4-star PG Noah Locke set to conclude his official visit with Ohio State

Final chance to impress Locke

As mentioned by Land-Grant Holy Land’s own Geoff Hammersley yesterday morning, Ohio State is currently hosting ‘18 PG Noah Locke of McDonogh School (MD) on an official visit to the campus. Today will be the Buckeyes’ last day with the 6'2, 160-pounder, an opportunity to wrap up the visit in a good way and leave a lasting impression on the Old Line State standout.

Right now, the 247Sports Crystal Ball leader for Locke is Kansas at 40%, which likely means not many have a good grasp on where the Owings Mills native is leaning. Either way, we will see what this official visit to Columbus does for Locke in the long run. Locke already has all five of his official visits set. The first was to Ohio State and next up will include trips to see Providence, Xavier, Michigan, and Florida — in that order.

If the Buckeyes are able to pull ahead and ultimately reel in Locke, it would give them a promising backcourt for the future. Locke is currently penciled in as the 76th-best prospect in the 2018 cycle. In addition to that, Locke is also graded out as the 15th-best point guard in the class and the third-best player from Maryland. Combine him with three-star shooting guard Torrence Watson of Whitfield School (MO), who has been committed to Ohio State since July, and surely new head coach Chris Holtmann would be pleased. For now, that duo would push the Scarlet and Gray above conference mate Northwestern and inside the top 20 in the 2018 team rankings where they would stand at 18th.

Anyhow, with Locke’s departure from campus set to take place today, it’s worth reminding everyone that the Buckeyes will welcome plenty of hoops prospects for official visits in the coming months. Next up is scheduled to be ‘18 SF Jaedon LeDee, a three-star prospect from The Kinkaid School (TX).

Meyer checks in on Sheffield, Simpson

On Wednesday afternoon, ‘19 WR Jashawn Sheffield of Frederica Academy (GA) posted on his Twitter account a photo of him and his teammate, ‘19 ATH Jaylin Simpson, FaceTiming Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer.

Obviously, the Buckeyes are prioritizing the Peach State duo and it’s not shocking to think they would do otherwise. Georgia is a state that Ohio State has always recruited in a major way. They’ve added guys like Vonn Bell and Raekwon McMillan in the past. They also have two of the top six players in the state committed for 2018.

So, of course Sheffield and Simpson are major targets for the Buckeyes. Sheffield is a five-star prospect at this time. He is 22nd overall in the class of 2019 and the fourth-best wide receiver overall. As for Simpson, he isn’t of the five-star variety right now but is still among the elite. The 5'11, 165-pounder falls just outside of the Top 200 but does grasp a four-star rating. The main problem right now for Ohio State with the duo is probably Florida State, who are likely running first in the battle for the two Georgia standouts.