The Buckeyes are off to a nice start, but there is plenty of room for improvement.
Another Friday night, another big game for the Ohio State University men’s basketball team — well, maybe a little less big than last weekend.
Last Friday night, Ohio State flew down to the Lone Star State and got popped in the mouth pretty good by Texas A&M, 78-64. After the game, A&M guard Manny Obaseki point-blank said that he could tell the Buckeyes couldn’t guard the Aggies within the first five minutes of the game.
Texas A&M guard Manny Obaseki on Ohio State: “In the first five minutes, we knew they couldn’t guard us.”
— Carter Karels (@CarterKarels) November 16, 2024
A more accurate assessment might’ve been that Ohio State couldn’t guard the Aggies without fouling, as the Buckeyes committed 24 personal fouls and allowed A&M to shoot a whopping 40 free throws. That’s the most free throws for an Ohio State opponent since Iowa shot 45 back on January 24, 2004, in a 79-65 Iowa win.
Tonight the stakes are a bit lower, with the Campbell Camels coming to town.
Last week, Connor and Justin each picked two players to watch in the Ohio State-A&M game — one from each team. Justin picked Henry Coleman (12 points, six rebounds) and Micah Parrish (10 points, three steals), while Connor went with Meechie Johnson (six points, four turnovers) and Pharrel Payne (two points, four rebounds).
The readers agreed with Justin that Coleman was the A&M player to watch, but that neither Meechie nor Parrish was the most important Ohio State player to pay attention to in this game. 42% picked Meechie Johnson, but 50% went with the “someone else” option for Ohio State.
After 179 weeks:
Connor- 81
Justin- 75
Other- 18
(There have been five ties)
Land-Grant Holy Land has already published a full game preview for tonight’s game against the Camels, but with that game still in the balance later tonight, what would you say your biggest concern is about this team thus far?
At 3-1 (as of Friday afternoon) with a win over a ranked Texas team, you probably can’t give them anything worse than a B for a grade, but clearly, the Buckeyes are not a perfect product yet.
This week’s question: What is your biggest concern for Ohio State men’s basketball at this point of the season?
Connor: Still not playing fast or controlling the pace
The biggest difference between a Jake Diebler offense and a Chris Holtmann offense (or at least, what we were told) is that Diebler very much wants his players to get out in transition, take more shots, attempt more threes, and be aggressive — even at the expense of the occasional turnover or bad shot. Over the summer, Diebler said that he does not want to face teams in their half-court defense over and over again, so his team needs to get the ball off the rim and run to create shot opportunities before teams can set a defense.
Through four games, both statistically and with our own eyeballs, that’s not happening very much. Against Texas A&M and Evansville, there were far too many possessions that lacked pace or purpose — one player dribbling with four players standing still. This leads to a forced shot at the end of the possession, and that’s usually not a good look.
Efficiency-wise, Ohio State is still No. 32 in the nation offensively, so it’s not like the offense has been bad. That’s still a good offense. But out of 364 teams, Ohio State is No. 212 in adjusted tempo, which measures how many possessions you get per 40 minutes. This season, Ohio State is averaging 69 possessions (nice) per 40 minutes.
Ironically, none of Chris Holtmann’s seven teams ever finished as high as 212 in tempo, so this would still be the “fastest” moving Ohio State team since the 2016-2017 season.
Diebler has also said that he wants his team to get more shots up. That means shorter possessions, not dribbling out the clock until the last second, and creating shot opportunities off of turnovers.
Thus far, Ohio State has taken 229 shots through four games, which is actually fewer shots than last year’s team had through four games (234). The Buckeyes have 23 fast break points this season through four games, which is also fewer than last year’s team had through four games (33).
Justin: The starting frontcourt
I don’t think it is a secret or a stretch to say that the success of this 2024-25 Ohio State men’s basketball team is how far along the frontcourt is able to go.
Right now, Sean Stewart and Aaron Bradshaw are the starting frontcourt for the Buckeyes. Both of these players are sophomores, transfers from blue bloods (Stewart from Duke, Bradshaw from Kentucky), and are former five-star recruits and McDonalds All-Americans. Bradshaw was a top-five recruit in the country and the No. 1 center recruit.
However, they have not been incredibly impressive this season thus far. Granted, it has only been four games, but Stewart is averaging 3.3 points per game and 6.0 rebounds per game, while Bradshaw is averaging 7.8 points per game and 4.5 rebounds per game. Stewart is shooting 38.5 percent from the field, while Bradshaw is shooting 37.9 percent from the field. Stewart is playing 14.5 minutes per game, and Bradshaw is playing 23.8 minutes per game.
All that is to say, they have a ton of untapped talent and potential between them.
Devin Royal has been great so far this season, and Evan Mahaffey has given good minutes off the bench, but they need Stewart and Bradshaw to be more productive and more efficient to reach their top goals this season.