How the Ohio State basketball team will use its final roster spot

The Ohio State basketball program still has one more roster spot left to use. This is after a flurry of moves in the offseason reshaped the Buckeyes’ roster. Several Buckeyes left via the transfer portal which forced Jake Diebler to use the portal to replace those guys. Ohio State has to replace three starters from last year’s team too.

Ohio State isn’t looking to get a starter out of that final roster spot. They already have done that work earlier in the offseason. The Buckeyes still would like to get a solid player with that spot though. Jake Diebler was asked on Monday about that final roster spot and whether or not it will end up being filled.

Jake Diebler says the Ohio State basketball program will fill that last spot

Diebler mentioned that they will use that spot but are going to be deliberate about it.

#Buckeyes coach Jake Diebler on the 13th, unused roster spot: “The plans are to fill it. I can’t get into too much detail on it right now. We’re trying to fill it and being really intentional about it.”

— Adam Jardy (@AdamJardy) June 10, 2024

We don’t know what that means. He apparently has a plan in place for the type of player he wants to fill that final spot. The problem is that most of the really good players are already out of the portal. At this point, he might only get a bench warmer who would only get in during blowouts. Impact players might be hard to come by.

My guess is that the final spot will get filled within the next couple of weeks. It’s already been a few weeks since the Ohio State basketball program added a player to the roster anyway. There might be one player who the Buckeyes are trying to finalize some NIL stuff with. This team still could be really good this year.