{"id":409392,"date":"2025-11-14T04:32:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T04:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/409392\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T04:32:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T04:32:11","slug":"four-star-pg-marcus-johnson-commits-to-south-carolina-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/409392\/","title":{"rendered":"Four-star PG Marcus Johnson commits to South Carolina basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Carolina emerged as the school to watch from the moment Cleveland (Ohio) Garfield Heights class of 2026 four-star point guard\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/marcus-johnson-176179\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marcus Johnson<\/a> decommitted from Ohio State.<\/p>\n<p>Today, the Gamecocks got to the finish line with the nation\u2019s No. 8 point guard when he pledged to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/coach\/lamont-paris-132319\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lamont Paris<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Insiders Forum: <a href=\"https:\/\/gcon3.com\/PxLAJ8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Discuss South Carolina basketball<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>Johnson, the first cousin of South Carolina standout <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/meechie-johnson-143837\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Meechie Johnson<\/a>, chose the Gamecocks over interest from Indiana, Syracuse, Illinois, USC, Cincinnati, and others, in addition to Ohio State, which he was committed to for months.<\/p>\n<p>The younger Johnson is the No. 48 overall player in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/rankings\/industry-player\/basketball\/2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2026 Rivals Industry Ranking<\/a>\u00a0and the No. 8-ranked point guard in the cycle. He is the No. 5 overall player in Ohio per the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/rankings\/player\/basketball\/2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rivals150<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>While he never took a known visit to the school, Paris and assistants Will Bailey and Carey Rich traveled to Cleveland to meet with Johnson and his family a couple of weeks ago.<\/p>\n<p>He averaged 29.2 points last season, earning his second straight\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/playeroftheyear.gatorade.com\/winner\/marcus-johnson\/40905\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ohio Gatorade Player of the Year<\/a>\u00a0honor.<\/p>\n<p>247Sports has the 6-foot-2, 175-pounder ranked the highest in the point guard rankings, making him the No. 3 player in the country at his position. ESPN is the highest overall, placing him as the No. 28 overall prospect in the 2026 class.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson is the second pledge to the Gamecocks\u2019 class, joining another prospect with family ties in Hickory (N.C.) Moravian Prep three-star combo guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/isaac-ellis-238803\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Isaac Ellis<\/a>, the brother of current South Carolina freshman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/eli-ellis-151098\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Eli Ellis<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson\u2019s father, Sonny Johnson, is a basketball legend in the area and coached both his son, Marcus, and nephew, Meechie, at Garfield Heights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Carolina emerged as the school to watch from the moment Cleveland (Ohio) Garfield Heights class of 2026&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,37566],"class_list":{"0":"post-409392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-marcus-johnson-26-garfield-heights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115546184600822252","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}