Evan Mahaffey is No. 7 in our Ohio State men's basketball preseason power rankings

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Evan Mahaffey is No. 7 in our Ohio State men's basketball preseason power rankings

Adam Jardy, Columbus Dispatch · The Columbus Dispatch

Tue, Oct 31, 2023 ·

7 min read

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Men's basketball season is about to get underway, and it's time to dive into the Ohio State roster.

After a 16-19 record that caused the Buckeyes to miss the postseason for the first time in coach Chris Holtmann's six seasons with the program , Ohio State returns several key core players while adding a highly rated freshman class and a three-man transfer group all expected to make significant impacts.

To get ready for the season, The Dispatch is once again rolling out its annual preseason power rankings. Each day leading into the Nov. 6 season opener with Oakland , we will count upward while projecting which players will have the biggest roles on the 2023-24 season. This isn't just a measurement of who will lead the team in any particular statistical category, but a series of educated guesses on which players' contributions will go the longest way toward where the Buckeyes finish.

The series continues today with second-year forward Evan Mahaffey.

No. 7 – Evan Mahaffey

Position: Forward

Eligibility: Second year (two remaining)

Height/weight: 6 feet 6 / 200 pounds

Jersey number: 12

Major: Exploration

Background

A Cincinnati native, Mahaffey helped lead Moeller to a 64-12 record in his final three seasons of high school basketball and was a finalist for Ohio Mr. Basketball as a senior when he averaged 15.7 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.6 blocks per game while shooting 63.8 percent from the field. As a junior, Mahaffey was named his league's defensive player of the year and both first-team all-conference and all-district.

247Sports.com ranked Mahaffey as a four-star prospect, the No. 3 player in Ohio and the No. 130 national prospect in the class of 2022. Cincinnati, Xavier, West Virginia and Kansas State all offered and Indiana and Ohio State showed interest, but Mahaffey committed to Penn State and coach Micah Shrewsberry.

After Shrewsberry left Penn State for Notre Dame, Mahaffey entered the transfer portal. 247Sports ranked him as a three-star transfer and No. 165 overall, and he considered following Shrewsberry to Notre Dame as well as interest from Dayton and new Penn State coach Mike Rhoades before committing to Ohio State in May.

Feb. 23, 2023; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes forward Justice Sueing (14) is guarded by Penn State Nittany Lions guard Evan Mahaffey (12) during Thursday's basketball game at Value City Arena.Mandatory Credit: Barbara J. Perenic/Columbus Dispatch

"Growing up, I was never really a big college guy who picked a favorite school but wearing the Ohio across my chest is a really big thing," he told The Dispatch when he committed. "I love my state. I have a whole lot of pride in it, especially Cincinnati but just the state in general."

Should Mahaffey want to transfer a second time, he would have to sit out a year under current NCAA rules, making him a player who will likely provide some roster stability for the Buckeyes. He is the fifth player from within the Big Ten to transfer to Ohio State, joining Andrew Dakich (from Michigan), Jamari Wheeler (Penn State), Joey Brunk (Indiana) and Jamison Battle (Minnesota), but the first to do so with multiple years of eligibility remaining.

2022-23 season recap

On the first Penn State team to advance in the NCAA Tournament since 2001, Mahaffey played in 34 of 37 games for the Nittany Lions, averaging 9.4 minutes per appearance. A bit contributor, he averaged 2.8 points and 1.7 rebounds per game while shooting 56.9 percent from the floor.

Mahaffey's season high was his only double-digit scoring game when he had 12 points on 4 for 4 shooting from the floor while playing 13 minutes in an 85-66 win home win against Indiana on Jan. 11. He grabbed a season-high five rebounds in a 61-59 loss to Virginia Tech in the 2022 Charleston Classic.

In one game against Ohio State last season, Mahaffey had 4 points, three rebounds and an assist while playing 19 minutes in a 75-71 win at Value City Arena on Feb. 23.

Mahaffey appeared in all 20 Big Ten games, averaging 3.2 points and 1.8 rebounds while shooting 64.9% (24 for 37) from the floor. He played a total of 19 minutes in Penn State's two NCAA Tournament games.

Need to know

Mahaffey is part of an athletic family. His father, Jamie, played basketball at Miami (Ohio) from 1991-95 and was an all-Mid-American Conference selection as a senior. He averaged 9.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists, scoring 1,159 career points for the Redhawks. His sister, Danielle, played volleyball at the University of Tennessee from 2018-2022, and his younger brother, Eric, is a senior at Cincinnati Moeller who has committed to the University of Akron for the 2024 class.

Ohio State assistant coach Jack Owens , who was Miami's head coach from 2017-22, was Mahaffey's primary recruiter. Owens also recruited him while at Miami. From sixth through eighth grade, Mahaffey played with Bowen Hardman, now one of his teammates at Ohio State .

Mahaffey filmed a video talking about his own mental health that aired as part of Ohio State's charity exhibition at Dayton . He varies his pregame music. His three favorite rappers growing up were Tupac, Drake and Rod Wave. Mahaffey is a Star Wars fan. Asked to pick the greatest of all time between Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Michael Jordan, he picked Jordan. For reasons not yet fully explained, his nickname at Penn State was "Bobby."

Oct 22, 2023; Dayton, OH, USA;Ohio State Buckeyes guard Evan Mahaffey (12) attempts to make his way to the basket past Dayton Flyers guard Enoch Cheeks (50) during their game on Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023 at University of Dayton Arena. — Oct 22, 2023; Dayton, OH, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes guard Evan Mahaffey (12) attempts to make his way to the basket past Dayton Flyers guard Enoch Cheeks (50) during their game on Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023 at University of Dayton Arena.

His high school coach, Carl Kremer, described him as a personality Ohio State fans are going to enjoy.

"When Evan was at our school, every teacher loved him," Kremer said. "People in Columbus are going to love him. He's the most polite, easy-going, fun-loving, big-ol'-smile kid."

2023-24 season outlook

When he arrived at Ohio State, the word on Mahaffey was potential. If you talk to enough people who have either coached or been around him, they will describe a player whose best basketball lies ahead and who has an NBA ceiling. He's athletic, rangy, versatile and mostly in need of just developing a consistent jumper in order to become a fully rounded player.

His attitude, work ethic and versatility have made him an early surprise for the Buckeyes, to the point where he projects as a starter.

"Evan's gonna play an important role for us," coach Chris Holtmann said after an Oct. 22 charity exhibition at Dayton . "He's a really good passer. He's an exceptional ball handler at his size. He's smart. Defensively he picks things up well. He's just a kid that I think is gonna continue to grow."

In the Dayton game, Mahaffey started, played 18:45 and had 5 points, three rebounds, two assists and two turnovers. He also started in Ohio State's "secret" scrimmage against Clemson in Nashville on Oct. 28 and was described as having played well, at least relative to the rest of the team in what was an 86-64 loss.

As the start of the season looms, it's clear that his ability to guard multiple positions will earn him important playing time. In practice, he's talked guarding forwards Jamison Battle and Devin Royal as well as speedy guard Dale Bonner . Comparisons have been drawn to former Buckeyes Andre Wesson and Kyle Young. How much consistent offensive production he'll provide is difficult to project, and Holtmann has made it clear that his role as a junior will look significantly different than it does as a sophomore.

But on a team that is expected to be carried in large part by its class of second-year players, Mahaffey has solidified himself in that group with Roddy Gayle Jr., Felix Okpara and Bruce Thornton.

"I feel like I've gotten a lot more comfortable with everything, offense, defensively," he said. "I feel like I'm really diving deep into the team and understanding the concept that coach Holt is preaching every single day. I think that's driving it, and just coming to work every single day trying to get better."

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