Get to know Ohio State men’s basketball prospect Brice Sensabaugh

And is he the next Buckeye to commit in the 2022 hoops class?

As the 2022 basketball recruiting cycle really starts to heat up, the Ohio State coaching staff continues to make offers to solid high school prospects.

The recent offer made in the cycle was to Brice Sensabaugh, a three-star recruit out of Lake Highland Prep in Orlando, Fla. The 6-foot-6, 240 pound small forward is currently ranked as the No. 254 recruit overall in the country, No. 53 small forward recruit in the country and the No. 24 recruit in the solid basketball state of Florida, according to 247 Sports.

Sensabaugh was clearly waiting to see if he would get the offer from the Buckeyes, as there was only seven minutes in between him announcing that he received an offer from Ohio State and announcing that he had narrowed down his top four schools, Ohio State being one.

In addition to the Buckeyes, his top four were Alabama, Georgia Tech and Florida. Clearly, Ohio State can be looked at as one of the favorites for the small forward as they snuck in just before his finalists deadline.

Sensabaugh picked those four schools over Illinois, Northwestern, Clemson, Cincinnati, Indiana, Miami and Oklahoma, Virginia, Stanford, Vanderbilt, amongst others.

So far, the Ohio State men’s basketball team has the No. 1 recruiting class in the country. They have four verbal commits from Roddy Gayle, Bruce Thornton, Bowen Hardman and most recently, Felix Okpara. Hardman is a three-star recruit, Okpara and Gayle are four-star recruits and Thornton is the first five-star recruit to commit to Chris Holtmann and his staff, and the program’s first since current Minnesota Timberwolves shooting guard D’Angelo Russell.

Sensabaugh is a great scorer who can put the ball in the hoop at all three levels and comes with great size, physicality and athletic prowess. However, he will need to work on the defensive end of the floor, but that is something that comes with time, especially at his age.

An important aspect of Sensabaugh’s recruitment is Bruce Thornton and his history with the five-star point guard.

“They liked me and Bruce [Thornton] and how we play together,” Sensabaugh told Rivals. “I’m actually from Ohio. They have a top recruiting class already with Bruce going there. I was on a zoom with them for like two hours the other night and learned a lot about them.”

Sensabaugh has played all summer with Thornton on the Each One Teach One team and they have developed a close relationship on and off the court. Each One Teach One is a basketball academy and travel team that Sensabaugh and Thornton play on during the summer. It is where Thornton jumped from a four-star recruit to a five-star recruit.

With Ohio State, Alabama and Georgia Tech can feel good about their chances, as they were the two first schools to secure official visits with Sensabaugh, impressing him both times.

As it stands right now, Sensabaugh would be the fifth verbal commit for Holtmann and the Buckeyes in the 2022 recruiting class. It is hard to tell exactly how many players the Buckeyes will need to fill out the team in 2022. With the free COVID year of eligibility and possibility of fifth-year seniors returning, but Ohio State will likely have seven to nine spots to fill after this season.

Holtmann and his staff like to play in the transfer portal, so you can expect them to add one or two guys there, and 2022 recruit Dillon Mitchell is a likely possibility to commit even though we are still not exactly sure where he stands in regards to Overtime Elite and whether or not he got a contract there.

If Mitchell and Sensabaugh both commit and make six verbal pledges in the class, that may be all that the Buckeyes add for now since the uncertainty around eligibility will be difficult to navigate until players make final decisions about whether to stay or go.

Regardless, Sensabaugh very well could be prepping to make a commitment announcement very soon and Ohio State has a great chance to being the forward to Columbus.