Ohio State looks to add elite point guard Noah Locke today

Chris Holtmann, by all accounts, is doing his best to bring the Ohio State basketball program back from the dead. With verbal commitments from Jaedon LeDee, Duane Washington Jr., Luther Muhammad, and Justin Ahrens all coming in the last couple weeks, his efforts are certainly starting to pay off.

Holtmann isn’t finished, either: he and his staff continue to scout and offer some of the best available talent in the 2018 class, and are hoping to add one or two more kids to it.

They might do just that today, as elite point guard Noah Locke (Owings Mills, MD/McDonogh School) is set to make his collegiate decision.

The four-star PG has earned a reported 34 scholarship offers and is viewed as the No. 14 PG and No. 70 overall recruit in the entire class, according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings.

Ohio State has its hands full in Locke’s recruitment though, as the Buckeyes have been competing with some of the best programs in the country for his services. Along with Ohio State, Florida, Michigan, Xavier, Providence, Virginia, and Maryland are all hoping to add him to their class.

Despite Holtmann’s efforts, Florida is the favorite to land the coveted PG. After officially visiting Ohio State back in August, the Gators have been all over Locke including hosting him on an official visit last weekend.

A whopping 70-percent of the 247 Sports Crystal Ball Predictions favor the Gators and that number looks to continue to grow.

Even if Locke decides to spurn Ohio State in favor of Florida, Holtmann and co. still have plenty of recruits they are looking at that would make great additions to the country’s already No. 9 ranked recruiting class.

Ohio State makes the cut for 2019 WR

Switching over to the gridiron, Ohio State football continues to pique the interest of the top football recruits in the country. This time, they've got the attention of 2019 blue-chip WR prospect Kendrell Scurry (Thompson’s Station, TN/Independence).

The four-star WR took to Twitter Monday to show his top five schools along with their activity level in his recruitment.

While Ohio State was one of the five schools listed, Scurry has them listed as a team that hasn’t been as active as some of the others. And while that appears to be good news for schools like Penn State and Louisville, not moving at all is better than the downward direction he has Tennessee at.

Making this more interesting, Scurry committed to the Volunteers in the summer of 2016 before de-committing from the program back in May. The reasoning behind him leaving their program was to see what other schools have to offer.

Scurry’s recruitment with Ohio State appears to be dependent on the Buckeye coaching staff, however. The Buckeyes have just two true WR commits in this years class, so the position will definitely be one of much focus in next year’s class.

With that being said, the Buckeyes appear to have five-star WR Theo Wease Jr. and four-star Trey Knox higher on their big board as of today. However, that doesn’t mean the program is completely ignoring Scurry.

Currently, Ohio State is the only school Scurry has taken an unofficial visit to, attending this year’s Friday Nights Light camp in July.

Look for Urban Meyer and the Ohio State coaching staff to continue to pursue Scurry, but if spots start filling up and the Buckeyes get their guys, Scurry could be left on the outside looking in.

Quick Hits:

• Ohio State 5-star TE commit Jeremy Ruckert received his U.S. Army All-American jersey Monday. Ruckert will join Taron Vincent, Jaelen Gill, Jaiden Woodbey, Max Wray, Josh Proctor, and Dallas Gant as future Buckeyes participating in the game.

• Ohio State’s basketball program missed out on one of the country’s top-rated PGs Monday when Andrew Nembhard decided to commit to Florida over the Buckeyes and others.