Sports

Ohio State Explains Basketball Star’s Peculiar Absence With Cryptic Statement About ‘Federal Law’

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Aaron Bradshaw Federal Law Ohio State
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Ohio State will continue its college basketball season without Aaron Bradshaw. The 7-foot-1 center is currently away from the team while dealing with an undisclosed legal matter.

Although the Buckeyes are unable to comment further on his mysterious absence, their statement does not make it seem like a minor incident that will soon blow over.

Bradshaw was a consensus five-star prospect in the recruiting Class of 2023 as a top-10 player in the country. Kentucky received his commitment over offers from Louisville, Texas, UCLA and USC, among others. He averaged 4.9 points and 3.3 rebounds in 13.8 minutes per game as a freshman.

Bradshaw hit the transfer portal when John Calipari left for Arkansas and ultimately landed at Ohio State. The first four games of his sophomore season were a success. Even though the Buckeyes went 3-1 during that stretch with a loss to top-25 Texas A&M, their starting center averaged 7.8 points and 4.5 rebounds with 1.5 blocks in 23.8 minutes.

That might’ve been it. Aaron Bradshaw’s time in Columbus might already be over. Ohio State released the following statement on Friday afternoon prior to its game against Campbell:

Aaron Bradshaw is not currently participating in team activities. The university is following its established process. Due to federal privacy laws, we cannot share further information at this time.

— Ohio State University

We do not know what happened. This could be nothing.

However, the nature of that final sentence regarding “federal privacy laws” is concerning, to say the least. It seems like the Buckeyes might’ve added something like “we hope to have this matter resolved in the coming weeks” if there was a clear path to getting Bradshaw back on the court. All we can do is speculate based off of what we have been provided.

Ohio State is without Aaron Bradshaw for the foreseeable future. That’s what we know for sure. It is a big loss for the program and it sure doesn’t sound like this will be a one or two game thing.