The Hurry Up is your nightcap of Ohio State recruiting news, catching you up on the day’s events with an ear on the ground for what’s next.
SHAUN WADE'S UPCOMING TRIPS TO COLUMBUS
As we first mentioned last night, Ohio State 2017 commitment Shaun Wade is set to make two trips to Columbus in the next two weeks, his first trip to see the Buckeyes – where he's been committed for almost a year-and-a-half – since last summer.
"I'm coming this weekend with Shaun," Randy Wade said. "He will be back the following weekend. (We'll arrive) Saturday afternoon and we're leaving out Sunday afternoon."
While the trip isn't a long one, it's an important one. Mr. Wade has not yet been to campus to meet the staff that hopes to develop his son as a person and a player over the next three-to-five years.
"I wish we could come earlier and stay longer," Wade said. "I promised the staff I would come and this month is going to be very busy, so we had to throw this short visit in."
The Jacksonville Trinity standout will be on the road most of the month with Pro Impact Sports: it was last summer's trip with the group that brought him to Columbus. Ohio State hopes that these next two weekends will give them a chance to begin cementing their relationship with Wade and his family. The 6-foot-2, 175-pounder is aware that he's made the Buckeyes' coaching staff a bit nervous in the last few months.
From SECCountry.com:
He admits that the Buckeyes staff has been nervous about where he stands with his commitment.
“To be honest, they have expressed that, but I have told them that I am 100 percent and this is once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, so I still want to visit other schools if I can,” Wade said.
Wade will reportedly make a final college choice in November, prior to enrolling in school in January.
TEE HIGGINS' DROPS SURPRISING TOP FIVE
Last night, five-star Tennessee wide receiver Tee Higgins, the country's 16th-ranked 2017 prospect, announced a somewhat surprising Top Five list on Twitter.
@Hayesfawcett3 with the edit pic.twitter.com/NUpzRZVQqu
— Tee Higgins (@teehiggins5) May 31, 2016
The surprise is Ohio State's inclusion, but it speaks volumes about the amount of work done by Zach Smith, the Buckeyes' wide receivers' coach, in a short amount of time. It was just 15 days earlier that Higgins had released his Top 10, and in that time he's dropped Michigan, Notre Dame, Georgia, Alabama and LSU from his list. Smith and the Buckeyes made repeated trips to see the 6-foot-5, 190-pounder and it's clear those meetings were fruitful.
Ohio State remains in the mix for three other five-star wide receivers: Trevon Grimes, Donovan Peoples-Jones and Tyjon Lindsey and although they're very unlikely to end up with all of them, just their inclusion says much about the increased respect “Zone Six” has garnered nationally in the last two years.
KALEB WESSON DROPPING WEIGHT, PLAYING VERY WELL
Switching gears quickly, Ohio State 2017 basketball commitment Kaleb Wesson had a big weekend in Atlanta at the EYBL Session 4 in Suwanee, Georgia.
Kaleb Wesson (2017), 6'9" Ohio State commit, is efficiently dominating. #PrepHoops https://t.co/1Na4GXHRID pic.twitter.com/5Dwsf46rwi
— Prep Hoops Ohio (@PrepHoopsOH) May 29, 2016
Wesson, who plays his high school basketball at Westerville South High School, says he's been working on slimming down his frame and increasing his endurance.
"I've been trying to focus on my weight," Wesson said when asked what he's working to improve. "Mostly just calorie control. I lost 21-pounds over the span of a month."
That effort seems to be paying off for the country's 75th-ranked 2017 prospect. He's the son of former Buckeye Keith Wesson and the brother of 2016 basketball signee Andre Wesson.
COREY MALONE-HATCHER DECIDING SOON
As the school year ends, a number of big-time prospects will be making their college decisions in order to remove a little bit of pressure from the last summer they are capable of being a "normal" teenager. One of those players is St. Joseph, Michigan four-star defensive end Corey Malone-Hatcher.
Top schools: I will be announcing my commitment on Thursday @ 3:30pm at SJHS. Thanks to all that recruited me pic.twitter.com/E6SA0k59Du
— corey malone-hatcher (@CMH2017) May 31, 2016
Malone-Hatcher has played his recruitment fairly close to the vest and he's deciding from a pretty loaded Top 10, but it'd be a major surprise if the Buckeyes were the choice. Larry Johnson, Sr. has been a favorite of his throughout the process, but it appears that he and the Buckeyes haven't been able to get much time face-to-face despite that.
Michigan is the likely winner come Thursday with the country's 16th-ranked defensive end as Ohio State's defensive end recruiting continues to focus on Maryland four-star Chase Young.
WHEN KEEPIN' IT REAL GOES WRONG
If Malone-Hatcher decides to "Go Blue" maybe that will help make the subject of our next segment feel a little bit better, because this Michigan fan had a rough Memorial Day.
Talking crap to a #teen on Twitter: Always bad.
Meet Wayne Bateman, a (former) Twitter user and a Michigan Man living in enemy territory.
Monday night, Donovan Peoples-Jones, the nation's top 2017 wide receiver, took to Twitter to express his feelings on the Cavs and their chances in the upcoming NBA Finals.
Mr. Bateman was not at all happy to see the top player in the state of Michigan – a top target for both the Buckeyes and Wolverines – rooting for the Cleveland Cavaliers. So what did he do? He made the awful decision to talk smack to a high schooler on Twitter.
As is normally the case, that led to an embarrassing faux pas for this particular fan of the Maize and Blue. Remember folks: if you're not sure whether the tweet you're about to hit "send" on is potentially embarrassing to not just you, but the program you're attempting to represent, then it probably is.
So, if you can help it, you should probably just avoid it. This isn't for the player's benefit, after all, it's for your own.
This is example #10,650 of "don't be that guy."
A flock of mad Michigan men then would proceed to attack one of their own. Mr. Bateman handled things as one would expect. After defending his indefensible tweet, he set his account to private but when some more photos and screenshots surfaced, he elected to remove himself from the Twitterverse all together.
Yikes.
