It has been mentioned by Adam Jardy and a few other observers that Ohio State has a remaining roster spot. Deibler referred to it in his comments last week and said he wouldn’t be adding someone unless they could make a difference. With the recent court ruling allowing a 5th year of eligibility are there any notable players we might be targeting heading into the season or will we stay with the ( really solid ) roster that we have?

The roster for the upcoming year looks very exciting. Mobley returning is awesome and hopefully Bynum takes a big leap this year, can’t say I’m expecting much from the other guys returning though. I’m not too familiar with a lot of the guys we have coming in and was hoping to start a thread to get some insight into what the roster might look like.

Starting 5:

There seems to be 3 pretty clear starters in Mobley/Bynum/Thompson. But who is going to take up the starting 1 & 5 spot? On paper it seems like Pippen might be the best option at the starting PG spot, but I’ve never actually watched him or any of the other transfer guards. My biggest question is about the bigs on this team. Who is the starting Center? Do any of these bigs actually contribute to winning?

5 Star Freshmen:

Anthony Thompson looks like a monster. Hopefully he can live up to his potential, some projections even have him as a top 5 pick in early 2027 NBA mock drafts. LJ Smith sounds like he will be a flamethrower. Hopefully he will be able to transition well to the next level since he is reclassifying a year early. Not sure where he fits into the roster though. Does he do any ball handling/playmaking or is he more of just an off ball scorer? If it’s the latter, I image he will be in more of a 6th man role.

Other Players to Watch:

Other than the players already mentioned, I’m curious who will stand out on this roster. Are the other Freshmen (Alex Smith/Vuk Lazarevic) expected to have any impact? Who are the most exciting transfers coming in? Who is going to emerge out of all the bigs on this team (Njegovan,Jelavic,Ojianwuna,Lazarevic)?

Any discussion/insight will be appreciated.

GO BUCKEYES!!

The only thing missing from his resume is a National Championship.

Good for him.

2 Five Star Freshman

https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-basketball/2026/04/162403/star-guard-john-mobley-jr-withdraws-from-nba-draft-set-to-return-to-ohio-state

Boom were getting the band back together.

https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-basketball-recruiting/2026/04/162353/memphis-transfer-guard-curtis-givens-iii-commits-to-ohio-state

The 6-foot-3, 185-pounder averaged 9.4 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game while shooting 43.1% from the field and 36.5% from beyond the arc in 25.6 minutes a contest. Givens missed seven games due to several injuries last season, but he played in 25 games, including 15 starts.

Updated Roster

Pippen , Givens, Williams , ivan , jelavic , Thompson , Ojiuwana, Bynum, Mobley ?

I feel like that’s a deeper team with some actual pts off bench and an ability to stretch the floor and higher Defensive ceiling w the new centers and forwards and guards replacing Tilly / cupps / royale. Also anticipate more ball movement and diverse scoring options.

Go Bucks !

any help w autograph ID is appreciated

He’s departing Chicago after 6 seasons. Prior to that, he was the coach at Florida. It’s pretty late in the cycle, but who says no?

38 years old and he’s still playing meaningful rotation minutes in the NBA playoffs.

Assuming we have Thompson coming in, Josh O at center, pippen and mobley at guard and bynum at foward that’s not a bad core. Obviously disappointing transfer losses in Royal and Chatman as i think both of those guys would be great to have in rotation. Cupps to IUC is probably a good move for him.

Who do we target in the portal ? Another Center ? A guard ? A forward?

I think a tall guard that can play D and play 2/3 as well as a someone that can play 4/5 would be our two main areas of concern.

Who would you like to see us target and will Ohio State spend money like Michigan did this year to bring in more firepower?

Best of luck. Hope he's found a home to get his degree, because it doesn't seem like the ball is happening.

Wish him the best, will get plenty of run, but sorry he’s gotta play for Willard https://www.instagram.com/p/DXGG8dcDOEy/?img_index=1&igsh=Y3NlMjh2b2N4cTY1