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5 thoughts as Ohio State adds Ques Glover, Ivan Njegovan to finalize roster
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- 5 thoughts as Ohio State adds Ques Glover, Ivan Njegovan to finalize roster
Four months and five days since last season ended, and 96 days until the start of the next one, the Ohio State men's basketball roster is finally set for the 2024-25 season.
Tuesday, the Buckeyes officially announced the additions of transfer guard Ques Glover and Croatian center Ivan Njegovan . Together, the latest additions give Ohio State essentially 14 scholarship players for 13 spots, with Glover earning enough NIL money to compensate for his status as a preferred walk-on.
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The final tally reflects the transient, evolving nature of college basketball. Of the 14-man roster, eight players are new to the program. Including Njegovan, three of them are freshmen. Including Glover, five of them are transfers. Six remain from the 2023-24 season.
Now it's up to first-year coach Jake Diebler to figure out how all of the pieces fit together. Here are five thoughts on Ohio State's two newest additions as summer workouts wind down.
Jan 12, 2021; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida Gators guard Ques Glover (0) shoots over Mississippi Rebels guard Jarkel Joiner (24) during the first half at Billy Donovan Court at Exactech Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Neither player is expected to be a featured contributor
Once Diebler signed Kentucky transfer Aaron Bradshaw only to subsequently lose returner Felix Okpara to the transfer portal, the Buckeyes have felt a need to add more size to their roster. That need has been well-known since April.
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The need to add another guard did not present itself until terrible news thinned Ohio State's backcourt depth. The loss of sophomore guard Taison Chatman to a season-ending knee injury in June removed an expected rotation piece from the equation and sent the Ohio State coaching staff scrambling for a potential replacement.
Those needs resulted in the two late-summer additions. Given the time restraints, adding a player with Glover's experience is about as well as the Buckeyes could be reasonably expected to do in the portal. And given the role Bradshaw is expected to occupy this season, the need to add another big body would help cushion Ohio State against foul trouble or injury and provide one more potential option in the paint.
Glover and Njegovan fill both profiles, but neither should reasonably be expected to assume a significant production role for the Buckeyes this season. In the backcourt, junior returner Bruce Thornton and fifth-year South Carolina transfer Meechie Johnson Jr. will handle the bulk of the minutes. Freshman John "Juni" Mobley Jr. is going to play this season, and both fifth-year San Diego State transfer Micah Parrish and junior Evan Mahaffey can help out with ball handling duties.
Jul 9, 2024; Columbus, OH, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Jake Diebler defends guard John Mobley Jr. during a summer workout in the practice gym at the Schottenstein Center.
That sets Glover up to primarily battle Mobley for minutes while ensuring that the Buckeyes are not solely leaning on a freshman to handle the backup point guard duties. It's a complementary role.
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Njegovan will similarly battle a largely untested young player for a backup role. Sophomore Austin Parks has had a strong summer and is in position to hold down minutes backing up Bradshaw, while sophomore Duke transfer Sean Stewart is also a possibility at center in small-ball lineups.
Both players should add depth to the Ohio State roster
It's hard to know what Ivan Njegovan can provide
There aren't a lot of statistics on Njegovan. He's seen some time with his club in Croatia and represented his country at the youth level, where he put up a double-double in one game this summer.
Multiple sources have described him to The Dispatch as an intriguing unknown whose potential won't be fully known until he gets on campus and gets to work. He's got the frame to be able to bang with the bigs of the Big Ten, but how accepting he is of a developmental role will go a long way toward determining his ceiling at Ohio State.
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For now, he's an intriguing mystery with size.
Ques Glover has a lot to prove
The well-traveled guard will be part of his fifth program and in his sixth year of college basketball. As players with the extra year of eligibility afforded to all participants during the 2020-21 season played amid the COVID-19 pandemic age their way out of the sport, Glover is one of the final remnants still in the sport.
In recent years, such players have been prized additions for most coaches who have been able to win by players boasting unprecedented age and experience. Glover arrived at Florida in 2019, the same year current Ohio State freshmen Colin White and Mobley were beginning eighth grade. That is an unquestioned benefit for the Buckeyes.
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But in two years with the Gators and two more at Samford, Glover has played a total of 22 of his 93 career games against what KenPom.com classifies as "Tier A" competition. Those games are against top-50 teams adjusted for game location.
In those 22 games, Glover has averaged 4.1 points per game while shooting 44.8% (26 for 58) from two and 26.7% (8 for 30) from deep. He has not played a "Tier A" game since Feb. 26, 2022, when Samford lost at Chattanooga 70-57 and he had 12 points, two assists and three turnovers in 34 minutes.
Glover's first year at Samford was his most prolific as he averaged 19.2 points per game, finished 80th nationally by averaging 5.6 fouls drawn per 40 minutes and averaged 4.4 assists and 2.8 rebounds. Injuries slowed him in 2022-23, and he missed all of 2023-24 at Kansas State due to injury.
His third season shows there's the capability for production. How much he will provide for the Buckeyes is an open question. Will he be more Andrew Dakich or Cedric Russell?
Amedeo Della Valle, who had 10 points, is fouled by Delaware's Kyle Anderson.
Expect more international players in the coming years
Ohio State has not historically done much roster work in the international market. While Njegovan could grow into an impact player in time, he will arrive with the label as a low-risk, high-reward addition who could reasonably be expected to grow into a consistent contributor in time.
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He's the first international player since Amedeo Della Valle joined the Buckeyes in 2012. It's highly unlikely Ohio State will go another dozen years before adding another international player.
Ohio State Buckeyes: Join the Ohio State Sports Insider text group with Bill Rabinowitz, Joey Kaufman Adam Jardy
No Ohio State player is safe from competition
As he has built his first roster, Diebler has made it clear that he wants as much competition as possible within his roster. That much seemed evident when Bradshaw was added to a roster with Okpara and Sean Stewart was added to a roster that also features rising sophomore Devin Royal. Both newcomers were expected to battle and push the returnees, or at least until Okpara opted to transfer to Tennessee.
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Even with the Chatman injury, Ohio State could have stood pat with 12 players. Mobley would enter the year as the unquestioned top backup at the point and Parks the top true center backup in the paint. Instead, both players have competition for those backup roles with these two additions.
It seems clear that little will be promised to each player when the Buckeyes begin fall camp.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 5 thoughts as Ohio State adds Ques Glover, Ivan Njegovan to roster
