Perhaps one of the more puzzling storylines of Ohio State’s disappointing 2024-25 season was the extended absence of fifth-year guard Meechie Johnson Jr., who, after starting the first 10 games for the Buckeyes left the program and didn’t return due to what the team described as personal reasons.
Johnson’s Buckeye story is now officially closed after he used the extra eligibility he gained from a mental health hardship wavier to enter the transfer portal on Friday, according to On3.
But there is some clarity around his decision to leave the team during the season after he spoke with The Columbus Dispatch to discuss his abrupt departure.
Johnson told The Dispatch that he was dealing with multiple personal matters and mental health issues at the time of his departure that were affecting him to a point where he needed to step away from the game.
“I was just going through a lot mentally,” Johnson said. “Mental health is serious. It’s something I’ve dealt with my whole life. It was something that definitely was affecting me. It was my life. There was a lot going on, and basketball being something that you use to be an outlet, I just didn’t feel like myself mentally. I just had to focus on my mental health. That was that.”
Johnson, who committed to the Buckeyes for his second stint with the program last offseason after a second-team All-SEC year at South Carolina and was expected to play an integral role for the Buckeyes in the 2024-25 campaign, said one of the biggest issues he was dealing with during the time was the void left in his life by his late grandfather, Williams Johnson, who died of colon cancer while he was playing with the Gamecocks. He said that although this occurred before he returned to Ohio State, his absence still negatively affected him and weighed on him this past season.
Those mental struggles led to inefficient play on the court, where he averaged 9.1 points and 2.7 assists per game on just 35.6 percent shooting from the field and 35.7 percent shooting from three while committing 23 total turnovers in his 10 games, numbers that were far off from the 14.1 points on 39.9 percent shooting he logged in 2023-24.
Johnson also said his departure had nothing to with him quitting on the program or trying to earn an extra year of collegiate eligibility through a mental health hardship waiver but rather him trying to put his mental health first and improve his quality of life.
“(Gaining an extra year of eligibility) had nothing to do with it,” he said. “It was me talking to my therapist and doctors and family. I wasn’t getting sleep. I was going through a lot. Doctors were like, ‘Take a step back for a second and prioritize the right things that matter.’ ”
“My therapist, if you talked to her, I was disappointed in a lot of things, not from an Ohio State standpoint but just within myself in how a lot of things went and how I wasn’t able to be there on the court with my team,” he added. “I’ve seen a lot of things: ‘Oh, he quit.’ Nah, that’s just not what happened at all.”
Although Johnson has officially played his final game for the Buckeyes, he did say that he holds no ill feelings towards head coach Jake Diebler and the entire Ohio State program and university.
“Nothing that Coach Diebler or any of the coaches or anybody in the program did (was) wrong,” he said. “Everybody was super, super supportive through this time. The university’s obviously been great to me and I was thankful to have them on my side and supporting me. I would never want people to think that I just quit on the program.”
