two other scholarships handed to former walk-ons. That's nine, when you can have 13.

Matta isn't going anywhere now. He'll get the 2017-18 season, and he should. What happens during the season is what matters. But off-seasons are important, too. At some point, as a coach and a program, you are what people perceive you to be.

Hopefully, we'll get a final story on Lyle. But this sure looks like a trend, six players leaving in two years. Matta and his staff brought these players here, so if they aren't lasting, regardless of circumstance, that reflects on Matta.

If Ohio State is viewed as a program where players don't stick around, then a coach can't stick around much longer, either.