Ohio State announced on Wednesday that sophomore guard Taison Chatman will miss the entire 2024-25 season after suffering a knee injury during a summer workout that required surgery. The surgery was successful and conducted the week of June 17, according to the team.
“I’m incredibly sad for Taison that he’s going to miss the entire year,” Buckeyes head coach Jake Diebler said in a statement. “After a tough start to his collegiate career, he worked his way back and played a role for us at the end of last season. He continued that development this spring and was working out really well. I was looking forward to watching him take the next step this year. But I know he’ll work hard and get back to form as soon as he can.”
Chatman’s knee surgery continues a disappointing start to his Ohio State career that has been marred by injury. The Minneapolis native, who was the program’s highest-rated recruit in the 2023 class, also underwent a procedure on his meniscus last October that forced him to be limited during fall practice and miss the first four games of the season. This came before his first knee surgery in 2022, which he said hampered him until the end of his senior season.
Ohio State said that Chatman was fully healed from last season’s meniscus injury, and it was not a factor in this ailment.
Despite the string of knee injuries, Chatman still saw the floor for the Buckeyes last season as a true freshman, albeit in a limited capacity. He appeared in 17 games for Ohio State, totaling 17 points — 12 of those coming from beyond the arc — eight rebounds and five assists.
Chatman scored his first collegiate points on a jumper during his homecoming game at Minnesota on Feb. 22, which seemed to begin a more positive trend of play for the then-freshman. He appeared in five of Ohio State’s final six games of the season, making a three-point field goal in four of those five appearances.
Chatman entered the program in 2023 as a four-star prospect out of Minneapolis Totino-Grace, coming in as the nation’s 33rd-best prospect and seventh-best combo guard.
With Chatman now out for the entire year, Ohio State’s backcourt now consists of likely starters Bruce Thornton and Meechie Johnson along with San Diego State transfer wing Micah Parrish, true freshman Juni Mobley and walk-ons Colby Baunman and Braylen Nash.
While sophomore Evan Mahaffey (6-6, 200) — who played most of the 2023-24 season at the wing/interior — could also fill in to play in the backcourt, Ohio State and Diebler may now look to the transfer portal to use their final roster spot on a guard.
