Here's how transfers have done at Ohio State under Chris Holtmann
When he arrived at Ohio State in 2017, coach Chris Holtmann had an outlined plan for how to utilize transfers. In an era of growing roster turnover, Holtmann’s ongoing goal was to have one “sit-out” transfer each year, allowing that player to develop in practice before taking the court while also helping provide some multi-year stability in the locker room.
That was before the advent of the transfer portal and the one-time transfer waiver giving all players the ability to change schools with immediate eligibility. Now, while the Buckeyes have remained committed to building through high school recruiting, they have had to shift gears on the transfer front in an effort to plug holes and add offseason depth. On April 6, Ohio State landed Minnesota transfer forward Jamison Battle, who will spend his fifth and final season of college basketball with the Buckeyes.
Here’s a look at how transfers with immediate eligibility have fared at Ohio State during Holtmann’s first six years.
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2017-18Andrew Dakich transfers from Michigan
With a significant need for bodies after inheriting a roster decimated by transfers, off-the-court issues and ineligibility, Holtmann was able to add a player with some Big Ten experience. In four years as a walk-on, Andrew Dakich had totaled 203 minutes of playing time in 49 games. He redshirted during his final year with the Wolverines and was able, as a graduate, to spend his final season elsewhere without sitting out a year.
The hope was that Dakich could provide a handful of minutes each game and simply give the Buckeyes a body in the backcourt who could handle the ball and not turn it over. He exceeded that and more: Dakich averaged 19.0 minutes, 3.0 points and 2.1 assists as Ohio State won 25 games and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament. After scoring 22 points in three years with the Wolverines, he had 101 for the Buckeyes and was a primary contributor.
2018-19Keyshawn Woods transfers from Wake Forest
After losing Big Ten player of the year Keita Bates-Diop and fellow future NBA player Jae’Sean Tate, Ohio State entered Holtmann’ second season in need of some scoring pop as well as some experience. Again going the graduate transfer route, Holtmann added Keyshawn Woods, a guard who began his career with a season at Charlotte, sat out a transfer year and then played two seasons with the Demon Deacons.
Woods averaged 12.2 points in 61 games at Wake Forest, and although his scoring dipped at Ohio State he was a critical part of helping the Buckeyes earn one of the final at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament. He had 18 points in a Big Ten Tournament win against Indiana that kept the Buckeyes in the field, then after a loss to Michigan State tied a season high with 19 points in a first-round upset of No. 6 seed Iowa State. He averaged 8.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists while shooting 42.0% from the floor and 30.0% from 3-point range.
2019-20CJ Walker eligible after transfer from Florida State
A 6-1, 195-pound lefty, Walker spent a year learning the system as a traditional transfer and sat out the 2018-19 season before playing the next two years with the Buckeyes. He anchored what would be the most well-balanced team of Holtmann’s tenure, the only one that finished top-20 in both adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency according to KenPom.com, averaging 8.7 points, 3.5 assists and 3.1 rebounds while shooting 42.7% from the floor, 31.1% from 3 and 81.2% from the line.
An injury to his right thumb hampered Walker during the following season and threatened to prematurely end his season. It wound up costing him four midseason games and limiting his effectiveness, but he finished averaging a career-high 9.5 points per game despite shooting 26.5% from 3. In two years at Ohio State, Walker averaged 9.1 points, 3.9 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 1.1 steals while shooting 41.9% from the floor, 30.1% from 3 and 88.2% from the line.
2020-21Justice Sueing eligible after transfer from California
As Walker became eligible to play for the Buckeyes, Holtmann landed another sit-out transfer in native Hawai’ian Justice Sueing. After averaging 14.1 points and 5.7 rebounds in two seasons as the Golden Bears went a combined 16-47, Sueing opted to test himself and transfer to a part of the country that was new to him. He committed to Ohio State, sat out the 2019-20 season (and dealt with a foot injury that would require surgery) and immediately slotted into an impact role with the Buckeyes.
He would finish by averaging 11.4 points and 5.3 rebounds in 68 games spread across three seasons while dealing with an injury that limited him down the stretch in 2020-21 and cost him all but two games in 2021-22. Once he fully healed from that groin injury, Sueing played his sixth and final season of college basketball as a captain and averaged 12.3 points and 5.2 rebounds but endured an uneven season for both himself and the Buckeyes. Sueing had a career game with 33 points in a win against Texas Tech in his final game at the Maui Invitational but would briefly lose his spot in the starting lineup and suffer through the worst-shooting season (42.4%) of his career as Ohio State went 16-19 and missed out on the postseason.
Abel Porter transfers from Utah State
A one-time walk-on guard at Utah State, Abel Porter was recruited to fulfill a Dakich-like role and help provide some experience after logging 94 games in four seasons with the Aggies. Instead, Porter collapsed during a preseason workout and was diagnosed Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a genetic condition where an enlarged portion of heart can make it struggle to pump blood. Just like that, Porter’s playing career was over, and he never appeared in a game for the Buckeyes.
Jimmy Sotos transfers from Bucknell
The initial plan for Jimmy Sotos was to sit out the 2020-21 season, acclimate to the high-major level after three seasons with the Bison and have two seasons of eligibility remaining. That changed when Porter’s career ended, and after an initial waiver for immediate eligibility was denied Sotos was given the opportunity after an appeal. His addition seemed all the more meaningful when Walker went down with his thumb injury, but in his first game in the starting lineup in Walker’s place Sotos suffered a season-ending shoulder injury when he dove for a loose ball in the final minutes of a win at Rutgers.
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He played in 12 games that season, and although he was fully healthy for 2021-22 his impact was limited. He totaled 19 games that season as a reserve and ended his Ohio State career having averaged 1.7 points and 1.2 assists while playing 8.4 minutes per game.
Seth Towns transfers from Harvard
Dubbed an honorary Buckeye during his youth by former Ohio State forward David Lighty, Towns played two seasons for the Crimson and was the Ivy League player of the year in 2017-18 for averaging 16.0 points and 5.7 rebounds while shooting 44.1% from 3 and 41.9% overall. His season was cut short by a knee injury, however, and Towns would sit out the next two years while trying to get back on the court.
That finally came at Ohio State, when he picked the Buckeyes ahead of Duke and others. He would make his Ohio State debut in a Dec. 19 game against UCLA at Cleveland's Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse and managed to appear in 25 games that season, averaging 3.8 points and 1.7 rebounds while shooting 42.1% from the floor and 34.1% from 3. It would mark the end of his career, however: after a back injury cost him all of 2021-22, Towns had planned to play in 2022-23 but wound up retiring from the game prior to the start of the preseason after continually dealing with injuries.
2021-22
Jamari Wheeler transfers from Penn State
After four years with the Nittany Lions, Wheeler took advantage of the extra year given to all players who participated during the COVID-19 pandemic and transferred to the Buckeyes. Known for his defense at Penn State, Wheeler averaged 4.6 assists and 2.6 steals per game 3.8 points while shooting 40.7% from the field, 29.8% from 3 and 54.5% from the free-throw line and twice earning all-defensive team honors. It was hoped that his addition would help shore up a defense that had ranked 82nd nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency according to KenPom.com.
That never quite materialized. Ohio State dropped to 111th nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency and Wheeler averaged a career-low 1.7 steals, but he did assume a more pronounced offensive role. Wheeler averaged 9.7 points and shot 86.1% from the line, both career highs, while connecting on 45.8% of his shots and 38.8% of his 3s. He started all 31 games for the Buckeyes.
Joey Brunk transfers from Indiana
The self-described “Matthew McConaughey with a baby hook” arrived at Ohio State as a well-traveled college basketball veteran. Brunk began his career playing for Holtmann at Butler in 2016-17 but took a hardship redshirt season after his father passed away following a fight with cancer. He remained with the Bulldogs after Holtmann went to Ohio State and spent two more seasons there before transferring to Indiana in 2019-20.
He played a season with the Hoosiers, then sat out 2020-21 due to a back injury and opted to use his sixth year to reunite with Holtmann. Fully healed from the back injury, Brunk provided depth and experience primarily off the bench for the Buckeyes. After averaging 6.8 points and 5.2 rebounds in 19.6 minutes per game in 32 games (31 starts) with the Hoosiers, Brunk averaged 2.4 points and 1.6 rebounds while only playing 7.6 minutes per game. He did have one especially memorable outing, when he scored 18 of his 68 points for the season in an 80-69 win against Michigan State on March 3 that snapped a two-game losing streak.
Cedric Russell transfers from Louisiana
When Duane Washington Jr. played himself from the NBA’s G-League camp into a full combine invitation, the prolific shooting guard opted to remain in the draft. That left Ohio State scrambling for guard depth in the early summer, and thanks to a connection with newly hired assistant coach Tony Skinn the Buckeyes identified and signed the 6-2, 190-pound guard to help partially fill the void vacated by Washington’s departure.
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Russell had averaged 11.4 points in four seasons with the Ragin’ Cajuns and was coming off a fourth year that saw him average 17.2 points and shoot 40.0% from 3, but he wouldn’t have the same level of success with the Buckeyes. A volume shooter who attempted 5.7 3s and played 26.7 minutes per game in 124 appearances at Louisiana, Russell shot a career-low 67 3-pointers in his lone season at Ohio State while playing only 12.9 minutes per game. He scored 12 points in four games, most notably to help beat No. 1 Duke at Value City Arena on Nov. 30, 2021.
2022-23
Tanner Holden transfers from Wright State
After pouring in 37 points to lead the Raiders past Bryant in a First Four NCAA Tournament game, Tanner Holden entered the transfer portal after the season wrapped up with a first-round loss to Arizona and signed with Ohio State. A two-year transfer who had averaged 16.1 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists while increasing his scoring average during all three seasons at Wright State, Holden joined the Buckeyes with an eye on carving out a role in the rotation in his first year while growing into an impact player in 2023-24.
Instead, he fell out of favor as the season progressed and losses piled up. Holden was an unused substitute in seven consecutive games during the final weeks and ended the year averaging 3.6 points and 2.4 rebounds while playing 13.6 minutes per game in 27 appearances. He also hit the most memorable shot of the season, a controversial, buzzer-beating 3-pointer in the Big Ten opener against Rutgers.
Sean McNeil transfers from West Virginia
Much like Russell was recruited to help fill an unexpected need, McNeil came to Ohio State to step in for one-and-done guard Malaki Branham, a first-round NBA Draft pick who wasn’t on mock drafts when his lone season with the program started. McNeil, a one-time junior college star who played three years at West Virginia, transferred to Ohio State having averaged 12.2 points in each of his prior two seasons with the Mountaineers to provide shooting ability and a veteran presence in the backcourt.
He finished at 9.7 points per game while the third-most minutes on the team. McNeil shot 36.9% from 3 and attempted a team-high 160 shots from deep but also was a career-best 61 for 119 (51.3%) from two-point range and had the highest effective field-goal percentage (53.6%) of his career.
Isaac Likekele transfers from Oklahoma State
With just one roster spot available and two needs to address, Holtmann landed the 6-5, 215-pound Isaac Likekele to provide both an experienced, steady hand at the point as well as a physical, undersized big man in the post. The first player in Oklahoma State history to have more than 1,000 points, 600 rebounds and 400 assists, Likekele was nicknamed the "linebacker at point guard" by ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla.
At Ohio State, Likekele navigated an uneven season that was impacted by a three-game December absence when he left the team to attend to a personal situation back home in Texas. Likekele had averaged 8.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists with the Cowboys but finished at 3.8, 4.0 and 2.8, respectively, for the Buckeyes. He was voted a team captain and started 15 games but shot a career-low 38.8% from the floor.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: How have previous transfers done under Chris Holtmann at Ohio State?
