Ohio State men’s basketball is officially back on the floor.
The Buckeyes opened preseason practice Monday at the Schottenstein Center, giving fans their first look at a team that enters Jake Diebler’s third full season with a mix of returning pieces, new transfers and a five-player freshman class.
Diebler has two starters back from last season’s 21-13 team that finished eighth in the Big Ten at 12-8 and reached the NCAA Tournament before falling to TCU in the first round in Greenville, S.C. Junior guard John Mobley Jr. and sophomore forward Amare Bynum are the headliners among six holdovers from that group.
The rest of the returnees are junior center Ivan Njegovan, senior center Josh Ojianwuna, junior guard Braylen Nash and redshirt freshman guard Myles Herro.
Ohio State also brings in nine newcomers, split between four transfers and five freshmen. The transfer class features junior guard Curtis Givens from Memphis, senior guard Jimmie Williams from Duquesne, junior forward Andrija Jelavic from Kentucky and junior guard Justin Pippen from Cal.
The freshmen joining the program are wing Anthony Thompson, guard LJ Smith, forwards Alex Smith and Lee Aaliya, and center Vuk Lazarevic.
Before the regular season starts, the Buckeyes will have two public exhibition games: Oct. 7 against Cincinnati outdoors at the Lindner Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio, and Oct. 25 against Butler at the Schottenstein Center.
The season opens Mon., Nov. 2, with a trip to BYU at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, about 45 miles from the BYU campus in Provo. Ohio State’s home opener comes four days later against Youngstown State on Nov. 6.
That BYU matchup is one of five nonconference games against Power Five opponents. The others are at UConn on Nov. 13, at home against Vanderbilt on Nov. 24, at Notre Dame on Dec. 12 and against Kansas in the CBS Sports Classic on Dec. 19 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Big Ten play begins early, with Ohio State opening conference action on Dec. 2 at Nebraska and then hosting Maryland on Dec. 6.
After a three-week break, league play picks back up with a home game against Oregon on Dec. 30.
The Buckeyes’ schedule also includes the usual home-and-away set with defending national champion Michigan. Ohio State visits Ann Arbor on Jan. 30 and closes the regular season by hosting the Wolverines on Sun., March 7.
There are also home-and-home series against Iowa and Penn State. Other Big Ten home games will be Maryland, Oregon, Northwestern, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Washington and Rutgers, while road-only trips will include Nebraska, Illinois, Purdue, UCLA, USC, Indiana and Minnesota.
Ohio State’s West Coast swing lands at UCLA on Feb. 17 and at USC on Feb. 20.
Weekend home conference games, beyond Maryland and Michigan, include Penn State on Jan. 17, Michigan State on Jan. 23 and Washington on Feb. 14.
Exact tip times and television assignments will come in the next several weeks. Big Ten games will be split across CBS, FOX, Fox Sports 1, Peacock, Big Ten Network and BTN-Plus.
The 18-team Big Ten tournament runs March 9-14 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
In Other News...
Ohio State Fans Will Notice A Big Schottenstein Change This Season
Ohio State fans heading back to the Schottenstein Center this season will find a noticeably different building. The university completed a $5.2 million renovation that brought in a new scoreboard, larger ribbon boards and an upgraded audio system, giving one of the Buckeyes busiest venues a cleaner, more modern game-day feel.
Mens hockey will get the first look at the new setup on Oct. 23, with basketball right behind it as the mens and womens teams host games in late October and early November. For a building that already serves as a hub for so much Ohio State action, the changes should be hard to miss once the season gets rolling. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State's Next Road Test Just Got A Lot More Real
Ohio State rolled past Kent State 59-3 to move to 2-1, and now the schedule is starting to bring a little more clarity to what comes next. The Big Ten announced that the Buckeyes will host Illinois before heading to Iowa on Oct. 3, a matchup now locked in for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff on CBS.
For a team still settling into the season, the timing matters because Iowa has long been one of the conferences more familiar measuring sticks for Ohio State. The series history includes its share of notable games and streaks, which is part of what gives this road trip extra weight even before the Buckeyes get there. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Is Closing In On A Priority RB Battle
Ohio States win over Kent State pushed the Buckeyes to 2-1, but the weekend also carried added recruiting weight as the program welcomed a wave of official visitors to Columbus. Among the most important names on campus was a 2027 running back who has quickly moved to the top of Ohio States board, giving the staff another chance to make its case in person.
The recruitment remains open-ended, with no commitment date set, but the Buckeyes are clearly in the thick of it and are widely viewed as a leading contender. For Ohio State, landing a back of that caliber would reinforce both the long-term roster plan and the programs ability to keep winning the kind of battles that matter most on the trail. [Read more 🡒]