Albany grad transfer Joe Cremo to have visit with Ohio State’s Chris Holtmann, per report

The transfer market is heating up in college basketball. The Ohio State Buckeyes are looking at that market—and are inching closer and closer to landing a recruit.

Right now, one of the hottest prospects on the transfer list is Albany’s Joe Cremo. Cremo was a 6-foot-4 shooting guard for the Albany Great Danes, and put together 17.8 points per game in his junior season. He is listed as a graduate transfer, so he’ll have an immediate impact for whoever he signs on with.

According to a report from ESPN, Chris Holtmann will be making the trek to Albany to meet with Cremo. That’s the good news; the bad news is that OSU isn’t the only big-name program wanting Cremo’s services.

Greg McDermott, who came this close to becoming the next head coach of the Buckeyes after the departure of Thad Matta, is meeting with Cremo, too. (For those wondering: McDermott is still at Creighton.)

Shaka Smart, representing the Texas Longhorns, might be the other biggest name from the tweet to have a meeting with Cremo. The Longhorns are coming off a season where they were the No. 10-seed in the NCAA Tournament, but were bounced in the First Round by Nevada.

Pat Chambers is a name that should be familiar to OSU fans, as his Penn State Nittany Lions were the Buckeyes’ kryptonite this past season. Three times PSU knocked off the Bucks—with two of those times coming down to the wire. While Chambers’ didn’t coach his program to the Big Dance, the Nittany Lions did end up with the NIT Championship. Geographically, they would be one of the closest programs to Cremo, if that was a priority. PSU sharpshooter Tony Carr declared for the NBA Draft, so they’ll need someone to put points up on the board.

The last coach mentioned in the tweet is Steve Wojciechowski, the head coach of Marquette. If Cremo wanted coaching from a Mike Krzyzewski disciple, then Woj is the guy. He played at Duke from 1994-98, and was an assistant from 1999-2014. During his time as an assistant to Coach K, the Blue Devils won two national championships.

This is a stacked list of coaches—as well as programs. Ohio State’s strong point right now has to be what they just displayed over the course of the season. They were projected to be at the bottom of the Big Ten, but ended up as the second best team in the conference; additionally, they not only made the NCAA Tournament, but they won a game. Holtmann has proved that he can make a team into a winner almost overnight, and if that’s an important thing to Cremo, then OSU may be the place for him.

We’ll have a lot better picture on where the Buckeyes stand for the graduate transfer as the weekend winds down.

The focus is the Empire State

Cremo is in Upstate New York, but there’s a prospect on the transfer market that played in Manhattan. Guard Kyle Castlin is also a graduate transfer and comes from Columbia University.

In the tweet, 247sports had the scoop on Castlin meeting with Holtmann last week. Like the case with Cremo, Castlin is spending the weekend meeting with other coaches. Richmond and Xavier are the ones that will meet with the 6-foot-4 guard from Marietta, Georgia.

Remember: While Xavier was a No. 1-seed in this past NCAA Tournament, they are without the head coach that got them there. Chris Mack took the head coach position at Louisville, leaving Travis Steele as the new coach of the Musketeers. That shake-up may play a role in not only the transfer market, but recruiting in Ohio, too. A good litmus test to see that theory is in the recruitment of Castlin.

If anything goes down this weekend, we’ll have you covered.