Big Ten Morning Power Bar: Chris Holtmann Earns First Five-Star Commitment For Ohio State

Every week, BTPowerhouse’s Big Ten Morning Power Bar details what’s going on across the league on the recruiting trail.

The Morning Power Bar is back this week to break down a hot spring recruiting season that currently has top 2019 prospects committing, graduate transfers sizing up their options around the country, and the last of the 2018 class choosing their destination’s. Let’s take a look at what’s been going on this past week.

-2019 Five-Star Commits To Ohio State

One of the hopes in the hiring of Chris Holtmann to Ohio State is that he would notch up the Buckeyes recruiting efforts.

So far this seems to be holding true.

After signing a top-30 recruiting class in 2018 (Rivals), Ohio State landed a big fish with its first 2019 commitment, five-star Alonzo Gaffney earlier this week. Gaffney chose Ohio State from offers such as Florida, Kansas, Michigan State, Penn State, and West Virginia amongst others.

Gaffney is 6-foot-8 and about as athletic as they come. Check out some highlights below of Gaffney dunking and blocking all over everybody. The video is courtesy of 3rdCoastHoops.

According to VerbalCommits, Ohio State still has two open spots in 2019 and has a robust 19 other offers out to other prospects. Stay tuned for more updates from the Buckeyes, but you could not ask for a better start to this class for Chris Holtmann and his coaching staff.

-Illinois Signs Six For Its 2018 Class

Not gonna lie there was a time when Illinois’s 2018 recruiting class prospects looked bleak. It was probably around when talented center Flo Thamba spurned the Fighting Illini and picked Baylor. The question became “who is going to fill out the rest of this class?”

Coach Underwood and his staff kept at it and this week signed a class of six that now has the Illini in the top 15 in class recruiting rankings according to Rivals. It should be noted that the ranking system skews for larger classes, but there isn’t a doubt that the Illini have a talented incoming class.

The centerpiece of it is five-star Ayo Dosunmu. The 6-foot-4 point guard is an ideal fit for Underwood’s style of play and committed to the Illini back in October of 2017.

The other pieces have come in over the last six weeks.

Its flurry of activity kicked off with three-star shooting guard Alan Griffin committing to the Illini on March 2nd. Next was center and potential rim protector Samba Kane a week later. Towards the end of March was 6-foot-9 three-star center Giorgi Bezhanishvili, who really looks to be able to run the floor and score. The big win of the spring recruiting period happened in early April with the commitment of 6-foot-6 four-star Tevian Jones. The California-native chose Illinois over offers such as Arizona, Cal, USC, and Mississippi State amongst others. Finally, point guard Andres Feliz committed to the Illini last Sunday to round out the class of six.

Time will tell how this class will work for Underwood, and he will need it to since this is his first class, but there are some intriguing prospects coming to Champaign this summer. That’s welcomed news after some doubt heading into the spring recruiting period.

-Five-Star Guard Romeo Langford Will Decide April 30th

The eventful recruitment for five-star guard Romeo Langford will conclude in his New Albany, IN gym on April 30th as he announces his college decision.

Langford is deciding between Vanderbilt, Indiana, and Kansas. It was assumed for a long time that Vanderbilt appeared to be in the driver’s seat, but it might appear that Indiana has made up significant ground over the past couple months. The fact that Langford is announcing in an open-to-the-public ceremony that is sure to be filled with Indiana fans seems to hint to a positive outcome for Archie Miller and his staff. However, a similar situation existed for Illinois fans with the recruitment of Cliff Alexander, and the result ended up being a disaster. Ou

Stay with BTPowerhouse for the conclusion of Langford’s recruitment. If IU picks up the talented shooting guard, the Hoosiers would jump up to the top Big Ten class in 2018 according to 247Sports.

-2018 Three-Star Guard Sherrel Smith Commits To Terrapins

Our fearless leader here at BTPowerhouse, Thomas Beindit, has a detailed write-up of Smith’s commitment to the Terrapins, but this was a nice pick-up for Mark Turgeon’s squad.

Smith projects to be an athletic, combo guard and program guy that will get some time to develop behind a host of talented guards in the Maryland program.

This is a pivotal year for Turgeon and his program. To help, he will be bringing in the highest rated class during his time at Maryland. With Anthony Cowan, Kevin Huerter, and maybe Bruno Fernando returning, Maryland should be a team on the rise this season. Time will tell if it is enough to please those in College Park.