Here's what we know about Ohio State's closed scrimmage at Louisville

Ohio State took a nine-point road loss in a closed, "secret" men's basketball scrimmage against Louisville on Oct. 17, a source told The Dispatch. The Buckeyesfell behind early, settled into the game and played the Cardinals even for the rest of the game, which was played without foul limits for pla

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Ohio State took a nine-point road loss in a closed, "secret" men's basketball scrimmage against Louisville on Oct. 17, a source told The Dispatch.

The Buckeyesfell behind early, settled into the game and played the Cardinals even for the rest of the game, which was played without foul limits for players. Ohio State was without freshman guard LJ Smith, who has been sidelined by a sore groin, but saw the return of Justin Pippen from a sprained ankle suffered in an Oct. 7 outdoor exhibition loss to Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio.

New addition Lee Aaliya, who missed the Cincinnati exhibition with an illness, saw limited minutes against the Cardinals. The Buckeyes left the scrimmage healthy, and that includes center Josh Ojianwuna, who continues to build

up his stamina after missing all of year year due to injury.

Ohio State's head coach Jake Diebler huddles with the team during a timeout in the first half against Michigan State on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.

By NCAA rules, schools are not allowed to publicly promote or allow media members to be present while playing in a closed scrimmage.

Ohio State went 4 for 23 from deep against Cincinnati while playing outdoors in windy conditions. The Buckeyes were more along the lines of how they have shot during the preseason, the source said, and got good perimeter shooting from forwards Amare Bynum and Anthony Thompson.

After the Cincinnati exhibition, Ohio State coach Jake Diebler said the Buckeyes had not planned much specifically for the Bearcats but focused almost exclusively on themselves. The plan for this scrimmage, he said at the time, was to treat this more like a game while the Oct. 25 public home scrimmage against Butler will be a dress rehearsal for the regular season.

Ohio State turned it over 16 times against the Bearcats, and turnovers were an issue in this game as well, the source said, adding to the early slow start for the Buckeyes.

Although specific numbers were not given, Ohio State's post players were described as having been overall more productive than they were against Cincinnati, Andrija Jelavic and Ojianwuna in particular.

Aaliya played in the scrimmage after only practicing once or twice at the end of the week.

Ohio State men's basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social, on Instagram at @cdadamjardyor on Twitter at @AdamJardy.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Here's what we know about Ohio State's closed scrimmage at Louisville