You’re Nuts: Does Ohio State have enough three-point shooting?
Connor Lemons via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
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The Buckeyes need to replace 81% of their three-point offense from last season.
The transfer portal has been open for seven weeks now, and
Ohio State has just one scholarship remaining for the 2024-25 team. After adding Meechie Johnson, Aaron Bradshaw, Micah Parrish, and Sean Stewart (all of whom may start), the Buckeyes will likely use the final scholarship on a post player to play behind Bradshaw and add depth to their frontcourt.
The portal has slowed down, and thus Jake Diebler and his staff have eased off the gas pedal a little bit in filling the last spot. They could fill the spot soon, but it also could take another few weeks before Ohio State fills the final scholarship spot.
Last week’s debate followed Land-Grant Holy Land’s “Biggest Concerns” theme, as we analyzed our biggest concerns with the 2024-2025 men’s basketball roster. Justin won with concerns about meshing the new roster together, with six new players so far — 55% of the readers sided with Justin. 21% of the readers sided with Connor, who said that they may be relying too much on the two five-star freshmen Diebler added in the portal. The remaining 24% picked “other.”
After 152 weeks:
Connor- 75
Justin- 57
Other- 16
(There have been four ties)
It’s clear that Diebler has attacked the transfer portal much more aggressively than his predecessor, adding multiple McDonald’s All-Americans, an All-SEC guard, and another player who played in the national championship game two years ago. But the one area that none of these transfers excel in is three-point shooting.
After losing Jamison Battle, Bowen Hardman, Scotty Middleton, and others, the Buckeyes have a lot of shooting to make up. Will the existing group hit enough shots to have this team competing at the top of the Big Ten?
This week’s question: Does Ohio State have enough three-point shooting?
Connor: No
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In terms of three-point makes, Ohio State was tied for eighth in the Big Ten last season with 7.1 per game. By percentage, it finished 10th with a 34.5% mark from downtown.
They then lost Jamison Battle, who was one of the best three-point shooters in the nation last year and contributed 39% of Ohio State’s three-point makes all by himself. Bowen Hardman transferred to Akron after hitting 43% of his threes, and Scotty Middleton transferred to Seton Hall after shooting better than 45% from three.
Four really good players have joined the program this summer in Johnson, Bradshaw, Stewart, and Parrish, but they combined to shoot 30.7% from three-point range last year. That’s not exactly replacing Battle, nor is it replacing the supplementary shooting Ohio State got from other players last year that have since left the program.
Johnson did lead South Carolina with 60 three-point makes last season, and that would’ve ranked him second on last year’s Ohio State team, behind only Battle. But he did so on 187 attempts, which equates out to just under six three-point tries per game. This shakes out to a 32.1% mark from deep, which would’ve been the fifth-best mark on Ohio State last year.
Translation = historically, Johnson has shown the ability to get hot and knock down shots from deep, but he’s never been able to do it consistently or reliably.
Bradshaw was touted as a big who could stretch the floor coming out of high school, and John Calipari thought that he might’ve been Kentucky’s best shooter heading into last season, per John Fanta (certainly, Cal would never speak in hyperbole!). He only took 14 three-pointers all year, hitting four of them. The potential is there and it is tantalizing to think that a seven-footer could knock down outside shots every now and then, but there is no evidence of him doing it in college yet.
Parrish is a high-effort wing who can guard multiple positions, but for his career shoots just 33.2% from three-point range, and shot a career-worst 29.2% from deep last season. He allegedly chose Ohio State so that he could showcase he’s much better than what he was able to show at SDSU last season.
And then there’s Sean Stewart, who has yet to attempt a three-pointer in college to this point. That could become part of his game this season, but if you’re looking for Ohio State to develop a few shooters to make up for what it lost, he’s probably not your best option.
There’s a chance that guys like Bruce Thornton, Johnson, and Parrish all shoot better this season than they did last year. You also have players like Taison Chatman — who didn’t shoot it well but has a clean shot and release — and Juni Mobley who could contribute in that department.
But at the end of the day, it’s really difficult to point at a stat sheet and say, “the reason this team is going to be fine shooting the ball is because these players will be better than what the stats say they are.” Improvement happens from a year-to-year basis as players gain experience, but how much improvement will this team need from beyond the arc?
Justin: Yes
I have been pretty vocal about this and will continue to do so. I could be wrong — I have been wrong before, and I will be wrong again — but I do believe this is a better shooting team than it is getting credit for.
Let’s be clear and get this out of the way now: There is no Jamison Battle on this team. He was a top-five shooter in the country, and the idea they had to “replace him” was basically impossible.
However, they did add more shooting than they lost. Outside of Battle, they lost Roddy Gayle, Scotty Middleton, Zed Key, Dale Bonner, and Felix Okpara. Okpara and Key are not threats from behind the line, so they are out. Gayle and Bonner both shot under 30 percent from three and while they had their moments (Dale Bonner, thank you for Michigan State), they were mostly liabilities from deep.
Scotty Middleton was one of the better shooters on the team by percentage, but that was due to an insane hot streak he went on to end the season. As we saw with Gayle to end the 2022-23 season, that short hot steak doesn’t always translate to the next season. He could be a great shooter, but the jury is still out.
They added Meechie Johnson, Micah Parrish, Aaron Bradshaw, Sean Stewart, Colin White and Juni Mobley. White and Stewart likely won’t take any threes, so they are out. But Johnson and Parrish are both career 33-35 percent shooters, which isn’t elite, but it is better than Gayle and Bonner.
Bradshaw can shoot the three-ball and space the floor, which Key and Okpara could not do, and Mobley won the award for the best shooter in the country in high school, so he should be able to contribute immediately in that regard. Taison Chatman and Devin Royal will get more opportunities to shoot the ball this season and expand their games and roles.
Losing Battle is not great, but I think the sum of all parts will be a better shooting team.
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