PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Jake Diebler wasn’t about to quibble with what the Ohio State men’s basketball team had just accomplished.
It was inching closer toward midnight, and the glass doors leading to the visitors’ locker room at Jersey Mike’s Arena had been thrown open so the Buckeyes’ postgame celebration could echo down the lengthy corridor tucked underneath the concourse at Rutgers’ arena. Leaning against the wall, black Ohio State quarter-zip fully unzipped, the team’s coach could finally exhale and smile a little bit.
Yes, Ohio State had dug a 15-point first-half hole against the Big Ten’s least prolific offensive team. Once again, it took a significant comeback for the Buckeyes to fight their way back into a game they were favored to win.
There were concerns about how Ohio State eventually arrived at its 80-73 win, but on the second day of 2026 Diebler wasn’t about to apologize for a second straight road win to open Big Ten play.
“I don’t care how you do it, you win on the road in the Big Ten, it’s a great thing,” Diebler said.
It wasn’t long ago that the Buckeyes simply couldn’t do it. Starting with a Jan. 8, 2023, loss at Maryland, Ohio State went more than a full year without enjoying any road success in the Big Ten. A 17-game road losing streak was snapped only when, with Diebler now as interim coach, Dale Bonner hit a last-second 3-pointer to stun Michigan State in a 60-57 win at the Breslin Center on Feb. 25, 2024.
That snapped the longest road conference losing streak in program history. Senior guard Bruce Thornton was on the court for every one of those games, and the fact that this Rutgers game went the way it did was not lost on the four-time captain.
“It feels great,” he said. “First win of the new year, on the road, against a good team, in a great environment, it feels great. But you know how the Big Ten goes. We’ll celebrate it for the next two hours and then it’s onto the next.”
After winning at Northwestern on Dec. 6, Ohio State’s 2-0 road start in league play is its first with fans in the stands since 2017-18 and only the seventh in the last 41 years. The 2020-21 Buckeyes started 2-0 while playing in empty arenas amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Neither Northwestern nor Rutgers are expected to be NCAA Tournament teams. The Scarlet Knights are the lowest-rated Big Ten team in the NCAA’s NET rankings, sitting at No. 196 after falling to 7-7 overall with the loss. Northwestern is 13th-highest in the Big Ten and No. 74 overall.
Beating Rutgers won’t significantly help Ohio State’s March Madness resume, but losing certainly would have. Diebler said winning a Friday night game in front of a full-throated sellout crowd of 8,000 showed his team’s toughness.
“Big Ten basketball on the road is tricky,” he said. “You saw the environment. The place was packed. Team makes a couple shots early, they get some momentum, you’ve got to weather the storm. We talk about toughness and connection when we travel. We have to stand firm on those two things, and we did.”
More opportunities on are on the immediate horizon. The Buckeyes will host undefeated Nebraska on Jan. 5 before making their two-game West Coast swing where they will play at Oregon on Jan. 8 and at Washington three days later. The 2017-18 team won its first five league road games.
“Every road game in the Big Ten’s going to be a tough one,” sixth-year Wright State transfer forward Brandon Noel, who had 29 points at Northwestern and 14 at Rutgers, said. “It’s great that we get to come out with a win. Every one of them is important, especially now.”
Ohio State men’s basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
