When describing Ohio State’s 2025 recruiting class, coach Jake Diebler kept coming back to one word.

The Buckeyes announced the addition of four-star prospects on Wednesday Amare Bynum And Dorian Jones the first day of the early signing period. Bynum is a power forward and Jones is a guard, but each projects to eventually make an impact at multiple positions when they get to college.

Diebler praised the versatility both will bring to the program. And by signing two players now, roster versatility is something Diebler said the coaching staff hopes to have once the 2024-25 season is over.

In other words, the Buckeyes are unlikely to add anyone else before the early signing period ends on November 20.

“For me, philosophically, I want to have flexibility in the spring,” he said Thursday. “I think it’s important. I’m really comfortable with who we’re landing right now, but at this point it’s all about the right person. If the right solution is there, it’s something we would consider adding, but we’re not going to force anything at this point.

It’s a little different than what the job was like when Diebler was cutting his teeth as a renowned recruiter and assistant coach. As he said Thursday, the days of signing a recruiting class of five or six players are probably a thing of the past in today’s era of the transfer portal and immediate eligibility. It no longer makes much sense to bring in a large freshman class, see a few of them transfer, and have to continually bring players out of high school to fill the gaps.

As Ohio State showed this offseason, the portal is only growing in importance. With Diebler at the helm, the Buckeyes signed five portal players and signed three freshmen, one of whom was part of a professional team in Croatia.

“Priorities have changed, and rightly so, when young players and their families make decisions,” he said. “I also think now with the portal there is no need to sit out a transfer, having that flexibility in the spring is really valuable. This is certainly valuable for players. It’s well documented, but it’s also valuable for coaches.

By signing Bynum and Jones, Diebler said the Buckeyes added two versatile pieces to a program that has three players in their final years of eligibility. Technically, that would leave a nonexistent slot for 2025-2026, assuming everyone who is eligible to return does so, but that’s an assumption it’s no longer safe to make. It stands to reason that Ohio State will lose some of its 11 potential returning scholarship recipientseither towards the professional route or towards the transfer portal.

Having players who can do multiple things helps refine the coaching staff’s goals in the spring, whether through the portal or the prep route. At 6-foot-4, 180 pounds, Jones is listed as a shooting guard, but he’s a player who could fill multiple roles, Diebler said. The same goes for the 6-8, 220-pound Bynum.

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“Really excited for both of those guys with the versatility and position size that they bring,” the coach said. “Both can play multiple positions. They can keep several positions. They have versatile offensive plays, especially Amare when you look at what he can do on the perimeter and inside. This gives us great flexibility.

Bynum averaged 21.1 points, 9.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.3 blocks per game as a junior at Omaha (Nebraska) Bryan before transferring to Branson (Missouri) Link Academy for his final year. During the 2024 EYBL summer season, he averaged 11.7 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.1 blocks and shot better than 34% from 3 while working his way onto Ohio State’s radar.

“I really focused on him in person at the Top 100 camp and he became a big priority for us from then on,” Diebler said. “It was easy to connect with him because he’s a great young man and his family is great.”

Assistant coach Jamall Walker had a particularly big impact on Bynum’s commitment, he said.

Jones, meanwhile, has been recruited by Ohio State for years and chose the Buckeyes over Michigan, Missouri and Rutgers over the summer. At Richmond Heights, Ohio, Jones was part of teams that won three straight state titles and earned first-team all-state honors as a junior while averaging about 14 points per game.

“We’ve known Dorian for a long time and we’ve been following him closely for a few years,” Diebler said. “Both of them are also great kids. Who they are as people, certainly who they are as players, it fits the way we want to play, the athleticism and the versatility, but it also fits what we represent as a program.

As the landscape continues to change, this becomes more and more difficult to understand every year. Time will tell how successful Ohio State was this time around.

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This article was originally published on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State basketball: A look at Jake Diebler’s 2025 recruiting class