There are, at last, no pieces left to be named for Ohio State basketball.
With the addition of Kansas State guard transfer Ques Glover and Croatian center Ivan Njegovan, Jake Diebler’s first Ohio State roster is complete four months after the Buckeyes’ 2023-24 season ended. Njegovan took up the last scholarship slot for the Buckeyes while Glover is having his attendance costs covered by NIL and is considered a scholarship-level player.
Nothing is left but to continue developing the pieces Diebler has at his disposal and build chemistry between them all. There are more than three months remaining before Ohio State opens its season against Texas on Nov. 4 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Now that Njegovan is in tow, it’s the optimal time to look at what Ohio State’s final roster looks like and grade each spot. Below is a position-by-position breakdown of the talent assembled to play at Value City Arena this winter, with marks that could certainly fluctuate as the season plays out.
Guard: B+
Guard is a position with an odd dichotomy for Ohio State. At the top of the lineup, the team’s two starters are the most proven stars on the team, with Bruce Thornton and Meechie Johnson Jr. entering their third and fifth seasons respectively.
Backing up that duo is a pair of assets with uncertain expectations in Glover and freshman Juni Mobley. The team’s depth at the position took a hit when sophomore Taison Chatman suffered a season-ending ACL tear in June, encouraging the move to bring in Glover.
Glover sat out last season with his own injury issues at Kansas State. He’s yet to average more than 4.4 points per game with a Power Conference team, opening his career at Florida before transferring to Samford after a low-impact sophomore campaign. At Samford he evolved into a star, picking up 19.2 points and 4.4 assists per game in 2021-22 before dipping to 14.7 points and 2.1 assists per contest in just 19 games in 2022-23.
Mobley enters with hype as a major 3-point threat, ranked as the No. 51 prospect in the 247Sports composite rankings. Dubbed “The Sniper” in 247Sports’ 2024 recruiting class superlatives, Mobley knocked down 41.5% of his 3-point attempts in 23 games on Nike’s EYBL circuit last summer and earned an invite to the High School Rockin' Protein Men's 3-Point Shootout.
“Juni Mobley, in my opinion, was one of the very best shooters in the country regardless of class,” Diebler said in June.
Mobley will still need to prove his mettle if he’s to have an impact in year one, however.
Those depth questions are the only reason this position doesn’t grade higher at this point. Thornton is back and likely to be a third-time captain, he averaged 15.7 points and 4.8 assists per game in 2023-24 with a gaudy assist-to-turnover ratio of exactly four to one. His presence was an attraction for Johnson, who helped turn South Carolina into an NCAA Tournament outfit last year after the Gamecocks went 11-21 in 2022-23, his first year there after transferring from Ohio State.
Johnson picked up 14.6 points and 2.9 assists per game before returning to Columbus, though his efficiency could improve some from the floor as he shot 39.9% and 32.1% from 3-point range.
If one of Glover or Mobley proves impactful this season and Thornton and Johnson keep developing, Ohio State could have one of the best backcourts in the Big Ten.
Wing: C+
Wing isn’t an official designation on Ohio State’s roster so there’s a bit of overlap here with other positions, but for the sake of this section, we’ll focus mainly on players who are primarily going to see time at small forward in the Buckeyes’ lineups. That leaves a trio of San Diego State transfer Micah Parrish, junior Evan Mahaffey and freshman Colin White.
There are plans for Parrish to wear many different hats for the Buckeyes in 2024-25, which will be his final season of college basketball. He’s stated a desire to improve on his scoring numbers – he posted 9.3 points per game with the Aztecs last year – and he’ll have some ball-handling responsibilities in the offense. He’ll also be a key “tone-setter” on the defensive end of the floor.
“I think I've been pretty open about this, I want to play more ball handlers. I think that'll help us play faster,” Diebler said. “Evan can certainly do some of that. We had really big plans for Micah from the moment we started recruiting him, (the Chatman injury) doesn't impact those plans. They were big from the beginning.”
Mahaffey finished top four in rebounds, assists, blocks and steals for Ohio State as a sophomore, though he had some inconsistencies scoring the ball. That leaves White, last year’s Ohio Mr. Basketball and a four-time State Final Four player with Ottawa-Glandorf. He enters as a three-star prospect but has impressed Diebler and his teammates with his physicality this summer.
There are a few versatile pieces and enough depth here for Ohio State, and that’s not counting Devin Royal, who will certainly play some on the wing while lining up at power forward and could play the 3 in bigger lineups. There are no bona fide stars, though, and no shooters who were 30% or better from 3 last year, though Parrish is 33.2% from beyond the arc on his career.
Forward: B
This grade is all about upside, because while the talent Ohio State now possesses down low is undeniable, there are 10 combined starts among this year’s crop of Buckeye forwards.
All 10 of those starts belong to center Aaron Bradshaw, a sophomore and five-star prospect who transferred in from Kentucky this offseason. His per-game stats weren’t tremendous as a freshman as he played just 13.7 minutes a contest, but his rate statistics speak to his potential as he put up 14.2 points, 9.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per 40 minutes. Felix Okpara, last year’s starting center for the Buckeyes, posted 11.2 points, 10.9 rebounds and four blocks per 40 minutes in his second year, for reference.
It also doesn’t hurt to be listed at 7-1 as a basketball player.
“I think his ability to do things at his size has been great,” Diebler said on July 9. “And I would say we're pushing him to maybe do some things he's not used to doing on the court. But he's got the ability to do it, and I think a lot of it is just getting reps and experience. He can handle it. He can pass it. And to be able to do it at his size is really impressive.”
The same rate case is perhaps even more applicable to another five-star prospect who transferred in from a blueblood for his sophomore season, former Duke power forward Sean Stewart. He played just 8.3 minutes per contest but posted 12.7 points, 15.3 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per 40 minutes. He also boasts freakish athleticism, breaking Zion Williamson's vertical leap record at Duke with a 36-inch leap.
Stewart will compete to start at power forward with Royal, who came on strong at the end of his freshman season last year, averaging 8.4 points and 3.6 rebounds in his last eight games after picking up just 3.3 points and 1.9 boards in his first 24. His breakout outing came in a 14-point performance in a win at Michigan State last year.
Royal, Bradshaw and to a lesser extent Stewart are also being encouraged to develop into 3-point threats for Ohio State this year, though none attempted more than 20 distance looks in 2023-24.
Austin Parks enters his sophomore year in Columbus hoping to bolster the depth of the position. The biggest unknown here is Njegovan, who has played in Croatia’s top professional basketball league and comes in as a freshman. He possesses the same height as Bradshaw at 7-1 with a soft shooting touch at that size, plus he led his KK Bosco team in blocks and rebounds last season. How his level of competition overseas stacks up with the college game is uncertain, though, and he might be viewed as more of a developmental piece rather than someone who can contribute right away.
Much like at guard, with good development, this is a position grade with the potential to climb a lot in the season. If Bradshaw, Stewart and Royal can’t match their recruiting pedigrees yet, it could dip just as much.
