Minnesota transfer forward Jamison Battle commits to Ohio State
COLUMBUS — Ohio State is staying within the Big Ten to address a positional need: Minnesota transfer forward Jamison Battle has committed to the Buckeyes, giving them a boost at the wing spot.
Battle’s transfer comes after two years with the Golden Gophers, whom he joined following two seasons at George Washington, where he started his college career.
Battle started all 56 games he played in at Minnesota. The 6-foot-7, 225-pound lefty was the Gophers’ leading scorer in 2021-22, when he was an All-Big Ten honorable mention and averaged 17.5 points and 6.3 rebounds per game while shooting 36.6% from downtown. He was the only returning starter for the Gophers in 2022-23.
Ahead of this past season, he had minor foot surgery and ended up missing four games. His production dropped off from his first year in Minneapolis. Battle averaged 12.4 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. He shot just 37.1% from the field, including 31.1% from deep.
Still, he reached the 20-point mark six times, even recording a season-high 31 against Illinois on Feb. 20. His best moment of the season, however, came against Rutgers on March 2. Battle capped a 14-point, second-half comeback with a buzzer-beating triple to upset an NCAA Tournament-hopeful Scarlet Knights squad that ended up on the wrong side of the bubble.
That game-winner also went down as his sixth 3-pointer of the game, his season high.
Battle was one of the better 3-point shooters in the portal this offseason. He logged seven games with at least four makes from beyond the arc last season. The year before that, he turned in five such performances, including a 7-of-16 outing at Maryland, where he popped off for 39 points.
Battle has averaged 2.5 triples made per game at a 35% clip over his four-year career. To put that in perspective, Ohio State star freshman Brice Sensabaugh — likely a one-and-done — led the team with 1.8 long-range field goals per game last season.
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Battle, a Robbinsdale, Minnesota, native, was an unheralded recruit, despite leading De La Salle High School to a Class 3A state title and being a semi-finalist for Minnesota Mr. Basketball.
Since, however, he has proved his worth at the college level.
At GW, he set the program single-season record for 3-pointers (89) as a freshman, en route to A-10 All-Rookie Team honors. Although he played in only 15 games as a sophomore, Battle ranked sixth in the conference in scoring that season. At Minnesota, he translated his scoring prowess to the Big Ten while still averaging north of 35 minutes per game.
After losing both Sensabaugh and Justice Sueing to the NBA Draft, as well as Eugene Brown III to the transfer portal, the Buckeyes needed help at wing. That’s where Battle comes in.
He also provides an upperclassman presence for an Ohio State program that will be driven by its back-to-back top-15 recruiting classes next year.
