Eric Boggs
Ohio State officially has a problem. It has become obviously clear that when it comes to the rivalry, the transfer portal is allowing people to flip sides, and when it comes to the greatest rivalry in all of sports, it has now happened twice in as many months.
Roddy Gayle Jr. has become the latest former Buckeye to is switch sides in the rivalry. On Monday, the ex-Buckeye shooter pledged to Michigan, heading to Ann Arbor for his third year of college hoops.
Gayle ended up third on Ohio State’s scoring chart with 13.5 points per game in 2023-24, also being the team’s second-best passer (3.1 assists per game) and third-best rebounder (4.6 rebounds per game). He nailed 44.9% of his shots from the field but struggled from long range, hitting only 28.4% of his 3-pointers.
Gayle hopped into the transfer portal on April 3 after Meechie Johnson Jr. returned to Ohio State from South Carolina for his last college season.
Making this swap even more interesting is that Michigan’s new coach, Dusty May, was considered a top candidate for Ohio State’s head coaching job alongside Jake Diebler. And now, May has snagged one of the Buckeyes’ key players from last season.
Gayle made a name for himself during the 2023 Big Ten Tournament as a freshman, putting up nine, 15, and 20 points in Ohio State’s last three games, which took them to the semifinals. He then became Ohio State’s starting shooting guard in 2023-24.
Gayle had a standout game against West Virginia on Dec. 30, scoring a career-best 32 points and leading Ohio State to an overtime victory over the Mountaineers. He racked up four 20-point games throughout his sophomore year. Gayle was rated a four-star prospect in the class of 2022, ranked 49th overall and second among shooting guards in the 247Sports composite rankings. He’s joining the Wolverines with two years left to play.
Adding fuel to the fire, just a month earlier, former Ohio State running backs coach Tony Alford also made the controversial move to Michigan. This double defection to the Buckeyes’ arch-rivals has left many scarlet and gray faithful feeling a mix of frustration and betrayal.
For Ohio State fans, seeing not just one, but two key figures in their program jump ship to the maize and blue is nothing short of a bitter pill to swallow. It’s a stark reminder of the intense rivalry between the two schools and the passion it ignites among their respective fan bases. As Ohio State gears up for another season, the departures of Gayle and Alford serve as a rallying cry for Buckeye Nation, fueling the fire of determination to come back stronger and reclaim bragging rights in the storied rivalry.
Let’s hope for everyone’s sake, this “traitor bug” is out of everyone’s system. There is only one cure for this kind of sickness, and that is the old W pill.
