Three months ago, Jason Singleton was not ranked in the 247Sports recruiting rankings. Despite leading Columbus Academy to the state championship game this spring, the 6-foot-4, 175-pound guard from Columbus still wasn’t a four-star or a three-star or anything else — he wasn’t even ranked on the nation’s biggest recruiting site.
Despite a lack of national credit for his local accomplishments, Singleton — the son of former Ohio State forward Jason Singleton — picked up his first D-I offer in October 2024 from Detroit Mercy. A few months later in February, he received an offer from Nebraska — his first from a high-major team. Over the next four months, 11 more schools followed suit, including Creighton, Dayton, DePaul, Xavier, and his hometown school, Ohio State.
Based on Singleton’s Twitter activity, the Buckeyes were the most recent of his 13 scholarship offers, having officially extended an offer to him on June 4. The opportunity and offer to play basketball for the school both of his parents attended and his father made it to a Final Four with was a long time coming for the younger Singleton. If you check his Instagram posts, you’ll see former Buckeye players, from Scoonie Penn to Evan Turner, commenting on his posts.
But will the close family ties and proximity to the school impact Singleton’s recruitment all that much? He told the Columbus Dispatch on June 26 that he tries to treat Ohio State, “The same as every other offer” but that Jake Diebler and his staff treat him like a priority, “Which (makes me) feel good.“
Since getting that Ohio State offer, Singleton has rocketed up the recruiting rankings. He went from completely off the board in the spring to No. 97 in the nation in mid-July. As of September 1, he sits at No. 101 in the class of 2026. Additional programs have started sniffing around too — programs that, while not as geographically close as Ohio State to Singleton, have won at a much higher level than the Buckeyes over the past decade. Tom Izzo and the Spartans are rumored to have reached out. Purdue, which has won four Big Ten titles in the past nine years, has also contracted Singleton.
That begs the question: Will Singleton’s affection for Ohio State, and his family’s history there, be enough to overcome everything else and make him a Buckeye?
Last week, Land-Grant Holy Land spoke to 270 Hoops co-founder Zach Fleer about Singleton’s journey and what his priorities may be as he navigates his college recruitment. You can listen to the entire interview here. When asked specifically about how important the “legacy” factor might be to Singleton, here is what Fleer told us:
“I think the legacy factor at Ohio State definitely plays a role. I think every local kid has kind of thought about playing at Ohio State, probably a dream that most guys have had. And when your dad was a member of a Final Four team — I don’t care what the NCAA says about it — when your dad was a member of a Final Four team, that’s a big deal. So I think there’s a chance that will work in Ohio State’s favor.”
Fleer also compared Singleton to another under-recruited central Ohio product, Andre Wesson. A Westerville South graduate, Wesson was a three-star recruit in the 2016 class who committed to Ohio State during April of his senior season. While Singleton’s top-100 recruiting ranking is well ahead of Wesson’s at the time of his commitment (No. 275), Fleer sees some similarities between the two.
“If Ohio State can land him, that’s a dude (Singleton) that kind of reminds me of Andre Wesson when he was coming out of Westerville South. (He was) a late bloomer that really turned it on as a junior and then had a great senior year. Winning the state championship after being the state runner up, it’s kind of a similar story with (Columbus) Academy losing in that state final game to Lutheran East.
The opportunity to earn an elite education may also come into play, as Ivy League members Harvard and Yale have both recruited Singleton. However, these Ivy League schools do not offer athletic scholarships like Ohio State, Nebraska, and all of Singleton’s other suitors do. Instead, they offer “needs-based financial scholarships” similar to those offered to students at many public universities. Even without a full athletic scholarship, the opportunity to play basketball and earn an Ivy League degree would be difficult to pass up. If he chooses that route, Singleton wouldn’t even be the first central Ohio standout to do so, as former Columbus Northland star Seth Towns turned down offers from Ohio State, Michigan, Purdue, and several others to play at Harvard in 2016.
Singleton is scheduled for an official visit at Ohio State the weekend of October 3-5, so a decision does not seem imminent. But if you ask Fleer, he does think Diebler and the Buckeyes have a solid chance at keeping the local product here in Columbus at the end of the day.
“I think the Buckeyes have a great shot, but like I said, academics definitely play a major role. So he could be an Ivy League type of guy too. It remains to be seen, but it always helps having your dad be a member of a Final Four Team.”