Scarlet Sunrise: Ohio State basketball lands commitment from 4-star Meechie Johnson

Good morning, Ohio State fans, and welcome to the Scarlet Sunrise! Football will always be our focus, but every day we’ll cover news, notes and analysis from across Buckeyes sports. Join us each morning to get caught up on everything you missed in the world of Ohio State football, recruiting, basketball and more.

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Ohio State hoops lands Meechie Johnson

Ohio State basketball landed a surprise commitment Tuesday evening from Cleveland (Ohio) Garfield Heights star Meechie Johnson. According to the 247Sports composite rankings, Johnson is the No. 5 combo guard and No. 71 overall prospect in the Class of 2021.

Johnson joins Kalen Etzler as the other Class of 2021 commitment. The Buckeyes have the No. 1 class in the country for 2021, though that is currently due to the fact that no other team has more than one commitment for that recruiting cycle at this point.

How Ohio State kept Paris Johnson committed

Birm had a great story on Tuesday about Paris Johnson, and a lot of it touched on how Ohio State was able to keep him in the fold while he looked around at places like LSU and Georgia in the wake of Urban Meyer’s retirement. Check out what Birm had to say about how Ohio State’s staff sealed the deal, because it’s some good insight into how the program will approach things under new head coach Ryan Day:

Simply put, the Buckeyes didn’t freak out. The coaches never stopped treating him the same. Day never stopped talking to him like his future was 100-percent, absolutely certain to be at Ohio State. It was that confidence, that calmness from Day and offensive line coach Greg Studrawa, that always made Johnson feel like the Buckeyes were home, even when other schools made a dent in the home-field advantage.

“Now that I think about, each time I’d come back, [Day] would always talk as if I was already reaffirming that I was coming to Ohio State,” Johnson told Lettermen Row during Cincinnati Princeton’s media day on Monday. “It was complete confidence. There wasn’t hesitation and it wasn’t awkward…as if I’d not taken any other visits.

“I’d talk to Coach Stud, and he’d be like, ‘Paris, this is your school. This is your thing.’ It was talking like I was already reaffirmed. I tried to keep it kind of open. I was still considering LSU and still considering Georgia. But eventually the conversation, it’d be me saying, ‘I can’t wait to get here.’”

Tim May Podcast joined by Nina Day, Paul Finebaum

Welcome back to the Tim May Podcast! On this week’s episode, Nina Day and Paul Finebaum joined the show to discuss Ohio State football. Nina Day, the wife of Buckeyes coach Ryan Day, talked about the experiences over the past year and what it was like being thrust into the spotlight.

Finebaum is an ESPN college football personality and provided a national perspective on Ryan Day, Justin Fields and the two-time defending Big Ten champs heading into the season opener on Aug. 31 against Florida Atlantic.

Ohio State files to trademark ‘THE’

Trademark attorney Josh Gerben posted an interesting observation on Tuesday: Ohio State is attempting to trademark the word ‘THE.’ Though comments from people who simply saw the tweet would have you think otherwise, this has no impact on anyone’s regular usage of the word ‘the.’ It’s simply an application for a clothing-based trademark so that Ohio State can sell shirts and hats that simply say ‘THE’ and have it acknowledged as an Ohio State trademark.

Counting down

• Ohio State vs. Florida Atlantic (season opener): 17 days
• Ohio State at Michigan: 108 days

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