The Ohio State basketball program finished last season with as little momentum as possible. They collapsed down the stretch to miss the NCAA Tournament for the third year in a row. After that, they had a lot of players head for the transfer portal.
Jake Diebler hasn't been able to land any great players in the portal this offseason to make up for that. This season will be just his second season, but he is facing a lot of pressure to perform. He had a 2025 recruiting class that just had two players in it.
Now, that class is down to one. Dorian Jones, a shooting guard from Cleveland, was one of the two players the Buckeyes signed in the 2025 recruiting class. He will no longer enroll at Ohio State. Instead, he will be playing a year at a JUCO college, knocking the recruiting class down to one.
An Ohio State basketball player will no longer enroll with the school, bringing up eligibility questions
Jones announced this decision in a now-deleted Instagram post. This is not a decision that he would have liked to have made, so that immediately begs some questions. Is he not eligible to play for the Ohio State Buckeyes? Is it because of grades? How bad were his grades?
None of those questions are being answered right now, but it's highly unlikely that Jones ever steps foot in Columbus at this point. While he said he is going to maintain his relationship with Ohio State, the Buckeyes might not retain their relationship with him.
That would especially be true if Diebler were to be let go after this season if he has another disappointing season. Jones will likely have to look to get his grades up and play for another school once he is able to do so.
Because Jones will no longer enroll at Ohio State, that leaves center A'mare Bynum as the only member of the 2025 recruiting class. It also means that Ohio State will have just 11 scholarship players left on the roster. They can still add some transfer portal players, however.