Ohio Swingman Justin Ahrens Decommits from Ohio State

One day after Ohio State fired head coach Thad Matta, 3-star swingman Justin Ahrens decommitted from the Buckeyes.

Ahrens, a 2018 prospect from Versailles, Ohio, committed to Ohio State back in August. He did so just days after receiving a bit of a surprise offer from Matta.

He announced his decommitment via Twitter.

About an hour after his decommitment, Ahrens tweeted that he had just received an offer from Dayton. Prior to today, the only other offer that 247Sports has listed for Ahrens was from Stony Brook, where former OSU assistant Jeff Boals is now the head coach.

Ahrens is rated the No. 6 player from Ohio in the 247Sports Composite and the No. 37 small forward in the nation.

This decommitment comes about a month and a half after the decommitment of Ohio’s No. 2 player Darius Bazley. Bazley, rated the No. 23 player in the nation per 247Sports, decommitted from Ohio State in April and has since received offers from Maryland, Florida, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, and Louisville.

What’s Next?

The Buckeyes now have just one player committed in the 2018 class, in Upper Arlington, Ohio guard Dane Goodwin. Goodwin has already announced that he will be sticking with Ohio State for the moment as he watches to see what the Buckeyes do next at head coach.

Thad Matta’s demise has been due in large part to his inability to land Ohio’s best players. During Monday’s press conference, athletics director Gene Smith said that Matta had begun to renew his focus on Ohio. You can see that focus in the last three recruiting classes.

Unfortunately, only one of those classes has actually made it to Columbus so far, and it wasn’t enough to save Matta’s job.

Expect Ohio State to have a new coach in place within the next two to three weeks so that he can be in place for the July evaluation period. Ohio has five 4-star prospects in the 2018 class, and the Columbus area alone has two in the 2019 class.

This will certainly be a late start for the Buckeyes’ next head coach. The good news is that Goodwin is the only 4-star Ohio prospect in the next two classes who is currently committed to a school.