NBPA Top 100: After Ohio State decommit, Darius Bazley taking time

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Earlier this spring, combo forward Darius Bazley backed off of a commitment from Ohio State. Then, he took his game to another level and saw things take off.

So, where does he stand now and where does Ohio State stand following the hire of Chris Holtmann?

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When Bazley opened things up, he did so because he felt he had rushed into a decision. He's always left the possibility of revisiting things with the Buckeyes, but now that Holtmann has been hired it's going to be on Holtmann and his staff to build a new relationship.

"I don't know, I didn't really follow Butler basketball," he said. "From what I've been told (Holtmann) is a good coach and he won games over at Butler. If he recruits me, he recruits me and if not, well..."

Since opening things up, Bazley said that Syracuse, Florida, Indiana, Louisville, Arkansas, Maryland, Virginia Tech, Purdue, Xavier and Cincinnati are among those to make him a priority. He recently took a visit to see Rick Pitino and the Cardinals.

"Louisville was good," Bazley said. "I got a chance to sit down and talk with Pitino. I also watched them work out. After that I got to see the campus, see the dorms and stuff. I liked it, it was a pretty good environment and everybody seemed like they were focused and they were locked in for one common goal."

After NBPA Camp, Bazley wants to take some unofficial visits and mentioned Indiana, Xavier, Florida and Syracuse as places he'll go. With the Hoosiers, there's familiarity with new coach Archie Miller.

"He talked to me a little bit at Dayton. He recruited me a little bit and then as I kept going (as a prospect) he kind of stopped," Bazley said. "Now that he's at Indiana he sort of picked back up on it so we've got a pretty good relationship."

Bazley wants to be careful and make sure he looks into everything before making another college choice.

"I really just want to take my time this time around and actually see all the schools," he said. "When I committed to Ohio State it was the only school I had been to other than Xavier and I didn't really see the school, I just went to a basketball game. So I'm really going to take it step by step and see what are the pros and cons from each school and take my time."