It’s practically been one heck of a whirlwind summer for guard Jabari Currie. Every time he’s been ready to make a decision, something drastically
changes.
Thursday evening, Bucknuts spoke with the 6-4 combo from Detroit Pershing,
and it looks like his list has again been altered.
“Ohio State just called me this week,” Currie said. “They are
recruiting me again. I’m thinking about DePaul, Purdue, Ohio State, and
Missouri.”
All four of the schools Currie is considering have offered a scholarship.
Also offering is Boston College, Miami (FL), Illinois, and West Virginia amongst
others.
Ohio State was hot on the trail for Currie before Jim O’Brien was fired by
the Buckeyes. Currie had visited the campus unofficially, and the very same day
O’Brien was fired, Currie was set to give O’Brien a call to verbally commit.
Currie was extremely disappointed.
It was that time that DePaul stepped in and began recruiting Currie pretty
hard. In the last two months, DePaul has emerged as a leader for Currie.
Former Buckeye assistant Lamonta Stone, a fellow Detroit native who had been
doing the recruiting of Currie, remained as a paid staff member until Thad Matta
was named as head basketball coach for Ohio State.
Stone, even in the absence of a head coach, kept in contact whenever
permissible by NCAA regulations in hopes of keeping Currie interested in Ohio
State. Currie was in fact still extremely interested, but eventually he didn’t
feel like waiting any longer.
As July passed by, Matta was eventually hired but it came right on the heels
of an evaluation period where he couldn’t contact any recruits.
Currie had pretty much dismissed the idea of ever hearing back from Ohio
State, but last week his coach was told by Matta that Ohio State intended to
recruit Currie. This week, Ohio State dropped the bomb.
“I was shocked because I started to assume that the new Ohio State coaches
didn’t even really know who I was,” Currie said. “I was definitely really
happy that they called me. I like Ohio State a lot. I’m very interested still.”
During the conversation, Currie was offered a scholarship and spoke with
Matta at great length about several things. The conversation was still
preliminary, however.
“He did talk to me about visiting,” Currie said. “But we didn’t
really discuss a date or anything. We just sort of talked about the idea.”
Currie is now sitting back to square one with the process. Currie said he
wants to see how this new dialogue with Ohio State progresses and determine if
and when more visits are necessary.
In the meantime, Currie is just hoping nothing drastically changes; Again.