SPORTS

SPORTS 12 | Tuesday, March 24, 2020

One and done

Ohio State loses future star point guard D.J. Carton to transfer portal

Buckeyes add high volume of commitments in March despite COVID-19 restrictions.

ON PAGE 9

COVID-19 silences Buckeyes’ loud late season run COLUMN

GRIFFIN STROM Sports Editor strom.25@osu.edu

GRIFFIN STROM Sports Editor strom.25@osu.edu

Just two days after her son announced his temporary departure from Ohio State Jan. 30, Jennifer Carton took to Twitter.

The near 250-word message praised freshman guard D.J. Carton’s maturity for seeking help with mental health issues, thanked head coach Chris Holtmann and ended with a guarantee that the Buckeyes’ top 2019 recruit would return “stronger than ever in a Buckeye uniform.”

On Thursday, Jennifer Carton’s son took to social media to thank Holtmann and the Buckeye coaching staff once again, but his message made clear that his return will not be in scarlet and gray.

“I have decided to make a fresh start and enter the transfer portal,” Carton’s statement reads. “I wish Coach Holtmann and my teammates the best of luck next year. Please respect my decision.”

JOHN HUETHER | FOR THE LANTERN Ohio State freshman guard D.J. Carton (3) dribbles the ball down the court during the game against Minnesota Jan. 23. Ohio State lost 62-59.

The Buckeyes ended the final 11 games of the coronavirus-shortened season without him, but assuming his eventual comeback, Carton was still viewed by many as the star of the future for Ohio State.

The No. 34 overall recruit in the 2019 class averaged a team third-best 10.4 points per game for the Buckeyes in 20 games –– the highest average of any Ohio State freshman in four years –– and made a habit of electrifying crowds with a variety of vicious left-handed dunks.

In fact, Carton’s final game for the Buckeyes –– a road win against Northwestern Jan. 26 –– might have been his best, scoring 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting in just 21 minutes. The natural scoring ability and bouncy athleticism packed into Carton’s 6-foot-2 frame at point guard made many believe he’d eventually win the starting job over redshirt junior CJ Walker, who played his first minutes as a Buckeye this season after sitting out a year following a transfer from Florida State.

Carton never quite got there CARTON CONTINUES ON 10

It was an Ohio State men’s basketball season with highs that inspired exuberance bellowed loudly from the highest seats in the Schottenstein Center. It was a season with lows that inspired vitriol jeered loudly at the television sets of Buckeye fans far and wide. In the end there were neither boos nor cheers –– only silence. The COVID-19 outbreak that has robbed thousands of their lives and millions of their normal livelihood also took from this Ohio State team the chance to pen a final chapter and define its story arc once and for all.

This lost season will not soon be forgotten. In fact, the 2019- 20 season may be remembered for far longer than any in recent memory, but not for anything that took place on the hardwood.

It’s what didn’t take place that makes it so noteworthy.

While the NBA still holds on to the glimmer of hope that its season might pick up and continue at some undetermined date, the Big Ten Tournament was canceled for the first time since its inception in 1998, and the NCAA Tournament COLUMN CONTINUES ON 11