2024-2025 B1G Basketball Thread

[medinabuckeye1]

Probably inoculated against early returns based on the Holtmann years for a while. Though it makes sense - these games are often between two groups of guys who have never played a game together.

I only watched the first half because I have a long day at work, plus I was worried the Bucks were only ahead at halftime based on making a bunch of ill-advised threes. So glad to see they held it together in the second half. They promised pace and defense, and the start of the game was frenetic. The defense was overall decent - they got torched by Texas' freshman, but otherwise were good. The backcourt is strong - Meechie wasn't good, but the other three were and Meechie will have some good games. Parrish was surprisingly ready to shoot.

The bad was the frontcourt. Bradshaw and Stewart were barely there.

I couldn't watch because it was on a channel I don't get so thanks for the synopsis.  

From reading the stats I was impressed with the Freshman sharpshooter.  Mobley had 14 points on 4-6 shooting (4-4 from three) in just 13 minutes.  I would assume his minutes were that limited simply because they don't trust him on defense yet but his offense looks great (granted it is only one game).  

Meechie's stats were disappointing to say the least.  He played 30 minutes and had . . . 6 points on 2-11 shooting (2-7 from three).  

Weirdly, the Buckeyes shot BETTER from long range than from short.  Overall they were 27-60 (45%) but they were 14-28 (50%) from three.  Doing the math, that leaves 13-32 (40.6%) from inside the arc.  

A big part of that was the frontcourt issues that you referenced.  Yikes, Bradshaw was 1-5 and Stewart was 0-3.  Combined they played 34 minutes and had 4 points on 1-8 shooting (0-3 from three).  Whey they were shooting threes is beyond me but they couldn't even make the inside stuff.  

Thornton was superb, 20 points on 7-10 (3-4 from three) in 36 minutes.  

The frontcourt appears to be weaker than I had hoped but if they can hit 50% from three they'll win a LOT of ballgames.  

Stats sorted by minutes (because starter vs non-starter has always seemed a LOT less important to me than 'minutes played'):

• 36 minutes, Thornton, 20 points on 7-10 (3-4 from 3), 5rbs, 5ast, 2TO, 2PF
• 30 minutes, Parrish, 17 points on 5-11 (3-6 from 3), 6rbs, 5ast, 3TO, 1PF
• 30 minutes, Johnson, 6 points on 2-11 (2 of 7 from 3), 4rbs, 3 ast, 3TO, 3PF
• 25 minutes, Royal, 16 points on 7-11 (2-4 from 3), 3rbs, 1 ast, 1TO, 1PF
• 21 minutes, Bradshaw, 2 points on 1-5 (0-2 from 3), 1rb, 1ast, 2TO, 4PF
• 15 minutes, Mahaffey, 3 points on 1-1, 8 rbs, 
• 13 minutes, Mobley, 14 points on 4-6 (4-4 from 3), 1 rb, 0ast, 0TO, 2PF
• 13 minutes, Stewart, 2 points on 0-3 (0-1 from 3), 4rbs, 1ast, 2TO, 4PF
• 11 minutes, Glover, 0 points on 0-1, 1rb, 1ast, 2TO, 2PF
• 6 minutes, Parks, 0 points on 0-1, 3rbs, 1ast, 1TO, 1PF

This era is going to take some getting used to.  These rosters (and I don't think Ohio State is really an outlier here) are such a mash-up.  Looking at those guys:

• Thornton is a Junior out of Georgia playing in his third year for the Buckeyes. - Looks normal so far.  
• Parrish is a Senior out of Michigan.  He played his first two years at Oakland then two years at SDSU and is now playing his 5th (extra COVID year) at Ohio State.  
• Johnson is a Senior from Cleveland who signed with Holtmann's Buckeyes and played his freshman and sophomore years at Ohio State back in 20/21 and 21/22.  Then he transferred to USCe and played two seasons and now he is back for his 5th (extra COVID year) and final year at Ohio State.  
• Royal is a Sophomore out of Pickerington playing in his second year for the Buckeyes.  
• Bradshaw is a Sophomore out of New Jersey who played his freshman year for Cal's Wildcats then transferred after the season.  He is a 7 footer who was a monster recruit but didn't see all that much action in Lexington and we might be finding out why.  
• Mahaffey is a Junior out of Cincinnati who signed with PSU out of HS and played his freshman year in Happy Valley before transferring to Ohio State last year.  
• Mobley is a freshman out of Reynoldsburg (Columbus suburb).  
• Stewart is Sophomore out of Florida.  He played his freshman year at Dook before transferring to Columbus.  He was a monster recruit but only saw limited minutes in Durham and we might be finding out why.  
• Glover is a Senior out of Knoxville, TN who signed with the Gators out of HS, played two years in Gainesville, then transferred to Samford for two years and is now in his fifth (extra COVID year) and final year.  
• Parks is a Sophomore out of St Marys (Ohio) playing in his second year for the Buckeyes.  He is 6-10 but wasn't seriously heralded as a recruit.  

Of the 10:

• 3 (Thornton, Royal, Parks) are traditional multi-year Ohio State players.  
• 1 (Mobley) is a traditional freshman.  
• 1 (Johnson) is a weird situation where he started here, left, and came back.  
• 5 are transfers

The 10 Ohio State players who contributed minutes last night have previously played for:

• Ohio State (obviously)
• Oakland
• SDSU
• USCe
• Kentucky
• Penn State
• Dook
• Florida
• Samford

[bayareabadger]

Badgers had just a trash start, but did do a good job showing resilience.

I’m still not the most excited about their point guard or power forward situation, and their shooting guard needs to stabilize things coming back from an injury, but maybe it’ll be fine

[medinabuckeye1]

10 guys (see above) played in the game against Texas.  The game was interesting in that while Ohio State literally led for the entire game, it was only rarely by double-digits and was a nine point game at the U4 timeout.  In other words, despite leading for the entire game, the Buckeyes didn't really have an opportunity to get their backups some minutes.  I expect to see a lot more of them in the game against YSU on Monday.  

The NCAA scholarship limit is 15 but NIL has made that more-or-less irrelevant.  The Buckeyes have 15 guys on scholarship and a 16th who is getting his tuition paid by NIL.  

The six who did not have any minutes against Texas are:

• 6-4 So G from Minneapolis, Taison Chatman:  Chatman suffered a knee injury over the summer and will miss the entire 2024/25 season.  
• 6-4 Fr G from New Albany, OH (Columbus suburb), Braylen Nash:  Given Ohio State's apparent strength at guard and that Nash is a walk-on, I rather doubt that he'll play any meaningful minutes this year.  
• 6-3 Jr G from Texas, Colby Baumann:  Baumann only played in three and four games respectively in his first two seasons in Columbus so at this point it appears the he will likely never be a significant contributor at this level.  He seems like a Club Trill guy in the Mark Titus mold.  
• 6-6 Fr F from Ottawa, OH, Colin White:  I assume that we'll see him against YSU as the staff tries to figure something out for the frontcourt.  
• 6-8 Jr F from Van Wert, OH Kalen Etzler:  Etzler played sparingly as a Freshman in 2022/23 and Sophomore last year but given Ohio State's frontcourt shortcomings he may get on the court more going forward.  We'll see.  
• 7-1 Fr C from Croatia, Ivan Njegovan:  Given Ohio State's apparent frontcourt weakness, I would be surprised if he doesn't at least get a look in the YSU game.  

I've sorted these from what I think are the least likely to what I think are the most likely to get substantial minutes this year.  

Rearranging this into likely most-to-least minutes this year I have:

• 6-2 Jr G from GA, Bruce Thornton:  Thornton was a 4* out of HS in tOSU's #8 ranked class back in 2022.  Thornton is now the only guy left from that class.  Gayle is at TSUN, Okpara is at Tennessee, Sensabaugh is with the Utah Jazz, and Hardman is at Akron.  
• 6-2 Sr G from Cleveland, Meechie Johnson:  Johnson was the leading scorer on a pretty good USCe team last year but the big question amongst Ohio State fans was if that was just an issue of volume.  
• 6-6 SR G from Detroit, Micah Parrish:  Parrish was only a 2* out of Detroit back in 2020 but he went to the F4 with SDSU so maybe . . .
• 6-6 So F from Pickerington, OH Devin Royal:  Royal was a 4* out of HS back in 2023 in Ohio State's #11 ranked class but Middleton is now at Seton Hall and Chatman is out for the year with an injury so it is just he and Parks from that class (plus transfer Mahaffey).  
• 7-1 So F from Jersey, Aaron Bradshaw:  Bradshaw was a monster 5* recruit out of HS but 247 downgraded him to a 4* by the time Ohio State picked him up as a transfer from Kentucky.  His performance against Texas was not encouraging.  Hopefully that improves.  
• 6-6 Jr G from Cincinnati, Evan Mahaffey:  Mahaffey was a 4* out of HS when he went to Penn State.  He contributed as a freshman at PSU and was a solid contributor last year at Ohio State.  The 15 minutes that he played against Texas is actually less than he averaged last year but that could be a situational issue.  We'll find out.  
• 6-1 Fr G from Reynoldsburg, OH, John Mobley:  Mobley was Ohio State's biggest HS recruit this year and, IMHO, lived up to his billing against Texas.  It is reasonable to expect his minutes to increase as the year progresses.  
• 6-9 So F from Florida, Sean Stewart:  Stewart was a 4* Dook recruit out of HS.  
• 6-0 SR G from Knoxville, TN, Ques Glover:  Glover was a 3* when he went to Florida out of HS back before COVID.  He played two years as a Gator, then two at Samford, then transferred to KSU where he sat out with an injury last year and now, in his sixth year in college, he is a Senior at Ohio State.  
• 6-10 So C from St. Mary's, OH, Austin Parks:  Parks seems like a project/development kind of guy who probably isn't ever going to be a star at this level but who might be a solid contributor eventually.  I'm not sure if this year is when.  
• 7-1 Fr C from Croatia, Ivan Njegovan:  Given Bradshaw's and Stewart's struggles, I think we'll see a lot more of the big Croatian soon.  
• 6-8 Jr F from Van Wert, OH, Kalen Etzler:  Looks like another project like Parks.  
• 6-6 Fr F from Ottawa, OH, Colin White:  White was a 3* in Ohio State's 2024 class.  If Bradshaw and Stewart don't start looking like what we hoped for, I think White might get some looks but that isn't a confident statement about Ohio State.  

I don't think anyone else will contribute meaningfully.  The Buckeyes do have two 6-6 guards in Parrish and Mahaffey so I wonder if we'll see them use a lot of quasi-4-guard looks with one or both of them on the floor as "big guards" who can contribute in the paint.  

[medinabuckeye1]

Ohio State's upcoming schedule:

On Monday the Buckeyes host YSU in a game where they will be a big favorite.  

Next Friday the Buckeyes travel to Reed Arena in College Station Texas to take on aTm.  The Aggies started out ranked #13 which is even higher than the Longhorns and this is a true road game unlike the Texas game which was on a neutral court in Las Vegas.  OTOH, aTm opened their year last night with a loss at UCF so maybe . . .

After the aTm game the Buckeyes have three home games in which they will be big favorites (Evansville, Campbell, Green Bay).  

On the Friday of Thanksgiving Weekend (the day before the Michigan Football game) the Buckeyes host Pitt.  I assume that the athletic department was hoping to get some sales of BB tickets to fans in town for the football game?  

After Thanksgiving the Buckeyes have two league games (@UMD, vs Rutgers).  

The Buckeyes then play #11 Auburn in Atlanta on Saturday December 14.  

In between the aforementioned "neutral site" game against Auburn and a neutral site game against Kentucky at MSG in NYC a week later the Buckeyes play Valpo.  

The Buckeyes wrap up their non-conference schedule with ISU at home on Sunday, December 29.  

Between the opener last night and the end of December the Buckeyes will play five currently ranked teams:

• #11 Auburn in Atlanta
• #13 Texas A&M, true road game in College Station
• #19 Texas in Vegas
• #23 Kentucky in NYC
• #25 Rutgers, home

Additionally they have power conference Pitt at home and Maryland on the road.  

They should win the other six games (YSU, Evansville, Campbell, Green Bay, Valpo, IndianaSt).  

So long as they win the six that they *should* win, I think that anything over .500 in the seven tough ones would be good.  If they could manage to go 5-2 in the tough ones and 11-2 overall at the end of December, I'd be thrilled.  Frankly 10-3 would be pretty darn good.  I feel like 9-4 at the end of December would be kinda "meh".  Anything less than that would mean that the Texas win last night was basically the lone bright spot (either that or they traded getting a big upset for giving up a big upset).  

[bayareabadger]

10 guys (see above) played in the game against Texas.  The game was interesting in that while Ohio State literally led for the entire game, it was only rarely by double-digits and was a nine point game at the U4 timeout.  In other words, despite leading for the entire game, the Buckeyes didn't really have an opportunity to get their backups some minutes.  I expect to see a lot more of them in the game against YSU on Monday. 

The NCAA scholarship limit is 15 but NIL has made that more-or-less irrelevant.  The Buckeyes have 15 guys on scholarship and a 16th who is getting his tuition paid by NIL. 

The six who did not have any minutes against Texas are:

• 6-4 So G from Minneapolis, Taison Chatman:  Chatman suffered a knee injury over the summer and will miss the entire 2024/25 season. 
• 6-4 Fr G from New Albany, OH (Columbus suburb), Braylen Nash:  Given Ohio State's apparent strength at guard and that Nash is a walk-on, I rather doubt that he'll play any meaningful minutes this year. 
• 6-3 Jr G from Texas, Colby Baumann:  Baumann only played in three and four games respectively in his first two seasons in Columbus so at this point it appears the he will likely never be a significant contributor at this level.  He seems like a Club Trill guy in the Mark Titus mold. 
• 6-6 Fr F from Ottawa, OH, Colin White:  I assume that we'll see him against YSU as the staff tries to figure something out for the frontcourt. 
• 6-8 Jr F from Van Wert, OH Kalen Etzler:  Etzler played sparingly as a Freshman in 2022/23 and Sophomore last year but given Ohio State's frontcourt shortcomings he may get on the court more going forward.  We'll see. 
• 7-1 Fr C from Croatia, Ivan Njegovan:  Given Ohio State's apparent frontcourt weakness, I would be surprised if he doesn't at least get a look in the YSU game. 

I've sorted these from what I think are the least likely to what I think are the most likely to get substantial minutes this year. 

Rearranging this into likely most-to-least minutes this year I have:

• 6-2 Jr G from GA, Bruce Thornton:  Thornton was a 4* out of HS in tOSU's #8 ranked class back in 2022.  Thornton is now the only guy left from that class.  Gayle is at TSUN, Okpara is at Tennessee, Sensabaugh is with the Utah Jazz, and Hardman is at Akron. 
• 6-2 Sr G from Cleveland, Meechie Johnson:  Johnson was the leading scorer on a pretty good USCe team last year but the big question amongst Ohio State fans was if that was just an issue of volume. 
• 6-6 SR G from Detroit, Micah Parrish:  Parrish was only a 2* out of Detroit back in 2020 but he went to the F4 with SDSU so maybe . . .
• 6-6 So F from Pickerington, OH Devin Royal:  Royal was a 4* out of HS back in 2023 in Ohio State's #11 ranked class but Middleton is now at Seton Hall and Chatman is out for the year with an injury so it is just he and Parks from that class (plus transfer Mahaffey). 
• 7-1 So F from Jersey, Aaron Bradshaw:  Bradshaw was a monster 5* recruit out of HS but 247 downgraded him to a 4* by the time Ohio State picked him up as a transfer from Kentucky.  His performance against Texas was not encouraging.  Hopefully that improves. 
• 6-6 Jr G from Cincinnati, Evan Mahaffey:  Mahaffey was a 4* out of HS when he went to Penn State.  He contributed as a freshman at PSU and was a solid contributor last year at Ohio State.  The 15 minutes that he played against Texas is actually less than he averaged last year but that could be a situational issue.  We'll find out. 
• 6-1 Fr G from Reynoldsburg, OH, John Mobley:  Mobley was Ohio State's biggest HS recruit this year and, IMHO, lived up to his billing against Texas.  It is reasonable to expect his minutes to increase as the year progresses. 
• 6-9 So F from Florida, Sean Stewart:  Stewart was a 4* Dook recruit out of HS. 
• 6-0 SR G from Knoxville, TN, Ques Glover:  Glover was a 3* when he went to Florida out of HS back before COVID.  He played two years as a Gator, then two at Samford, then transferred to KSU where he sat out with an injury last year and now, in his sixth year in college, he is a Senior at Ohio State. 
• 6-10 So C from St. Mary's, OH, Austin Parks:  Parks seems like a project/development kind of guy who probably isn't ever going to be a star at this level but who might be a solid contributor eventually.  I'm not sure if this year is when. 
• 7-1 Fr C from Croatia, Ivan Njegovan:  Given Bradshaw's and Stewart's struggles, I think we'll see a lot more of the big Croatian soon. 
• 6-8 Jr F from Van Wert, OH, Kalen Etzler:  Looks like another project like Parks. 
• 6-6 Fr F from Ottawa, OH, Colin White:  White was a 3* in Ohio State's 2024 class.  If Bradshaw and Stewart don't start looking like what we hoped for, I think White might get some looks but that isn't a confident statement about Ohio State. 

I don't think anyone else will contribute meaningfully.  The Buckeyes do have two 6-6 guards in Parrish and Mahaffey so I wonder if we'll see them use a lot of quasi-4-guard looks with one or both of them on the floor as "big guards" who can contribute in the paint. 

In pointing out the scholarship limit, that should’ve been thing? Like you can really only play up to tonight or guys who matter? Maybe 10 or 11 if your first-half subs look like the lobby of a large train station?

Like those bottom guys usually don’t play much.

I think the limit is also still 13?

[ELA]

Not enough interest for an NBA thread obviously, but anyone see Zach Edey's game this week?  His first game was I believe the fastest foul out for a starter in NBA history, which was predictable considering the whistle he got last year.  But Monday night he had like 25 points, 12 rebounds and 5 blocks.  I think he has to be paired with a PG like Morant, otherwise he becomes Andre Drummond.  But guess what?  He is paired with Morant, and the Grizzlies are fun

[boilerbanger]

Not enough interest for an NBA thread obviously, but anyone see Zach Edey's game this week?  His first game was I believe the fastest foul out for a starter in NBA history, which was predictable considering the whistle he got last year.  But Monday night he had like 25 points, 12 rebounds and 5 blocks.  I think he has to be paired with a PG like Morant, otherwise he becomes Andre Drummond.  But guess what?  He is paired with Morant, and the Grizzlies are fun

yes, I have been following him closely.  I am interested to see how he adjusts, let's see if he can repeat that performance.  You are correct, he landed in the right spot with Memphis.

[bayareabadger]

Badgers have another bike game tonight. This time against Montana State. Hoping for a smoother outing than the opener.

I still hope that the current back up power forward can settle his game down enough to basically take the starting job. If he can get a handle on things defensively, offers some better stuff positionally.

[MaximumSam]

Which B1G team will lose first?

[medinabuckeye1]

Which B1G team will lose first?

Probably ours in College Station. 

[MaximumSam]

Probably ours in College Station.

Would be a heck of a run. Decent games coming up:

• New Mexico v. UCLA tomorrow
• Northwestern at Dayton Saturday
• Washington v. Nevada Saturday
• Michigan v. Wake Forest Sunday
• Yale at Purdue Monday
• MSU v. Kansas Tuesday
• TCU at Michigan Friday
• Alabama at Purdue Friday
• Va Tech v. PSU Friday
• Marquette at Maryland Friday
• Wazzu v. Iowa Friday
• Arizona at Wisconsin Friday
• OSU at TAMU Friday

[medinabuckeye1]

Would be a heck of a run. Decent games coming up:

• New Mexico v. UCLA tomorrow
• Northwestern at Dayton Saturday
• Washington v. Nevada Saturday
• Michigan v. Wake Forest Sunday
• Yale at Purdue Monday
• MSU v. Kansas Tuesday
• TCU at Michigan Friday
• Alabama at Purdue Friday
• Va Tech v. PSU Friday
• Marquette at Maryland Friday
• Wazzu v. Iowa Friday
• Arizona at Wisconsin Friday
• OSU at TAMU Friday

Ok, I hadn't looked at schedules before I posted, my mistake.

Hmm, I'd go with MSU. Izzo is great in March but I don't have much confidence in him in November. 

[ELA]

I don't have much confidence in this roster going up against the #1 team in the country

[medinabuckeye1]

I don't have much confidence in this roster going up against the #1 team in the country

There is that too.