Brandon Noel led Wright State in scoring and rebounding last year as a junior. Doing both of those things well again would be a boost for the Buckeyes. (Press Pros File Photos)
Jake Diebler recruited experienced transfers, a promising freshman and kept a couple guys around from last year. The goal is for that group to mesh with a talented and experienced backcourt to compete in the Big Ten and play in the NCAA Tournament. Part 4 of a summer series on the building of the 2025-2026 basketball Buckeyes.
Columbus, OH – If you regularly watched Ohio State play basketball last season, it didn’t require mathematical equations to know that the backcourt scored most of the points.
A lot more.
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Here’s the math to prove the imbalance. The backcourt scored 64.6% of the points. The frontcourt scored 35.4%. That’s a gap – created by a lack of scoring versatility – that made the Buckeyes too easy to guard. That deficiency hurt the Buckeyes in close games when defenses could focus on the guards because they took the crunch-time shots in a 17-15 season that ended on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State basketball and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Upgrading the frontcourt scoring and rebounding was a must this offseason for head coach Jake Diebler as he attempts to establish a program identity that can compete in the Big Ten and beyond. Last year’s disappointing results sparked the emphasis for this year’s imports to supply more scoring abilities, more rebounding and more size.
Last year, the Buckeyes relied on transfers Aaron Bradshaw and Sean Stewart to be the bigs who would give the offense an inside-out versatility. But they combined for only 11.7 points and 8.5 rebounds.
Bradshaw missed 10 games and averaged 6.0 points on 49% shooting, a low rate for a 7-footer expected to finish around the basket. Bradshaw did not show the kind of big-man IQ it takes to play in the physical environment that is unescapable near the basket. He didn’t attack the basket to score unless it was an unimpeded dunk.
Stewart, at 6-9, was more physical than Bradshaw and could score in loose-ball situations or when he received a good pass going toward the basket. But, like Bradshaw, running a play for Stewart in the low post was not a dependable scoring option. He rebounded and bodied up against the bigger players, but without being a scoring threat his overall effectiveness was limited.
A’mare Bynum is Ohio State’s top high school recruit. Diebler expects Bynum’s physical style and skill to impact the team this season.
Devin Royal averaged 13.7 points and was the lone inside scoring threat on scouting reports. But at 6-6, Royal’s scoring was limited against bigger teams in league play because he often played the power forward role. However, this year Royal will be on the wing. He still expects to flash the ability to use his quick first step, wide shoulders and long arms to attack the basket in ways he did well last year. But he’s also improved his perimeter scoring. His 3-point percentage climbed in the second half of last season.
“We felt like experience was important in the front court, increasing our size at the three, four and five positions,” Diebler said. “That was important because rebounding was an issue for us last year. And we raised our collective basketball IQ.”
Bradshaw and Stewart were young players. But this year’s two big additions – Christoph Tilly and Brandon Noel – are seniors. They will add versatility on the offensive end and rebounding on the defensive end.
Diebler knew he needed a post player in the 7-foot range who would be a scoring threat that defenses must account for. He found Tilly of Santa Clara looking for a Power 5 opportunity for his senior season. Tilly averaged 12.5 points and 4.9 rebounds for the Broncos. Tilly won’t impose his will like Jared Sullinger, Terence Dials or Greg Oden. But he has better footwork, better fundamentals and a softer touch than last year’s bigs.
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“He can move, shoot it, put on the floor if he needs to,” Royal said. “I personally love his game.”
Noel, who is from Chillicothe, is a 6-8 forward who made an immediate and lasting impact at Wright State. Last year he led the Raiders in scoring at 19.0 a game and in rebounding at 7.7.
“He can do everything on the court,” Royal said. “He can put it on the floor if you need to, he can shoot it and go big in the paint. So I like him a lot.”
Ohio State will be the most talented team Tilly and Noel have played on, but Diebler doesn’t expect that to bother either of them.
Christoph Tilly averaged 12.5 points last year at Santa Clara and upgrades the Buckeyes’ ability to score in the post.
“They didn’t play a lot of Big 10 basketball, but they’ve both been well-coached,” he said. “They both are really smart. You combine that basketball IQ with their skill level, being able certainly to make shots, pass, make decisions, dribble, that combination really is going to help that transition for them. And we need them to be impactful. There’s no question about it.”
Royal at the three position, lending a hand in rebounding and continuing to be a threat to attack the basket, are parts of his game Diebler is counting on. How the ball gets to Royal for inside attacks will take some different routes than it did last season.
“The one thing about Devin, he’s got a really high basketball IQ, and he’s going to find a way to be productive,” Diebler said. “He’s always done that his entire career at every level. That production has got to look a little different, but it can’t completely go away from some of the things that make him special.”
While others who played sparingly left after last season, Ivan Njegovan, a 7-1 sophomore from Croatia, stayed, and Diebler is pleased. Njegovan played in 21 games and averaged 5.5 minutes. If he matures into a dependable backup, the Buckeyes won’t get smaller when Tilly rests.
“Ivan is going to be really important,” Diebler said. “Ivan has improved since the end of the season to now, and he’s got a window now to take an even bigger jump.”
Diebler’s top freshman recruiting prize is 6-8 A’mare Bynum from Omaha, Nebraska. He played high-level high school competition for Link Academy and was a late riser in the recruiting rankings into the top 60 as a four-star. Recruiting analysts likened Bynum’s choice of Ohio State to a draft steal for the Buckeyes.
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“We’re super excited about his upside,” Diebler said. “He’s got a physicality to him that most freshmen don’t have. Certainly there’s a size component to that … he’s got the height, he’s got the length, he’s got the athleticism, and he plays with a force and physicality that’s been impressive to see for such a young player.”
Another transfer is Josh Ojianwuna, a 6-10, 230-pounder who will add size, athleticism and rebounding inside. He also has experience in the high pick-and-roll game and is able to guard taller post players and every other position. He played three seasons at Baylor before injuring his knee in February, missing the final 12 games.
“Josh will impact us both offensively and defensively at a high level,” Diebler said. “He’s working really, really hard on his recovery.”
Jake Diebler’s strategy for developing a winner begins with retention and development.
Injuries during last season and this offseason have slowed Colin White’s development. The 6-6 forward from Ottawa-Glandorf played important minutes at times last year when healthy. Diebler loves how hard White plays and expects his scoring to improve with experience.
While improving the point production in the frontcourt is crucial for next season, the Buckeyes must also rebound better. In Big Ten play they were outrebounded by two a game. Part of Diebler’s recruiting was aimed at addressing that deficiency. 
“There’s multiple games you can go back to in key moments in the last four or five minutes of games where we didn’t get a defensive rebound, and it cost us … it cost us in a major way,” he said. “We knew we had to address that.”
Diebler’s plan to address the need for better scorers and rebounders – and to do it quickly – took him to the transfer portal in search of fixes. On paper, these fixes look better than last year’s fixes.
But the Buckeyes play in the Big 10. Everyone has productive bigs. And everyone else tried to get better, too. The key to competing at a higher level in the Big 10 and being a sure-thing NCAA team lies in how well and consistently the new recruits play and are able to endure the game-to-game rigors of a league they’ve never experienced.
The math, whatever it adds up to, won’t lie.
Coming soon
The top transfers’ summer experience
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