NCAA Basketball Recruiting: 10 takeaways from 2023 early signing period

4. Does Ohio State have too many guards for Bronny James to join?

One major storyline that has continued to fly under the radar is the future destination of Bronny James, the son of NBA star and future Hall of Famer, LeBron James. He’s a consensus top-40 prospect in the 2023 class and has looked good in his senior year of high school, could rise into “five-star” status.

There are several schools out west (USC, UCLA, Oregon) that have reportedly been involved with the younger James, as well as Ohio State, the top program where his father is originally from (Akron.. but the Buckeyes are the big name in that region). The Big Ten team has been a consistently ranked program and NCAA Tournament contender and will lose senior transfer Isaac Likelele, potentially opening up some future room.

What’s interesting is that the Buckeyes currently have a top-10 class, with four commits. One of them is Taison Chatman, a top-50 combo guard. He’ll join a trio of freshman guards already on the roster in Roddy Gayle, Bruce Thornton, and Bowen Hardman. As of now, none of them looks like “one and dones”, like Malaki Branham did a year ago.

There are a lot of young guards that’ll be on the roster a year from now, and that doesn’t even include a transfer or two next offseason. Is James good enough to get minutes over all of them early on or could he be part of a clear logjam? In such a quiet recruitment, who knows what the end result will be.