Matt Tamanini
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Can Jake Diebler land the No. 1 guard in the country, or will OSU’s shoe deal get in the way?
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Twitter | @PetersonDarryn
Darryn Peterson might be a native Ohioan, but he is also officially part of Team adiddas.
We now pause your regularly scheduled Ohio State football coverage for a men’s basketball update. While there is still plenty to break down from the football Buckeyes’ 52-6 win over Akron, and even more to look forward to for Saturday’s primetime matchup with Western Michigan, the biggest news on the recruiting trail on Tuesday did not come from the gridiron but instead happened on the hardwood.
Yesterday, the No. 3 player in the 2025 recruiting class according to 247Sports Composite rankings Darryn Peterson cut his list of finalists down to four, and that list included Jake Diebler’s Buckeyes.
Peterson is the No. 1 combo guard in the class and the top player in the state of California, but here’s the thing, he’s only been in California for less than a month. He is originally from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio and played at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy before going to Huntington Prep in West Virginia for his junior season. Now the five-star prospect is headed West as he will play his senior season at Prolific Prep in Napa.
This past weekend, Peterson was back in Ohio for an official visit in Columbus and then just days later announced that he was cutting his previous top-eight schools down to a final four. Joining the Buckeyes in the list are the presumed favorite Kansas Jayhawks, Kansas State Wildcats, and USC Trojans.
The Jayhawks are believed to be the leaders for a number of reasons. The first is that Bill Self is an incredibly good recruiter and Kansas is one of the bluest-blood programs in the country, so those two facts are tough to turn down for anyone.
However, the other factor is a little bit more specific to the era of college sports that we live in. Last November, Peterson signed a historic NIL deal with adidas; this made him the first high school basketball player to sign a shoe endorsement deal of this kind. Perhaps not coincidentally, three of Peterson’s final four schools are outfitted by Nike, and the fourth is repped by adidas... care to guess which one that is?
While the Buckeyes, Trojans, and Cats are all Nike teams, that doesn’t mean that there is no chance for Peterson to eventually choose to play for them.
Land-Grant Holy Land’s men’s basketball insider Connor Lemons agreed that KU was the presumptive favorite, but cautioned that it was far from a done deal.
“Because of the adidas deal and Bill Self being a recruiting mobster, Kansas is probably in the lead,” Lemons told me. “But it’s not a lock by any means. Diebler could still definitely get this done.”
Peterson is 6-foot-5 and weighs 195 pounds. ESPN analyst and former Ohio State assistant Paul Biancardi said of him, “Peterson is a prolific scoring guard with playmaking talent. He possesses positional size, power, footwork, and touch.”
Over the summer, 247Sports’ director of scouting Adam Finkelstein wrote that what makes Peterson so unique is his ability to score from anywhere on the flow, and to make it all look natural in the flow of the offense.
“Peterson is extremely versatile,” Finkelstein said.” He’s a true combo guard who is equally effective playing on or off the ball. He has natural poise as a handler ... He’s also a true multi-level scorer who can simultaneously see the floor, make reads, and pass well.”
The one area of Peterson’s game that apparently still needs some work is his shot from distance. He shot 31% from three-point land last season, which is good for a high school junior, but he is working on becoming more consistent before he heads to the next level, but that is picking nits for a guy who seems destined for NBA stardom.
“There’s just not another guard in the country right now who can match Peterson’s combination of size, length, strength, real functional versatility, and effortless ability to get to his spots that can make the game look easy at times,” Finkelstein concluded.
In addition to his high school and AAU careers, Peterson was named to the All-Tournament Team at last summer’s 2023 FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship. He put up 13 points as Team USA destroyed Canada 118-36 in the championship game.
Anytime you are going up against Bill Self and Kansas on the recruiting trail, it will almost certainly be an uphill battle, but as an Ohio native, Diebler does have some sentimental strings to pull. I also think that it is hopefully telling that Peterson announced his finalists within days of ending his official visit in Columbus.
I’m not saying that he quietly committed to OSU while on the trip or anything like that, I do think that it has to bode well for OSU that he was confident in narrowing down his options after spending time with the team and coaching staff.
As it stands, it looks like the Buckeyes have a little over two months to convince Peterson to come home. The expectation is that he will commit in time to make it official during the early signing period which begins on Nov. 13. He will visit Manhattan, Kansas on Sept. 27, having already made official trips to USC and Kansas.
Continue reading...
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Twitter | @PetersonDarryn
Darryn Peterson might be a native Ohioan, but he is also officially part of Team adiddas.
We now pause your regularly scheduled Ohio State football coverage for a men’s basketball update. While there is still plenty to break down from the football Buckeyes’ 52-6 win over Akron, and even more to look forward to for Saturday’s primetime matchup with Western Michigan, the biggest news on the recruiting trail on Tuesday did not come from the gridiron but instead happened on the hardwood.
Yesterday, the No. 3 player in the 2025 recruiting class according to 247Sports Composite rankings Darryn Peterson cut his list of finalists down to four, and that list included Jake Diebler’s Buckeyes.
Peterson is the No. 1 combo guard in the class and the top player in the state of California, but here’s the thing, he’s only been in California for less than a month. He is originally from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio and played at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy before going to Huntington Prep in West Virginia for his junior season. Now the five-star prospect is headed West as he will play his senior season at Prolific Prep in Napa.
This past weekend, Peterson was back in Ohio for an official visit in Columbus and then just days later announced that he was cutting his previous top-eight schools down to a final four. Joining the Buckeyes in the list are the presumed favorite Kansas Jayhawks, Kansas State Wildcats, and USC Trojans.
NEWS: 2025 5️ Darryn Peterson has cut his list to four schools, a source tells @LeagueRDY:
Kansas
Kansas State
USC
Ohio State
Peterson is the top guard prospect in the 2025 class. #3 overall in the ESPN100. @rtpgfx pic.twitter.com/47JZhwCZVL
— 24/7 High School Hoops (@247HSHoops) September 3, 2024
The Jayhawks are believed to be the leaders for a number of reasons. The first is that Bill Self is an incredibly good recruiter and Kansas is one of the bluest-blood programs in the country, so those two facts are tough to turn down for anyone.
However, the other factor is a little bit more specific to the era of college sports that we live in. Last November, Peterson signed a historic NIL deal with adidas; this made him the first high school basketball player to sign a shoe endorsement deal of this kind. Perhaps not coincidentally, three of Peterson’s final four schools are outfitted by Nike, and the fourth is repped by adidas... care to guess which one that is?
While the Buckeyes, Trojans, and Cats are all Nike teams, that doesn’t mean that there is no chance for Peterson to eventually choose to play for them.
Land-Grant Holy Land’s men’s basketball insider Connor Lemons agreed that KU was the presumptive favorite, but cautioned that it was far from a done deal.
“Because of the adidas deal and Bill Self being a recruiting mobster, Kansas is probably in the lead,” Lemons told me. “But it’s not a lock by any means. Diebler could still definitely get this done.”
Peterson is 6-foot-5 and weighs 195 pounds. ESPN analyst and former Ohio State assistant Paul Biancardi said of him, “Peterson is a prolific scoring guard with playmaking talent. He possesses positional size, power, footwork, and touch.”
Over the summer, 247Sports’ director of scouting Adam Finkelstein wrote that what makes Peterson so unique is his ability to score from anywhere on the flow, and to make it all look natural in the flow of the offense.
“Peterson is extremely versatile,” Finkelstein said.” He’s a true combo guard who is equally effective playing on or off the ball. He has natural poise as a handler ... He’s also a true multi-level scorer who can simultaneously see the floor, make reads, and pass well.”
The one area of Peterson’s game that apparently still needs some work is his shot from distance. He shot 31% from three-point land last season, which is good for a high school junior, but he is working on becoming more consistent before he heads to the next level, but that is picking nits for a guy who seems destined for NBA stardom.
“There’s just not another guard in the country right now who can match Peterson’s combination of size, length, strength, real functional versatility, and effortless ability to get to his spots that can make the game look easy at times,” Finkelstein concluded.
In addition to his high school and AAU careers, Peterson was named to the All-Tournament Team at last summer’s 2023 FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship. He put up 13 points as Team USA destroyed Canada 118-36 in the championship game.
Anytime you are going up against Bill Self and Kansas on the recruiting trail, it will almost certainly be an uphill battle, but as an Ohio native, Diebler does have some sentimental strings to pull. I also think that it is hopefully telling that Peterson announced his finalists within days of ending his official visit in Columbus.
I’m not saying that he quietly committed to OSU while on the trip or anything like that, I do think that it has to bode well for OSU that he was confident in narrowing down his options after spending time with the team and coaching staff.
As it stands, it looks like the Buckeyes have a little over two months to convince Peterson to come home. The expectation is that he will commit in time to make it official during the early signing period which begins on Nov. 13. He will visit Manhattan, Kansas on Sept. 27, having already made official trips to USC and Kansas.
Check out Darryn Peterson’s spring highlights:
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