Ohio State Basketball

Defections from the Kentucky men's basketball program continue after head coach John Calipari exited for Arkansas, and Ohio State was the beneficiary on Monday.

Big man Aaron Bradshaw announced on his Instagram page that he committed to the Scarlet and Gray, adding "Buckeye nation lock in!"

Bradshaw was a 5-star prospect and the No. 4 overall player in the recruiting class of 2023, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

His departure is one of many for the Wildcats.

Ben Roberts of the Lexington Herald Leader reported point guard D.J. Wagner elected to enter the transfer portal Monday, which meant there are now "only three Kentucky players—Reed Sheppard, Ugonna Onyenso and Jordan Burks—who have not yet entered the transfer portal or declared for the NBA draft."

Sheppard could end up declaring for the NBA draft, while "Onyenso and Burks are expected to look at other options elsewhere."

What's more, only two of the six players in next year's recruiting class who were committed to Kentucky remain, and Roberts noted guard Billy Richmond is also expected to change his mind about joining the Wildcats.

While Kentucky is worried about so many losses, Ohio State seems to be gearing up for a bounce-back season in 2024-25.

The Buckeyes missed each of the last two NCAA men's tournaments, but things seem to be turning around after they fired head coach Chris Holtmann. Interim coach Jake Diebler went 8-3 to finish last season during a stretch that included a win over Purdue, and Bradshaw joins guard Meechie Johnson Jr.—who led South Carolina in scoring in 2023-24—as high-profile transfer-portal additions this offseason.

Throw in the return of players such as Bruce Thornton, Felix Okpara, Devin Royal and Taison Chatman, and there is reason for optimism at Ohio State.

Bradshaw will give his new team another option down low alongside Okpara and one with significant upside. While he averaged just 4.9 points and 3.3 rebounds as a secondary contributor for Kentucky during his freshman season, his recruiting status suggests there is far more production to unlock now that he has collegiate experience.

Ohio State certainly hopes that is the case.

John Calipari "privately expressed significant/serious interest" in the Ohio State vacancy earlier in the 2023-24 season, according to CBS Sports' Matt Norlander.

The Buckeyes fired Chris Holtmann in February, with Jake Diebler taking over on an interim basis. Norlander reported the timing didn't line up for Calipari to become a serious candidate, and OSU ultimately hired Diebler on a permanent basis.

Calipari, meanwhile, is finalizing a five-year contract with Arkansas, according to ESPN's Pete Thamel and Jeff Borzello, which will end his tenure at Kentucky after 15 seasons.

The Columbus Dispatch's Adam Jardy reported there were rumblings that Calipari's representatives made preliminary contact with Ohio State but that his buyout presented a big hurdle.

It doesn't sound like this was ever close to happening and perhaps Calipari would've been a poor fit with the Buckeyes anyway. To some degree, having this story out there will place even more pressure on Diebler and the administration, though.

Some within a fanbase are bound to feel a little underwhelmed whenever a school promotes the interim coach rather than hiring an outside candidate.

In Diebler's case, an 8-3 finish to close out the year made a compelling argument in his favor, and there appears to be plenty of outside buy-in.

Should Ohio State fall short of expectations in 2024-25, however, the Calipari story is bound to come back up again. The school had a chance — no matter how slim — to land a coach who won a national championship and made four Final Four appearances at Kentucky and basically punted on the idea.

And even if it's not Calipari specifically, his rumored interest will strengthen the perception the Buckeyes could've hired somebody who's more accomplished as a college coach than Diebler.

Athletic director Ross Bjork doesn't even formally start his job until July 1 and he might already have a big litmus test for his administration.

Ohio State is "likely" to look at pursuing former USC guard Bronny James in the transfer portal, according to Adam Jardy of The Columbus Dispatch.

Jardy noted that the James "heavily considered" becoming a member of the Buckeyes out of high school before he eventually joined the Trojans.

The son of Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James declared for the 2024 NBA draft in an Instagram post on Friday, although he'll also be maintaining his college eligibility as he chose to enter the transfer portal as well.

If the younger James goes through the pre-draft process and decides to return to college, Ohio State is an enticing option as he visited the school in 2022. His father is also an Ohio native and a notable Buckeyes fan, with the four-time MVP telling Cleveland.com back in 2013 that "if I had one year of college, I would have ended up here."

James' younger brother, Bryce, also took an unofficial visit to the campus in Oct. 2023.

The 19-year-old wrapped up a tumultuous freshman campaign with the Trojans, averaging just 4.8 points and 2.8 rebounds per game while shooting 48.1 percent on two-point field goals and 26.7 percent on three-pointers.

He missed the start of the season after suffering cardiac arrest during an offseason workout in July, delaying his debut until Dec. 10. James was never able to find a consistent role with USC, bouncing back and forth between the starting lineup and the bench.

In the most recent NBA mock draft from Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman, James was not selected in either of the two rounds. If he's unable to impress scouts and improve his draft stock, he'll likely continue his collegiate career and transfer before pursuing a move to the NBA once again in the future.

The Buckeyes certainly won't be the only team vying for him, as ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that James will also consider joining Duquesne if he foregoes the draft.

Two years after leaving Ohio State to transfer to South Carolina, Meechie Johnson is going back to Columbus next season.

Johnson announced on Instagram he was transferring back to Ohio State:

Johnson went on Instagram Live last week (h/t Matt Connolly of On3.com) to announce he was entering the transfer portal:

"At the end of the day, I've got to do what's best for me and my family and that's that. But all love still with SC and everybody here. All love with the coaching staff. They took care of me since Day 1. Everybody took me in since Day 1. And at the end of the day, I had to get all of this on my own. People are going to say what they want, but I had to make a name. I had to do this. So all glory to God. And yea, I'm sorry. I'm sorry some people are going to be hurt and some people are not going to understand. But again, this is the best decision I had to make for me and my family."

Joe Tipton of On3.com reported on Monday that Ohio State, Kentucky, Arkansas and Texas A&M had already contacted Johnson after he entered the portal.

Coming out of Garfield Heights High School in Cleveland as part of the 2020 recruiting class, Johnson was a 4-star prospect, per 247Sports' composite rankings. He stayed in his home state by committing to Ohio State in August 2019.

After playing primarily off the bench in his first two seasons, Johnson entered the transfer portal in April 2022. He committed to the Gamecocks to play for new head coach Lamont Paris.

The move worked great for Johnson, who was an immediate starter in South Carolina. He's coming off a season in which he averaged career-highs in scoring (14.1) and rebounds (4.1) in 33 starts.

South Carolina tied the program record with 26 wins in the 2023-24 season. It made the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2016-17, losing in the first round as a No. 6 seed to Oregon.

Jake Diebler took over as Ohio State's full-time head coach after finishing the 2023-24 campaign as the interim coach following Chris Holtmann's firing on Feb. 14.

The 37-year-old Diebler was an assistant for the Buckeyes when Johnson was being recruited out of high school. He led the team to an 8-3 record over the final 11 games after he took over for Holtmann.

Ohio State men's basketball has hired interim head coach Jake Diebler to be its next full-time head coach, the team announced Sunday.

"Throughout the search, every time we analyzed what was best for the program, our decision kept leading right back to Jake," Senior Advisor for Intercollegiate Athletics Ross Bjork said in a statement. "The way he has led the program since February 14 has been exemplary and is only the beginning of what lies ahead for Buckeye Basketball. The future is exciting, and I cannot wait to watch him lead this program."

Stadium's Jeff Goodman and The Columbus Dispatch's Adam Jardy first reported the team was targeting Diebler for the permanent role.

Diebler has been on the Buckeyes' staff for five seasons, serving as associate head coach to Chris Holtmann for the last three seasons. He was named interim coach after Holtmann was fired on Feb. 14 following a 14-11 start to the season and a 4-10 start to conference play.

After Diebler took over, Ohio State won five of its final six games to close out the season. The Buckeyes will likely still fall short of an NCAA Tournament bid after losing to Illinois in the Big Ten tournament on Friday.

Diebler's run as Ohio State's interim head coach began with a statement win over Purdue on Feb. 18. From there, the Buckeyes' only regular-season loss the rest of the way came to Minnesota.

The late push wasn't enough for an NCAA tournament bid, but the Buckeyes season can continue if Ohio State pursues an NIT bid. Jardy noted that Ohio State would need to have enough players to field a roster should it reach the NIT, and with the transfer portal opening on Monday, that isn't a guarantee.

According to Jardy, Ohio State eyed a number of big-name coaching candidates. The Buckeyes considered Florida Atlantic's Dusty May, Xavier's Sean Miller, Alabama's Nate Oats, Creighton's Greg McDermott and South Carolina's Lamont Paris.

Ultimately, Ohio State is settling on an in-house candidate—one who excelled in his position over the last month.

Former Villanova men's basketball head coach Jay Wright does not plan to come out of retirement, even for a chance to replace Chris Holtmann at Ohio State.

"It's a great job," Wright said on CBS on Sunday, per Adam Jardy of the Columbus Dispatch. "It has an outstanding athletic department, great tradition and fertile recruiting ground. It would be a great job, but I'm definitely done coaching."

Wright retired as head coach of the Wildcats in 2022.

Ohio State will need to find another candidate to replace Holtmann, who was fired on Feb. 14 during his seventh season with the Buckeyes.

The Buckeyes have had "early feeler talks" with Florida Atlantic head coach Dusty May as a potential replacement, Jardy reported.

Holtmann was bought out when the Buckeyes fell to 14-11 overall after starting the season 12-2. At the time, the Buckeyes were 30-30 since the start of the 2022-23 season.

Overall, Ohio State held a 137-86 record under Holtmann, marking the second-highest win percentage in program history although the team never advanced past the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Wright called Holtmann's firing "a statement on where college athletics are now."

"Chris was doing a good job, doing it the right way, and that's not acceptable anymore," Wright said, per Jardy. "Any program with a coach in his second year would gladly take what Ohio State has right now."

Wright coached Villanova basketball from 2001 to 2022. Under his leadership the Wildcats made four Final Four appearances and won national championships in 2016 and 2018.

Wright, 62, said when announcing his retirement in 2022 that it "was just the right time."

"I started to feel like I didn't have the edge that I've always had, where the edge always came natural to me, so I started evaluating it," Wright said while announcing his retirement (h/t NBC Sports.) "We couldn't ask the players to give 100 percent and I'm giving 70 percent. So I just knew it was the right time, you know?"

Two years later, that apparently hasn't changed. That might be in part because of Wright's current job as an analyst with CBS Sports, which he described in January as "so much fun."

The Ohio State Buckeyes are in "early" talks with Florida Atlantic coach Dusty May for its men's basketball head coaching job following Chris Holtmann's firing, according to Adam Jardy of the Columbus Dispatch.

Ohio State isn't expected to officially hire a full-time replacement until at least mid-March, Jardy added.

The Buckeyes fired Holtmann last week following a 14-11 start to the season. The team had lost nine of its last 11 games before he was fired.

Holtmann had been head coach of the program since 2017, compiling a 137-86 record and four NCAA tournament appearances in his seven seasons at the helm. However, the Buckeyes have been on a downward spiral over the last two seasons, and it was clear a change was needed.

Jake Diebler will remain interim head coach of the Buckeyes through the remainder of the 2023-24 season and could generate consideration for the full-time head coaching position if the team makes a run to the NCAA tournament.

May, meanwhile, has been head coach at Florida Atlantic since 2018, going 121-66 in his six seasons at the helm. He also led the Owls to a Final Four appearance during the 2023 NCAA tournament for just the second time in program history.

The No. 9-seeded Owls upset No. 8 seed Memphis, No. 4 seed Tennessee and No. 3 seed Kansas State en route to the Final Four, where they fell to runner-up San Diego State.

After Florida Atlantic's Cinderella run to the Final Four, May earned himself a 10-year contract extension with the Owls and will make around $16 million in base salary through the duration of the deal, per Jardy.

However, May can be bought out for $1 million after Feb. 29.

The Owls are currently 20-6 overall this season and 10-3 in the AAC. It's the team's first season in the AAC after moving over from CUSA.

Amid the ongoing struggles of the 2023-24 season, the Ohio State men's basketball team reportedly made a major change.

According to basketball analyst Jeff Goodman, the Buckeyes have parted ways with head coach Chris Holtmann on Wednesday. The team is 14-11 and ranks second-to-last in the Big Ten with a 4-10 conference record.

Ohio State started the season with a 12-2 record before taking a freefall down the standings with nine losses in its last 11 games. Holtmann's departure came after the Buckeyes lost to No. 20 Wisconsin 62-54 on Tuesday.

In the wake of Holtmann's departure, Goodman noted that Xavier's Sean Miller and South Carolina's Lamont Paris are "likely" to be on Ohio State's list of potential replacements.

Holtmann joined Ohio State in 2017 as the replacement for Thad Matta, who had been the team's head coach since 2004. It initially looked like a brilliant hire, as Holtmann led the Buckeyes to 20-win seasons in each of his first five years with the team. They made four NCAA Tournaments and would've qualified for a fifth if it wasn't canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Holtmann never got the team past the Round of 32.

Things took a turn last season when Ohio State went 16-19 and 5-15 in the Big Ten, failing to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in Holtmann's tenure. It appears that the Buckeyes are on their way to a second straight year without March Madness, which prompted Wednesday's move.

Holtmann ends his tenure at Ohio State with a 137-84 record in six-plus seasons. He didn't fare as well in conference play, compiling a 67-63 record in the Big Ten. Prior to joining the Buckeyes, he made a name for himself at Butler as he guided the team to three straight NCAA Tournament berths.

As Ohio State trudges toward another lost season, the university will now have to find the right person to try to lead the program back to prominence.