Ahead of tonight's matchup with Illinois, the Buckeye coaching staff made a quick trip to Champaign Central High School.
Thad Matta, Jeff Boals and Greg Paulus gathered to watch four-star guard Tim Finke practice. According to 247Sports' Jerry Meyer, they offered the 6-foot-4-inch sophomore shortly thereafter.
Blessed to receive an offer from the Ohio State University! pic.twitter.com/ujzjpKyqfY
— Tim Finke (@Timfinke_) January 28, 2016
The Ohio State staff was well acquainted with Finke before extending an offer. They heavily scouted him this past fall and summer, while Finke also took an unofficial visit to Columbus in September.
"We're grateful and humbled for Tim to receive a scholarship offer from Coach Matta," his father, Jeff, told Eleven Warriors. "His assistant coaches watched and evaluated Tim a lot throughout the summer and we were able to attend a football game to see the facilities in the fall."
The entire Finke family is immersed in basketball. Jeff is the head coach at Champaign Central, older brother and Army commit Nick is a senior on the team and you'll see oldest brother Michael starting for Illinois, tonight.
It's natural to assume Tim might join Michael at Illinois where they could play at least two seasons together. Michael is also 6-foot-10-inch stretch forward, so Tim could grow over his next two years in high school.
Tim has offers from the Illini, Creighton and Saint Louis, among others. Expect that offer list to increase soon – Kansas and Indiana are two high major schools along with Ohio State to show interest in him
"I have great respect for Ohio State and for the program that Coach Matta has built," Jeff said. "Tim is only a sophomore and has over half of his high school career in front of him. He is currently focused on competing with his high school team and looks forward to making a college decision in the next couple of years."
Bucks Scout Several Prospects
Three games within a week makes for a stressful time around the basketball facility. On top of that, the staff had additional recruiting responsibilities to take care of.
Via 270Hoops.com's Zach Fleer, OSU evaluated 2017 guard and former Columbus resident Parker Stewart. He now plays for Union City High School in Tennessee and has offers from Florida, Kansas State and Memphis.
Greg Paulus also used the trip to West Lafayette, Indiana as an opportunity to scout a couple of Indianapolis-area recruits. According to the Indianapolis Star's Kyle Neddenriep, Paulus attended the North Central-Lawrence North game, Friday,
Five-star 2017 forward Kris Wilkes plays for North Central. He has offers from Indiana, Maryland, UCLA, with Kentucky also showing heavy interest.
Four-star 2018 forward Kevin Easley attends Greg Oden and Mike Conley's alma mater, Lawrence North. Easley has offers from Cincinnati, Indiana and Purdue.
