The Ohio State men’s basketball team's preseason is in the books, and the Buckeyes can now focus on their season-opening game against BYU having learned the lessons of three matchups with high-major competition.
The Buckeyes had an outdoor exhibition game against Cincinnati, a closed-door scrimmage at Louisvilleand – most recently – an exhibition against Butler.
In front of an announced crowd just shy of 7,000 fans at the Schottenstein Center on Oct. 25, Ohio State beat the Bulldogs 82-73. Of the three, this most closely resembled an actual game. It was indoors with fans in the stands, and coach Jake Diebler approached the day's build-up and division of playing time more like he would a regular-season contest.
And while the Buckeyes won, there
were two points Diebler again found himself bringing up.
“Disappointed in our lack of defensive communication and certainly rebounding,” he said. “We had been making strides in those areas and it didn’t carry over as well as it needed to today.”
While it’s unclear just how much to make of statistics from an outdoor exhibition game in which the elements made shooting an act of educated guesswork, and statistics from the Louisville game have not been made public, it’s clear that rebounding has been an ongoing point of contention for the Buckeyes. Against Cincinnati, Ohio State was beaten 45-35 on the glass.
Against Butler, it was 42-33, which the Bulldogs were able to turn into an 18-8 advantage in second-chance points. Butler took 71 shots, made 27 and nabbed 19 of its 43 misses for an offensive rebounding rate of 44.2%. Every Butler player to see at least 14 minutes of action grabbed at least four rebounds.
Asked what Ohio State most needs to work on heading into its Nov. 2 game against BYU, freshman Anthony Thompson immediately cited rebounding.
“That’s the biggest thing,” said the 6-foot-9, 215-pound Thompson, who had one rebound in 15:35. “BYU has a lot of big-time players so we have to be more physical in our rebounding and our box-outs and being able to take care of the ball more.”
Turnovers, too, have been an issue, and in this game, each team had 16 of them. Ohio State’s primary ballhandlers, John Mobley Jr. and Justin Pippen, had four apiece. The inability to consistently rebound, though, has been what coaches and players have expressed the most alarm about.
“We obviously need to pick up our defense, pick up our rebounding, pick up our turnovers,” Pippen said. “Rebounding is something you can’t get complacent at whether you’re working on rebounding in every single practice. It’s something you’ve got to carry over to the game.”
It wasn’t enough to sink the Buckeyes as they battled a Butler team picked to finish last in the 11-team Big East by the league’s coaches, but it is something that continues to have the attention of the Ohio State coaching staff.
“I thought our bigs did a better job in the paint,” Diebler said. “There were a couple balls bouncing around that should’ve went our way that didn’t. That’s the stuff we can control better. I thought our physicality when the shot went up wasn’t enough, especially when we prepared for a team to send a lot of guys on the glass.”
Ohio State won by nine despite allowing Butler to take 19 more shots.
“[That shows] that we took better-quality shots than what we had in the past," John Mobley said, "showing that all the stuff we’re watching on film is translating but there’s still more we’ve got to work on.”
Here are three other takeaways from Ohio State’s exhibition game against Butler.
Eleven players are in the hunt for playing time
The Buckeyes carry a 15-man roster with two players ticketed for the scout team in Braylen Nash and Myles Herro. That leaves 13 players battling for legitimate playing time. While Diebler has repeatedly spoken about his team's depth, he can’t reasonably be expected to have that deep of a rotation.
Against Butler, freshmen Alex Smith and Vuk Lazarevic both were healthy, unused subs. That would appear to leave 11 Ohio State players in the mix for minutes this season, a number that will only decrease as the high-level games become more frequent.
“One of the things that’s hard for us is ironing out very specifically the back end of the rotation,” Diebler said when asked specifically about the backcourt. “What we need to be more consumed with is going out and impacting the scoreboard from the standpoint of winning possessions versus our own stuff. Getting your own stuff is not going to get you more opportunity.”
LJ Smith impresses in home debut
As Diebler sifts through his options in the backcourt, guard LJ Smith made a strong case for more consideration with his performance. In 20:07 off the bench, Smith scored 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting, all from 3-point range. He had a rebound, drew a foul, had an assist and blocked two shots while compiling an individual plus-minus rating of +25.
Had this been a regular-season game, the 6-4, 180-pound freshman might’ve gotten more minutes.
“He played with really good consistency all week,” Diebler said. “We saw that out there. We were good when he was on the floor. Maybe next week or beyond playing like that probably warrants a few extra minutes.
“He’s a hooper, man. I love coaching him. He competes really, really hard all the time.”
Amare Bynum looked like a star
Sophomore forward Amare Bynum has clearly taken a step forward after a strong close to his freshman season.
In 31 minutes of playing time, Bynum scored 23 points on only 10 shots. He pulled down a team-high six rebounds, tied with Pippen for the team lead by drawing five fouls and was perfect on seven free-throw attempts. As the Buckeyes start to navigate life without four-year stalwart Bruce Thornton, Bynum’s proficient, prolific night showed that he’s capable of shouldering more of a go-to role this season.
“He’s had a really good couple of weeks,” Diebler said. “Played well in our scrimmage. Has practiced with consistency. He’s one I forget sometimes that he’s a sophomore. I’ve challenged him on being consistent and he has. We’re seeing that before our eyes.”
It wasn’t always pretty. Bynum had three turnovers, and Diebler said Bynum needs to be more aggressive on the glass.
“You always need a guy to take control of the game sometimes,” Mobley said when he was asked about Bynum. “With this team it could be a different guy every game. Our main thing is try to stay consistent. If Amare can play like that every game, we’ll be a dangerous team.”
Bynum also threw down two powerful transition dunks that helped inject some life into the crowd after a slow start for the home team. The first came with Ohio State on a run and leading 22-17 after a Butler turnover, and the next happened four possessions later. Tied at 24 after a 7-0 run by the Bulldogs, Bynum accelerated up the left wing, sized up the rim and threw down a dunk that had him fold into a somersault and roll along the baseline.
“Definitely in transition, when I see an open lane, I go take it and get a bucket,” he said.
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: Rebounding an ongoing issue as Ohio State ends preseason: 4 takeaways
