Justin Ahrens, Darius Bazley commit to Ohio State

Via Zach Fleer, Ohio State and Thad Matta got a pleasant surprise on Saturday when two members of the 2018 recruiting class committed to the Buckeyes. ‘18 small forward Darius Bazley and ‘18 small forward Justin Ahrens both gave a verbal commitment after recently receiving offers from Ohio State.

Bazley is a four-star commit according to the 247Sports Composite rankings and hails from Cincinnati as the second best player overall from the state of Ohio. Ahrens, meanwhile is listed as a three-star and the fourth overall rated player from the Buckeye state.

The two commits certainly helps out in the 2018 recruiting class for coach Matta as the Buckeyes previously only had one other commit (also from Ohio), shooting guard Dane Goodwin. This ups Ohio State’s class to three and should help them tremendously in the national rankings.

Ahrens had only one other offer from Stony Brook and after visiting Columbus and receiving on offer on Aug. 23, it only took four days to decide he wanted to spend his college career with Ohio State. He also received interest from Cincinnati, Butler and Dayton. Ohio State was Bazley’s only offer, but he was drawing interest from Cincinnati, Dayton, Purdue and Xavier as well.