The Ohio State men’s basketball team jumped into the transfer portal by making its first two roster additions on the same day.
First came the announcement that Justin Pippen, a former Michigan and California guard, was committing to the Buckeyes for the 2026-27 season. Then, former Kentucky forward/center Andrija Jelavic announced his commitment to play for coach Jake Diebler and the Buckeyes. He will be a junior next season.
There will be more players to be added. Ohio State remains in the hunt for more guard depth after losing starter Bruce Thornton to graduation and reserves Taison Chatman and Gabe Cupps to the portal, but Pippen and Jelavic are projected to be important rotation pieces next season.
Here are four initial thoughts on their additions to the roster.
There’s a good chance these two fill out Ohio State’s starting lineup
The Buckeyes made a clear point to bring back John Mobley Jr. and Amare Bynum, two of last year’s starters who will be entering their junior and sophomore seasons, respectively. Mobley is testing the NBA waters but is expected to be back and Bynum emerged as an explosive two-way player down the stretch last season, and they will team with McDonald’s All-American Anthony Thompson to form a new “big three” for the Buckeyes.
The 6-foot-3, 190-pound Pippen looks likely to slot in next to Mobley as a starter in the backcourt. After a year as a lightly used sub as a freshman at Michigan, he started 32 games for California and was named honorable mention all-ACC while finishing top 20 in the league in points, assists and steals per game as well as defensive rating.
Ohio State’s center position will likely be a battle between the 6-11, 235-pound Jelavic and Baylor transfer Josh Ojianwuna. The 6-10, 270-pound Ojianwuna missed last season with a knee injury and will be a fifth-year senior. He hasn’t played a game since Feb. 8, 2025, so the addition of Jelavic to compete with Ojianwuna and backup Ivan Njegovan gives the Buckeyes more size and options down low. He’s also an option to play at power forward alongside either Ojianwuna or Njegovan.
Neither was a particularly efficient shooter last year
Although Pippen averaged 14.2 points per game and finished 18th in the ACC last season, he shot only 37.0% overall while averaging 11.2 shot attempts per game. Pippen shot 40.7% from two, 32.7% from 3 and finished with an effective field-goal percentage of .446. Among Buckeyes to play in at least 10 games last season, only Colin White had a lower effective field-goal percentage, and he was at 42.9%.
When Jelavic got to Kentucky, the belief was that he would help stretch the floor after averaging roughly a made 3-pointer per game during a professional career in Croatia. Instead, he shot just 27.6% from deep, going 21 for 76 from 3-point range. He took nearly the same number of shots inside the 3-point line, going 52 for 77 from two (67.5%).
The Buckeyes are banking on fit rather than headline signings
After seeing Michigan win a national championship in 2025-26 while landing prized transfers led by Yaxel Lendeborg last spring, at least some Ohio State fans were hoping to make a splash with more noteworthy names. Recruiting rankings don’t win games, but Pippen is a top-75 transfer prospect as rated by 247Sports.com while Jelavic does not have a rating.
Retaining Mobley and Bynum and adding Thompson are all headline-worthy developments, and any of them would have been a prized commodity in the portal. In adding Pippen and Jelavic, who both qualify as under-the-radar additions to varying degrees, Ohio State showed it is banking on fit and its own evaluations rather than making splash signings in the portal. It also could allow the Buckeyes to land another impact-type guard to the rotation who won’t see a path to backcourt playing time blocked like it was last year with Thornton and Mobley in the fold.
These moves could help Ohio State’s defense
According to KenPom.com, the Buckeyes finished 2025-26 with their most efficient offense since the 2010-11 season. Ohio State averaged 124.0 points per 100 possessions, just one point behind the 2010-11 team that got knocked out of the NCAA Tournament in the Sweet 16. It’s the second-best offensive rating for the Buckeyes in the history of the website that dates back to 1996-97.
The biggest issue for Ohio State last season was its defense. The Buckeyes finished 52nd nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency, allowing 101.8 points per 100 possessions. Ohio State was 242nd in defensive turnover rate and 347th in steal rate. In short: Ohio State didn’t turn teams over nearly consistently enough or block enough shots (315th in block rate) to have a high-level defense.
Pippen finished 98th nationally in steal rate according to KenPom and was seventh in the ACC in steal percentage. According to basketball-reference.com, he was 12th in the league in defensive win shares.
Jelavic got a late start on his season with the Wildcats as his move from Croatia precluded him from participating in summer workouts. He moved into the starting lineup for the last 20 games and finished the year averaging 5.5 points and 4.0 rebounds while playing 15.6 minutes per appearance. He doesn’t have the same defensive numbers as Pippen, but he did have a defensive rebounding rate of 18.5 and an offensive rebounding rate of 9.8. Both of those numbers would have been second-highest on Ohio State’s roster last year.
Ohio State men’s basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 4 thoughts on Ohio State adding transfers Justin Pippen, Andrija Jelavic
Reporting by Adam Jardy, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
