Top New Storylines

2028 5 star Kam Mercer back in Ohio

5 star Cincinnati native Kam Mercer announced he will be transferring to Princeton High School from Overtime Elite. The 6’5 guard signed a million dollar trading card deal earlier this year. According to him, he will be eligible immediately, making Princeton instantly a D1 team to watch out for.

Burns Mega Scrimmage is a NEO hit

Hawken Head Coach Anthony Burns hosted a high school mega scrimmage at the NEO sports plant and I was in attendance. Here were my top performers:

Samer Dari-St Ignatius Greg Price-Hawken Marquis Foster-CCC Alex Mack- St Ignatius Dyland Zeigler-Lutheran East Braylon Benson-Padua Eli Chapman- STVM Jaevon Hairston VASJ Mekhi Asberry-Euclid

3 Time Ohio State Champion Announces Commitment to the University of North Texas

3 star forward TJ Crumble announced his commitment to North Texas over the likes of schools such as Stanford, USC, DePaul and others. Crumble won a state championship with Richmond Heights and two with Lutheran East, but will be playing prep at LuHi in New York.

Margaretta’s Julian Washington committs to the University of Dayton

The 6’4 wing/guard chose the Flyers over Northern Iowa and Florida Atlantic. Washington led the Polar Bears to regionals and 25 wins last year. He is known for his mid range jumper, motor, and defense.

Deuce Brand NorthCoast Showtime Fall League raps up in Sandusky

I spent 5 Sundays covering some fall ball action in Sandusky and Fremont. It was a great event, a fun time, and a ton of new talented players rose. Here were my top performers: (Anthony Redding, Ashton Miller, Kellen Glass, Daishun Brown, Bray Jordan, Cam Jones, Stanley Robinson, and Zymir Knox. Pictured left are the two champions!

Summer Elam tournament announced

Allohiohoops, 270hoops, and the brand new Ohio Elam invitational announced a High school team June shootout that will debut in 2026! For interest, please email ohioelaminvitational@gmail.com.

Bleacher Prospect hosts Showcase

This weekend me and the Bleacher Prospect team put together a showcase for some of the top talent in the Midwest with over 40 college coaches and tons of media. Some of my top performers can be found on Instagram or bleacherprospect.com

3 Former Ohio HS athletes Sign Pro Deals

Nigel Hayes-Davis, former Toledo Whitmer and Wisconsin Forward signed with the Phoenix Suns. He was recently a Euroleague MVP, and it will be his first time back in the NBA since 2017-18. (pictured)

Des Watson, former Columbus DeSales guard and Loyola Chicago grad has signed a free agent camp deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Jamiya Neal, former Toledo Rogers and Creighton grad has signed a free agent camp deal with the Charlotte Hornets.

Midwest Live Photos Posted or Available via DM.

I was able to bring the camera out to Midwest Live and photograph some of the top basketball talent Ohio has to offer!

Midwest Live Holds the Best Exposure in the Country.

College coaches of all levels, and media of all types filled the Cedar Point Sport Center on the last weekend of June. Such a great event!

MVNU Hosts Four Reigning State Champions in June Shootout

Division’s 1 through 4 state champions in Olentangy Orange, Westerville North, Louisville, and Maysville competed at Mount Vernon Nazarene University among other talented teams. The Panthers of Maysville returned all 12 players from their varsity roster. Not all of the four were as lucky, as the Louisville Leopards lost all of its 8 man rotation from last year. However, it was Louisville who beat Maysville in a close one at MVNU. Anything can happen in June! Pictures can be found on Instagram.

Ohio’s All Time Leading Scorer Quinn Kwasniak Commits to Division 1 Merrimack College.

After de-committing from Army in April, Kwasniak will take his talents to Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts. The Warriors went 18-15 this past season.

Sandusky’s Cedar Point Sport Center’s
“Coaster Clash” brings Ohio talent under one huge roof.

Sandusky was the place to be this weekend for some AAU hoops. “Bald Head Elite” is a new wave of AAU teams that put together nationwide talent on different weekends and they were set to play at the Coaster Clash, and won two games before being kicked out of the tournament. TNBA Ohio had themselves a perfect weekend, going 5-0 in the 16u division. On the 17u side, Ohio Buckets Black came away with a perfect 5-0 weekend. My top performers from the weekend can be seen below.

Josh Henderson, Stephon Bohanon, Jaylen Jackson, Erick Graham, Daeshawn Fiore, and Grady Hughes.

Youngstown Chaney, East, set to merge into one high school starting in ’26-27,

First reported by WFMJ Youngstown.

Formerly, there were two schools based in Youngstown; East and Chaney. Just announced today, they will now merge into one school starting with the athletics school year of 2026-2027. The school will get a new name, and mascot but will take place where East is currently at. Chaney has had a history of having solid basketball teams year in and year out, and went 13-10 last season. They were division three. East went 4-20, and was also division three. This will be something to keep an eye on in the future in Northeast Ohio.

Former Richmond Heights coach headed to Euclid

Coach Quentin Rogers announced he was moving on from Richmond heights last in March. He spent 8 years there where he won 3 state champions in 5 final four appearances. He also has spent a lot of time with All Ohio in the AAU ranks where he won 4 national champions. It has been announced that his assistants Mark Williams and Ryan Hines along with him. The Panthers went 8-15 in Division 2 last year, losing their leading scorer but returning a couple stars in Jalin Acoff ’27 and Kye Owens ’26. I would expect Euclid to be a hot spot for top talent in Cleveland now.

OHSAA announces state semifinals are returning to Dayton.

After one year of going away from Dayton, the semis are coming back. The OHSAA has officially announced that the semifinals could take place on the Thursday, or Friday of the state tournament weekend. It could be similar to OHSAA volleyball, and we could see some semifinal games At UD, Wright State, Centerville, Or Kettering Fairmont. On the bright side, it could make for a jam-packed weekend for some high school hoops. The OHSAA director Doug Ute stated “The feedback we recieved from the coaches at this year’s state tournament led us to make this proposal”. More details will be released soon.

Photo: Dayton Athletics

Buckeye Classic brings Ohio’s top AAU talent under one roof.

Midwest Basketball Club 3SSB came home with the 17u championship in a 71-65 win over Ohio Buckets EYCL. The semifinals between Midwest, Buckets, NOVA, and Ohio Champion was all really competitive with some top talent. In the 16u division, BTG came away champs. Here are some of my top performers:

Alex Smith, Cam Elwer, Jason Singleton, Xavier McKinney, Jakhi Calloway, Athens McGillis, Jack Leppeleimer, Donny Driscoll, Luca Filia.

7 teams crowned in Dayton

Olentangy Orange, Westerville North, Louisville, Maysville, Lutheran East, Monroe Central, and Russia

Picture: Spectrum News 1

Kwasniak breaks OHSAA scoring record

Cornerstone Christian senior guard Quinn Kwasniak has officially broken John Diebler’s record for the OHSAA’s all time leading scorer. Kwasniak; the Army Basketball commit, now also has OHSAA records for threes in a career and threes in a season. UPDATE: He finished with 3,283 total points.

Picture: @_shotbydavid