2021-2022 Ohio State Basketball

cjb5656 said:
www.espn.com

Musselman, Arkansas add 3rd 2022 5-star recruit

Top-20 senior and McDonald's All American Anthony Black announced his commitment to Arkansas on Monday night, giving Eric Musselman and the Razorbacks their third five-star prospect in the 2022 class.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
So we are all excited about the vaunted class Holtmann is bringing in next year. Meanwhile, Musselman is stacking up five stars.
Click to expand...
Great regional recruiting. He has six top-100 recruits with three being from Arkansas, two from Texas, and one from Alabama. This is the blueprint that has worked for Ohio State in the past, and is likely what is needed to get ahead again IMO.

At the end of the day, what they do once on campus is what matters. I'm concerned this will blow up in Holtmann's face ala Thad's last higher rated class due to all of the national recruits via a high transfer rate.
 
cjb5656 said:
www.espn.com

Musselman, Arkansas add 3rd 2022 5-star recruit

Top-20 senior and McDonald's All American Anthony Black announced his commitment to Arkansas on Monday night, giving Eric Musselman and the Razorbacks their third five-star prospect in the 2022 class.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
So we are all excited about the vaunted class Holtmann is bringing in next year. Meanwhile, Musselman is stacking up five stars.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing we will be reading about the fat stacks of cash changing hands in a few years. Musselman learned from his dad, who was in charge when Minnesota literally mugged OSU and Luke Witte, and after he left for the ABA as the Gophers got sanctioned with 100+ NCAA violations.
 
Looking at that group for next year, OSU probably has to have an instant impact from Thornton, Gayle, and Sensabaugh barring picking up a couple big time transfers. Okpara has a ton of potential, but I seriously doubt will be ready to play more than sparingly if at all in his first year. Hardman is probably a guaranteed redshirt.

If those first three guys aren't ready to contribute significantly on day 1, especially Thornton, they are going to have some serious issues with the pieces they have returning. On paper they should have Sueing, Zed, Meechie, and Brown as starters, with Thornton as the PG and Gayle and Sensabaugh being the first two off the bench, unless either or both bumps Meechie or Brown from the lineup. 8-11 right now they have Towns (assuming he returns again? Didn't participate in senior day), Etzler, Okpara, and Hardman. I don't think Ahrens will return. They should have 2-3 scholarships to pursue grad players depending on what Towns does, which given how long it's been since he's played consistent quality basketball (and he'll be 25 next year!!) I hope he moves on.

Staying consistent with the their faults over the last several years, on the grad transfer market they need a point guard and a true center that are at worst legitimate rotational quality players. With those first seven guys they have on paper for next year they have zero size in the paint and barring a quality transfer, Meechie has to emerge as a reliable secondary ball handler and has to be the backup PG.
 
Last edited:
It will be interesting to see what happens via the transfer portal. Curbello would be a nice grab for the Bucks. He would be a huge upgrade for the underwhelming backcourt. I would look at Devin Carter, the South Carolina guard as well.
 
I wouldn’t mind if Holtmann went after either of Arkansas’ 2 main assistants Argenal or Smart. Give them a decent bump in pay. Both are fantastic recruiters.
 
utsherman said:
It will be interesting to see what happens via the transfer portal. Curbello would be a nice grab for the Bucks. He would be a huge upgrade for the underwhelming backcourt. I would look at Devin Carter, the South Carolina guard as well.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily perfect fits, but two regional mid-major guys that I see climbing the ladder as grad transfers that I wouldn't mind depending on how things go:

Grant Basile (6'9 Center, Wright State) - 18.4 PPG, 8.5 RPG this year; 2x 2nd team Horizon League

Tyreke Key (6'3 PG/CG, Indiana State) - 17.2 PPG in 2020-21; sat out this year with injury. 1,650 career points and 2x 1st team Missouri Valley Conference
 
nwwarrior09 said:
Not necessarily perfect fits, but two regional mid-major guys that I see climbing the ladder as grad transfers that I wouldn't mind depending on how things go:

Grant Basile (6'9 Center, Wright State) - 18.4 PPG, 8.5 RPG this year; 2x 2nd team Horizon League

Tyreke Key (6'3 PG/CG, Indiana State) - 17.2 PPG in 2020-21; sat out this year with injury. 1,650 career points and 2x 1st team Missouri Valley Conference
Click to expand...
Yes to both.
 
So if you look at the McDonald’s All America game rosters over Holtmann’s tenure, you will see he’s never landed a recruit ranked high enough to be chosen for the game. While you’ll see a few misses on those rosters, most became significant college players and pros. While it’s not the end all/be all to land a five star, or stars, now and then, it certainly tends to help. The only player who came close to a spot was DJ Carton, and that turned into an odd story. Plays well, then inexplicably is off the team for mental health reasons…allegedly homesick for Iowa…but winds up transferring and starting at Marquette.

Bottom line, Holtmann needs to shift his recruiting to a higher gear if he wants deeper tourney runs. As has been mentioned, some strong recruiter assistants would help a lot.
 
nwwarrior09 said:
Great regional recruiting. He has six top-100 recruits with three being from Arkansas, two from Texas, and one from Alabama. This is the blueprint that has worked for Ohio State in the past, and is likely what is needed to get ahead again IMO.

At the end of the day, what they do once on campus is what matters. I'm concerned this will blow up in Holtmann's face ala Thad's last higher rated class due to all of the national recruits via a high transfer rate.
Click to expand...
And one of those Texas kids has been in Branson, MO for most of his HS career which is just over an hour from UofAs campus. Plus UofA was the first to offer him.

OSU just seems to be unlucky or needs a better closer. In the last few years there’s a handful of 5* who OSU is in on early and then a blue blood or $$$ comes in and swoops them up. Kobi Simmons, Jarace Walker, Dillon Mitchell, Efton Reid, Keon Johnson, Darius Bazley.

But yeah, a repeat of Thads 2015 class always haunts my mind.
 
OSU has reached out to a lot of transfers over the last few days. Some I love, some make sense, some are head scratchers. Wright States Tanner Holden, WVU’s Jalen Bridges (he has already visited and OSU had their in home visit), Princeton’s Jaelin Llewellyn, D2 Cal U’s Phillip Alston (???), Drexel’s Camren Wynter, Belmont’s Will Richard, Bellarmine’s Dylan Penn, Illinois States Antonio Reeves, Southern Miss’ Tyler Stevenskn (???), ECU’s Tristan Newton, Ohio’s Ben Vander. I’m sure I’m missing a few.

MSU and Bama are also after Bridges. Reeves and Newton has everyone after them, they’ll probably go to a UNC, Duke, UK, etc. Don’t know much about the rest.
 
Orin Swift said:
OSU has reached out to a lot of transfers over the last few days. Some I love, some make sense, some are head scratchers. Wright States Tanner Holden, WVU’s Jalen Bridges (he has already visited and OSU had their in home visit), Princeton’s Jaelin Llewellyn, D2 Cal U’s Phillip Alston (???), Drexel’s Camren Wynter, Belmont’s Will Richard, Bellarmine’s Dylan Penn, Illinois States Antonio Reeves, Southern Miss’ Tyler Stevenskn (???), ECU’s Tristan Newton, Ohio’s Ben Vander. I’m sure I’m missing a few.

MSU and Bama are also after Bridges. Reeves and Newton has everyone after them, they’ll probably go to a UNC, Duke, UK, etc. Don’t know much about the rest.
Click to expand...
Tanner Holden could be their leading scorer next year if he came to Ohio State. I'd imagine there will be a lot of major conference schools that want him.

There are several good regional transfers. Hopefully they can land a guard/big combo.
 
Last edited:
cjb5656 said:
So if you look at the McDonald’s All America game rosters over Holtmann’s tenure, you will see he’s never landed a recruit ranked high enough to be chosen for the game. While you’ll see a few misses on those rosters, most became significant college players and pros. While it’s not the end all/be all to land a five star, or stars, now and then, it certainly tends to help. The only player who came close to a spot was DJ Carton, and that turned into an odd story. Plays well, then inexplicably is off the team for mental health reasons…allegedly homesick for Iowa…but winds up transferring and starting at Marquette.

Bottom line, Holtmann needs to shift his recruiting to a higher gear if he wants deeper tourney runs. As has been mentioned, some strong recruiter assistants would help a lot.
Click to expand...
Someone mentioned how tOSU is a football school. Every campus has a different atmosphere. Just like coaches sometimes do better at certain schools, why should it be any different for players?
The situation with DJ is definitely puzzling, but I wish him well.
 
Orin Swift said:
OSU has reached out to a lot of transfers over the last few days. Some I love, some make sense, some are head scratchers. Wright States Tanner Holden, WVU’s Jalen Bridges (he has already visited and OSU had their in home visit), Princeton’s Jaelin Llewellyn, D2 Cal U’s Phillip Alston (???), Drexel’s Camren Wynter, Belmont’s Will Richard, Bellarmine’s Dylan Penn, Illinois States Antonio Reeves, Southern Miss’ Tyler Stevenskn (???), ECU’s Tristan Newton, Ohio’s Ben Vander. I’m sure I’m missing a few.

MSU and Bama are also after Bridges. Reeves and Newton has everyone after them, they’ll probably go to a UNC, Duke, UK, etc. Don’t know much about the rest.
Click to expand...
Interesting. I have not done any homework on these guys, but hopefully OSU gets a couple guys that can help the kids in the recruiting class. 6'10" or bigger would be nice for one guy, and a guard and wing that can hit the open 3.
 
Orin Swift said:
And one of those Texas kids has been in Branson, MO for most of his HS career which is just over an hour from UofAs campus. Plus UofA was the first to offer him.

OSU just seems to be unlucky or needs a better closer. In the last few years there’s a handful of 5* who OSU is in on early and then a blue blood or $$$ comes in and swoops them up. Kobi Simmons, Jarace Walker, Dillon Mitchell, Efton Reid, Keon Johnson, Darius Bazley.

But yeah, a repeat of Thads 2015 class always haunts my mind.
Click to expand...
This has shades of an "insider" tweet on the Coaching Changes account on Twitter that said they thought Holtmann was too nice/not dirty enough to win big at Ohio State, and that he should probably choose to move on of his own accord i.e. Shaka Smart leaving Texas for Marquette before getting the axe in Austin.

NIL will hopefully help, but with one or both of his assistant coach vacancies he probably unfortunately does need a connected closer/bagman type if he hopes to survive beyond the next year or two. There's a big enough sample size at this point for me to feel comfortable saying that he's not good enough of a coach to be better than a 20-22 wins a year type of guy in the Big Ten with the caliber of recruits he lands. He needs more talent to get over the hump.
 
Sounds like Boals is towards if not at the top of the list to get the Butler job, i.e. he could be sitting in a very good stepping stone spot to catapult back to Columbus if things don't improve with the current regime.
 
Big day for Ohio State basketball as they get a commitment from Wright State's Tanner Holden and hired former Miami (OH) head coach (and former Purdue assistant) Jack Owens to fill one of their assistant coaching vacancies.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top