JaQuan Lyle: The Unexpected Path He Took To Ohio State
By Justin Golba
Ohio State guard JaQuan Lyle’s recruitment.
JaQuan Lyle is a sophomore point guard for Ohio State who has shown signs of greatness this year for the Buckeyes. At times he can be a little too loose with the ball, but he has great vision, can get in the lane easily and has a good shot.
However, the road has not always been easy for the sophomore guard. Ohio State was the third college he committed to and it took him over a year after he graduated high school to finally get on the court for his first game with the Buckeyes.
Lyle was ranked 42nd by ESPN in the 2014 recruiting class and was an extremely highly touted prospect out of IMG Academy in Florida. He was a 5 star Point Guard and committed to Louisville over many other high-caliber programs the summer before his senior year.
About three months later, Lyle became a subject in NCAA violations against Louisville, alleging that they paid four separate times for an escort to “pay a visit” to Lyle. This put Louisville and coach Rick Pitino in hot water and almost immediately after that came JaQuan Lyle’s decommitment.
After all of this was behind him, Lyle committed to the Oregon Ducks to further his education and basketball career. The problem came when he was denied admission for a credit issue and could not enroll at Oregon.
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Then, after taking visits to LSU, Missouri and even considering going back to Oregon to try again, he settled on Thad Matta and the Ohio State Buckeyes. Coach Matta and staff realized they needed another guard and fast as D’Angelo Russell started leaning towards entering the draft, and they figured Lyle would be the perfect fit. Lyle liked what he saw in the program, and the atmosphere in Columbus, so he committed to Ohio State, where he would finally land for good.
Lyle came in with the fantastic 2015 recruiting class the Ohio Staff staff assembled, led by him and 4 star recruits (Austin Grandstaff, Daniel Giddens, Mickey Mitchell, AJ Harris). There was a lot of hope and potential for all five of these guys, and then something unexpected happened. They all transferred.
Outside of Lyle, all of the 2015 class transferred to different schools for reasons still unknown. It was a shock and quite a disappointment to the coaching staff, who had huge aspirations for this class.
Even though it was a long and weird road to Columbus, Lyle seemed to have found the right fit. For his career, he is averaging 11.5 points per game, just under 5 assists per game and over 4 boards a game.
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He has been slightly inconsistent but overall, he has played fairly well and seems to get along with the team and the coaching staff very well. Look for big things over the next couple of years from JaQuan Lyle.