Roddy Gayle speculation swirls around the Ohio State basketball team

The Ohio State basketball program has had two players leave via the transfer portal so far. Bowen Hardman and Scotty Middleton, both guards, have decided to leave. Jake Diebler has replaced them with Meechie Johnson so far. There’s a shot that Bronny James could end up replacing one of them too.

Johnson is coming back to Ohio State to start. He’s going to be the guard who is next to Bruce Thornton. It gives the Buckeyes a nice scoring combo too. Both guys can create their own shot and are good for 12-20 points per game. However, the addition of Johnson brings up an important question; what happens to Roddy Gayle?

Will Roddy Gayle be back with the Ohio State basketball team?

Gayle is likely pushed back to the bench with Johnson’s arrival. While his scoring went up this year as a starter, his three-point percentage plummeted to 28.4%. He might be better suited as a guy who gets 20 minutes off the bench to get buckets. That’s not something the Ohio State basketball team had this past season.

When asked if Gayle will be back next year, Jake Diebler was extremely non-committal. He didn’t say one way or the other definitively. I have to imagine that Gayle is getting contacted by other schools right now to gauge his interest in what he might be thinking. Will he stay to be a bench player? Or will he go somewhere else to start?

I wouldn’t be shocked if Gayle did enter the portal. His offense really slumped after a strong showing in the non-conference slate, although it got a bit better when Diebler took over. I’m not sure he would appreciate a demotion in his third year with the program and I highly doubt Diebler is going to start three guards next year.

Perhaps that’s the simplest solution to all this. Maybe starting Thornton, Johnson, Gayle, Devin Royal, and Felix Okpara is what Diebler opts to do. The Buckeyes are not done with their transfer portal work though. More players will be joining the team soon.