Ohio State performs virtual visit with four-star shooting guard

College football is weird, confusing and infuriating right now. Will Ohio State play this fall? It seems as if somehow nobody knows, yet everybody claims to know somebody who knows. It is exhausting, and we won’t pretend to know what is happening.

However, there is one thing we are certain of over here at Land-Grant Holy Land, and that is recruiting never stops — even for the Basketball Buckeyes.

Coach Chris Holtmann and Ohio State have racked up an impressive recruiting class in 2021. The class currently sits at No, 7 in the country in the 247Sports Class Rankings, and is No. 3 in the Big Ten. Lead by four-star guards Malaki Branham and Meechie Johnson as well as four-star power forward Kalen Etzler, the Buckeyes have done a great job in securing solid building blocks for the future.

With most of the puzzle pieces in 2021 already in place, the staff has been able to shift some focus onto next year’s class and have given themselves a solid head start.

Ohio State already holds one commitment in 2022 in three-star SG Bowen Hardman but they are far from finished. Jake Weingarten of Stock Risers recently spoke with four-star SG Roddy Gayle Jr. (Youngstown, NY/Lewiston Porter Senior) and provided an update on his recruitment. There were two points in that interview that Buckeye Nation should be intrigued with.

The biggest takeaway is that the Buckeyes are one of the most active teams in his recruitment thus far. Holtmann and co. have proven time and time again, if they can build a solid relationship early on in the process, they will be legitimate contenders until the very end. While the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly created new obstacles in communication with recruits, the Buckeyes have shown to be some of the best at this new-age recruiting.

Keeping in line with the constant communication, Gayle Jr. also mentioned the Buckeyes as one of the teams he recently completed a virtual visit with, joining Marquette, Alabama and Georgetown. He also mentioned Syracuse, Pittsburgh and UConn as teams showing interest.

Only time will tell where Gayle Jr. will end up at, as currently there seems to be little to no separation between any of the above teams. The furthest we will speculate is that the three programs who have recently hosted him on virtual visits sit atop the rest of the group.

Gayle Jr. is the No. 12 SG in the country and the No. 63 overall prospect in the 2022 class. He received an official scholarship offer from Ohio State on April 22, 2020.

Quick Hits:

• Rivals recently updated their Rivals150 rankings on Monday. The ranking updates were not kind to the Buckeyes, as all three of Ohio State commitments saw a drop in their rankings.