Ohio State basketball player uses Summer League to land an NBA contract

The Ohio State basketball team had a bad year in 2023-24. In fact, for a large part of the year, it was worse than in 2022-23. It's a year that got Chris Holtmann fired and Jake Diebler hired. It was also the only year that Jamison Battle played with the Buckeyes.

Battle played with the Buckeyes this season after playing two years at George Washington and two years with Minnesota. He used his final year of eligibility to play for Holtmann. He finished the year by averaging 15.3 points per game on 47% shooting, 43% from three, and 93% from the free-throw line.

Despite those nice numbers, Battle went undrafted in the 2024 NBA Draft. His defense is one of the main reasons why he wasn't taken and the tape at Ohio State didn't help in that regard. Instead, he used Summer League to his advantage. Because of that, he now has an NBA contract.

Former Ohio State basketball player signs Exhibit 10 contract with the Raptors

Battle has signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Toronto Raptors. An Exhibit 10 contract means that he will be invited to training camp and will have a chance to possibly earn a two-way contract, which would allow him to play in the G-League and get called up for NBA games as well.

A big reason why Battle was able to earn this deal is the fact that he scored 23 points across the first two games of Summer League. Toronto clearly liked what they saw. If he keeps that play up for the rest of Summer League, he has a shot to get closer to that two-way deal.

Battle would be the only Ohio State basketball player from this past year to earn an NBA contract. The Buckeyes have been sparse on NBA talent in recent years. Only E.J. Liddell and Duane Washington have seen action in the league from Holtmann's last five years of coaching the Buckeyes.

Diebler was brought in to help change that. Either way, this is a great opportunity for Battle. He could be a nice shooter off the bench for a team that is rebuilding.