You’re Nuts: Which recent Ohio State hooper would you bring back?

As if college athletics haven’t been wild enough lately, with trying to keep track of who is headed where in college football in the transfer portal, college basketball decided it was time to enter the chat. Over the last month, there have been a couple of head-scratching eligibility decisions handed down.

On Christmas Eve, it was announced that James Nnaji was cleared to play for Iowa State. The same James Nnaji who was drafted with the 31st pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. While Nnaji never actually signed an NBA contract, it is still odd that someone who was drafted could still play college basketball.

Then last week, Charles Bediako was cleared to play by the NCAA. Bediako played at Alabama from 2021 to 2023, then made a couple of stops in the G-League after he went undrafted. In the past, we’ve seen players skip college to go to the G-League. Now we are seeing players leave the G-League to go back to college. What are we doing here?

Since we’ve opened Pandora’s Box, why not dream of players Ohio State could bring back to put the scarlet and gray back on? We’re not saying that for your answer to today’s question that you pick a Buckeye that has been an NBA veteran, or your favorite player from 20 years ago, but there are some recent options that would be interesting adds, since apparently there are no rules anymore.

Let’s keep picks to the last decade. Drafted to the NBA and saw some time, but haven’t made a memorable impact. Bring him back! Gone overseas and played a bunch? Book a flight back to Columbus! If Nnaji and Bediako can come back, can a case be made for a lot of players?

Today’s question: Which recent Ohio State hooper would you bring back?

We’d love to hear your choices. Either respond to us on Twitter at @Landgrant33 or leave your choice in the comments.

Brett’s answer: Malaki Branham

After a year at Ohio State, the 2022 Big Ten Freshman of the Year was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs with the 20th pick. As a rookie, Branham started over 30 games for a 22-60 team. Despite winning the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes, the Spurs finished with the same record in Branham’s sophomore season, where he appeared in 75 games. Following a third season with San Antonio, Branham was traded to the Wizards in the offseason.

If we’re being honest, Branham hasn’t been a part of much winning basketball in the NBA, so why not let him have some fun back at college for a year? There’s no harm in letting him get a bit of a confidence boost! Plus, it would be beneficial for Ohio State since the last time they played in the NCAA Tournament was in Branham’s lone season as a Buckeye.‘

A player who has actually played in the NBA, going back to college, sounds unfathomable, but last week, we thought a G-League player going back to play college basketball was crazy talk. Where is the line drawn? Before you could say that, since a player signed a professional contract, he wasn’t an amateur. Now college players are being paid, so are they really amateurs?

Since these college sports are just a TV show these days, we might as well have some fun with it. A return of Branham, or some other impact player in recent program history, would at least bring some interest back into the program and might spark a gear to allow the Buckeyes to get over their recent struggle to get back to the tournament. At least an out-of-left-field idea of allowing some recent players to return to school sounds more well-received than tournament expansion!

Matt’s answer: Dorka Juhász

Yes, I know that Juhász left Ohio State after three seasons to finish her collegiate career with the UConn Huskies, but I’m counting her anyway. As our women’s basketball expert, Thomas Costello, recently wrote, Ohio State has struggled at times this season on the interior, especially with the recent injury to guard-forward combo Kylie Kitts.

With Kitts out for the last few weeks, Kevin McGuff has been rolling out a very guard-heavy lineup with the 6-foot-6 Elsa Lemmilä starting alongside Kennedy Cambridge, Jaloni Cambridge, Ava Watson, and Chance Gray against Wisconsin this week. While the Buckeyes ended up winning that game 81-58, and outrebounding the Badgers 38-35, Lemmilä was the only member of the Scarlet and Gray with more than four rebounds in the game; she finished the game with 14. Having another big who can balance out the front court would go a long way to allowing OSU to be multidimensional down the stretch and into the postseason.

At 6-foot-5, while Dorka could swing between the 3 and the 4, she was a force inside in both Columbus and Storrs. In her collegiate career, she averaged 11.9 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 0.96 blocks per game (13, 9.6, and 0.97 while at OSU). As a Buckeye, she was a three-time All-Big Ten honoree, with her sophomore and junior seasons landing on the first team.

The Buckeye women are propelled by a suffocating defense and a dynamic offensive attack, but having another productive and reliable inside presence, especially one as multi-talented as Juhász, would unquestionably force opposing defenses to pay more attention to the post, creating more room for Jaloni Cambridge and the rest of the guards to create in space.

This relatively new-look version of the Buckeyes is still finding its stride, but the one area where it could use an infusion is down low, and Dorka Juhász would do just that.