The Ohio State men’s basketball team (0-1) opened the season Monday night, losing to No, 25 BYU 94-83. It was a “neutral site” game for both teams, although Provo is only about a 40 minute drive from Salt Lake City, while Columbus is a bit further — about 25 hours.
It wasn’t all bad. Ohio State was doing a lot of things right in the first half – they were staying in front of their man on defense, being assertive on the glass, and were getting contributions from more than a few new faces. Playing in his
first game for the Buckeyes, Justin Pippen knocked down a three-pointer with 14 seconds remaining in the half to give Ohio State a 37-31 lead that should’ve stood up as the final basket of the half. Instead, Amare Bynum over-helped on BYU’s final offensive possession, leaving Nate Pickens wide open in the corner for a three of his own to cut the lead back to 37-34.
That final possession of the first half felt like a turning point at the time, and it was. BYU opened the second half on an 8-0 run, which really was an 11-0 run if you count that basket before halftime. The Cougars took the lead, and although Ohio State did tie game four different times during the second half, the Buckeyes were chasing the 25th-ranked Cougars pretty much the entire second half.
BYU became the first team in 28 years to score 60 points against Ohio State in one half of basketball, doing so in the second half on Monday night after scoring just 34 in the first half. They shot 69% in the second half, hit seven of their 10 three-point tries, and grabbed four offensive rebounds. BYU either scored or grabbed their own miss on 24 of their 29 shots in the second half – 82.7%. That means Ohio State made BYU go “one and done” less than 20% of the time in the second half.
Fortunately, Ohio State has an opportunity to get off the mat tomorrow against Youngstown State. The Penguins, unlike Ohio State, are undefeated at 1-0. They beat St. Bonaventure as 10.5-point underdogs on Monday night, getting 26 points and eight rebounds from junior guard Linus Holmstrom to win 79-71 after trailing by four at halftime.
Still, the Penguins were picked to finish ninth in the 12-team Horizon League. They’re No. 197 in KenPom — the sixth-worst team on Ohio State’s schedule, per Mr. Pomeroy’s projections. Friday’s bout with in-state rivals from Mahoning County should be nothing more than a tune-up for UConn next week, and anything less would be alarming.
Now that we’ve got a little background on Friday’s game, here’s four things I’d like to see from Ohio State on Friday:
Get Anthony Thompson some shots early to get him comfortable
Thompson did not score against BYU until the clock was under five minutes and the game was already pretty well in hand for the Cougars. The freshman scored two points and three rebounds in 20 minutes. He was 0-for-5 shooting overall and 0-for-4 from beyond the arc.
The 6-foot-9 Thompson never looked comfortable against BYU. His shots did not look confident, he didn’t defend with much conviction, and he was just a non-factor in that game. It’s a continuation from the preseason, as Thompson didn’t look particularly confident or comfortable in Ohio State’s preseason games against Cincinnati or Butler.
For Ohio State to get anywhere close to reaching its goals, Thompson can’t just be a catch-and-shoot three-point shooter. The former McDonald’s All-American can’t just hang out in the corner and wait for a teammate to pass to him. Thompson needs to help create points for Ohio State every time he touches the ball — whether that’s scoring himself, finding open teammates, or using the gravity he creates on the floor to generate open shots for teammates.
Playing a ranked team on the road in your first collegiate game wasn’t exactly a soft landing spot for Thompson. These next two games against Youngstown State and Marshall should give the freshman plenty of runway to take (and make) more shots, and not play so rigidly like he did against BYU.
Play Ivan Njegovan for more than two minutes
There are going to be games this season where junior center Ivan Njegovan is going to be borderline unplayable. Think about teams that don’t play with a “true” center or teams that play with a center who is under 6-foot-10 and can move his feet a bit. Njegovan is not fleet of foot and is far from a perimeter defender, so there will be games where he could get exposed.
I didn’t think BYU was going to be one of those games, so I’m surprised Njegovan only got two minutes in that game. Jaxon Kohler can shoot it (37.4% career three-point shooter), but he only attempted one three on Monday, and he’s not exactly quick on his feet. He’s a tough one to guard, but I didn’t think it would result in Njegovan basically sitting the entire game.
In his two minutes, he scored two buckets resulting in four points and committed two fouls — one of which was a touch foul away from the basket that resulted in BYU free throws. That foul was a head-scratcher, but I thought Njegovan looked alright in his one very brief appearance on Monday night.
He’s unlikely to start, but Jake Diebler and the coaching staff spent a lot of time in the fall talking about the growth Njegovan has made from last year to now. If this game goes as we expect it to, he should get more of an opportunity to show that on Friday.
Create opportunities for Jimmie Williams
Jimmie Williams looked out of his element on Monday against BYU, and that’s partially because his shot selection did not line up at all with what he’s done well historically. Williams scored four points against BYU — all on free throws — and was 0-for-6 shooting. He was 0-for-5 from three as well. It was the first time since December 7, 2024 that Williams failed to score a single basket in a game.
Historically, Williams is not a chucker or someone who will go out and shoot almost exclusively three-pointers. He looked rushed and uncomfortable against BYU — his threes didn’t just miss the mark, they missed badly. One game isn’t a big enough sample size to say Williams can’t hack it in the Big Ten, but he needs to take shots that he’s more comfortable with.
Last season, Williams took 52.1% of his shots from two-point range, and shot 64% at the rim last year. Part of the reason he was brought in was because Ohio State’s two starting guards — Justin Pippen and John Mobley Jr. — have historically struggled at the rim and have defaulted to jump shots more often.
Williams is supposed to be a change of pace to the other guards — someone who actually prefers to slash to the basket and has, to this point in his collegiate career, been good at finishing near the basket.
With the level of competition dropping a level on Friday from BYU to Youngstown State, Ohio State should utilize screens — both directly on Jimmy and down the floor — to open up lanes for him to do what he does best. If he can do that, perhaps we’ll look back at the BYU game as just an aberration for him.
Don’t commit dumb/excessive fouls
Listen, we were told all summer this Ohio State team was going to have more defensive bite than it did last year. Justin Pippen was billed as an elite defender when he transferred in from California, and Jimmie Williams’ steal rate of 3.1% meant he was one of the best perimeter defenders in the A-10 last season. When you also factor in some expected growth from John Mobley and Amare Bynum, this team on paper should at worst be about the same as last year defensively, and at best be a top-20 defense in the nation.
Instead, they gave up a 60-burger in the second half against BYU, let them shoot better than 60% overall and from three in the back 20, and committed 23 fouls.
Ohio State’s starting backcourt of Mobley and Pippen fouled out of the game. It was just the second time Mobley has fouled out in his career, and the first time since the 2004-25 season. It was Pippen’s third career disqualification due to fouls, but more importantly that left Ohio State completely without its starting backcourt for the end of the game.
The Buckeyes’ fouls were mostly due to mental lapses — ie, Njegovan reaching in and picking up the reach-in foul 20 feet from the basket — or created due to Ohio State’s inability to stay in front of their man. Once you’re chasing your guy towards the basket, sometimes your only option at that point is to foul to save face. Ohio State did that a little too often against BYU.
Not that it should matter all that much against Youngstown State, but Ohio State plays UConn next week, and this team needs to sharpen things up in a major way on the defensive end.
