Buckeyes add transfer scorer to the mix
The Buckeyes lost a big piece of the offense when Duane Washington opted to stay in the NBA Draft pool but have looked south to find someone to step into that role with the addition of Cedric Russell, a Louisiana transfer guard who will try and pick up the slack.
Ohio State landed Russell over the likes of Marquette, Oklahoma, St. John’s and Texas Tech. The news was first reported by Jeff Goodman of Stadium and later confirmed by BuckeyeGrove.com.
The 6-foot-2, 190-pounder out of Alexandria (La.) is a four-year player at Louisiana and has seen steady improvement over the course of his career, averaging 17.2 points per game in the 2020-21 season along with a 41.9-percent shooting percentage from the field and 40-percent from beyond the arc. Russell was a one-time commit to LSU before opting to sign with Louisiana.
Russell played in 124 games with the Ragin’ Cajuns during the past four seasons has been consistently in the 40 to 42-percent range from the floor throughout. Russell was not a major factor on the glass (3.2 rpg) or as a distributor (1.2 apg) during his last season with Louisiana.
The transfer guard did have the ability to get hot in games and did score 20 or more points in 10 games and had a season-high 30 points against Arkansas State on an 11-19 tear that saw Russell hit five three-pointers. As with most shooters, there were a few cold nights as well with Russell scoring single-digits in four games including in the Sun Belt quarterfinals against South Alabama.
Russell will not be expected to walk in and just be a plug-and-play for Washington, who averaged 16.4 points per game, 3.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists last season but will give the Buckeyes another scorer on the floor to complement a roster that will be returning three of its top five scorers with EJ Liddell, Justice Sueing and Kyle Young.
Ohio State will have several new faces on the floor this year with transfers Jamari Wheeler and Joey Brunk coming in from Penn State and Indiana respectively along with true freshmen Malaki Branham and Kalen Etzler joining the roster.
Chris Holtmann’s team will be tested early with a difficult non-conference schedule that includes games at Xavier, neutral site games against Kentucky and one of a three-team field of Seton Hall, Cal or Florida along with a home game against Duke in the Big Ten/ACC Basketball Challenge.
Ohio State’s season is slated to tip-off with an exhibition game on November 1st against a to be announced opponent with the games counting just a week later with a November 9th game at home against Akron.