The 7-foot Koufos lasted another couple of hours before Utah picked him at No. 23.

So don't ask Matta where he thinks his latest one-and-done freshman, 7-foot B.J. Mullens, is headed tonight in the draft.

"I don't know," he said. "B.J. doesn't know."

The consensus of pre-draft speculation is that Mullens' name will be called during the middle of the first round. Detroit at No. 15, Chicago at No. 16 and Minnesota at No. 18 reportedly have the most interest in him.

But NBA teams are masters of draft misinformation, masking their real intentions from the competition in hopes of getting the player they truly covet.

Such might be the case with Mullens, a Columbus native.

He could go higher than No. 15 because his athleticism and perimeter shooting skills are rare for a center. One NBA personnel man told TNT analyst David Aldridge for a story on NBA .com that Mullens would be among the top five picks. The NBA invited Mullens to the draft in New York, another sign he could be a high pick, but he declined on the advice of his agent.

Mullens also could go lower than No. 18 because he is seen as a project whose Basketball IQ and competitiveness, among other things, need to improve in order for him to become an impact player. Another scout told Aldridge that he could not understand how Mullens could go in the middle of the first round when 7-foot DeAndre Jordan, after a similar freshman year at Texas A&M, slipped into the second round last year.

But this draft is seen as much weaker than last year's. Seven centers were chosen ahead of Jordan in 2008. Only one, Hasheem Thabeet of Connecticut, is projected to go ahead of Mullens.

"It's not a very good center class," ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said. "I like (Mullens) very much as a player, but I think it's going to take him awhile to learn the game at that level."

Matta said he told NBA teams that it would be difficult for him to project what Mullens "is going to be and do because we only had him for six months."

"You guys (media) all kind of said during (last season), 'Boy, what a difference Evan (Turner), Jon (Diebler) and Dallas (Lauderdale) made in a year,' " Matta said. "Well, yeah, that's what happens."

That's what can happen when a player stays in college more than the year -- make that the nine months -- that Mullens or Koufos did.

The one-and-done rule the NBA negotiated into the current collective-bargaining agreement with its players union -- requiring potential draftees to be a year removed from high school -- has led some players to blow off classes after their draft eligibility is assured. It's also been a burden for coaches who lose players unexpectedly.

Matta was unprepared to replace point guard Mike Conley Jr. in 2007 and said he was blindsided by Koufos last year after he enrolled for and then withdrew from spring-quarter classes. The early departures of Koufos and Greg Oden, in 2007, cost the Buckeyes two scholarships for next season.

Many coaches favor changing the rule again to require high school players to go directly to the NBA or, if they choose college, to stay there two or three years. No rule will change, though, until the NBA and the players begin a new collective-bargaining agreement in two years.

Meanwhile, Matta said he will continue to recruit one-and-done players if the same circumstances exist as did with the five he has had -- Mullens, Koufos, Conley, Oden and Daequan Cook.

They were all "great kids" who lived within a three-hour drive of Columbus, Matta said.

"It would be kind of hard not to" recruit them, he said.

bbaptist@dispatch.com