Ohio State Recruiting: Football, Basketball Squads Add Verbals

It has been two weeks since Ohio State’s eventful Senior Advanced Camp weekend in which they landed six recruits in the span of four days.

I covered that in my previous article, in which I jumped the gun a day too early and left out Cleveland Glenville’s Jonathan Newsome.

Newsome gave Ohio State his verbal commitment and is the 23rd to do so far this recruiting season.  The defensive end prospect hails from the aforementioned Glenville High School, continuing the strong relationship, or “pipeline,” between the two establishments.

Jonathan looks to move from linebacker to defensive end at the college level, using his quickness and strength to make a difference as a pass rusher off the edge.  Some have questioned Newsome’s performance on film as well as his measurables, but he put those concerns to rest with an impressive performance at an OSU Camp.  His junior year highlights and photos can be seen here.

Commitment No. 24 comes by way of offensive lineman Sam Longo out of Bellbrook, Ohio.  Sam issued his commitment before the start of the weekend but kept things quiet until Monday, as to inform all other schools pursuing him that he had made his choice. 

Longo, much like Newsome, was not overly impressive on film, but was turning heads at the Advanced Camp, enough so that Ohio State couldn’t take a pass on him despite being considered leaders for two other five-star offensive line prospects, Marcus Hall and Chris Watt.

There was only one problem: the current shortage of scholarships available.  Sam’s offer more than likely came at the expense of Florida prospect Vlad Emilien, who was unfortunately put on a timetable and wasn’t ready to make a decision.  That is the sad reality of the numbers crunch currently presenting itself at OSU.

Longo is another strong O-Lineman who moves surprisingly well for his size.  At a listed 6’5” and 260 pounds, Sam’s 40 time measured out at 4.7, which means he is quite explosive.  To top it off, he is very aggressive and has a high motor.  His junior year highlights can be seen here.

Switching gears to Thad Matta and the basketball team, it has been quite the rollercoaster ride over the past of week.

The recruiting class of 2010 saw shooting guard out of Georgia, Trae Golden, de-commit over the weekend.  While Ohio State is still being looked at as an option, Trae assured that he was wide open in his re-opened recruitment.  The schools being considered are all Southern-based schools, leading one to believe he wants to stay closer to home.

Ohio State may now turn to Anthony Johnson, a shooting guard out of Chicago, if the staff isn’t confident in Golden to re-commit.

While the loss of Golden was fresh in fans' minds, it didn’t take long for the sting to recede.  Super-talented forward DeShaun Thomas out of Indiana re-affirmed his commitment to the Buckeyes.

Thomas had verballed to Ohio State over one year ago but fell under heavy criticism from home-town folks, such as John Decker.  DeShaun quickly stated that he would consider other schools, but OSU was his favorite at the time. 

Decker, an Indiana Scout.com writer, even went as far as to insinuate that “something was afoul” about the whole situation.  Ironically, the Kelvin Sampson incident took place thereafter at Indiana University.

Adding to an already stellar ’10 class, Thomas joins top prospect Jared Sullinger out of Columbus, Ohio to give the Buckeyes a tremendous one-two punch.  Here are some of Thomas’ highlights, as well as a look at Jared Sullinger. 

I look to add more extensive coverage on the ’09 and ’10 classes, as well as the upcoming season, and other news regarding Ohio State basketball in the near future.

Thad Matta and Jim Tressel are doing a tremendous job of keeping Ohio State at the forefront of the athletic horizon, and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight.