Where things stand for the basketball Buckeyes recruiting wise
As we continue to progress deeper and deeper into the thick of the college basketball season for Ohio State, recruiting news has somewhat slowed down recently, however, it also may seem that way due to the fact that we were spoiled with a fantastic two week span in November where the Buckeyes landed commitments from both Bruce Thornton and Roddy Gayle Jr..
Ohio State is still in play for several big-time recruits in both the 2021 and 2022 class and despite none of them planning on making a commitment soon considering that they’re in the middle of their own season, the Buckeyes are still heavily battling with other programs to round out their 2021 class and to continue to load up on 2022 talent.
After landing a commitment from Malaki Branham back in July, Chris Holtmann and his staff built one of the best 2021 classes in the entire country, however, they have continued to pursue a true big man to round out that class, with all of their current targets not close to a decision yet.
The Buckeyes were pursuing No.28 ranked prospect Franck Kepnang before he made his pledge to Dana Altman and Oregon back in October, really shifting the focus of the final piece of this class to three prospects, those being Chet Holmgren, Efton Reid and Charles Bediako.
Holmgren, who outplayed consensus No.1 2022 prospect and Michigan State commit Emoni Bates back in November in an exhibition contest, most recently cut his list down to seven schools all the way back in June and told Rivals analyst Krysten Peek that he plans on making a January or February decision date. If he does not cut his list anymore, Holmgren will be choosing between the Buckeyes, Gonzaga, Minnesota, Michigan, Georgetown, North Carolina and Memphis.
Bediako is the only one of the three to cut their list any time recently, as he trimmed it down to five schools back in October, removing five schools from his previous list and narrowing things down to Ohio State, Michigan, Duke, Texas and Alabama. Bediako, the No.25 overall prospect in the 2021 Rivals150, transferred to IMG Academy for his senior season where he teamed up with Reid, the Buckeyes final target on this list.
Reid, who is ranked No.27 overall in the 2021 class, said on Twitter in early December that he plans to cut his list down soon, however, we have not heard anything else about said list since the tweet. It will be interesting to see where both he and Bediako land as they are playing together this season, play the same position and both are being pursued by several of the same programs.
In terms of 2022 recruiting, the Buckeyes have to be very happy with where they’re at right now as they have built a consensus top three class in America. They are still keeping close contact with a handful of wing prospects and big men in that class, none of which seem to intend on speeding up their recruitment process anytime soon.
With two scholarships remaining in that class, Holtmann has the chance to build one of the best recruiting classes in the last 10 years for Ohio State as he has already landed three prospects and looks to add more.
With the recruiting period still dead for Division I coaches I don’t expect to see any big decisions made soon for 2022 prospects, however, things could get interesting with 2021 bigs over the next month or two.