The 2025-206 college basketball season is so close, we can almost taste it. The full schedule is out; both Ohio State’s media day and Big Ten media day are coming up, pre-season polls and previews are rolling out every day, and student tickets are on sale. We’re just weeks away from basketball in its purest form returning, which also means we should have a lot more to talk about come October.
The Buckeyes played a murderous non-conference schedule last season, starting the year 6-4 and never really
getting into a rhythm at any point during the season. It was an on-again, off-again season for Jake Diebler’s team in year one, as the Buckeyes never won more than three consecutive games, but also did not lose more than three consecutive games at any point. The non-conference this year looks a little more forgiving.
Last week, Connor and Justin debated which was the toughest conference game on Ohio State’s schedule. Connor went with Ohio State’s road matchup with Roddy Gayle and the Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor on Jan. 23, citing the rivalry, noise, and the big-time additions Dusty May added to the roster this offseason. Justin picked Ohio State’s road game at Maryland on Feb. 5 because the Xfinity Center has been a house of horrors for the Buckeyes for the past decade.
Now that the full schedule is out, we can follow the path a little bit and take a stab at how the first few months might go. Unlike last year, Ohio State is not going to run into many brutal mismatches over the first month of the season. The Buckeyes should be favored to win their first several games, and both of their first two Big Ten games look winnable as well — at the very worst, they have a 50/50 shot in both. It’s been a bit since Ohio State started the season on a winning streak, but could they do it this year?
Connor: Start the season 10-0
Yeah, it looks bananas on paper, and felt even crazier typing it out and leaving it there. But Ohio State has a real chance to set a dominant tone early in the season, stringing together a bunch of wins, and carrying that confidence with them the rest of the way.
Ohio State’s schedule starts with a three-week-long, six-game homestand, and the Buckeyes should be heavy favorites in all six of those games. Buy games against IU Indy, Purdue Fort Wayne, and App State should all be relatively painless, and the Buckeyes should start 3-0.
Notre Dame will be a substantial step up from the first three opponents, but the Fighting Irish are — at best — an NCAA Tournament bubble team, similar to Ohio State. But with the game being played in Columbus, the Buckeyes should have the edge here. Not a gimme win, but it should raise some serious red flags if Ohio State does not win that game.
After Notre Dame, Ohio State hosts Western Michigan and Mount Saint Mary’s, both of which should result in wins for the Buckeyes and sizable checks for the visitors. That would put Ohio State at a fairly painless 6-0 – their first 6-0 start since the 2019-2020 season.
When that six-game homestand ends, Ohio State heads to western PA to take on a Pitt team that beat the Buckeyes in Columbus but lost multiple starters from that team and is expected to finish in the bottom half of the ACC this year. The guard duo Jaland Lowe and Ishmael Leggett, who scored 49 points against Ohio State, is gone, and frankly, the Buckeyes just have a higher ceiling this year than the Panthers. It might feel like pulling teeth, but Ohio State should win in the steel city.
After playing in Pittsburgh, I expect Ohio State to be slight favorites on the road at Northwestern and at home against Illinois. The Wildcats aren’t expected to be anything special this year, but we’ve also seen how Chris Collins’ teams typically do not show any regard for what the “experts” think. Also, Northwestern throttled Ohio State in Columbus last year, and nobody within the program has forgotten that, I assure you.
The Illini are expected to be a top-four team in the conference, but if Ohio State is 8-0 at this point, I expect they’ll be favored to win that game at home, as well as the next game in Cleveland against first-year head coach Ross Hodge and the West Virginia Mountaineers.
If Ohio State does make it to 10-0, I think the run stops in Atlanta, where the Buckeyes will face North Carolina. They’ve historically done well against everyone in the CBS Sports Classic except North Carolina, and I think that trend continues in this year’s event.
It’s been over a decade since Ohio State started the season on a double-digit winning streak — the 2013-14 team began the year by winning its first 15 games and not losing until January. I think the Buckeyes will be favored to win their first 10 games this season, which means they have a real chance at going on a long run right out of the starting gate.
Justin: Start the season 8-0
It is imperative for every team to get off to a good start, and a tough early schedule last season made the Buckeyes start behind the ball in that regard.
It seems they have learned from that mistake, as the early part of the schedule involves some big-name schools, but it is not that difficult a schedule. In fact, I do think they will only lose one game in the non-conference and it will come in February when they play Virginia in Nashville. I think they will beat Notre Dame, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, and North Carolina in the early part of the season, but fall to the Cavaliers on Valentine’s Day.
However, I do think they will lose one of the two conference games in December. And it won’t be Northwestern.
Illinois will be a solid team this year, and the Buckeyes do get to play them at home, so it would not surprise me if they do win this and stay undefeated, but it will be the ninth game of the year, and it is hard for me to see them starting 9-0.
With returners like Ty Rodgers, Kylan Boswell, Ben Humrichou,s and Tomislav Ivisic, and transfers of the caliber of Andrej Stojakovic and Zvonimir Ivisic, I don’t think Illinois is a great matchup for the Buckeyes in the paint, and that could be the difference. Still, I think most fans would sign up for an 8-1 start.
