The Ohio State men’s basketball team’s 2026 recruiting class has slipped in the updated 247Sports.com rankings.
The new rankings show slight drops for the two players pledged to Ohio State in the class: Marcus Johnson and Alex Smith.
Johnson, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound point guard from Garfield Heights, Ohio, has dropped nine spots in the rankings and sits at No. 36 overall. Johnson remains a four-star prospect and is now the No. 3 player from Ohio and No. 3 point guard in the nation.
Smith saw a smaller drop. The 6-foot-9, 195-pound forward fell four spots in the rankings to No. 140. After three years at Upper Arlington, Smith has transferred to Fort Lauderdale (Florida) Prolific Prep for his senior year.
He is the No. 23 power forward and No. 21 player in Florida in the updated rankings.
Together, they form a class ranked No. 2 in the Big Ten and No. 6 nationally. Ohio State is expected to sign as many as four players in the 2026 class.
Much of the top 150 remains uncommitted. Johnson is the third-highest recruit to have committed to a school, the top-rated Big Ten player and one of only six top-55 prospects to have already picked a school.
Johnson took his official visit to Ohio State during the weekend of Aug. 30, and he wasn’t the only player in his class to do so. He was joined on the visit by Anthony Thompson, a five-star forward and fellow Ohioan from Hudson Western Reserve Academy.
Thompson climbed three spots and is the No. 7 prospect in the class as well as the top player in Ohio. Alex Constanza, a four-star small forward from Florida who will play for Geneva Spire Academy, is No. 22 nationally and No. 2 in the state for 2026.
Thompson has declined interview requests while he goes through a busy fall with multiple official visits.
Ohio State men’s basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.