Ohio State coach Jake Diebler talks after beating Indiana State 103-83
Ohio State coach Jake Diebler’s full press conference after beating Indiana State 103-83 on Dec. 29, 2024.
The start of a new year will coincide with the resumption of Big Ten play for Ohio State men’s basketball. After wrapping up nonconference play with a 103-83 win against Indiana State on Dec. 29, the Buckeyes will host No. 18 Michigan State on Friday night in the first of 18 straight conference games.
For all of us, the turning of the calendar is a chance for reflection and for resolving to make changes and be better in the new year. Under first-year coach Jake Diebler, Ohio State is 9-4 overall, 1-1 in the Big Ten and mostly projected to make the NCAA Tournament. It has navigated a continuously revolving availability report, earned a couple of standout wins and absorbed some ugly losses.
The majority of what the 2024-25 season will become will be decided on this side of that hyphen.
Here are a few suggested New Year’s resolutions for Ohio State as it closes the door on 2024 and steps into 2025:
Get consistent work with the same group available
The availability report this season has been a revolving door for the Buckeyes. Injuries, sickness, a leave of absence and a suspension have all conspired to keep Ohio State from seldom, if ever, fielding a complete unit for practice or games.
A few bumps and bruises are to be expected with a 16-man roster, but it’s still surprising that only four Buckeyes have seen playing time in all 13 games so far this season. Junior captain Bruce Thornton has once again led the way as the only player to start each game, while sophomore Devin Royal (nine starts), freshman John Mobley Jr. (three starts) and junior Evan Mahaffey (two starts) are the only other ironmen on the roster.
As of early this week, the only player on track to not be available for Friday’s Big Ten game with No. 18 Michigan State is fifth-year guard Meechie Johnson Jr., who has missed the last three games while on a leave of absence for what has been described as a personal situation.
For this team to get to where it wants to be, having a fully available roster for any extended period of time would be a definite plus.
Keep moving Bruce Thornton around
Ohio State’s third-year captain has set a new career scoring high in consecutive games to close 2024, going for 30 points against No. 4 Kentucky and 33 against Indiana State eight days later. In doing so, he’s the first Buckeye with consecutive 30-point games since Evan Turner had 31 on back-to-back nights in the 2010 Big Ten Tournament semifinals and championship game.
The Buckeyes have talked frequently since last season’s end about moving Thornton around off the ball, allowing him to attack and shoot without always having to create his own offense. A revamped backcourt with Ques Glover and Mobley assuming bigger roles during Johnson’s ongoing absence has clearly freed Thornton up in new ways. Diebler has pointed to Thornton’s 3-point shooting efficiency on catch-and-shoot 3s, and he’s gone 6 for 13 (46.2%) from 3 without Johnson in the lineup.
He’s also taken 22 free throws in the last two games, making 20 of them for a .909 shooting percentage. Thornton has an offensive rating of 139.4 at KenPom.com, which is the 18th-best mark in the nation, and that’s in spite of being completely erased against Auburn in what is currently Johnson’s last game with the program. Thornton only had 3 points in that loss but has bounced back with the most prolific stretch of his career.
Continue to bring Aaron Bradshaw, Sean Stewart along
Ohio State signed its first McDonald’s All-Americans since D’Angelo Russell when it brought in Kentucky transfer Aaron Bradshaw and Duke transfer Sean Stewart this offseason. Both are sophomores who saw limited playing time at their previous stops, arriving at Ohio State with plenty to prove and opportunity to do ahead of them.
Both opened the season as starters, but it’s been rocky so far. Stewart has established himself as an effective rebounder, ranking 29th and 317th nationally in defensive and offensive rebounding percentage, respectively, but fouls have prevented him from staying on the court. He’s only averaging 17.6 minutes per game in part because he averages 7.4 fouls per 40 minutes. He’s seventh on the team in minutes played but leads the Buckeyes in fouls committed.
Bradshaw, meanwhile, missed seven games while the university investigated an alleged domestic incident at his off-campus apartment and then the subsequent return-to-play progression. He’s started to make up for lost time, scoring in double figures in each of Ohio State’s two games since his return, and is averaging 9.2 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.3 blocks while playing 21.5 minutes per game.
Ohio State’s hopes of growing as the season progresses have largely laid on the shoulders of those two former five-star prospects growing into more consistent, high-level contributors while seeing the first consistent playing time of their collegiate careers. For the Buckeyes to get where they want to be at the end of the year, that will have to happen.
No more blowouts
No team is going to run the table from here until the final day of the season, and Ohio State will certainly take its share of losses in Big Ten play. The Buckeyes enter the new year 9-4 overall and mostly projected on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble, but two early-season losses have recast thoughts on where the floor could be this season.
At Maryland on Dec. 4, Ohio State immediately fell behind, trailed 50-17 at halftime and was behind by 40 at one point before before losing by 24 points. The Buckeyes responded their next time out, taking down Rutgers in a 14-point home win three days later, but things got uglier Dec. 14 in Atlanta.
Against No. 2 Auburn, the Buckeyes again quickly dug a significant hole and were never really in the game in a 91-53 loss inside State Farm Arena. Only a last-minute, banked-in 3-pointer from Ivan Njegovan saved them from their first 40-point loss since 1965.
Those losses are the kind that can define a season and submarine an NCAA Tournament resume.
Stop sending opponents to the free-throw line so much
Fouls happen, and Diebler has made it clear that if the Buckeyes play the way he wants them to play, there will be a few more committed than the average team. It’s a price to pay for aggression and physicality.
But it would behoove this team to maybe stop sending opponents to the charity stripe quite so much. As of Dec. 30, Ohio State’s opponents had taken 38.7% as many free throws as they had field goals, the 292nd-worst defensive rate in the nation according to KenPom.com. Ohio State’s opponents have scored 25.4% of their total points against the Buckeyes from the line, the ninth-highest rate nationally. Part of that is due to the Buckeyes fouling, and part of it is who they’re fouling: opponents are shooting 77.5% from the line, the 18th-highest mark against a team this season.
In Ohio State’s current 10-man rotation of Mobley Jr., Thornton, Mahaffey, Stewart, Bradshaw, Glover, Devin Royal, Austin Parks, Colin White, the only player averaging fewer than three fouls per 40 minutes is Thornton at 2.1.
Win more Big Ten games
Conference play has not been kind to Ohio State during the past two seasons, and it helped lead to the in-season firing of Chris Holtmann on Valentine’s Day last year. Starting with the 2022-23 season, the Buckeyes were a combined 9-25 in Big Ten play before Holtmann was let go after a 62-54 loss at Wisconsin.
Ohio State was 4-10 in league play when Diebler took over as interim coach and went 5-1 to close the season, allowing the Buckeyes to finish 9-11 but still below .500 for a second consecutive season for the first time since going 7-9 in 2002-03 and 6-10 in 2003-04 in Jim O’Brien’s final two years.
In the annual unofficial official Big Ten preseason media poll conducted jointly by The Dispatch and The Indianapolis Star, the Buckeyes were picked to finish eighth. They opened the year with a blowout loss at Maryland and a home win against Rutgers and are projected to finish 11-9 according to KenPom.
Avoiding significant losing streaks in league play would go a long way toward rebuilding fan interest, too. Ohio State lost nine straight and 14 of 15 two years ago, then dropped nine of 11 before Holtmann was fired.
Ohio State has not won a Big Ten title since it shared one in 2011-12. It’s the longest drought since the Buckeyes won one in 1970-71 and went until 1990-91 before their next one.
Make the NCAA Tournament
This one goes along with the previous resolution. Ohio State doesn’t take well to not reaching the NCAA Tournament: its last three coaches have all been fired after missing the tournament in consecutive years, although there were other factors in Jim O’Brien’s ouster in 2004. Thad Matta missed out in 2016 and 2017, and Holtmann failed to reach to March Madness in 2023 after making it (or being safely in when the 2020 event was canceled) in each of his first five years and was trending toward missing out again in 2024.
The criticism during those first five years was that the Buckeyes couldn’t get to the second weekend under Holtmann. Ohio State has not made at least a Sweet 16 since 2012-13, a drought that includes the final four years of Matta’s tenure.
Diebler has not shied away from stating his goal of returning the Buckeyes to a place of competing for and winning championships. Getting back into the NCAA Tournament itself would be a good start.
