SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – The list of things still to learn about this Ohio State men’s basketball team is longer than the outstretched arms of freshman forward Anthony Thompson.
That’s the case for all teams with the official start of the still season still basically three months away. Some, like the Buckeyes, took advantage of the chance to schedule a foreign exhibition trip, on which they handled business against teams Los Boris 1 and 2 with consecutive wins by 40 and 38 points, respectively. Standing on the court inside Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez immediately after a 111-73 Aug. 3 win that bookended the competitive part of the trip, junior guard John Mobley had any number of takeaways he and his teammates would be taking back with them to Ohio
State.
Just like during the game, when he backed up a little verbal back-and-forth with a Los Boris 2 player and finished with 17 points, Mobley did not hesitate.
“Biggest takeaway I would say is we’re a really good team,” he said. “Better than I expected, to be honest.”
It’s easy to be a prisoner of the moment, especially after wins in exhibition games against teams of unknown quality. And through his first two years at Ohio State, Mobley hasn’t shied away from speaking his mind or expressing his confidence in his team.
He wasn’t the only one expressing a similar sentiment.
“We’re pretty good and that we’ve got a lot of depth,” junior guard Justin Pippen, who transferred in from California to pair with Mobley in the backcourt. “I feel like we kind of knew that before but just emphasizing that. We all played a lot of minutes this trip so emphasizing how good we can be and how deep we are.”
Nine players projected to be part of coach Jake Diebler’s primary playing rotation saw between 32-41 minutes of combined playing time in the two games. The other, Josh Ojianwuna, was on the floor for 16:27 in his first appearances after missing all of last year due to a knee injury.
That was by design, as Diebler said going in that he wanted to try and keep playing time as equal as possible while in Puerto Rico. That plan allowed the Buckeyes to showcase an area where they feel they will be significantly better than a season ago: their depth, and Pippen wasn’t alone in mentioning that unprompted.
“I can tell that our depth is really good,” sophomore Amare Bynum, who was with the Buckeyes last season, said. “Last year we really didn’t have much depth but this year you could tell we’re really deep. (Projected reserves Jimmie Williams and Curtis Givens III), those guys are really good. Whoever comes off the bench are really good.”
This time a season ago, Diebler touted a roster with more experience in its starting lineup but one that was capable of growing its bench with a core of younger, mostly unproven players. It didn’t work, and that lack of bench production put a ceiling on what the Buckeyes could do in 2025-26.
Again, it’s August. Any team that feels it is a finished product at this time of year is already sunk. But in Puerto Rico, Ohio State showed that multiple players not projected to be starters might be capable of carrying a more significant load than last year’s reserves.
Also potentially of note: the Buckeyes aren’t the only team playing games under the umbrella of the Arroyo Puerto Rico Classic. Army, Oklahoma and Ole Miss have also spent part of early August playing the same teams. Army lost both games by single digits. Oklahoma, which faced multiple travel issues and boasted a limited roster, needed a late rally to fend off Los Boris 1 one day after Ohio State beat that team by 40.
One day after the Buckeyes beat Los Boris 2 by 38, the team from Puerto Rico beat Ole Miss by six points.
What any of that means for the regular season is impossible to know, but when he looked at what the Buckeyes had done, Mobley said he’s excited to find out.
“We translated a lot of what we did in practice, which is big-time,” he said. “We didn’t do too well with that the past couple of years. We just have really good depth.
“We’ve got to work on all the little things like better positioning on defense, executing plays, but that takes time. It’s only August.”
Ohio State men's basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State leaves Puerto Rico brimming with confidence after wins
