Ohio State transfer Roddy Gayle Jr. commits to Michigan basketball
Dusty May continued his unbelievable start as the Michigan basketball coach with yet another impressive pickup, this one guard Roddy Gayle from Ohio State. Gayle pledged to the Wolverines after a weekend visit in which he attended the football team’s spring game.
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Gayle heard from Georgia, Gonzaga, Tennessee, Oregon, Creighton, Clemson, Duke, Alabama, and Syracuse after entering the portal, but May acted quickly to get him to visit. He reportedly saw Creighton before U-M, but sources believed Michigan was in a very good place during the weekend visit.
Gayle finished third on the Buckeyes in scoring with 13.4 points per game, adding 4.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists. The shooting guard was On3’s No. 62 player nationally in the 2022 class and No. 8 shooting guard, played two seasons in Columbus and has two years of eligibility remaining. He’s the 48th-best overall player and No. 7 shooting guard in the portal, according to On3’s rankings.
A 6-4, 210-pounder, Gayle shot 51.3 percent on two-point shots (140-of-273), 28.2 percent on triples (29-of-103) and 83.2 percent on free throws (119-of-143). He had one of the best games of his career against West Virginia when he scored 32 points.
Gayle ran 226 ball-screen possessions (including passes), generating 0.934 points per play in those situations. He struggled with his jump shot efficiency, with a 38.4 effective field goal percentage. He took 77 jumpers off the dribble with a 39% effective field goal percentage.
The Buckeyes finished an up-and-down season with a 22-14 record. Head coach Chris Holtmann was fired in February, with assistant Jake Diebler taking over in the interim. He was promoted as the program’s full-time head coach at the end of the year, and while he reportedly had a great relationship with Gayle, his player opted for his top rival.
“The game slows down for them a little bit once they see the game more and know what to expect,” Holtmann said in December, discussing Gayle. “I think you’re seeing the game slow down for him. His paint reads need to get better. Where’s the right opportunity? Just in general, his handle last year and at times this year is too loose. He’s got to tighten it.
“We want to be able to play through him. We ran a middle drive opportunity for him and he made a really good drive. He’s hard to keep out of the paint. We want to be able to play through him and a couple other guys late.”
Now, the Buckeyes will be playing against Gayle in the near future.
