Joshua Ojianwuna injury update: Jake Diebler provides latest on status of Baylor transfer

Joshua Ojianwuna suffered a season-ending knee injury back in February, which ended his time at Baylor as he’d enter his name into the NCAA Transfer Portal in April. His status at his new program at Ohio State is now still unknown to this point of summer practice, and likely will be until the season is closer to tipping off.

In an interview with Jon Rothstein at CBS Sports on Thursday, Jake Diebler shared an update on Ojianwuna with his recovery continuing in Columbus. He said, for now, the Buckeyes are working as though he’ll be back in time, without rushing him to it either, for the start of the season in November. Until then, though, Ojianwuna is taking in everything in their practices that he’s going to need when he does get back to playing again

“Yeah, until we’re given information that he won’t be (available), we’ll keep moving forward to that,” said Diebler. “He’s watching everything from the side right now, learning our terminology. You know, we’re doing some different things offensively so everybody’s got to be paying close attention. And, he’s been great. He’s been great.”

“I think only time will tell, you know,” Diebler said. “It’s a situation – he’s got a bright basketball future so we can’t rush him, you know. We’ve got to make sure that he’s ready before he steps out on the court.”

Ojianwuna, a native of Nigeria and a product of NBA Academy Africa and the NBA Global Academy, spent his first three seasons in Waco with 87 games played, 23 of those being starts last season, for the Bears. He would average 5.3 points (70.4% FG) and 4.2 rebounds per game while there, including career-best numbers of 7.4 points (77.4% FG) and 6.4 rebounds last year as a junior. However, Ojianwuna would suffer this knee injury on February 8th during a win over UCF with him announcing the following day on social media that it was a season-ending issue.

With that, Ojianwuna would announce a month and a half later that he’d be entering the portal. He transferred as a Top-175 player and the No. 40 PF according to On3’s 2025 Top Transfer Portal Players. Then, after a three week of being recruited, Ojianwuna signed with Ohio State for his final season of eligibility.

That said, when that last season will begin with the Buckeyes is uncertain for Ojianwuna. That’s something with his health that the program and staff will continue to monitor over the next four months leading into the start of their season

“We’ll continue to evaluate him,” said Diebler. “We won’t have more information on that until well into fall camp.”