Ohio State men’s basketball offers 2027 four-star guard coached by former Buckeye
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Top-50 recruit Jason Gardner Jr. was offered by Jake Diebler and staff at the end of an on-campus visit.
Jake Diebler and the
Ohio State men’s basketball coaching staff are beginning to dip their toes into the 2027 recruiting class, making their fifth offer of the cycle on Monday afternoon to Fishers (Indiana) guard
Jason Gardner Jr.
A four-star guard and the second-highest rated player in the state of Indiana, Gardner earned the offer at the conclusion of an on-campus visit Monday afternoon. Diebler as well as assistant coach Jamall Walker watched Gardner play during the spring live period, the weekend of May 16-18 at the 3SSB event in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
A 6-foot-1, 185-pound guard, Gardner is the son of former Arizona guard Jason Gardner, who is now the Director of Player Relations at his alma mater. He is the No. 32 player in the class of 2027 and the sixth-highest rated point guard in the nation.
Along with his Ohio State offer, Gardner also has offers from Indiana, Purdue,
Notre Dame, UNLV, Cincinnati, and DePaul. Alabama, Florida, Michigan,
Michigan State, Xavier, Virginia, Oklahoma, Dayton, and his father’s
Arizona Wildcats have all been in contact as well, but have not offered.
Through eight games of the AAU season, Gardner was averaging 20.6 points per game for Indiana elite 16U. As a sophomore at Fishers last season, Gardner averaged 14.5 points, 5.3 assists, and 3.0 rebounds per game. He also had nearly a 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio, and was named to the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) Indiana Futures All-Star Team at the end of the season.
Gardner
spoke to Alejandro Lopez and Sam Lance of Zagsblog last month, and told them that he is looking for a college program where he feels wanted, at home, and can go to coaches with any problems he has.
“I want to go somewhere where they truly want me,” he said. “Obviously, I’m going to be around them like 90% of the time I’m in college. So I just feel like anytime something goes wrong, I want to be able to go talk to them and talk about the problem. I want to able to like — anything I need just to reach out to them and know they got me.”
When asked specifically about Ohio State, Gardner said he likes the independence that Diebler gives his point guard in the offense.
“Obviously, Diebler is the new coach, and he likes to play really fast as well, I think. And then he likes to let his guard go. So I like how he lets his guards go, dictate the game and control the game.”
New Ohio State assistant coach Brian Walsh, who spent the last eight seasons at Indiana, was recruiting Gardner as a member of the Hoosiers’ staff as well.
Something else to note: Gardner will be coached by former Ohio State point guard CJ Walker at Fishers this season. Walker, who was part of the Ohio State men’s basketball program from 2019-2021, was hired to the staff at Fishers High School at the end of May. He seemed fairly excited at the news of Gardner’s scholarship offer from the Buckeyes on Monday.
Originally from the Indianapolis area, Walker averaged 9.1 points, 3.9 assists, and was an impressive 88% free throw shooter in 58 games (41 starts) for Ohio State.
Per 247Sports, Gardner is the fifth 2027 recruit to earn an offer from Ohio State. The Buckeyes offered five-star center Obinna Ekezie Jr. (Prolific Prep) last week. They also offered Lakota West guard Joshua Tyson, who is not yet ranked by 247Sports, but in addition to the Buckeyes, has scholarship offers from
Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Cincinnati, and Kent State. The Ohio State staff extended him an offer at the end of last week’s team camp at the Schottenstein Center.
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