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C Josh Ojianwuna (Official Thread)

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Josh Ojianwuna

2024-25_MBB_Josh_Ojianwuna.png


Position: F
Height: 6'10
Weight: 230
High School: NBA Global Academy
Hometown: Asaba, Nigeria
Class: Senior (in 2025/2026)

2024-25 (Junior): Suffered a season-ending knee injury against UCF, missing the final 12 games of the season (2/8/25) ... Had 11 double-figure scoring games, after having just five in his previous two seasons ... Recorded a career-high four double-doubles ... Tallied 10 points in a road game at Texas Tech (2/4/25) ... Notched 11 points in a comeback win against Kansas (2/1/25) ... Pulled down 17 rebounds at Arizona St., which were the most by a BU player against a Big 12 opponent since Freddie Gillespie had 17 at TCU on Feb. 29, 2020 (1/11) ... Poured in 10 points in home win against Cincinnati (1/7/25) ... Notched a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds at Iowa State (1/4/25) ... Had 10 points and 10 boards in a win over Arlington Baptist (12/27/24) ... Scored a season-high 16 points against Norfolk State (12/11/24) ... Contributed 13 points in a home win against ACU (12/9/24) ... Went 6-for-6 from the Charity Stripe en route to 10 points against Tarleton (11/17/24) ... Had 11 points against Sam Houston State (11/12/24) ... Scored 10 points in the season-opener against Gonzaga (11/4/25).

2023-24 (Sophomore): Had a game-high seven rebounds in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament against Colgate (3/22/24) … Gave the Bears big minutes off the bench with 10 points and seven rebounds on 5-for-5 shooting in a win at WVU (2/14/24) … Tied a career high with 11 points including three rim-rocking dunks to help lead BU past Cincinnati (1/13/24) … Notched a double-figure scoring effort for the third time in his career with 10 against Gardner-Webb (11/12/23) … Tallied his second-career double-figure rebounding game with 10 boards against John Brown (11/9/23).

2022-23 (Freshman): Matched his career-high 11 points off the bench against TCU (1/4) ... Recorded his first career double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds against Nicholls (12/28) ... Notched a then career-high 8 rebounds, leading the Bears to a win over Northwestern State (12/20) ... Scored nine points and picked up 7 rebounds in his collegiate debut against MSVU (11/7) ... Had 14 rebounds in first two games of collegiate career ... Debuted with the Bears as they represented Team USA in the inaugural GLOBL Jam in Toronto in July ... He arrived just hours before BU's game against Team Canada but played 14 minutes, scoring 6 points and grabbing 4 rebounds ... Finished second on the team with 5.5 rebounds per game in four contests.

High School: Attended NBA Academy Africa in 2017 before transitioning to NBA Global Academy in 2019 … Participated in the NCAA’s Next Generation Sunday event at the 2019 Men’s Final Four … Competed for The NBA Academy Africa the 2019 NBA Academy Games in Atlanta … Participated in Basketball Without Borders Africa 2019 in Senegal … Helped his team to a third-place finish in the 2018 NBA Academy Games for NBA Academy Africa … Competed alongside top prospects from the league’s academies in a series of exhibition games at the NBA G League Winter Showcase in Las Vegas in December of 2018 …


Stats
2024-25
2023-24
2022-23
GP MIN FG% 3P% FT% REB AST BLK STL PF TO PTS
23 24.6 77.4 0.0 64.5 6.4 0.6 0.8 0.9 2.6 0.8 7.4
35 15.5 73.5 0.0 63.0 3.4 0.3 0.1 0.5 2.3 1.0 4.9
29 13.2 59.0 0.0 65.9 3.5 0.2 0.4 0.4 1.9 0.7 4.2

LGHL Buckeyes playing waiting game for elite transfer portal target Darrion Williams

Buckeyes playing waiting game for elite transfer portal target Darrion Williams
Connor Lemons
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament Second Round-Drake at Texas Tech

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Ohio State is playing the long game in hopes of landing an elite Texas Tech transfer.

April was a good month for the Ohio State men’s basketball program. After missing the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season, Jake Diebler and his staff set out to make sure they were able to bring back the most productive players from last season’s team and then reinforce it with experienced transfer players that addressed weaknesses from last season.

In about a two-week span, they were able to check both of those boxes.

From March 27 to April 15, Ohio State was able to make public the returns of Bruce Thornton, Devin Royal, and John Mobley Jr. – a trio of starters who combined to score 44.4 points per game last season. In addition, former Wright State forward Brandon Noel and former Santa Clara center Christoph Tilly both announced that they would transfer to Ohio State. That pair of frontcourt transfers combined to score 31.5 points per game last season at their respective schools.

Since then, it’s been pretty much radio silence from the men’s basketball program. Sean Stewart hit the transfer portal hours before the deadline, but the soon-to-be junior forward was not projected to retain his starting spot he had last season. His departure isn’t nothing, but it does seem negligible if Noel and Tilly prove to be as good as expected.

Ohio State’s inactivity in the transfer market over the past three weeks could be the result of an inability to “land the big one.” The Buckeyes are rumored to be on the lookout for a starting-caliber guard as well a backup center, and had been involved with multiple big-time backcourt pieces, including former Southern Illinois guard Kennard Davis Jr. and former Howard guard Blake Harper.

Davis Jr. announced last week that he would be transferring to BYU, while Harper announced that he would transfer to Creighton for the upcoming season.

While Ohio State may have just whiffed on each of those recruits, it’s starting to look more likely that Diebler and his staff are actually waiting out another player – former Texas Tech forward Darrion Williams.


December 2⃣3⃣ #Big12MBB Player of the Week

Darrion Williams | @TexasTechMBB pic.twitter.com/G8Nb6dLtJ1

— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) December 23, 2024

At 6-foot-6 and 225 pounds, Williams was listed as a forward on Texas Tech’s official roster but has racked up nearly 300 assists in his collegiate career and was second on TTU last season with 3.6 assists per game. He’s also a 37.9% three-point shooter and averaged 15.1 points per game as a junior. He is allegedly considering Ohio State, Kansas, and North Carolina State for next season, as well as possible other suitors that have yet to be publicly linked.

The only issue – well, the biggest issue – is that Williams is hoping that he’ll be playing in the NBA next season, not college.

Williams entered the NBA Draft on April 6, and put his name into the NCAA Transfer portal the same day. On Friday afternoon, Williams, along with 74 other players, was invited to participate in the NBA Draft Combine from May 11-18 in Chicago.

A combine invite is promising for a player’s draft stock, and will give the two-time All-Big 12 honoree ample opportunity to improve his draft stock. At the moment, Williams is looking like a mid-to-late second round pick – Tankathon has him going 47th overall, The Athletic has him at 39, and Yahoo Sports has him pegged as the 41st overall pick.

If Williams doesn’t get a first-round guarantee from a team at the NBA Combine next week, there’s a good chance he decides to play one more year of college. He would almost be guaranteed to earn more in NIL compensation at the college level (anywhere from $2-$4 Million) than he would as a middle of the second round selection.

Last season, the 39th pick in the draft – Jaylen Wells – signed a 4-year, $7.9-million dollar deal with the Grizzlies, with an average salary of $1.9-million.

The 47th pick in last year’s draft – Antonio Reeves – signed a 3-year, $5.4-million dollar contract with the Pelicans.

In 2023, the 47th overall pick – Mojave King – was drafted by the Lakers and traded to the Indiana Pacers, where he played a partial season for the G-League Indiana Mad Ants. The average salary for a G-League player is $40,000 If they aren’t on a two-way deal.

Ohio State has not been publicly linked with any other guards/small forwards over the last few weeks, making it seem like the program may be waiting out Williams as he goes through the draft process. On April 25, Diebler told Adam Jardy of the Columbus Dispatch that fans may need to be “prepared to wait a bit” before any more players are added to the roster.

Is this the smart move? The NBA Draft Combine ends May 18, but Williams will have until June 15 to make a decision if he wants to stay in the draft or not. The Buckeyes could come up completely empty-handed if they wait, but is Diebler flipping the old idiom and deciding that two birds in the bush is worth more than the one in his hand?

In other words – is it worth the risk of not recruiting any other starting-caliber players and selling out for someone who (statistically speaking) is more likely to end up on some other team—whether that’s an NBA or college team — come June?

It seems like the answer to that – at least as of now – is yes. They can afford to gamble because Ohio State is returning more production from last year’s team than basically any other Big Ten program.

With Thornton, Royal, and Mobley back, Ohio State is one of just two Big Ten teams – along with Purdue – that will return at least three double-digit scorers. It’s also one of just three Big Ten teams – Purdue and UCLA being the other two – to return three of its top four scorers from a season ago.

NCAA Basketball: Colorado at Texas Tech
Michael C. Johnson-Imagn Images

If the Buckeyes wait out Williams and don’t get a commitment, they seem fairly comfortable with what they’ve assembled to this point. But adding an All-American caliber player like Williams would be a huge boost to the team and should make them a consensus top-25 squad next season, as well as a serious contender in the Big Ten.

At this moment, it looks like if Ohio State is going to add another starter to the team via the transfer portal, it will be Darrion Williams. If that doesn’t shake out the way Diebler and his staff hope it does, many of the other available options will likely be off the board by the time he makes a decision. It looks like the coaching staff is fine with that.

And so we wait.

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