Ohio State gets its season started Monday night with a hard test right out of the gate, facing No. 25 BYU in Salt Lake City at the Delta Center.
That’s a sharp contrast from last season, when the Buckeyes didn’t beat a ranked opponent until mid-February. This time, they’re trying to flip that script immediately against a Cougars team that is one of nine ranked opponents on Ohio State’s schedule right now. Four of those ranked matchups come in nonconference play.
BYU arrives with a revamped roster, adding 10 newcomers while also bringing back third-team All-Big 12 guard Robert Wright III. Ohio State coach Jake Diebler sees the Cougars as a team with plenty of offensive answers.
“Their roster is put together well and they have a lot of options, that’s the thing that kind of pops, I think on film, is you’ve got really four or five guys that are capable of having a big night offensively, and that versatility allows them to do some things and play with some pace,” Diebler said.
For Ohio State, the biggest focus before tipoff has been cleaning up the areas that showed up in the exhibitions. The Buckeyes dropped the rebounding battle in both tuneups - a 79-68 loss to Cincinnati on Oct. 7 and an 82-73 win over Butler on Oct. 25 - and finished those two games minus-19 on the glass.
Diebler said that has to change.
“We’ve got to be dialed in on the defensive side, which I like everything we’ve been doing and how we’ve been trending defensively,” Diebler said. “We’ve got to rebound better.”
He also knows the opener will bring a layer of uncertainty that doesn’t exist later in the year. The Buckeyes are walking into a game where some of BYU’s tendencies may not be fully known, so the emphasis is on sticking to the basics and being ready to adjust.
“They’ve had a lot of success there, so there’s going to be things that they’re going to do that we won’t fully know of, that’s why we have to double down on our principles and make sure those are really, really good,” Diebler said. “That way we can make adjustments on the fly when we need to, and vice versa. We’ve got to be able to put them in a bind as well, with showing some things we necessarily haven’t shown yet too.”
Ohio State’s offseason overhaul was heavy, with nine new players arriving. The early returns in the exhibitions were mixed at best on the stat sheet, with the Buckeyes posting more turnovers than assists in both games.
Still, Diebler likes what he’s seeing in the locker room and believes the group is starting to build something that can matter once the games count.
“The chemistry off the court’s been tremendous, even before they got on campus, that part’s great and you need that, that’s important,” Diebler said. “What we’re working on is that chemistry carrying over in between the lines.
When it does, when we have great spacing and the ball’s moving, and we’re connected defensively, it’s a beautiful thing. We’ve got to do it more.”
Depth is another part of the roster that Diebler believes can separate this group. Entering his third season as head coach, he said this is the deepest and most talented team he has had. The goal, he said, is to use that depth to wear opponents down.
“We’ve got to shift our mentality a little bit and just wear people down with how hard we’re playing, how tough we’re playing and when other teams go to their bench and they don’t have 10, 11 guys that they can play, we do,” Diebler said. “So we can wear them down over time, and that’s what we’re working towards.”
There is at least some uncertainty surrounding guard John Mobley Jr., who was named to the Preseason All-Big Ten team. He left Sunday’s exhibition against Butler in the final minutes with an ankle injury.
Asked about the Buckeyes’ health, Diebler stopped short of ruling anyone out.
“As of right now, I don’t think we’re in a position to say, ‘hey, we’re going to be missing anybody,’” Diebler said. “But I’m also not in a position to say we’re not going to be missing anybody yet.”
Last season, Ohio State went 0-4 against ranked teams away from the Schottenstein Center. Monday gives the Buckeyes their first chance to change that trend, and it comes immediately, against a ranked opponent on the road, in the season opener.
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