The first home football game for Ohio State has helped yield the first 2027 commitment for the men’s basketball program.
After taking an official visit during the weekend of Sept. 5, four-star power forward Deng Ngor has decided he has seen enough and issued a commitment to coach Jake Diebler’s program. The decision means the Buckeyes have locked up a player who is now a top-20 prospect according to Rivals.com, and they have done so before Ngor was scheduled to take multiple other official visits.
A 6-foot-8, 200-pound power forward, Ngor has climbed the national recruiting rankings during the past several months. An unranked prospect in the 247Sports.com rankings as of mid-July, strong performances both with his AAU team and while playing for Canada
in the 2026 FIBA U18 AmeriCup placed him at No. 150 nationally on July 20.
When those rankings refreshed Aug. 28, he was up to No. 55 and a four-star prospect. Rivals.com is even higher on Ngor, moving him up to No. 19 overall and the No. 5 small forward in the 2027 recruiting class in its most recent rankings refresh.
With different recruiting services listing him at different positions, Ngor is expected to bring a versatile profile to Ohio State. According to a July evaluation by 247Sports, Ngor made 38% of his 3-pointers in FIBA play. He is known for being a high-level defender with a high motor who is explosive at the rim and capable of stretching the floor.
In Canada’s gold medal win against the Americans on June 8, Ngor finished with 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting, three steals and two rebounds in a 67-65 win. By that point, Ohio State had already offered him a scholarship. In the days that followed, Auburn, Virginia, Butler and Washington followed suit, and by mid-August both Florida and Duke had offered him as well.
His commitment comes just days before a scheduled official visit to Washington on Sept. 18 and ahead of other planned trips to Florida on Sept. 22 and Duke on Oct. 15.
Now a senior at Canada’s Fort Erie (Ontario) International Academy, Ngor first started playing basketball when he was about 7 years old. He had been practicing taekwondo and playing soccer with his brothers before asking his father, Joseph, to pick up a basketball. Within two years, he was exclusively a basketball player.
After his Ohio State visit, Joseph Ngor said the family had built a strong relationship with Diebler after the Buckeyes offered a scholarship during the spring.
“That was special,” he said. “Aside from the business side, that just goes to the personal side, which we really appreciate because we wanted our son to have a human connection, not just a student at the university and that’s it. We were just mind-blown with the culture that Ohio has.”
It helped lead to a commitment, the first of 2027 for the Ohio State men’s basketball program. It is not clear how many players the Buckeyes hope to sign in this class.
Ohio State men's basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social, on Instagram at @cdadamjardyor on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State lands commitment from fast-rising 2027 forward Deng Ngor
