Chris Holtmann and Ohio State offered 4-star guard Eric Ayala on Thursday. Ayala (6-5 180) is rated the No. 3 combo guard in the 2018 class by 247Sports.
The interesting part about this is the fact that Ayala is thinking about reclassifying to the 2017 class, which would make him eligible this coming season.
Ayala attends the Putnam Science Academy in Wilmington, Delaware, and he holds offers from the likes of Syracuse, Arizona, Connecticut, Ohio State, Maryland, Indiana, and many others.
As of a month ago, Ayala was unsure on reclassifying and said that he wouldn’t make a decision until August.
“If I feel like I can come in right away in ’17 and make an impact on the offensive end or defensive end, or just the game period, then that will go into consideration,” Ayala told 247Sports’ director of scouting Jerry Meyer. “People leave, people go, grad transfers all that goes into play in my decision. My body is definitely where I want it to be to go into college right now, but we still got work to do. I’m not complacent.”
Ayala will obviously be a difficult pull for the Buckeyes, but if it is an opportunity to make an impact immediately, Ohio State can offer that. Currently, the OSU backcourt consists of just Kam Williams, C.J. Jackson, former walk-on Joey Lane, and incoming freshman Braxton Beverly.
As a player, Ayala is probably closer to 6-foot-3 than the 6-foot-5 he is listed at by 247Sports. He is a bold driver, however, and doesn’t worry about what the paint may lay on him. He doesn’t need a lot of room to get his perimeter shot off. Ayala doesn’t appear to do any one thing spectacularly well, but also doesn’t seem to be lacking in any particular areas.
The Buckeyes could stand to use a bit of good recruiting news, as also on Thursday, Ohio’s No. 2 player for 2018 Pete Nance (6-8 180) committed to Northwestern. The commitment came while on an unofficial visit to the university. Two weeks earlier, Nance had trimmed his final three to Northwestern, Michigan, and Ohio State.
Four-star 2018 shooting Dane Goodwin took his official visit to Ohio State this week, one week after decommitting from the Buckeyes. Ohio State is currently in a holding pattern on Goodwin.
