Roddy Gayle Jr. is No. 3 in our Ohio State men's basketball preseason power rankings

Men’s basketball season is about to get underway, and it’s time to dive into the Ohio State roster.

After a 16-19 record that caused the Buckeyes to miss the postseason for the first time in coach Chris Holtmann’s six seasons with the program, Ohio State returns several key core players while adding a highly rated freshman class and a three-man transfer group all expected to make significant impacts.

To get ready for the season, The Dispatch is once again rolling out its annual preseason power rankings. Each day leading into the Nov. 6 season opener with Oakland, we will count upward while projecting which players will have the biggest roles on the 2023-24 season. This isn’t just a measurement of who will lead the team in any particular statistical category, but a series of educated guesses on which players’ contributions will go the longest way toward where the Buckeyes finish.

The series continues with second-year guard Roddy Gayle Jr.

No. 3 – Roddy Gayle

Position: Guard

Eligibility: Second year (two remaining)

Height/weight: 6 feet 4 / 210 pounds

Jersey number: 1

Major: Accounting

Background

A product of Youngstown, New York, Gayle asked high school coach Matt Bradshaw to send his game film to Ohio State because he liked alumni D’Angelo Russell and Mike Conley Jr. That helped start a relationship that led to unofficial visits to Ohio State, Syracuse, Wake Forest and Rutgers during his sophomore season. That year, Gayle averaged 25.8 points, nine rebounds, three assists and 2.3 steals, one year after helping Lewiston Porter Senior set a single-season record for wins while capturing its first league title since 1985. He took in Ohio State’s home win against Michigan on March 1, 2020.

He earned a scholarship from Ohio State in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and committed to the program in December, 2020, but he would not remain at his high school for long. Unsure if New York would allow a high school season, Gayle decided to transfer west to Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah, where he would have to make a mid-year acclimation to a new school, time zone and altitude. He averaged roughly 10 points per game that year.

A team captain as a senior, Gayle battled a nagging groin injury as Wasatch competed in the inaugural season for the eight-team National Interscholastic Basketball Conference and led the team in scoring during 10 conference games at 15.6 points and added 5.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists while shooting 38.0% from the floor and 24.0% from 3-point range. In a pair of games against Bel Aire (Kansas) Sunrise Christian Academy, Gayle channeled his efforts into stopping five-star Kansas commit Gradey Dick. He would average 17.5 points per game in NIBC play, shooting 41.6% from 3 and 46.1% from the floor, but in his two games against the Tigers Dick shot 26.3% (5 for 19) from 3, 32.6% overall and scored 16 and 17 points, respectively.

He underwent a minor procedure during the offseason that delayed his start at Ohio State. During the team’s two-game exhibition trip to the Bahamas, he scored 16 points, shot 5 of 9 from the floor (and 2 for 4 from 3-point range) and threw down one of the most impressive dunks in either game.

The 247Sports.com composite database ranked Gayle as a four-star prospect, the No. 46 national player, the No. 2 shooting guard and No. 2 player from Utah in the 2022 class.

Ohio State's Roddy Gayle Jr. (1) shoots as Wisconsin's Steven Crowl defends during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game at the Big Ten men's tournament, Wednesday, March 8, 2023, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

2022-23 season recap

Gayle opened the season described by coach Chris Holtmann as having as much upside and potential as anyone on the roster. Holtmann also urged for patience as Gayle acclimated to the college level as freshmen do, and the guard opened the season in the rotation but behind West Virginia graduate transfer Sean McNeil on the depth chart.

“I was guarding Sean most of the time, chasing him around screens,” Gayle said at this year’s media day. “He was an elite-level scorer. I would get fried by him every day in practice and it really helped me pick up my defense.”

Gayle was one of five players to see action in all 35 games, but his early offensive contributions were minimal. After averaging 8.0 points in his first three games against low-major competition, Gayle scored five points and was scoreless twice in Ohio State’s next four games as the Buckeyes played San Diego State, Cincinnati and Texas Tech in the Maui Invitational and then went to Duke in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

Gayle remained in the rotation and was praised for his defensive capabilities, but as Ohio State’s losses piled up he was moved into the starting lineup in place of McNeil starting with a Feb. 12 home game against Michigan State. It meant more consistent, extended playing time for Gayle, and by the end of the season he was producing at an elite rate.

With just one double-digit scoring game to his name in the regular season, Gayle averaged 12.0 points in the four games Ohio State played in the Big Ten Tournament. He missed the first and last 3-pointers he attempted in Chicago, and in between he buried nine straight to help power an unprecedented run from Wednesday’s opening slate of games to the conference semifinals.

Gayle scored 27.2% of his points (44 of 162) last year in the final three games, which accounted for 8.6% of Ohio State’s games.

“I felt like I was on top of the world,” he said. “I felt like I couldn’t do anything wrong. The coaches all gave me that kind of freedom and confidence to go out and play freely.”

His 21 steals were eight shy of the team lead despite playing nearly 500 fewer minutes than Thornton, who had 29. Gayle finished averaging 4.6 points and 1.6 rebounds in 16.3 minutes per game while shooting 44.0% from the floor and 42.9% from 3.

Need to know

Gayle took top billing in the team’s voting for the best dunker on the roster. Xavier, Alabama, UConn, Georgetown, Rutgers, Oregon, Louisville and others had offered Gayle scholarships, but he picked the Buckeyes from a list of six finalists that also included Marquette, Syracuse, Pitt, Georgetown and UConn. Gayle has signed with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation agency but, as of last summer, had not yet met Jay-Z. Gayle has a 40-inch vertical. Once his senior season ended, Gayle transferred back home so that he could graduate with his friends at Lewiston Porter.

Gayle has a stated goal of being a member of the Big Ten’s all-defensive team. Associate head coach Jake Diebler was his primary recruiter.

2023-24 season outlook

Gayle’s potential production is among the biggest questions about this year’s team. Given what he showed in the final days of his freshman season, how much is it reasonable to expect for him to product as a sophomore?

“He didn’t really hit his stride until the last few games of the Big Ten Tournament,” Holtmann said. “We saw glimpses of it in practice. He’s got to take the next step as a player, and really it’s how consistent is he gonna be? That’s the challenge for him.”

Since the season ended, Gayle has been consistently praised by those within the program for having stepped into a leadership role alongside classmate, teammate and friend Thornton. His minutes figure to grow to somewhere between 25-30 per game as he plays with Thornton and Baylor graduate transfer guard Dale Bonner in the backcourt. All three players could switch roles with each other or see playing time together in a three-guard lineup.

Oct 22, 2023; Dayton, OH, USA;
Ohio State Buckeyes guard Roddy Gayle Jr. (1) looks for a teammate to pass to during their game against the Dayton Flyers on Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023 at University of Dayton Arena. — Oct 22, 2023; Dayton, OH, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes guard Roddy Gayle Jr. (1) looks for a teammate to pass to during their game against the Dayton Flyers on Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023 at University of Dayton Arena.

Gayle will have to take a step forward for this team to get where it wants to get by the end of the season. Expecting him to produce at the level he did to close last season is probably unrealistic, but as Holtmann said, consistent production will go a long way.

The preseason has been a mixed bag. Gayle had 12 points on 4 of 8 shooting in the charity exhibition game at Dayton on Oct. 22, but he struggled in the “secret” scrimmage against Clemson in Nashville six days later and led the Buckeyes in both points and turnovers. Clearly, he’s not a finished product yet.

But there is a strong belief that Gayle will grow into an all-conference player and that it could happen as soon as this season.

“There’s no U-turns,” he said. “You can’t go back and be a lesser player than you left off. All I can do is build on it.”

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