At long last, Ohio State has reeled in one of the “big ones.”
On Tuesday, Jake Diebler and Ohio State earned the long-sought-after commitment of Anthony Thompson — a sharp-shooting, five-star forward in the 2026 class. Thompson, a 6-foot-8, 205-pound forward, played his first two years of high school basketball at Lebanon High School before transferring to Western Reserve Academy in northeast Ohio prior to his junior season.
Thompson is currently the No. 8 player in the 2026 class, according to the 247Sports
composite rankings. He is the first five-star and top-10 commitment for Ohio State since Jared Sullinger in the 2010 recruiting class. Thompson is viewed as a potential one-and-done prospect, but is also talented enough to make a substantial impact on the Ohio State men’s basketball program in both the long and short term.
Thompson chose Ohio State over a list of finalists that also included Indiana, Kentucky, Texas, North Carolina, Purdue, and Texas, but it was rumored leading up to Tuesday that the “real” two finalists were Ohio State and Indiana. New Indiana head coach Darian DeVries offered Thompson a scholarship last year when he was at West Virginia, and continued to press on for the five-star once he was hired at Indiana this spring. Although DeVries made quite a strong push for Thompson over the past few months, the kid from Ohio ultimately decided to stay home and put on the scarlet and gray.
Former Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann offered Thompson a scholarship just weeks before he was fired in 2024, but Diebler — then the associate head coach — was heavily involved with Thompson’s recruitment. Tasked with running out the clock against blue bloods like UNC and Kentucky and contending with the ever-deepening pockets of schools like Michigan and Indiana, it looks like Diebler played the long game with Thompson, and it ultimately paid off. Relationships are important, and Diebler’s long-term recruitment of one of the most talented Ohioans in decades paid dividends on Tuesday.
The tall forward averaged 22 points per game and allegedly shot in the upper-40s from three-point range as a junior at Western Reserve Academy, shooting from a college three-point line rather than the traditional OHSAA line. Thompson is 6-foot-8 and growing, but possesses guard skills and a quick, clean jump shot. He should pose a positional mismatch for forwards and centers next season, but at 205 pounds could prevent a size issue if guards try to defend him. While many Ohioans have been leaving the Buckeye state to finish their prep careers out of state, Thompson stayed and is the highest-rated senior to play his senior year in Ohio since Sullinger.
Thompson becomes the third member of the 2026 recruiting class, joining four-star guard Marcus Johnson (No. 47) and four-star power forward Alex Smith (No. 145). If this is it for Ohio State’s 2026 class, it will be the first time since 2021 that the Buckeyes’ entire class is made up of players from Ohio. With the addition of Thompson, Ohio State now has the No. 3 recruiting class in the nation, behind Missouri and Kansas.
Diebler and Ohio State have been in the running for multiple five-star recruits in the past year, before Thompson, to no avail. The Buckeyes made a late surge and were allegedly the runner-up for Darryn Peterson — a Cleveland-native — but he committed to Kansas last November. Ohio State was also in the final three schools for five-star forward Caleb Wilson, who committed to North Carolina over Kentucky and Ohio State in January. From the outside, Thompson’s commitment looks like validation for the staff’s consistent recruitment and involvement with elite talent, even if it had not resulted in any commitments — until now.
You can check out some recent highlights of the world’s newest Buckeye commitment below:
