Three former Ohio State basketball players are killing it while the Buckeyes struggle
By Ryan Stano
Chris Holtmann is an excellent recruiter. That's indisputable. No matter what his record has been with the Ohio State basketball team on the court over the past few years, he's really good at identifying talent to bring to Columbus. The problem has been developing that talent.
Keeping that talent has also been an issue. Several former Ohio State basketball players have left the Buckeyes and have had success elsewhere. Jaedon LeDee played for a national championship last year with San Diego State after he left Holtmann behind. This year, he's averaging 20 points a game for a team that's 17-5. You don't think he'd be nice to have?
Two other former Buckeyes have been absolutely killing it this year now that they are out of Columbus. One of them is Meechie Johnson. Johnson always showed promise while he was with the Buckeyes but just couldn't get playing time for some reason
Johnson decided to transfer to South Carolina last season. Since then, he's blossomed. Now that he's actually getting some court time, He's averaging 14.9 points per game this year for the Gamecocks. He's also shooting 35% from three and 82% from the free-throw line.
Could the Buckeyes use another ball handler who can create his own shot? Absolutely they could. Johnson would be a great guy to have on a team that struggles on both sides of the court. Johnson averages almost a steal a game too and is stoutly built, so he can guard bigger players.
Another player who is having a good year now that he's left the Buckeyes is Seth Towns. Towns is in his third program in his long collegiate career and could never quite get healthy while he was with the Buckeyes. This one doesn't hurt as much because of those injuries.
Still, Towns is averaging 15 points and 6.5 rebounds a game at Howard and he's playing 32 minutes a game. It certainly would be nice to have a guy off the bench who can score cause that's not something the Buckeyes have at the moment.
I'm glad to see these guys have success elsewhere. I really wish the Bucks still had Johnson though.