According to a report by Brian Snow of 247Sports, Ohio State freshman forward Alonzo Gaffney will not return to the team for his sophomore season and may decide to explore professional opportunities.
Gaffney played in 17 games as a true freshman this past season, scoring 1.8 points and grabbing 1.4 rebounds per game.
Gaffney did not play in the season opener against Cincinnati, but scored 10 points in the Buckeyes’ second game of the year. He only scored 20 more points over the course of the rest of the season.
According to Snow, rather than transferring, Gaffney has been advised by those around him to pursue professional basketball.
There is no doubt that the 6-foot-9 forward has an array of skills, but they weren’t enough to get him regular minutes for the Buckeyes this past season. Gaffney ended up missing the last handful of games due to an illness per head coach Chris Holtmann. Holtmann refused to go into any further detail regarding either the illness or Gaffney late into the season, other than to say he was still part of the program.
If Gaffney does leave, that puts Ohio State at 13 scholarships, which is right at the limit.
There is still the believe that junior center Kaleb Wesson is likely to move on to professional basketball as well, which would put the Buckeyes under the limit by one. Ohio State has recently been in the market for a graduate transfer point guard with the departure of DJ Carton.
If Wesson doesn’t leave, the Buckeyes wouldn’t be able to add a point guard unless somebody else leaves.
If Wesson does leave, Ohio State will have a very small lineup next year as the Buckeyes will be forced to play forwards at center.
Ohio State played well down the stretch with CJ Walker and Duane Washington handling the point guard duties, so even if no point guard transfers over, those two did end the season on a relatively positive wave.
The Buckeyes are at least in a good spot when it comes to being able to replace Gaffney, given the fact that Justice Sueing, Seth Towns, and EJ Liddell can all play the same stretch four position that he would have ideally played.
Ohio State has not confirmed the report.