Brian Walsh has been a presence in Jaxson Davis’ life for years. Before joining the Ohio State men's basketball coaching staff during the spring of 2025, Walsh had spent eight seasons on staff at Indiana, where he had helped the Hoosiers on the court and in recruiting.
That had included early recruiting of Davis, one of the top-rated young players in Illinois. That relationship followed Walsh to the Buckeyes, led to an official visit during the weekend of Sept. 5 and a follow-up visit from the coach to see Davis at his new high school, Monarch Academy in Kansas City, Kansas.
By that point, Davis knew he was ready to commit. He just didn’t tell Walsh at the time.
“I didn’t tell him yet, but that’s when I knew,” Davis said.
On Sept. 18, the four-star,
top-40 point guard in the class of 2027 publicly announced his commitment to the Buckeyes. His pledge gave Ohio State a second commitment in the same week, joining four-star Canadian forward Deng Ngor, and shut down a recruitment that still had planned official visits to Iowa and Michigan State on the table.
Ultimately, he took two official visits: one to Ohio State and one to Creighton. His official visit to Columbus and his longstanding relationship with Walsh helped Davis decided that he had seen enough, even if it he did not expect to make a decision so quickly.
“I was honestly surprised,” he said. “I was planning on taking all my visits but things changed and guys stepped in and I found the right home earlier than I expected.”
While on his visit, Davis said he enjoyed watching Ohio State’s football game against Ball State at Ohio Stadium. Before that, he got to watch the basketball team practice during the morning, and Davis said he was impressed with the intensity of the practice tempo.
While at the Schottenstein Center, he sat down with coach Jake Diebler, who mapped out how the guard’s skills could fit into his system. Most other schools were recruiting him as a point guard, and Davis said he likes the way Diebler has leaned on the likes of Bruce Thornton and John Mobley Jr. to run things in the backcourt.
“It really aligned with me and I liked it a lot,” Davis said. “He envisions me as a true point guard and he doesn’t exactly believe he has one right now. He believes I can come in and earn everything but be able to play right away.”
Jaxson Davis has ties to E.J. Liddell, Evan Turner
Before transferring to Monarch Academy, Davis starred at Gurnee (Illinois) Warren Township, where he earned back-to-back Mr. Basketball honors as a sophomore and junior. It made him the third player to win the state’s top individual award more than once, joining Jabari Parker (2012-13) and E.J. Liddell (2018-19).
Liddell then went on to play three years for the Buckeyes, and Davis spent part of the summer working out with him.
“We’re signed with the same agency, so I got to work out with him a few times over the summer over in the city in Chicago,” Davis said. “I knew of him before and when you see the NBA guys, you know who they are, but we talked over the summer.”
The two had not talked since Davis’ commitment to Liddell’s former school, but he had been in contact with another prominent former Ohio State player from Illinois. Chicago native Evan Turner, the 2010 national player of the year whose No. 21 jersey hangs in the rafters at the Schottenstein Center, reached out to Davis after his commitment.
“He texted with me,” Davis said. “He said congrats and hit him if I need anything from him.”
The two share a common reference point in Chicago. While he was playing in the NBA, Turner worked out in his hometown during the summer with Jeff Pagliocca, who is now general manger for the WNBA’s Chicago Sky.
Davis was friends with one of Pagliocca’s sons, and the future Buckeye said he can remember being in the gym seeing Turner out. And when Davis was selected to participate in the NBPA Top 100 camp during the spring, he met Turner while he was there and the two realized their shared connection.
“He knew I was a Chicago kid,” Davis said. “We put that together at NBPA and that was pretty cool.”
In four games at camp, Davis averaged 4.8 points and 3.8 assists while shooting 31.8% from the floor and 33.3% from 3-point range in 17.0 minutes per game.
A prolific, pass-first point guard
Although Davis considers himself more of a traditional point guard, he has shown the ability to score in bunches. On Dec. 30, 2025, he put up 51 points to lead his team to a blowout win as part of the Big Dipper annual holiday tournament. It marked his third game in three days, a stretch that started with a 35-point effort in the first game.
“The last three years have been really good to me around the holiday time for my high school team, but it was just everything was going in (that night),” Davis said. “I hit a couple shots early and it seemed like the basket just kept getting bigger and bigger and everything was just dropping that night for me.”
Listed at 6 feet 1 and 180 pounds, Davis is the No. 39 national prospect in his class according to 247Sports.com. He is the No. 10 point guard and No. 1 player from Kansas in his class.
So while he has shown an ability to score, Davis said that has occasionally been out of necessity.
“I would definitely say I’m a pass-first type of guy,” he said. “My (previous) high school team was a little different and I became more of a scorer more often but I’m also a guy who can play make at a high level, find my guys on time and on target and I can also fill it up too. I can hit shots at a high clip and also score really well too.”
Davis’ move for his senior season was made with the thought of playing more consistent high-level competition to best prepare himself to make an immediate impact in college, he said.
“It was a huge factor, the competition level,” Davis said. “In high school, it wasn’t ideal in Illinois. I’m just trying to play the best competition that I can in high school. I know it’s going to be an adjustment either way going to college but I’m trying to make it less of a bigger jump.”
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: Here's why four-star guard Jaxson Davis committed to Ohio State
