Even though it is football season, college basketball season is just around the corner with the Buckeyes tipping off on Nov. 3. There were a lot of roster changes for the Buckeyes heading into the 2025-26 season, and over the next couple of months we will be dropping one player preview a week to get you caught up on the current roster.
The Brandon Noel File
Name: Brandon Noel Position: Forward Class: Fifth year High School/Former School: Chillicothe/Wright State Hometown: Lucasville, Ohio Weight: 6-foot-8 Height: 240 pounds
Breakdown
Noel comes to Ohio State for his final season of college basketball after spending five years at Wright State, redshirting for his first two. He was named to an All-Horizon League team three times, making third team in 2023 and second team in 2024 and 2025.
Noel was named to the Horizon League All-Freshman Team and the Horizon League Freshman of the Year in 2023. He was also named to the Horizon League All-Academic Team in 2024 and 2025.
The forward played three seasons at Wright State, averaging 15.5 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game over 97 games with 90 starts.
Noel was a dual threat for the Raiders, recording 29 double-doubles and scored 20 or more points 31 times.
As mentioned, Noel redshirted his first two seasons with Wright State after he suffered an ACL injury in his first season with the Raiders in 2020-21 and received a medical redshirt. He also redshirted during the 2021-22 campaign to fully recover and get back on the court.
After his two years of recovery, Noel bounced back strong, averaging 13.0 points and 8.7 rebounds per game while shooting over 60 percent from the floor as a redshirt freshman in 2022-23 en route to being named the Horizon League Freshman of the Year.
In 2024-25, Noel averaged a career-high 19.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists while shooting 55.2 percent from the floor.
In high school, Noel was a first team All-Ohio honoree as a senior at Chillicothe High School in 2019-20.
Since committing to Ohio State, Noel played in one game of the Kingdom League over the summer, playing for Team Committed to My Craft. He scored 26 points with three rebounds and one assist. Noel also showed his shooting prowess, knocking down three, three-pointers.
Expected Role
Noel is coming to Ohio State after being one of the top scorers and overall players in the Horizon League last season. He won’t be expected to score 20 points per game for Jake Diebler and company this season, but he will be asked to step in and be a key rotational player of this team.
With Devin Royal moving to the starting three on the team and Santa Clara transfer Christoph Tilly coming in to play the center position, Noel will slide in as the starting stretch four.
Noel will be asked to play 20-25 minutes a game, and sometimes maybe even more, depending on the frontcourt depth. True freshman A’mare Bynum will be the backup to Noel, and when the Buckeyes go small ball with a three guard lineup, Royal will play the four at times. For the most part, there is not a whole lot of bench depth behind Noel.
For the Buckeyes to get where they want to go this season, they will need Noel to come in and immediately be ready to be a starter in the Big Ten. I know Buckeye fans are skeptical after the Tanner Holden debacle, but Noel is a different player than Holden with a different role coming into the season.
If Noel struggles to adapt to the Big Ten, it will slow down the Buckeyes until he gets comfortable. If he adjusts immediately, Ohio State will look the part of a top six team in the conference early in the season.
