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OSU Men's Basketball Recruiting/Projections/General Discussions

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DZ83CK said:
You know where apathy starts? Recruiting guys who don't play with maximum effort and guys that aren't physically big, strong, tough and athletic enough to compete. This is the #1 area where OSU basketball recruiting needs to change, and until it does, we're not going to see another team with the defensive chops to contend for a B1G championship. To really turn the program around, the primary focus should not be offensive skillset, the primary focus should be finding guys with the motor to go along with the size and athletic ability to compete in the B1G. 3/4 of the battle in winning a college basketball game is controlling the glass, making more foul shots than your opponent & winning the turnover battle, and if you do all those things you can win a lot of games even if your team isn't the greatest at shooting the ball. These are things that Izzo has made a Hall of Fame career based on, and yet somehow other college coaches all seem to think they need to try and audition for NBA jobs rather than build programs that compete at the highest levels in college. If OSU ever wants to turn the program around and gain a larger fan following, the first step is go back to getting guys like Aaron Craft, David Lighty, Jae'Sean Tate & Je'Kel Foster on the team.
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100.

I've been lamenting Tilly since the conference games started. He's a talented kid but he's not built for the B1G. If you're soft at all this league will expose you and kick your ass all season long. It's unfortunate that we don't have a guy who just wants to dare other teams to come in the paint.
 
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Well, Bestbuck we actually do! But he's taking up space on the pine. Look at his bulk, and wishing he'd be in the paint taking up space, and enforcing his will on those unfortunate enough to drive on him......keep hearing he's probably going to miss this year. We're losing both Tilly and Noel at the end of the year, so he's gotta get better. He'd be a difference maker, if he returned before selection committee sits down....methinks.
 
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Ohio State showed how much importance they placed on basketball when they refused to act after the Buckeyes were attacked and beaten by players and fans at Minnesota all those years ago. Fred Taylor, a coach considered in the same light as Kentucky's Rupp and who had taken his team to a national championship and multiple NCAA runs, was shattered and resigned thereafter when the Big Ten also refused to take the matter seriously.

For those of us who love or loved Ohio State basketball, nothing has changed in the years since. The Schott was supposed to address the lack of former support and people should appreciate all that the Schottenstein family has done for Ohio State sports, but I suspect that there is no intention by anyone to support two major sports in this day and age.

What has happened to collegiate athletics, and OSU basketball in particular, is so disappointing.
 
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Remember that game. Guess it played on C'bus news stations for a while. Luke Witte was victim, and Fred Taylor was the coach. One thing seem to remember, is that no tOSU players came over to defend Luke.....(may be fuzzy in the brain, though). But yeah, Witte was never the same, and Fred seemed to be deflated as well. When was in Grad school, had my pass to the gym signed by Fred. Still have it somewhere. Point being is that am glad tOSU let him fill out his career with a job at the university.....
 
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Ohio State Needs Far Better Transfer Portal Additions, Late-Game Play Design for Better Close to 2026-27 Season​


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Ohio State took a step forward as a program by making the NCAA Tournament in its second year under Jake Diebler, the first time the Buckeyes went dancing in four years. But the expectation is not to make the NCAA Tournament, it’s to make runs in the NCAA Tournament. That’s what athletic director Ross Bjork said. That’s what Diebler himself has reiterated.

“We were able to battle through a lot to get to this point, but we're not leaving here satisfied as a program,” Diebler said after Ohio State’s NCAA Tournament loss to TCU on Thursday. “This was a great step for us, but we want more. We're going to fight all offseason up until games start to build that and take it up a level. That's what we're motivated by right now. I think you've got guys in (the locker room) that come back that are motivated by the same thing.”

For the Love of God, Get the Right Transfers​

Two years in, here is the complete list of Diebler’s transfer portal acquisitions:

YEAR POS PLAYER SCHOOL
2024 C AARON BRADSHAW KENTUCKY
2024 G QUES GLOVER KANSAS STATE
2024 G MEECHIE JOHNSON SOUTH CAROLINA
2024 G MICAH PARRISH SAN DIEGO STATE
2024 F SEAN STEWART DUKE
2025 G GABE CUPPS INDIANA
2025 F BRANDON NOEL WRIGHT STATE
2025 F JOSH OJIANWUNA BAYLOR
2025 C CHRISTOPH TILLY SANTA CLARA
Nine players. One, Micah Parrish, met or exceeded expectations at Ohio State. That’s an 11.1% hit rate. Unacceptable, unsustainable and if it keeps up, it will be Diebler’s undoing.

Meechie Johnson played 10 games, shot 35.6% from the field and returned to South Carolina after sitting out the rest of the season for mental health struggles. Aaron Bradshaw once showed a glimmer of what made him a five-star high school prospect in an 11-point game against his former Kentucky squad, but he mostly fell on his face as a 7-footer who averaged a meager 2.7 rebounds in 16.9 minutes per game while playing some horrid defense.

Those flaws overlap with those of Christoph Tilly, though he gave Ohio State significantly more on the offensive end and held his starting center position throughout the year. His 11 points and 2.3 assists per game in 2025-26 were nice enough, but 4.7 rebounds per game from a starting 7-foot center is laughable. TCU forwards David Punch and Xavier Edmonds turned Tilly’s chest into a welcome mat whenever they wanted points at the rim, as did many Big Ten bigs.

Tilly’s greatest strength was that he gave Ohio State an extra guard at center. He fell short of what the Buckeyes needed him to be, though, because he played center like a guard. He’s still the second-best of Diebler’s nine portal acquisitions thus far in his coaching career.
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ScriptOhio said:

Ohio State Needs Far Better Transfer Portal Additions, Late-Game Play Design for Better Close to 2026-27 Season​


161988_h.jpg


Ohio State took a step forward as a program by making the NCAA Tournament in its second year under Jake Diebler, the first time the Buckeyes went dancing in four years. But the expectation is not to make the NCAA Tournament, it’s to make runs in the NCAA Tournament. That’s what athletic director Ross Bjork said. That’s what Diebler himself has reiterated.

“We were able to battle through a lot to get to this point, but we're not leaving here satisfied as a program,” Diebler said after Ohio State’s NCAA Tournament loss to TCU on Thursday. “This was a great step for us, but we want more. We're going to fight all offseason up until games start to build that and take it up a level. That's what we're motivated by right now. I think you've got guys in (the locker room) that come back that are motivated by the same thing.”

For the Love of God, Get the Right Transfers​

Two years in, here is the complete list of Diebler’s transfer portal acquisitions:

YEAR POS PLAYER SCHOOL
2024 C AARON BRADSHAW KENTUCKY
2024 G QUES GLOVER KANSAS STATE
2024 G MEECHIE JOHNSON SOUTH CAROLINA
2024 G MICAH PARRISH SAN DIEGO STATE
2024 F SEAN STEWART DUKE
2025 G GABE CUPPS INDIANA
2025 F BRANDON NOEL WRIGHT STATE
2025 F JOSH OJIANWUNA BAYLOR
2025 C CHRISTOPH TILLY SANTA CLARA
Nine players. One, Micah Parrish, met or exceeded expectations at Ohio State. That’s an 11.1% hit rate. Unacceptable, unsustainable and if it keeps up, it will be Diebler’s undoing.

Meechie Johnson played 10 games, shot 35.6% from the field and returned to South Carolina after sitting out the rest of the season for mental health struggles. Aaron Bradshaw once showed a glimmer of what made him a five-star high school prospect in an 11-point game against his former Kentucky squad, but he mostly fell on his face as a 7-footer who averaged a meager 2.7 rebounds in 16.9 minutes per game while playing some horrid defense.

Those flaws overlap with those of Christoph Tilly, though he gave Ohio State significantly more on the offensive end and held his starting center position throughout the year. His 11 points and 2.3 assists per game in 2025-26 were nice enough, but 4.7 rebounds per game from a starting 7-foot center is laughable. TCU forwards David Punch and Xavier Edmonds turned Tilly’s chest into a welcome mat whenever they wanted points at the rim, as did many Big Ten bigs.

Tilly’s greatest strength was that he gave Ohio State an extra guard at center. He fell short of what the Buckeyes needed him to be, though, because he played center like a guard. He’s still the second-best of Diebler’s nine portal acquisitions thus far in his coaching career.
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100%. OSU needs to switch their portal leadership and decision-making away from whomever has been doing it. The Buckeyes have lost more talent in the portal than they have gained in two consecutive years. If that trend continues, OSU is definitely not going to have a tournament team next season.
 
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That list conveniently left of Jamison Battle who was a diamond in the rough of transfers that we had come in playing on the 23-24 team. If guys like that were available for 2 years and more the program would be in a different place, imo. We get the guys that rock for too short a period of time and then those guys that come in and just aren't any good at the B1G level. Its a different skillset in the B1G which guys like Tilly found out this year.
 
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Ohio State basketball has wasted no time in targeting one of the best players in the transfer portal following NCAA Tournament loss​

Jake Diebler and the Buckeyes are already targeting a transfer to make changes to the roster following the March Madness loss to TCU.

Ohio State basketball has already been connected to a top transfer​

According to On3’s Joe Tipton, the Buckeyes are already a school gaining traction for Cornell G Jake Fiegen, who is one of the best players currently set to enter the portal when it opens on April 7. Fiegen is a terrific shooter who knocks it down at a 41 percent clip from deep, and he averaged 17.1 points and 5.1 rebounds per game this past season.



Fiegen is a 6-foot-4 shooting guard who started 17 of the 24 games he played in for Cornell as a junior. As a sophomore, Fiegen started 29 games while averaging 10.9 points and 3.7 points per game. Fiegen played in 30 games as a freshman at 15 minutes per game and averaged 3.9 points.

According to 247 Sports, Fiegen is the No. 7 player in the transfer portal and No. 4 shooting guard. The former Cornell standout is hearing from programs such as Northwestern, Indiana, Villanova, Vanderbilt, DePaul, and Wake Forest.
 
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