FULL COURT PRESS: CHRIS LIVINGSTON LIVES UP TO TOP-5 BILLING, SETH TOWNS CONTACTED BY OHIO STATE, SHAWN PHILLIPS VISITS
A POTENTIAL GRADUATE TRANSFER?
Seth Towns, a graduate transfer from Harvard, recently told the Washington Post that about 70 colleges have reached out to him since he placed his name in the portal in January. Among them? Ohio State, per a source.
Given his ties to the state and that he’s two years removed from being named the Ivy League Player of the Year, the contact shouldn’t surprise anyone – even though there are a number of obstacles.
Towns, who will have two years of eligibility following his spring graduation, is a native of Columbus who played for Northland High School. As a recruit, he picked up offers from various high-major programs, including both Ohio State and Michigan, but opted to attend Harvard.
As a freshman in 2016-17, the 6-foot-7, 215-pound forward averaged 12.5 points and 4.4 rebounds. The next season, he was named the conference’s player of the year with 16 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 27.9 minutes per game.
Since Towns’ breakout 2017-18 season happened, though, he hasn’t played a game. He suffered a cartilage tear in his knee in the 2018 Ivy League championship game that never healed properly and required an additional surgery a month ago. But the injury didn’t keep him out of the classrooms, so he’ll graduate from Harvard with a degree in sociology this spring and begin to look for a new university at which to both play basketball and study creative writing in graduate school.
“I really believe as an African American with a Harvard degree, I’ll have a chance to make an impact somewhere,” Towns told the Washington Post. “I love basketball, but I hope there’s a lot more to my life than that.”
At the moment, Ohio State doesn’t have an open scholarship for Towns.
By signing four-star wing Eugene Brown and three-star big man Zed Key in the fall, it crossed the 13-scholarship threshold and is currently one over the limit, meaning someone will either have to professionalize or transfer out of the program before next season. In order to make room for Towns, a second player would have to leave, too. Should that happen, the Buckeyes would have a scholarship available for him – or, potentially, a transfer big man if Kaleb Wesson leaves for the NBA.
It's also worth noting that Holtmann has a relationship with Towns. In 2015, he told the Columbus Dispatch that his decision came down to Harvard or Butler. Holtmann was coaching the Bulldogs at the time.
Entire article:
https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...ling-seth-towns-contacted-by-ohio-state-shawn
