The first year of the Jake Diebler era will feature the most scholarship players in Ohio State men’s basketball history.
Technically, the Buckeyes will feature a full complement of 13 scholarship players for the 2024-25 season. Yet as Ohio State has built its roster for the year and sustained a summer injury to a projected rotation player, first-year coach Jake Diebler was able to add one more piece to the puzzle as a walk-on whose NIL compensation will cover the costs of enrolling at Ohio State.
Projected to finish eighth in the annual unofficial media poll conducted jointly by The Dispatch and The Indianapolis Star, the Buckeyes aim to return to the NCAA Tournament after missing out during each of the last two seasons. Ohio State went 22-14 last season as Diebler was named coach after having taking over midseason on an interim basis.
Sifting through a 16-man roster featuring nine new faces including two walk-ons requires effort, and The Dispatch has you covered. To get ready for the season, The Dispatch is once again rolling out its annual preseason power rankings. Each weekday leading into the Nov. 4 season opener against Texas in Las Vegas, we will count upward while projecting which players will have the biggest roles on the 2023-24 season. This isn’t just a measurement of who will lead the team in any particular statistical category, but a series of educated guesses on which players’ contributions will go the longest way toward where the Buckeyes finish.
The series continues today with fifth-year guard Meechie Johnson Jr..
No. 2 – Meechie Johnson Jr.
Position: Guard
Eligibility: Fifth year (zero remaining)
Height/weight: 6 feet 2 / 185 pounds
Jersey number: 1
Major: Sport industry
Meechie Johnson Jr.:Ohio State’s Meechie Johnson aiming for storybook ending to emotional career
Meechie Johnson’s background
Johnson has taken a unique path to this season at Ohio State. A native of Northeast Ohio, Johnson committed to the Buckeyes on August 13, 2019 as a member of the 2021 recruiting class. His commitment came while Johnson was rehabbing a torn ACL suffered at the end of a sophomore season that saw him average 23 points per game at Garfield Heights.
He transferred to Osborne Academy in Willoughby, Ohio, for his junior year and to further rehabilitate his knee, sitting out the entire season in the process. Johnson then made the decision to transfer back to Garfield Heights for his senior year and reunite with his uncle, Sonny Johnson, as coach. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, though, Johnson’s plans changed.
When Ohio State lost projected backup guard Abel Porter to a career-ending heart condition, the Buckeyes engaged with Johnson and his family about a new plan. With the NCAA affording an extra year of eligibility to all players who participated in the 2020-21 season, Johnson was able to graduate early and enroll at Ohio State after the fall semester. He announced his plans at a press conference held inside Harvest Time Evangelistic Ministries Worship Center, where his grandfather, Williams, had been a pastor for more than a decade.
He became the second player to graduate early, reclassify and join the Buckeyes. Musa Jallow was the first, who enrolled for the 2017-18 season as a 17-year-old. Johnson arrived at Ohio State older than Jallow did for his first year. Johnson finished as a four-star prospect in the 247Sports.com rankings, which placed him at No. 100 overall, No. 2 in Ohio and the No. 20 point guard in the country.
Johnson made his Ohio State debut in a Jan. 9, 2021 win at Rutgers with no fans in the stands, playing four minutes and not recording a statistic. He hit two 3-pointers in his next game, a home win against Northwestern, while playing 11 minutes. He would appear in 17 of Ohio State’s final 20 games, averaging 1.2 points while shooting 50.0% (6 for 12) in 5.8 minutes per game.
As a sophomore, Johnson began the season as a starter but gave way to eventual Big Ten freshman of the year Malaki Branham after the first game. He hit the game-winning, last-second shot against Seton Hall on Nov. 22, 2021, while playing in the Fort Myers Tip-Off but would battle injuries as the season progressed. Johnson suffered a facial fracture and concussion that forced him to play with a cage-like mask during the season, costing him three games, and an ankle injury that sidelined him for two more.
After averaging 4.4 points, 1.5 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 26 games including five starts, Johnson entered the transfer portal. He took visits to DePaul, Pitt and South Carolina before committing to the Gamecocks and new coach Lamont Paris with three years of eligibility remaining.
Johnson averaged 12.7 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.6 assists while starting 29 of 30 games as South Carolina went 11-21 in 2022-23. After a breakout 2023-24 season, Johnson reentered the transfer portal and committed to Ohio State for his final year of college basketball.
Meechie Johnson’s 2023-24 season recap
It was a career year for Johnson in his second season at South Carolina. Johnson averaged 14.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 0.9 steals per game while helping South Carolina tie a program record with 26 wins and its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2017. He finished the year as a second-team all-SEC selection and was a finalist for the Lute Olson National Player of the Year award
Johnson scored a career-high 29 points thanks to a 4-of-9 effort from 3 in a Nov. 28 win against Notre Dame and followed that by scoring 24 points and grabbing eight rebounds in a win against George Washington on Dec. 1.
Johnson led the team in made 3-pointers (60) and steals (30) and was second in assists (95). His shooting percentage of 39.9% (156 for 391) and free-throw percentage of 78.8% (93 for 118) were career-high marks.
He shot 32.1% from 3-point range, a third straight season that saw him shoot between 32.1 and 32.7% from deep. According to KenPom.com, Johnson finished 13th in the SEC in assist rate (23.4%) and 20th in defensive rebounding rate (15.6%). He was also 12th in percentage of shots taken while on the floor at 26.7%.
247Sports ranked Johnson as a four-star transfer prospect, the No. 82 overall player in the portal and the No. 15 shooting guard.
What you need to know about Meechie Johnson
He has a dog named Nemo that he got while at South Carolina to help him with the homesickness he felt.
“When I had him, being 10 hours from home, I could feel the presence of my family and the people that I missed,” he said. “If you’ve got a dog, you know what that feels like.”
As a freshman at Garfield Heights, Johnson scored 50 points against Cleveland Benedictine in his second game. Although they are not related by blood, Johnson considers LeBron James like an uncle, and the NBA great has seen him play in person. Johnson Sr. and James have a long-standing relationship. As part of his rehab in high school, Johnson played AAU basketball alongside Kalen Etzler for the Indy Heat program.
His father, Demetrius Johnson, played college basketball for Kent State from 2004-05 and then for Purdue Fort Wayne from 2007-08 after sitting out a year in between due to transfer rules. He was coached by former Ohio State associate coach Ryan Pedon, now the head coach at Illinois State, while at Kent State, and by former Ohio State assistant coach Terry Johnson, now an assistant at Purdue, while at Purdue Fort Wayne.
Johnson made the 2021-22 Big Ten academic honor roll and the SEC’s academic honor roll during both of his years at South Carolina. He participated in a 2021 Team USA U19 basketball camp but did not make the final roster.
Meechie Johnson’s 2024-25 season outlook
Johnson immediately stepped into a leadership role upon his return to Ohio State, and Diebler said as such during a summer interview.
“His growth as a man, as a leader, his maturity is different,” the coach said. “He’s still the same fun-loving, hard-working young man. Some of those foundational things that make him a special person are still the same. He’s grown as a leader. He’s matured.”
The hope is that will carry over to his game, too. In teaming with junior guard Bruce Thornton, Johnson’s return to Ohio State gives the Buckeyes one of the most veteran backcourts in the nation. Expectations are high: Johnson is one of 20 watch-list candidates for the 2025 Jerry West Award, awarded by the The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame to the top Division I shooting guard in the nation. ESPN ranked him the nation’s No. 42 impact newcomer in college basketball this season.
His return has been an emotional one. Johnson told The Dispatch that it feels like a movie script, bringing him back to where it all started for one final season. It’s clear that helping Ohio State back to the NCAA Tournament, something he experienced during both of his prior seasons with the program, matters to Johnson at a high level.
He immediately steps into a significant role in the backcourt. Johnson has taken a high volume of shots in each of his last two years and will be tasked with scoring, facilitating and doing a little bit of everything to help anchor an Ohio State team primarily comprised of new faces. This isn’t the same Johnson that Ohio State fans saw a few years ago – he’s openly spoken of his growth and development since leaving, and the opportunity to finish his career back at a school that deeply matters to him is important.
If he can improve on his efficiency and pair seamlessly with Thornton, Ohio State has a chance to feature one of the Big Ten’s top backcourts and also take pressure off a reconstructed, younger frontcourt. Johnson’s experience will have a critical role in helping Ohio State reach its ceiling.
“We want to get back and make a run in the tournament,” Johnson said. “That’s our goal, our expectation. Forget a run: we’re trying to win a national championship. That’s why I came back.”
Previous power rankings
No. 3 – Aaron Bradshaw
No. 4 – Sean Stewart
No. 5 – Micah Parrish
No. 6 – Devin Royal
No. 7 – Evan Mahaffey
No. 8 – John ‘Juni’ Mobley Jr.
No. 9 – Ques Glover
No. 10 – Colin White
No. 11 – Ivan Njegovan
No. 12 – Austin Parks
No. 13 – Kalen Etzler
No. 14 – Colby Baumann
No. 15 – Braylen Nash
No. 16 – Taison Chatman
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