Marcus Johnson, five-star Class of 2026 Ohio guard, commits to Ohio State basketball

Ohio State has landed its first commitment from a high school player in the Jake Diebler era, and he’s a highly rated one.

Marcus Johnson, a five-star guard from Garfield Heights, Ohio, has committed to the Buckeyes for the class of 2026. The 6-2, 170-pound Johnson has picked Ohio State after having taken multiple visits and developing a close relationship with Diebler first as a recruiter and now as a head coach.

“It’s easy to make a decision like this when a coach has been the one coming to your practices, coming to all your games, who has been the one communicating with you and built that relationship and now he becomes the head coach,” Johnson’s father, Sonny Johnson, said. “One thing my son wanted was to always feel loved and wanted. You want to go where you’re loved and wanted and somebody has a plan for you, and we think coach Diebler is that guy.”

Although most recruiting services don’t have lengthy lists of the top prospects in the 2026 class, Johnson is the first player in the 247Sports or ESPN rankings to commit to a school. ESPN ranks him as a five-star prospect and the No. 12 overall player in the class while 247Sports has him as a four-star prospect and the No. 24 overall player. Both list him as the top player in Ohio.

He is Ohio State’s first commitment in either the 2025 or 2026 classes.

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“Why not take it?” Sonny Johnson said. “Now they have you in their plans: we can’t take (other) this guy here because we’ve got Marcus here, we’re going to develop them. We’re trying to bring pride to Ohio State basketball and bring national recognition to our state.”

The Johnson family has taken in multiple games since Diebler was named interim coach and eventually hired for…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/marcus-johnson-five-star-class-183014578.html

Author : The Columbus Dispatch

Publish date : 2024-04-10 18:30:14

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