4/12/2022 basketball Edit

Ohio State guard Meechie Johnson Jr. enters transfer portal

Zack Carpenter • DottingTheEyes

Recruiting Editor

Zack has been a professional sports writer for more than five years and is in his third year on the Ohio State beat. He has garnered national recognition for his in-depth recruiting stories.

{{ link.display_text }} |

Meechie Johnson Jr.'s time at Ohio State is over.

The sophomore guard entered the transfer portal on Tuesday, signaling an end to his Buckeyes career after less than two full seasons with the program.

Johnson signed with Ohio State as a three-star in-state guard out of Garfield Heights (Cleveland) High School in the Class of 2021. He then reclassified to the 2020 class and enrolled early in December 2020.

He averaged 5.8 minutes per contest in 17 games played as a freshman before earning a substantial role off Chris Holtmann's bench in his second year. Across 26 games, Johnson averaged 17.7 minutes, including five starts, and averaged 4.4 points and 1.2 assists.

“You can’t worry and be caught up in your own feelings and if I am a starter or a bench player, what’s going to happen in the game, how it’s going to go for me,” Johnson said in December when asked his thoughts on his role with the Buckeyes. “Me being an aggressive player, sometimes I make a lot of stuff happen for myself or for my teammates.

"I just go in there with the mindset of ‘You have to come in there, you have to be aggressive, you have to make some plays, you have to be a playmaker,’ and go from there.”

Johnson was a key contributor for the Buckeyes throughout the first 10 weeks of the 2021-22 season. He sustained a facial injury in January that forced him to miss four games, but he returned to log significant minutes – including a career-high 29 minutes in his first game back from the injury against Minnesota on Jan. 27.

His minutes, though, tailed off down the stretch of the season. He averaged 11.8 minutes across the final nine games and scored just 13 total points.

Johnson said in December that he felt he had "grown a lot" throughout his first full year at Ohio State. That included his most notable career highlight as a Buckeye when he nailed a deep, game-winning 3-pointer in a big early-season win over Seton Hall in November.

"I’ve had some big games where it was big for me," Johnson said. "I had some games where it’s like what the heck, man? But that’s basketball. It’s a long season. I see that, and I know that the player that I am, I just have to continue to be better. I just have to continue to watch the film and put the work in.”