Ohio State has landed its first commitment from a high school player in the Jake Diebler era, and he’s a highly rated one.

Marcus Johnson, a five-star guard from Garfield Heights, Ohio, has committed to the Buckeyes for the class of 2026. The 6-2, 170-pound Johnson has picked Ohio State after having taken multiple visits and developing a close relationship with Diebler first as a recruiter and now as a head coach.

“It’s easy to make a decision like this when a coach has been the one coming to your practices, coming to all your games, who has been the one communicating with you and built that relationship and now he becomes the head coach,” Johnson’s father, Sonny Johnson, said. “One thing my son wanted was to always feel loved and wanted. You want to go where you’re loved and wanted and somebody has a plan for you, and we think coach Diebler is that guy.”

Although most recruiting services don’t have lengthy lists of the top prospects in the 2026 class, Johnson is the first player in the 247Sports or ESPN rankings to commit to a school. ESPN ranks him as a five-star prospect and the No. 12 overall player in the class while 247Sports has him as a four-star prospect and the No. 24 overall player. Both list him as the top player in Ohio.

He is Ohio State’s first commitment in either the 2025 or 2026 classes.

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“Why not take it?” Sonny Johnson said. “Now they have you in their plans: we can’t take this (other) guy here because we’ve got Marcus here, we’re going to develop them. We’re trying to bring pride to Ohio State basketball and bring national recognition to our state.”

The Johnson family has taken in multiple games since Diebler was named interim coach and eventually hired for the full-time job. Throughout, Sonny Johnson said they’ve paid close attention to how Diebler has coached his players and how the program has been run with him in charge.

“I think he runs a pro-style offense,” he said of Diebler. “I saw how he encouraged his players to play with confidence, to be aggressive. We like the way the team’s camaraderie was. We sat right behind the bench, so we were there just making sure when you make a move like this that you’re doing the right thing.”

He’s not the first commitment to the program under Diebler, though – and he’s not the first member of the Johnson family, either. As he assembles a roster for 2024-25, Diebler has signed South Carolina transfer Meechie Johnson out of the portal. Johnson, who played his first two years at Ohio State before transferring to South Carolina for two years, is Marcus Johnson’s cousin.

“We have enough players in this state of Ohio to win the national championship,” Sonny Johnson said. “That’s got to be the goal. There can be nothing more pleasurable than winning and being great in your state.”

ajardy@dispatch.com

@AdamJardy

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State basketball lands five-star 2026 guard Marcus Johnson