Devin Royal, a former Ohio Mr. Basketball Award winner, Pickerington-native, and a 1,000-point scorer at Ohio State, will enter the transfer portal, officially ending his career as a Buckeye.
Per Jonathan Givony, Royal has opted
to enter the transfer portal and use his one remaining year of eligibility elsewhere. Royal appeared in 96 games over his three seasons in Columbus, starting 59 of them. The former top-50 recruit was a starter for the Buckeyes each of the past two seasons, shifting from power forward to small forward this past season.
Royal was noncommittal about his future with the Buckeyes following Ohio State’s 66-64 loss to TCU in the NCAA Tournament, telling the Columbus Dispatch, “I’m just focused on today, for real. I’m blessed to be here, blessed to be in March Madness, blessed to be with these guys — my brothers.”
The 6-foot-6, 230-pound forward matched his 2024-25 scoring average this past season, putting up 13.7 points per game for the second straight season. However, his efficiency dipped while both his shot attempts and minutes per game increased. While Royal’s three-point percentage improved from 27.6% to 31.6% this past season, his overall field goal percentage dropped from 52.5% to 47.6% — a career-low.
His drop in efficiency may be partially explained by a shift in shot selection. By moving to the small forward position, Ohio State hoped Royal could help provide some additional size at the position while also improving his perimeter game. Royal did set a new career-high in three-pointers attempted (98), but his low efficiency on those shots caused a noticeable dip overall. For reference, Royal shot 59% on two-point shots during the 2024-25 season. He shot 54.8% on two-point shots this past season.
With Amare Bynum (assumedly) returning for his sophomore season and a McDonald’s All-American joining the program this summer in Anthony Thompson, the small and power forward positions are suddenly quite crowded. Jake Diebler would have been forced to either sit Royal — a local kid who has started each of the past two seasons — or Thompson, the highest-rated Ohioan to commit to the Buckeyes since Jared Sullinger.
Royal likely would’ve been the odd man out, but still would’ve seen a workload similar to a starter as the first man off the Ohio State bench. Instead, Royal will play his final season elsewhere.
A four-star recruit in the class of 2023, Royal came to Ohio State alongside Scotty Middleton, Austin Parks, and Taison Chatman. He was the No. 49 player in the class, according to 247Sports, and was No. 1 player in the state of Ohio in his class.
Despite being 6-foot-6, Royal’s natural positional fit is power forward. He’s an above average rebounder when put in the correct position to do so, and plays much bigger than he is. He also increased his minutes per game from 28.8 to 32.5 while fouling less often (3.3 fouls/40 minutes), showing that wherever he goes, he can be relied on to play long stretches without needing to come out for rest or due to foul trouble.
Royal’s career-high in scoring was a 31-point performance against Valparaiso on December 17, 2024. He finishes his Ohio State career with seven double-doubles, and he crossed the 1,000-point plateau on March 13 against Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament, becoming the 62nd player to hit that mark in program history.
In addition to Ohio State, Royal was also recruited and offered by fellow Big Ten programs Michigan State, Penn State, Rutgers, Illinois, and Wisconsin. His final three schools in high school were Ohio State, Michigan State, and Alabama before committing to Ohio State in August 2022.
Good luck to Devin, wherever he winds up!
