Nearly a month after announcing he was heading elsewhere, DJ Carton has a destination.
The Ohio State transfer committed to continuing his college basketball career at Marquette on Wednesday evening. Carton, who'll be a sophomore, will have to sit out the 2020-21 season unless he obtains a waiver from the NCAA that allows him to become immediately eligible.
It’s official let’s go️️ pic.twitter.com/xHdDUZGqd5
— DJ Carton (@DJCarton) April 16, 2020
Carton averaged 10.4 points, three assists and 2.8 rebounds in 23.9 minutes per game for the Buckeyes. He played 20 games before taking a leave of absence to work on his mental health in late January.
In a statement released on Twitter on Jan. 30, Carton wrote he has been "suffering with mental health issues for a couple years" and that he was "not 100% right now," which led to him needing to step away from the team. Chris Holtmann, in his first public comments after Carton's mental health revelations, threw his support behind the freshmen guard.
“I want to begin here by thanking our fans for their support of DJ in his pursuit of mental health, overall health,” Holtmann said on Feb. 1. “The wide, vast majority of our fans I know are so unbelievably supportive of him in that, and I just want to thank our fan base for that. For the rare few that tweeted at me this is somehow the reflection of our program, reflection on me personally: Guilty, guilty. So be it. You can take your antiquated thinking somewhere else.
“There is nothing, nothing more important in our program than our players' physical, mental health and overall growth. Nothing. And that will always be the case.
Neither Carton nor Holtmann ever placed a timeline on a possible return to the court.
In late February, Carton went back to Columbus to take in-person classes. He remained away from the team, though, and never played or practiced with the Buckeyes the rest of the season.
Carton entered the transfer portal on March 19. Marquette is about three hours away from his hometown of Bettendorf, Iowa, compared to seven for Ohio State.
Fellow Ohio State transfer guard Luther Muhammad announced on Tuesday he'll be playing at Arizona State next season.
