Ohio State basketball team lands a five-star prospect for 2026

The Ohio State basketball team has been messing around with the transfer portal in recent days to try and fill out their roster. They have lost a few guys to the portal also. So far, they only have one transfer into the program, and it’s former Buckeye Meechie Johnson. Johnson spent the first two years of his career with the Buckeyes.

Bringing Johnson back ended up being key for them. Not only do they get a guard who can score with the best of them, but they get someone who knows the program. Johnson returning to Ohio State is also one of the big reasons why they just landed a five-star prospect from the 2026 recruiting class.

Ohio State basketball team lands five-star guard Marcus Johnson

The Buckeyes have landed five-star point guard Marcus Johnson. He is a prospect from the 2026 recruiting class and also happens to be the cousin of Meechie Johnson. That family connection certainly had a part of this commitment, as did the belief in new head coach Jake Diebler. Diebler has now landed his first big-time prospect.

Johnson attends the same school Meechie did, Garfield Heights up in Cleveland. Johnson stands at 6’1 and 175 pounds, so he’s not huge. He makes up for that with his speed and his suddenness. His handles are very tight so he can dribble past guys and get to the rim. His shot is pretty good as well and that should keep developing.

This is great news for Diebler and the rest of the Ohio State basketball team. Johnson is a five-star prospect, something that Chris Holtmann wasn’t able to ever do in his seven-plus years. We saw that Diebler can coach on the court so the question was going to be about his recruiting ability. It seems we have that answer right now.

This is a good start. Let’s hope Diebler can continue to build on this on the recruiting trail.