Seth Towns is taking his talents back to Columbus.
The former Harvard forward and 2017-18 Ivy League Player of the Year announced Saturday night that he was committing to Ohio State as a graduate transfer.
A Columbus native, Towns noted his gratitude for his time with Harvard basketball, which consisted of two seasons in which he averaged 14.2 points and five rebounds. The 6-foot-7, 215-pound standout earned Ivy POY honors as a sophomore before suffering an injury down the stretch of the 2018 Ivy League Tournament final, an eventual loss to Penn at the Palestra.
“What an unbelievable journey,” Towns wrote in a Twitter post. “I can’t thank Coach Amaker and the rest of Harvard Basketball enough for my development over the last four years. You gave an inner-city kid the chance to change the trajectory of his family name, and for that I am forever indebted to you.”
Towns’s readiness to return to game action for Harvard was a mystery for much of the rest of his time with the program the past two seasons. Towns didn’t declare himself out for the rest of his junior season until just before the final weekend of the regular season, and speculation as to whether he would ever return for the Crimson ended in December when Harvard Athletics announced he would undergo season-ending surgery, which was on his left knee.
“(T)o my family and closest friends, my perseverance bears no strength without your love,” Towns wrote.
Towns made the announcement he would become a graduate transfer to Ohio State on ESPN, which ranked him as its No. 1 grad transfer eligible to play immediately. Towns chose Ohio State over Duke.
Other former Ivy standouts on the list include former Towns teammate Bryce Aiken (No. 2), Jordan Bruner (No. 3), Mike Smith (No. 4), Patrick Tape (No. 9), Ryan Betley (No. 14) and Brendan Barry (No. 15).