One of the things Ohio State basketball head coach Chris Holtmann is going to be judged on when it comes to recruiting is the ability to keep the home kids at Ohio State. While the efforts on the trail have been pretty solid, having a kid escape out of your backyard and to another program won’t land well when you are trying to build a program back to where it was in not-too-distant memory.
One of those situations is brewing with the recruitment of Pickerington Central small forward Devin Royal. At 6-foot, 6-inches, Royal is a bit of a do-it-all type of player. He can score in the paint, has expanded his game to shoot from the outside at a high level, and has the length to be disruptive on both ends of the floor. He’s been a fast riser in the recruiting world and has offers from many D-1 schools already.
The momentum will only continue to build for a kid that is already ranked as the No. 76 overall prospect and 14th best small forward in the 2023 class according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings. To say that OSU could use him would be an understatement for the direction of the program.
Royal has been very coy about what teams are leading in the race to land his services, but he just released his top nine schools with Ohio State being in the mix. Also included in those nine includes some pretty heavy competition from Alabama, Clemson, Marquette, Miami (FL), Michigan State, Ole Miss, and Penn State.
Final 9️⃣ pic.twitter.com/pQcPwaTI2b
— Devin Royal (@DevinRoyal7) July 18, 2022
Royal has said in the past he’d like to wrap up his commitment before his senior season, so a decision could be looming soon. It must be noted that this is a top nine rather than a final nine, so others could and probably will come into the mix and extend the timeline, but it all bears watching for the kid that very well could end up being Mr. Basketball in the state of Ohio.
It’s going to be fun to watch Royal’s development as an area product no matter where he plays his college ball, but it’ll be even more fun if it’s in scarlet and gray.
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