2024-2025 B1G Basketball Thread

[medinabuckeye1]

For the first time in years I am actually excited about the upcoming Basketball 🏀 season because my school isn't handicapped by bad coaching. I say that not knowing who the Ohio State coach will be but thrilled to know that it will not be Chris Holtmann!

[847badgerfan]

A month too early for this thread.

[ELA]

A month too early for this thread.

Particularly now that we have next to zero idea what rosters look like year to year.  Hell, a month from now is probably too early

[MaximumSam]

Particularly now that we have next to zero idea what rosters look like year to year.  Hell, a month from now is probably too early

I know. Ohio State could be returning the best roster in the conference or starting a bunch of transfers from the MAC. 

[MaximumSam]

Sounds like OSU will announce Diebler as the coach today. I don't hate it - "Holtmann's program but they play defense" is a really good team, as we saw down the stretch this year. Plus hopefully they will retain most of the roster - they only have to lose Battle and Bonner, everyone else could come back.  Battle is tough to replace, though Scotty Middleton is probably the starter there. 

A starting five of Thornton, Gayle, Middleton, Royal, and Okpara is pretty good. Mahaffey and Key coming off the bench. Chatman would be great for guard depth, but there have been some rumors he may transfer unrelated to who the coach is. So we shall see.

[medinabuckeye1]

Official.

[medinabuckeye1]

My annual schedule rant:
There were two major problems with Ohio State's schedule in 2023/24:  First, it was too weak.  The Buckeyes ended up with the #43 SoS per KenPom.  By comparison, UW was #3, PU was #4, MSU was #12, IA was #16.  Second, attendance particularly at the buy games was pathetic.  

The 2023/24 Ohio State schedule consisted of:

• 1 home game as part of a MTE (vs WMU)
• 1 1/2 of a H&H (vs aTm, tOSU goes to aTm in 2024/25)
• 2 neutral site MTE games (vs Bama, vs Santa Clara)
• 2 neutral site games (vs UCLA in ATL, vs WVU in CLE)
• 5 home buy games (Oakland, Merrimak, CMU, Miami-OH, NOLA)

A not totally unreasonable proposal:

• 3 games for MTE (this is no change)
• 3 halves of H&H (alternating between 1&2 at home, this is up by 2)
• 1 neutral site game (this is down by 1)
• 4 "Ohio" games.  (these replace the 5 buy games)

The Ohio Games would be against the six Ohio MAC teams plus Cleveland State and Dayton.  The offer to them would be simply that Ohio State will play four of them per year with every eighth game being on the road.  Thus, over a period of 16 years tOSU would host each of the eight teams seven times and visit each of the eight teams once.  


In a two year cycle the Buckeyes would play:

• 20 B1G home games - 10 per year
• 20 B1G road games - 10 per year
• 7 Ohio home games - alternates between 3 and 4 per year*
• 6 MTE games - 3 per year
• 3 home halves of H&H series - alternates between 1 and 2 per year*
• 3 road halves of H&H series - alternates between 1 and 2 per year*
• 2 neutral site games - 1 per year
• 1 Ohio road game - alternates between 0 and 1 per year*

*The alternating series would be arranged such that:

• In years when tOSU had 2 home and 1 road from the H&H's, they would play 3 home and 1 road "Ohio" games
• In years when tOSU had 1 home and 2 road from the H&H's, they would play 4 home "Ohio" games

Thus, Ohio State would always have 15 home games consisting of:

• 10 league games
• 1 home half of an H&H
• 4 consisting either of 1 additional home half of an H2H and 3 "Ohio" games or 4 "Ohio" games

Then they would always play 12 road games consisting of:

• 10 league games
• 1 road half of an H&H
• 1 either an additional road half of an H&H or an "Ohio" road game

Then they would have four neutral site games:

• 3 MTE games (these might sometimes (as in 2023) include a home game)
• 1 one-off neutral site game

[LetsGoPeay]

IU will be unwatchable. They may be at or about .500 but the basketball itself will be awful. 

[847badgerfan]

When I first started watching NCAA hoops, IU was right there with Kansas, Dook, UNC, Kentucky and UCLA among CBB royalty.

Now there are only blue teams in that royalty, and UCLA is slipping.

[grillrat]

My annual schedule rant:
There were two major problems with Ohio State's schedule in 2023/24:  First, it was too weak.  The Buckeyes ended up with the #43 SoS per KenPom.  By comparison, UW was #3, PU was #4, MSU was #12, IA was #16.  Second, attendance particularly at the buy games was pathetic. 

The 2023/24 Ohio State schedule consisted of:

• 1 home game as part of a MTE (vs WMU)
• 1 1/2 of a H&H (vs aTm, tOSU goes to aTm in 2024/25)
• 2 neutral site MTE games (vs Bama, vs Santa Clara)
• 2 neutral site games (vs UCLA in ATL, vs WVU in CLE)
• 5 home buy games (Oakland, Merrimak, CMU, Miami-OH, NOLA)

In fairness, this schedule would have looked alot better if UCLA had lived up to their preseason hype (started as a top 25 team) and WVU was at least not utterly putrid.

[ELA]

When I first started watching NCAA hoops, IU was right there with Kansas, Dook, UNC, Kentucky and UCLA among CBB royalty.

Now there are only blue teams in that royalty, and UCLA is slipping.

In the era of NIL, UCLA is toast.  Creighton and Butler have more robust NIL programs

[LetsGoPeay]

IU's NIL is great but the coach is awful. It's beyond inexplicable to have one of the best NIL's in the country and not be able to sign a single freshman in a recruiting cycle. 

[847badgerfan]

In the era of NIL, UCLA is toast.  Creighton and Butler have more robust NIL programs

Any UCLA fan who thinks UCLA is going to compete in the B1G in CFB and CBB is delirious.

[medinabuckeye1]

In fairness, this schedule would have looked alot better if UCLA had lived up to their preseason hype (started as a top 25 team) and WVU was at least not utterly putrid.

True and I'll add that aTm dropped from top-25 when played to barely making the tournament. That said, the buy games were mostly atrocious. NET, opponent, KenPom:

• 126 Oakland 137
• 213 Merrimack 215
• 238 Miami-OH 256
• 265 CMU 279
• 340 NOLA 340

Miami-OH is obviously one of the "Ohio" teams but they were the worst one. A random group of the "Ohio" teams would have been superior to the ridiculously bad buy game opponents that tOSU actually played.

• 23 Dayton 32
• 108 Akron 116
• 130 Toledo 139
• 139 OhioU 143
• 171 Kent 172
• 196 Cleveland State 189
• 228 BGSU 241
• 238 Miami-OH 256

Dayton might turn that offer down, they could be replaced by:

• 153 Wright State 161