Of the four transfers that Ohio State is welcoming to the team this fall, the one that is the easiest to overlook is former Baylor center Josh Ojianwuna. Ojianwuna (pronounced oh-john-woo-nuh) averaged 7.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game last season for Baylor over 23 games, shooting an absurdly high 77.4% from the floor. His junior season was cut short by a knee injury, and his timeline to return to play this fall is still murky.
Last week, Connor and Justin debated who was the most important recruit
for Ohio State last weekend, taking in the Buckeyes vs Longhorns game in the Horseshoe. Connor picked five-star forward Anthony Thompson, while Justin picked four-star guard LJ Smith.
Jake Diebler and his staff added Ojianwuna to the team knowing that it was possible he did not play until 2026, but he has also been participating in workouts with the team this summer. While Santa Clara transfer Christoph Tilly is l0cked in as the starting center this year, the best teams with because of depth.
Will Ojianwuna be part of the depth chart this season? How much of an impact is he going to have this year?
This week’s question: How important is Joshua Ojianwuna to Ohio Sate this year?
Connor: A game-changer
We’re still not sure if Ojianwuna will even play this year for Ohio State, but because he has been part of most of Ohio State’s summer workout videos they post online, we know that the big man is lifting weights and conditioning for the season.
Because of how active he looks in the summer, I find it hard to believe that he will be held out of game action for all five months of the season. He may not be ready in November, but for as mobile as he looks in video, I just can’t see how he sits and waits for an entire season.
Assuming that he comes back at some point, Ojianwuna would slide right in as the backup center behind Tilly. Ojianwuna is an above average rebounder and a super efficient shooter (from close to the basket, obviously). He started the first 23 games of the year last season for Baylor, showing that he’s capable of starting and contributing to a power-five team at center.
Ojianwuna may be needed due to Tilly not exactly being an iron man to this point in his career. In three seasons, Tilly averaged more than 21 minutes per game in just one of them, which means Diebler and his staff will have to fill that center spot the other 19-ish minutes of the game with other guys Ojianwuna — if healthy — would be the obvious choice.
I also think Ohio State fans should feel a little uneasy about having a center that averages roughly half of a game very game, and a backup who struggled just to hold on to the basketball last season. Ivan Njegovan averaged 1.6 points and 1.5 rebounds per game last year, and — especially towards the end of the season — struggled to hold on to the basketball.
It looked like Njegovan allowed the game to speed up a little too much on him. There were times when Njegovan felt like the only move her had was to go directly up with the ball — the problem is, teams had that scouted.
Ohio State will always be one injury away from potentially having Ojianwuna starting in place of Tilly. Ojianwuna feels like a massive improvement over Njegovan, and could be an asset if he heals quickly and is able to step in and play a bit at center.
Justin: Not important at all (He will not play)
I do not think he will be that important to the Buckeyes, because I do not think he will play and I have a somewhat weird reason that I think he will not play.
A normal ACL recovery is 9-12 months before the player returns to competitive play. The injury for Ojianwuna happened in February, so he would be back to competitive play at the earliest in November, and at the latest February.
So, if you just split the difference on that, he would be back to game action sometime after the Christmas break, which would leave him available for only half the season, even though it would be the conference play portion of the season.
It feels like wishful thinking to think he will be back in time for the start of the season. Even then, he may not be 100 percent and rushing it back to the court could be bad as well and risk re injury.
Also, Ojianwuna only has one year of eligibility left, so it feels fair for him to want to maximize that year, and if he cannot come back until halfway through the season, it makes more sense for him to medically redshirt and get fully healthy so he can have a full 2026-27 season.
For the Buckeyes, him playing next year make more sense as well. This season, they have Christoph Tilly as the starting center with Ivan Njegovan and possibly freshman Amare Bynum as backups. Tilly will play the bulk of the minutes at the five, and Bynum and Brandon Noel will play the five sporadically when the Buckeyes want to play small.
Tilly and Noel are seniors, and that would only leave Njegovan and Bynum, who is not a true center, as the centers on the team before they hit the transfer portal. So there could be more of a role for Ojianwuna next season over this season with Tilly and Noel leaving.
