Ohio State Buckeyes
Bronny’s father is originally from Akron, Ohio and while the Zips aren’t big enough to get him, the Buckeyes are. They’ve had a relationship with the family and just like how LeBron returned home to get the city and state an NBA championship, his son could come back over to help the Big Ten program make its first Final Four appearance since 2012.
Head coach Chris Holtmann has been at the program for six years now, going to the NCAA Tournament each year and winning 20+ games. There’s also a healthy number of players that have gone to the NBA, including Duane Washington, Malaki Branham, and soon Brice Sensabaugh, who leads the team in scoring and is a projected first-round NBA Draft pick.
The guard situation after this season will be interesting. OK State grad transfer Isaac Likekele won’t be around after this season but Bruce Thornton likely will. The freshman guard has played well as of late and is averaging 8.7 ppg and 2.9 apg on the season as a starter. But James could potentially take over as a lead guard on what’ll be on paper, a young backcourt.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ohio State try to land a veteran ball-handler next offseason via the portal to have some experience and it could very well affect James’ potential minutes if the goal is to be a “one and done”. But for a recruiting class that’s already top-10 good, adding James could make a case for it being easily the best in the Big Ten, even ahead of Michigan State.