Top-40 Class of 2027 Guard LJ Smith Commits to Ohio State

Last week, the Buckeyes signed their highest-rated prospect since the famed Jared Sullinger in five-star small forward Anthony Thompson, alongside a four-star power forward in Alex Smith. On the court, Ohio State passed its first power conference test of the season by beating Notre Dame 64-63.

Now, Jake Diebler has an elite prospect to build around for his 2027 recruiting class. On Thursday, Ohio State landed a commitment from four-star guard LJ Smith, a top-40 prospect in the junior class.

NEWS: 2027 Top-25 overall recruit LJ Smith has committed to Ohio State, he tells @Rivals.

The 6-4 shooting guard received offers from North Carolina, Kansas, Tennessee, and others. https://t.co/lzM1rE91bz pic.twitter.com/WXX1nM8K5P

— Joe Tipton (@JoeTipton) November 20, 2025

Smith is the No. 35 overall prospect and the No. 5 combo guard in the 247Sports composite rankings for the 2027 recruiting class. Attending Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia, he's the No. 1 prospect from the Commonwealth. ESPN values him even higher than the rest of the recruiting services, placing him as its No. 10 overall prospect for 2027.

Before transferring to Oak Hill this past offseason, Smith set the North Carolina basketball scene ablaze by breaking the state's single-season for points by a sophomore, racking up 960 in 29 games for an average of 33.1 points per game. It's the fourth-highest scoring season in North Carolina high school history, regardless of grade level.

At 6-foot-4 with long arms, Smith will bring plus-length to either the point or shooting guard position. His tape shows why he set scoring records as a sophomore, he's a lethal shooter with seemingly unlimited range. His highlight tape is loaded with logo shots. But his ball-handling is also smooth as silk, with many of his 3-point looks coming off the dribble, and he's a twitchy athlete with great agility and a quick first step. And a great vertical leap too – there's one clip in the highlights below where he nearly hits his head on the rim on a two-handed dunk.

Smith's commitment comes as a great relief after Ohio State didn't sign a guard in its 2026 recruiting class. The Buckeyes held a commitment from top-50 prospect Marcus Johnson at the position, but he ultimately decommitted in October, shortly after Thompson pledged his services to Ohio State. Johnson has since signed with South Carolina. Diebler said on Friday that the Buckeyes will keep their options open at guard this spring, with star Bruce Thornton set to graduate.

"I think you've gotta have some roster flexibility in the spring," Diebler said when asked about plans to add a guard for next year's roster. "There's so many different buckets that you can recruit from now in college basketball, and some we're still learning about. You have G-league guys, you have international players who have played high-level pro ball, certainly high school players and then the transfer portal. We want to always maintain an element of flexibility in the spring, and I think that's just what our mentality is right now.

"The tricky thing about recruiting is, you spend a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of resources to ultimately figure out, 'No.' That's kind of the nature of recruiting, is sometimes you've gotta figure (that) out. So we're not waiting until the spring. We're continuing to recruit. And we're continuing to recruit years in advance. But everything for us is about fit. It all comes down to fit. And when we find the guys who we think fit at a high level, we go after them with all our attention."

Clearly, Diebler and staff found what they feel is a high-level fit in Smith. He'll be a cornerstone to build around in Ohio State's 2027 recruiting class.