Men's basketball | DJ Carton highest-rated Ohio State recruit in five years
Three of Ohio State’s four signees for the class of 2019 are among the nation’s top 60 recruits in the final 247Sports rankings.
Leading the way is four-star point guard DJ Carton, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound player from Bettendorf, Iowa. He’s ranked No. 31 in the nation, the highest-rated recruit to sign for coach Chris Holtmann and the highest-rated recruit to sign to the Buckeyes since D’Angelo Russell (No. 16) and Keita Bates-Diop (No. 29) signed in the class of 2014.
Carton dropped seven spots in the final rankings. He is the second-highest rated recruit in the Big Ten, only four spots behind Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis, a center.
Join the conversation at Facebook.com/BuckeyeXtra and connect with us on Twitter @BuckeyeXtra
Four-star power forward E.J. Liddell, a 6-6, 220-pound product of Belleville (Iowa) West, is next at No. 57, a climb of six spots.
Two spots behind Liddell is Alonzo Gaffney, who dropped 14 spots to No. 59. The 6-9, 190-pound small forward, an Ohio native, played for Wolfeboro (New Hampshire) Brewster Academy for his senior season.
All three are higher than last year’s top-rated signee for the Buckeyes, four-star point guard Luther Muhammad from Jersey City (New Jersey) Hudson Catholic. He was the No. 79 national recruit and the only top-100 signee for Ohio State.
Recent addition Ibrahima Diallo, a center who played for Napa Valley (California) Prolific Prep as a senior, is listed at No. 243 nationally and a three-star prospect.
ajardy@dispatch.com
@AdamJardy