Ohio State junior forward Devin Royal took a big jump from his freshman to sophomore year, nearly tripling his points, rebounds, assists, and minutes per game from one year to the next. A similar jump wasn’t expected as he shifted from his sophomore to junior season — statistically that’s just not possible — but Royal was expected to take on a larger leadership role and shift over to small forward after playing majority power forward for two seasons.
The shift has gone smoothly at times, and at other times the change has taken the 6-foot-6, 230-pound forward away from what made him such a special and sought-after central Ohio recruit three years ago. As a freshman and sophomore playing power forward and at times center, Royal established himself as a high-motor athlete who rebounds exceptionally well for his size and someone who is very difficult to stop when he gets within six feet of the basket.
By shifting Royal to small forward, he has found himself on the perimeter more often — not beneath the basket as often — not scrapping for rebounds or tipping missed shots back in for hard-earned buckets amongst a crowd of men as large or larger than himself.
Royal put in a substantial amount of work this past summer on his three-point shot, trying to smoothen the transition from power forward to small forward and establish another shooting threat from the perimeter for the Buckeyes, who already have Bruce Thornton and John Mobley Jr. as three-point threats. Over the first 16 games of the season it really looked like Royal had developed something special with the three-point shot — he was sitting at 39.6% after a 3-for-3 performance against UCLA on January 17.
Since then, Royal has hit 2 of his last 23, dropping his season-long three-point percentage to 30.3%. That includes going 0-for-3 against USC on Wednesday night, which also means he has missed his last 11 threes. Oddly enough, those three missed three-pointers were the only three shots Royal would up missing all night.
The Ohio State junior accomplished a statistical anomaly on Wednesday night against the Trojans — every time he took a shot inside the three-point line, he scored.
Royal scored 19 points in a big win for Ohio State over fellow bubble-dweller USC — he did miss all three of those three-point tries, but he was a perfect 8-for-8 on two-point shots and was 3-for-3 at the free throw line.
Every time Devin Royal took a shot inside the three-point line on Wednesday night, he came away with points. There was nothing USC could do about it, either. Royal got to his favorite spots against the Trojans and made them pay, hitting multiple fadeaway mid-range shots — a move that’s been his comfort zone since his freshman season, and was the bane of Tom Izzo’s existence on one fateful Sunday afternoon in February 2023.
There was a dunk mixed in, too, and an-one bucket that was supposed to be a lob from Thornton that Royal wasn’t quite able to grip, but was still able to toss into the tin without fully dunking it while being pushed by USC’s Jacob Cofie. Royal converted at the charity stripe, of course.
He was a perfect 3-for-3 at the free throw line, improving his yearlong free throw percentage to a career-high 81.8%. Over his last five games, Royal is shooting 87% from the line and has made at least three of them in each of the last five games.
Royal accomplished this feat — scoring every time he shoots inside the three-point line — three times during his freshman season as well, when he was coming off the bench, playing fewer minutes, and taking fewer shots.
During the aforementioned Michigan State game on February 25, 2024, Royal was a perfect 6-for-6 from the floor and 2-for-2 from the free throw line, scoring a (then) career-high 14 points and leading Ohio State to its first win in East Lansing in over a decade. After the game, Izzo lamented his team’s inability to stop Royal from getting to his favorite spots, and reminded everyone how much he was hoping Royal would’ve picked Michigan State.
Against Penn State on January 25, 2024, Royal was a perfect 3-for-3 from the floor and was 2-for-2 from the free throw line, scoring eight points in just five minutes off the bench.
In his sixth career game, Royal hit his only shot from the field and hit one free throw to total three points against Santa Clara on November 25, 2023.
Royal has tried to transition himself into a post-perimeter hybrid, but recently the three-point shot has deserted him. Wednesday night, we were reminded that when the junior from Pickerington puts his head down and finds his spots near the basket, there are few better.