Tag: Roddy Gayle Jr.

Former Ohio State guard Roddy Gayle plans to transfer to Michigan

This one stings a little. #GoBucks

Roddy Gayle Jr. has done the unthinkable. After a weekend visit to Ann Arbor, Gayle has committed to play for the Michigan Wolverines.

Gayle entered the transfer portal in early April after Meechie Johnson was added to the roster via the portal. Johnson spent the last two years in South Carolina after spending his first two years at Ohio State. It was reported that Gayle had recently taken a visit to Creighton, but he must have really liked what he saw up north as the commitment comes just a couple of days after his visit to Michigan.

Of course, Michigan just hired a new head coach by the name of Dusty May who was thought to be a in consideration for the OSU job vacated by the firing of Chris Holtmann. May of course led Florida Atlantic to a Final Four just a year ago, but Ohio State chose to stay in-house and remove the interim tag to name Jake Diebler the new man in charge of Buckeye basketball.

Always adding intrigue to the rivalry, May 9was hired by Michigan and has now plucked away a key piece from the OSU basketball team as he looks to rebuild from a mess left by former Wolverine head coach, Juwan Howard. While it sounds somewhat like a movie script, you just can’t make this stuff up.

Gayle would have given Ohio State a formative one-two punch coming back with guard Bruce Thornton. He averaged 13.5 points per game for the Buckeyes and that scoring production will be sorely missed.

When Gayle returns to Value City Arena now, he’ll for sure be greeted with a chorus of boos … and most likely some other choice words.

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Michigan basketball steals player from Ohio State

They’re gonna take this well in Columbus. #GoBlue

New Michigan basketball head coach Dusty May has been on something of a heater over the past few days. And you never walk away from the recruiting trail when you’re on a heater.

May has managed to secure a four-star 2024 recruit in Justin Pippen, son of Scottie Pippen, as well as three transfers — all since Friday afternoon. And on Monday, he made a move that will certainly earn him the affinity of on-the-fence Wolverines fans.

On Monday, Michigan basketball earned a commitment from guard Roddy Gayle Jr. Why is this significant? Not only is he a playmaker, but he’s transferring to Ann Arbor from Columbus, Ohio as a former Buckeye via the transfer portal.

The scouting report from 247Sports’ Jerry Meyer:

Has a college ready body with good length (long arms) and great strength. Is a powerful athlete who thrives in traffic. Handles contact extremely well and loves to dish out the contact. Shoots the ball well off the catch with an efficient and smooth low release. Also scores with pull up jumpers where he elevates and can also score at the rim. Most notably, he has a niche as a potent post up player. Ball handling is solid and efficient. Has the ability to deliver to the open man. Rebounds his position quite well and can ignite the fast break. Has potential to be a formidable and versatile defender. Overall has a well rounded game that impacts a game in virtually all facets.

With Gayle in the fold, Michigan basketball has gotten four guards and one center via either high school recruiting or the transfer portal.

The guard from Utah was rated a four-star as a recruit but also as a transfer prospect. He’s not the first basketball player in recent memory to change sides in the rivalry, with Andrew Dakich having moved from the maize and blue to scarlet and gray in the John Beilein era.

Ohio State basketball loses starting guard to the transfer portal

A big loss for the Buckeyes

Ohio State basketball suffered its first major loss to the transfer portal as guard [autotag]Roddy Gayle Jr.[/autotag] will move on from Columbus.

It’s a bit surprising that the soon-to-be junior is leaving considering he played a good amount over his first two seasons for the Buckeyes. Gayle’s numbers were up across the board, scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and shooting percentage.

The Buckeyes now have at least two confirmed starters from this past season returning with point guard Bruce Thornton and center Felix Okpara. Top backup forward Devin Royal also announced his return while guard Meechie Johnson is returning after a brief 2-year hiatus at South Carolina.

It’s unfortunate that Gayle has decided to move on and we wish him the best at his next basketball home.

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More good news for Ohio State basketball as another starter will return

Massive news for the Buckeyes hoops team. #GoBucks

When you undergo a coaching change there is bound to be some departures, and that has been the case with Ohio State basketball.

Although two players have left already and entered the portal, Bowen Hardman and Scotty Middleton, one on Monday night elected to say in center Felix Okpara.

Another joined Okpara Tuesday when starting point guard, [autotag]Bruce Thornton[/autotag], went to social media on Tuesday and announced that he will return for his junior season in Columbus. The rising-junior set new career-highs in points with 15.7, assists with 4.8, rebounds with 3.7, all while doing a great job of limiting his turnovers. He is now expected to make another leap during the next season.

That now makes two starters that are confirmed to return for Ohio State, and the biggest one now is [autotag]Roddy Gayle Jr.[/autotag], as we await his announcement.

Contact/Follow @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion. Follow Michael Chen on X. 

Best plays from Ohio State basketball’s upset victory over Purdue

Re-living some of the best plays from Ohio State basketball’s win over Purdue. #GoBucks

In what has been a disappointing season for Ohio State basketball, the Buckeyes pulled off an upset of the second ranked team in college basketball for their biggest win of the season.

After Chris Holtmann’s firing last week interim head coach Jake Diebler led Ohio State to a victory over Purdue in his first game as the head coach.

Many players made big contributions for the Buckeyes on Sunday as 11 players were utilized with nine playing 14 or more minutes. The Buckeyes did a good job of communicating on the defensive end to hold the Boilermakers who average 84.4 points per game to just 69 on Sunday.

On the offensive end, the Buckeyes came up with big shots time and time again throughout the game, particularly down the stretch to come out on top.

Here are some of best plays from Ohio State’s victory over the weekend.

What we learned following Ohio State basketball’s win over Merrimack

Here are some things we learned (we think) following Ohio State basketball’s win over Merrimack?

[autotag]Ohio State men’s basketball[/autotag] got back in the win column on Wednesday night, defeating visiting Merrimack 76-52.

The Buckeyes got off to a slow start in the first half, only to see the quality of basketball greatly improve in the second 20 minutes. Ohio State upped it’s play on offense and defense, putting away the Warriors with about 8 minutes left in the game.

It was a very encouraging effort from this team, as they improve their record to 2-1 on this young season with a tuneup against Western Michigan before facing a ranked Alabama team at home.

As for tonight, here’s what we learned after tonight’s Buckeye basketball win.

Cincinnati 2024 power forward includes Ohio State basketball in top seven schools

He could be returning home to play in college #GoBucks

[autotag]Ohio State[/autotag] head coach [autotag]Chris Holtmann[/autotag] has been doing extremely well on the recruiting trail over the last two cycles.

In 2022, the five-man class saw four of them play immediately and make big impacts. Brice Sensabaugh, [autotag]Felix Okpara[/autotag], Bruce Thornton and [autotag]Roddy Gayle Jr.[/autotag] all played big roles for the Buckeyes, even though they were unable to make the NCAA Tournament.

The 2023 class is just as impressive, the three of the four commits, Scotty Middleton, Devin Royal, and Taison Chatman, were ranked inside the top 50 players in the country.

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As for 2024, Holtmann is off to a good start, with four-star point guard Juni Mobley as the lone current verbal. Another target, Cincinnati native [autotag]Tyler McKinley[/autotag] could stay home also. The power forward named Ohio State among his top seven schools he’s still considering.

McKinley stands 6-foot, 9-inches, and weighs 220 pounds. He is rated as the No. 10 center and 60th overall player according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings. He can play either position at the next level, hence McKinley’s ranking as a center.

McKinley currently plays for Link Academy in Missouri, but could ultimately end up playing closer to home.

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Believe it. Ohio State continues run at Big Ten Tournament with win over Michigan State.

Moving on! Do you believe it? #GoBucks

This isn’t your father’s No. 13 Big Ten seed.

The Ohio State basketball team came into the Big Ten Tournament playing a bit better and now seems to have completely turned the corner and given a lot of hope for next season. OSU did it again on Friday with another upset win over No. 4 Michigan State, 68-58 in a quarterfinal matchup in Chicago.

With the win, Ohio State becomes the lowest seed ever to reach the semifinals where it’ll face No. 1 seed Purdue on Saturday. And it wasn’t by fluke but a game in which the Buckeyes led from early all the way through the bell. Even more impressive, OSU put on a clinic without leading scorer Brice Sensabaugh because of a knee injury.

It remains to be seen if Sensabaugh will be able to return for the game against Purdue, but that’s a story for another day.

Ohio State played great defense all game long, holding the Spartans to just 38.2% from the field and answering every single run Michigan State went on. In fact, the Spartans came out of the second half with a lot of emotion and effort and quickly cut the OSU deficit to two points. But the Buckeyes countered and extended the lead back to double digits and were able to methodically take the game by the horns and wrestle away victory.

One of the stars of the game for the second-straight game was freshman Roddy Gayle, Jr. He finished the game with 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting, many of which game in critical moments. Another freshman, Bruce Thorton, led the Buckeyes with 21 points and six assists to continue to show he’s going to be a handful in the future. His ball handling and ability to create open looks for teammates were key.

If defense was the star of the game, Ohio State’s ability to take care of the ball and dictate the pace wasn’t far behind. The Buckeyes only turned the ball over five times and limited the Spartans’ fast break points.

It doesn’t get any easier. OSU will now have to pick itself up after three games in three days and match the physicality of Purdue and big man Zach Edey on Saturday.

And at this point, hey — why not?

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What we learned about Ohio State after defeating Iowa to break losing streak

The losing streak is over!!! What did you learn? #GoBucks

It has been a rough almost three weeks, but [autotag]Ohio State basketball[/autotag] finally got back in the win column, defeating Iowa, 93-77, in front of a home crowd at [autotag]Value City Arena[/autotag]. The win improves the Buckeyes’ record to 11-8 as they try and claw their way back into getting an NCAA Tournament bid.

The team as a whole shot fantastic, 56% from the field, and 50% behind the arc. The offense obviously looked like what we saw prior to hitting Big Ten play, and it was the catalyst this team needed to get back to its winning ways.

There was plenty of good from this contest, find out below what the biggest takeaways were for head coach [autotag]Chris Holtmann[/autotag] and the Buckeyes in their first win since January 1st.

Thoughts on another Ohio State Basketball loss, its fifth straight

Another ugly conclusion. #GoBucks

Entering the New Year, the [autotag]Ohio State Buckeyes[/autotag] basketball team was 10-3 and looked like one of the best teams in the conference. New Year’s Day would be their last win, proceeding to drop five straight, their most recent tonight to a very average Nebraska team, 63-60.

It’s added to a very frustrating time for Buckeye basketball, inching towards .500 with every loss. Head coach [autotag]Chris Holtmann[/autotag] must have a warm seat right now, but with a few more losses it could be getting hotter.

Not much good came from this game, especially given the level of the opponent along with the long losing streak. This season has become increasingly frustrating and here some thoughts on the most recent loss.