Chris Holtmann and Ohio State officially welcome four hoops newcomers

Bucks ink four

Wednesday welcomed the beginning of the early signing day period in college basketball, and that’s all Chris Holtmann and the Buckeyes needed to officially welcome the four members that were verbal commitments to the hoops program.

Kicking things off for Ohio State was the prize of the entire class in ‘18 SG Luther Muhammed of Hudson Catholic (NJ), who signed his letter of intent with the Scarlet and Gray shortly after 10 AM EST. Muhammad, a four-star prospect and top 75 player nationally, is a major pull for Holtmann, as the Buckeyes' need for guards can not be understated.

Next up after Muhammed was Ohio State’s lone in-state pull for the class, as ‘18 SF Justin Ahrens of Versailles (OH) followed up just moments after. Ahrens is a three-star prospect and top 10 player in the Buckeye State. The 6'5, 181-pounder inked with the program despite a brief flirtation with other Big Ten programs after backing off of his original pledge to Ohio State back in June.

After some hours off for the Buckeyes’ fax machine, things got back up and running a little after 1 PM locally. That was when the second member of the duo out on the wing put his pen to paper: ‘18 SF Jaedon LeDee of The Kinkaid School (TX). LeDee is the second highest-rated player in the class and is a four-star prospect just like the aforementioned Muhammed. LeDee is one of the very best that the state of Texas had to offer and was just outside of the top 100 in the class.

Lastly, the Buckeyes wrapped up their expected NLOI arrivals around 4 PM. It was ‘18 PG Duane Washington of Sierra Canyon (CA) who was the final member to officially sign on with Ohio State, and it was expected, seeing that Washington is a California prospect. While the 6'3, 190-pounder may not drag around the most impressive star ranking, it is worth mentioning that he chose the Scarlet and Gray over schools like Cincinnati, Clemson, Iowa State, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, UCLA, Virginia Tech, and many more.

Gill receives Army Bowl jersey

Switching gears to some gridiron commits for the Ohio State program, Wednesday was a big day for ‘18 ATH Jaelen Gill of Westerville South (OH). The top 50 player in the class and five-star prospect had a ceremony at his high school where he received his game jersey for the Army Bowl that will take place this coming January in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

Gill is scheduled to participate in the annual event with a host of other future Ohio State Buckeyes. Linebacker Dallas Gant, tight end Jeremy Ruckert, defensive tackle Taron Vincent, and offensive tackle Max Wray will all be suiting up with Gill on the East squad. They will go toe-to-toe with the future safety tandem in Columbus of Josh Proctor and Jaiden Woodbey on the West team.

Other names that Buckeye fans will be interested to keep an eye on in this contest will be wide receiver Kamryn Babb, offensive tackle Jackson Carman, cornerback Anthony Cook, offensive tackle Cade Mays, and defensive tackle Tommy Togiai. Obviously, these are the names of some massive Ohio State targets. While it will be hard to say where there recruitments stand come January, it will be interesting to see if any of these guys become Buckeyes beforehand.