Five-star 2024 center Jayden Quaintance – who reclassified from the 2025 class – will have spent much of his high school career outside of Ohio (two seasons in Arizona and the upcoming season at Word of God Christian Academy in Raleigh, North Carolina). That said, the No. 2 center (No. 9 overall) in the 2024 class is an Ohio native, having played at Hawken School in Northeast Ohio before moving out of state.
Now, with Ohio State heavily recruiting Quaintance over the last several months, the 6-foot-9, 230-pounder's Ohio roots could be a potential factor in which school he eventually commits to down the road. The Buckeyes are considered a "serious contender" for Quaintance.
“It obviously helps that he would be close to his family, but it’s not the end-all, be-all,” Quaintance's dad, Haminn – who played basketball at Kent State – told The Columbus Dispatch's Adam Jardy. “They’re going to have to recruit him as hard as all the other schools and they’re going to have to fit. It’s going to have to be a fit. I couldn’t put him in a bad situation based off of the location. We showed that we definitely don’t care about location when we went to Arizona.
“We did a Zoom with (OSU),” he said. “We saw their system. They have draft picks every year with coach (Chris) Holtmann. It’s not just about being in Ohio, it’s about basketball and what they have to offer – and Ohio State has a lot to offer from the basketball side.”
The Buckeyes offered Quaintance in mid-May and have been making up for lost time over the last handful of months given that OSU recently began recruiting the five-star center after he reclassified to the 2024 class.
“It did change the way some people recruited us,” his dad said. “(Kentucky coach John) Calipari was really happy we were reclassing up. Ohio State, they were happy that we were reclassing up. We really ain’t do it for the schools, we’re just looking for the best situation so the schools that are recruiting us are the ones we evaluate, along with the G-League Ignite.
“To (OSU's) credit, once they started they really started,” he said. “We weren’t in Ohio, so I don’t know if everybody knew that Jayden is an Ohio kid.”
With a visit to Columbus set for September, expect the Buckeyes to be a big part of Quaintance's recruitment going forward.
Along with Ohio State, the No. 2-ranked center in the cycle holds offers from Alabama, Baylor, Cincinnati, Kansas, Kentucky and Oregon, among others.
Ohio State's lone commit in the 2024 class is four-star Bishop Gorman combo guard Juni Mobley, who is considered the No. 44-ranked prospect in the class. Expected to sign a smaller class in 2024 than in recent years, there's a possibility that the Buckeyes' class this cycle could only consist of one or two high school recruits.
