On Sunday, Ohio State fell short in the transfer sweepstakes for a top backcourt player when former Howard guard and 2024-25 MEAC Player of the Year Blake Harper committed to Creighton over the Buckeyes, despite Jake Diebler’s team making his top four list of schools earlier in the month.
Harper’s transfer to the Blue Jays continues a tough trend for Ohio State this month in the transfer portal. It has seen several other guards commit to other Power Four schools despite the program showing interest in them, the most notable examples being Columbus native Dailyn Swain committing to Texas and Kennard Davis Jr., formerly of Southern Illinois, pledging to BYU.
With the Buckeyes’ backcourt wish list seemingly dwindling, Diebler and his staff may have to find a diamond in the rough this spring in the portal, and that could come by signing a productive mid-major guard such as Dezayne Mingo, formerly of Marhsall.
Mingo (6-4, 185) is coming off a strong junior season with the Thundering Herd in which he ranked second on the team in scoring at 12.6 points per game and first in assists (5.3). He also brought down 4.7 rebounds per game and shot 42.0 percent from the field (136 of 324) and 32.4 percent from three (26 of 74).
Ohio State is one of several notable Power Four programs interested in Mingo, a list that includes St. Johns, Texas, Texas Tech, Ole Miss, Pitt, Georgia and Vanderbilt, among others. He has yet to visit the Buckeyes, but they have been in contact with the guard.
If Mingo decides to commit elsewhere, Ohio State could switch its focus to former High Point guard Kezza Giffa (6-2, 175). The Paris, France native played one season at UTEP and two seasons at junior college Daytona State before joining the Panthers in 2023-24. He was one of the programs top players over the past two seasons, averaging 15.5 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game while shooting 42.3 percent from the field and 32.5 percent from three in 70 games (43 starts).
Giffa was named first-team All-Big South in both of those seasons, and he helped High Point to its first ever bid to the NCAA tournament this past year as a No. 13 seed, falling to Purdue 75-63 in the first round. He played 27 minutes in that game and totaled eight points, three assists, three rebounds and a steal.
Due to the surprising transfer of Sean Stewart last Tuesday, Ohio State will also need to dip into the portal to find a productive forward for this upcoming season.
Ohio State has not found that player yet, but it was recently linked to a few names, including former Florida Atlantic forward Baba Miller (6-11, 215, 11.2 points, 7.0 rebounds per game last season) and former Texas Tech forwards Federiko Federiko (6-11, 215, 5.1, 4.5) and Darrion Williams (6-6, 225, 15.1, 5.5).
Williams is a two-time All-Big 12 recipient and was the catalyst behind the Red Raiders’ run to the Elite Eight this past season, averaging 21.0 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.0 steals across those four NCAA tournament games. He was named to the All-West region team after that performance.
Williams has also declared for the draft, but The Field Of 68’s Jeff Goodman recently said that if he were to withdraw that Ohio State would be involved along with Kansas and NC State.
