Ohio State basketball: Losing Abel Porter a big blow for Bucks

Ohio State basketball was delivered a big blow today when Abel Porter’s Buckeye career ended before it could even start.

Ohio State basketball is right around the corner, as their season starts November 25th when they take on Memphis in South Dakota. They have a decent amount of roster turnover from a year ago. One of the newcomers to the roster was expected to be point guard Abel Porter.

Porter was a graduate transfer from Utah State and was slated to play right away. He was expected to give the Buckeyes some depth off the bench. He was someone else who could handle the ball when Duane Washington and C.J. Walker were on the bench.

Unfortunately, that will no longer be the case. Abel’s Buckeye career is over before it even starts after being diagnosed with a heart condition. Abel announced his diagnosis on Twitter.

Losing Porter puts Ohio Stae in a tough spot. They don’t have many ball-handlers besides Walker and Washington on the team now. They are still waiting on their appeal for transfer Jimmy Sotos to play immediately. If they don’t win that, they could be in serious trouble.

The Buckeyes might have to rely more on freshman Eugene Brown to handle the ball a little more. Musa Jallow is more of a slashing two-guard than he is a point guard. It’s going to be interesting to see how they handle this situation off the bench.

Chris Holtmann and crew will have a couple of weeks to figure that out. Before you know it, the first game of the season will be here. With the Buckeyes losing D.J. Carton and Luther Muhammad to the transfer portal and now Porter, they don’t have a lot of guys who can create for others.