MASON, Ohio – Armed with a seemingly comfortable lead, veteran guard Jimmie Williams pushed the ball up the tennis court, which had been temporarily resurfaced to serve as a basketball court.
With the sun splashing his face, Williams drove toward the paint, turned back and saw a wide-open teammate at the 3-point line. It was LJ Smith, one of the team’s two five-star freshmen.
The Buckeyes led Cincinnati by eight points a few minutes into the second half. Seeing a chance to build their first double-digit lead, the fifth-year senior fed Smith along the right wing.
Smith let it fly, sunshine impacting his vision and wind dictating where any shot from outside the paint might end up. It was the kind of shot the Buckeyes scheme much of their offense
around and one that, according to the numbers they chart year-round in practice, they expect to make.
Smith bricked it. So did his teammates, over and over again. Under cloudless skies at the Lindner Family Tennis Center and playing their first exhibition game of the fall, the Buckeyes missed 19 of their 23 3-point attempts, led by as many as nine points but were outscored 30-12 in the final 10 minutes to lose 79-68 to the Bearcats.
“We are much better shooting team than 4-for-23 with I don’t know how many airballs we had,” Ohio State coach Jake Diebler said. “I thought we manufactured some great looks, some wide-open looks. We wanted to shoot the right shots.”
The problem was the right shots during the season were often the wrong ones in these conditions. The Buckeyes were 17.4% from 3-point range. The Bearcats were little better (4 for 19, 21.1%), but overcame their perimeter woes by beating Ohio State inside and on the glass.
It wasn’t just from 3-point range, either. The contest featured 50 combined fouls and 68 free throws, and Ohio State was 20 for 36 (55.6%) from the free-throw line while Cincinnati was 19 for 32 (59.4%).
Here are four quick takeaways from the game.
Ohio State got little from its bigs
The Buckeyes have a three-headed battle for minutes at center between Andrija Jelavic, Ivan Njegovan and Josh Ojianwuna. Each brings something different. All are expected to provide more physical minutes and impact than what the Buckeyes got last season from the position.
That did not happen in this game. The three combined for seven rebounds, 12 fouls, and just 11 points. The Buckeyes were beaten 45-35 on the glass and outscored 48-32 in the paint.
Ojianwuna in particular looked rusty, missing three point-blank shots at the rim and generally seeming unsure of himself.
“He looked like a guy on both sides of the ball that hadn’t played basketball in a while in a real game,” Diebler said. “Josh has been an anchor for us defensively at times [in practice]. Wasn’t his best today.”
Njegovan had 2 points, two turnovers and three fouls in 7:52 of playing time.
“Ivan’s had some really great practices leading into this,” Diebler said. “We’re looking for his consistency as we head into November.”
Jelavic had 5 points, three rebounds and four fouls in 15:44. Ojianwuna had five fouls and 4 points in 17:26.
Justin Pippen’s defense was impactful
In 21:46 of playing time, junior guard Justin Pippen had 8 points, three rebounds and was more impactful than the numbers showed. Multiple times, Pippen drew charges while pressuring his man, and he drew nine fouls overall.
Although he wasn’t credited with a steal, Pippen showcased his ability to cause defensive issues for opponents.
“He has an opportunity in a lot of cases to be the point of our defense,” Diebler said. “He’s got an ability to be disruptive. His activity and ball pressure are a real weapon for us. We’re trying to pick up more and make them run their offense further out.”
Pippen left the game with about two minutes to play after drawing a foul and was looked at by the team’s training staff. Diebler said it was a sprained left ankle and not anything serious.
Turnovers a worry, lack of assists maybe not
Ohio State finished with just seven assists on 22 made field goals. That number didn’t bother Diebler, who again pointed to the inability to hit shots from the perimeter on a windy day rather than the quality of shots generated.
What did concern him was the fact that the Buckeyes turned it over 16 times. Ohio State won't see a defensive scheme like Cincinnati's again this season, according to Diebler, but the ability to hold onto the ball has also been an issue in practice.
“The turnover numbers are true,” he said.
LJ Smith, Anthony Thompson mostly quiet in debuts
Anthony Thompson, the highest-rated recruit to sign with Ohio State since Jared Sullinger in 2010, had a muted unofficial debut. The native of the greater Cincinnati area played 20:21, went 1 for 3 from the floor and had four rebounds while mostly blending into the action.
Smith, meanwhile, managed to put up 11 shots, making four of them, and finished with 9 points, two rebounds, two steals and three turnovers in 21:42.
“Both of them are gifted offensively, and they’ve got to be aggressive,” Diebler said. “Decision-making is part of the equation.”
Diebler concluded, though, that Ohio State’s loss wasn’t specifically due to those two, or the poor shooting, or even the turnovers.
“The issue is we didn’t protect the rim near at the level we need to, and we let them get downhill too much in the second half,” he said.
Now the Buckeyes have until an Oct. 25 home exhibition against Butler to work on those issues.
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: 4 quick takeaways from Ohio State's exhibition loss to Cincinnati
