Trio of Buckeyes signees land in final 2023 On3 hoops rankings
COLUMBUS — Ohio State already knows what it has arriving on campus for next basketball season. Four talented players signed with the Buckeyes as part of their 2023 recruiting class in the last year.
Signs are showing that the four-man haul keeps getting more impressive with each new rankings release.
The folks at On3 released their final rankings update of the 2023 hoops recruiting cycle, and three of the Buckeyes four signees landed in the top 150 of the player rankings.
The class that includes Taison Chatman, Devin Royal, Scotty Middleton and Austin Parks is currently the No. 9 class in the country, according to On3. It’s the second-ranked class in the Big Ten, trailing only No. 6 Michigan State.
Three of the four Buckeyes signees are top-70 players nationally.
That all starts with Royal, who moved down seven spots from No. 23 in the previous rankings and now lands as the No. 30 overall player in the country. The four-star power forward from Pickerington Central has a chance to step in and help Ohio State instantly, especially with his size (6-foot-7, 210 pounds). He gave Chris Holtmann and the Buckeyes staff a major in-state win on the recruiting trail.
Chatman, meanwhile, is down six spots, going from the No. 34 overall player in the country to now the No. 40 player. The Totino-Grace (Minneapolis, Minnesota) High School standout could be another instant-impact freshman from the shooting guard position. At 6-foot-4, he gives the Buckeyes some length in their backcourt, which could be one of the better guard depth charts in the Big Ten.
Then there’s Scotty Middleton, a 6-foot-7, 180-pound small forward from Sunrise Christian in Miami, Florida. He moved up six spots, checking in as the No. 68 overall player in the recruiting class. He’s yet another freshman who has a chance to wow the coaching staff and earn early playing time.
The one Buckeyes signee who is not ranked in the On3 Top 150 is St. Mary’s (Ohio) center Austin Parks. The No. 202 player in the country, according to the On3 Industry Rankings, stands 6-foot-10 and weighs 240 pounds. He may be a developmental center, but he will compete for playing time as he grows with the Ohio State program.
This is an impressive class for Chris Holtmann, who just suffered his worst season since taking over at Ohio State. After reaching 20 wins in each of his first five seasons as the Buckeyes head coach, they went just 16-19 last year and missed the postseason.
But this four-man class of 2023 — and the three transfer additions this offseason — will help the Buckeyes get back on track. Expect to see them make an instant impact beginning this season.
