ANALYSIS: LeBron James’ son will not be a Buckeye; football transfers annouce new homes

1. Bronny James is not going to be a Buckeye.

LeBron James’ oldest son committed to USC over the weekend, officially eliminating all hopes of Ohio State adding him to its 2023 recruiting class.

I say “officially” because it seemed to be trending this way for a long time even though the younger James put the Buckeyes in his final three along with the Trojans and Oregon.

A 6-foot-3 combo guard, James is generally considered a good though perhaps not great prospect at this time. He is No. 21 in 247Sports Composite national rankings, but Bronny is not expected to be the dominant force his father is. Of course, there is no shame in that, but such expectations come with the territory.

Nonetheless, Bronny is regarded as a player with a great floor sense (perhaps not unlike Pops) and strong all-around game who should be an asset to any roster.

Reading between the lines, Ohio State did not seem to go to any great lengths to save a spot for him, though.

In November, the Buckeyes signed a top 10 recruiting class that includes Taison Chatman, a 6-4 combo guard from Minnesota ranked No. 39 nationally who would seem to profile similarly to James.

Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann signed four players in November (Chatman, power forward Devin Royal of Pickerington Central, center Austin Parks of Saint Mary’s Memorial and small forward Scotty Middleton of Wichita, Kansas). That left no spots open for James, and even when three players exited after the season, they were filled by three transfers before he announced his decision (also not leaving a spot for Brice Sensabaugh to pull his name out of the NBA Draft and return, as noted by Bucknuts.com).

All of this is not to pass judgment but simply an effort to sort out some facts, especially for the average reader who probably isn’t following these types of things on a daily basis.

What happens next should be interesting to watch.

James will be living in a fishbowl at USC with his every move analyzed (or more likely overanalyzed), particularly since his father has said he still wants to play with him in the NBA (which would require the son to be good enough to be an NBA player, probably sooner than later).

Holtmann’s job is to build the best roster he can regardless of hype, and the jury remains out on whether he actually knows how to do that in the fast-changing world of college basketball.

The attention James will bring might have been a boost to Ohio State’s flagging basketball brand, or it could have been a distraction that just proved to be one more hurdle to the Buckeyes getting back to being a Big Ten title contender. Ultimately what matters is wins and losses regardless.

2. A trio of Ohio State football transfers announced where they are going next.

Caleb Burton is going to Auburn while fellow receiver Kaleb Brown will suit up for Iowa next season.

Offensive lineman Ben Christman is, like Burton, going SEC: He will play for the Kentucky Wildcats next season.

All three were four-star prospects who weren’t able to carve out a niche in their time at Ohio State. While Burton and Brown were both on campus for only one year, their exit shows the urgency receivers coach Brian Hartline created in his room by stacking highly regarded receiver classes on top of each other.

Christman signed in 2021 out of Richfield Revere in northeast Ohio. The strength of that position group is still up in the air, but 2022 recruits Tegra Tshabola and Carson Hinzman both competed for starting spots this spring, so he appears to have fallen behind.

Beyond that, Christman signed when Greg Studrawa was offensive line coach, who was replaced a year ago by Justin Frye.

I realize the transfer portal has created great upheaval and accompanying uneasiness, but the ease of player movement has some upside for players and teams alike, as these moves reinforce.

For whatever reason, things did not work out for those three, but they were able to find new homes still at the highest level of the sport. Meanwhile, Ohio State was able to bring in a four-star talent at a position of greater need in cornerback Davison Igbinosun. The Buckeyes also essentially “called up” offensive linemen Victor Cutler and Josh Simmons from Louisiana-Monroe and Josh Simmons (San Diego State) in hopes of improving another position group with some major questions this offseason.

(I am still for bringing back the year-in-residency rule for underclassmen, though.)

What’s next for Brown, in particular, should be interesting to watch. I don’t know anything about Auburn’s roster, but anyone who follows the Big Ten is aware Iowa has a great need for skill players so he could make an immediate impact (and Ohio State will be more than fine at that spot; again, this looks like a win-win).

3. Justin Fields is an Ohio State graduate.

The 2019 and ‘20 Big Ten Quarterback of the Year is two years into his NFL career, but he obviously had more on his plate since leaving Columbus for the Chicago Bears.

The Georgia native completed work towards a degree in consumer and family financial services and was among 191 current and former Ohio State athletes to go through commencement Sunday at Ohio Stadium.

Current Buckeyes Steele Chambers (finance), Tommy Eichenberg (real estate), Jaden McKenzie (human development and family science) and Kourt Williams (communications) also graduated along with former Buckeye basketball players Andre Wesson (who finished his eligibility in 2020) and Eugene Brown III (who transferred to Georgia Southern last month after three seasons in Columbus).