Welcome back to the first “non-offseason” edition of You’re Nuts in six months!
That’s right, the Ohio State men’s basketball team had their first official practice of the season Monday afternoon, which means we’re a little over a week away from the Buckeyes facing Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio at the Care Source Invitational, and just over a month away from seeing the men take on BYU to open the season in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Aside from practice starting, the other big bit of news since last week was
the fact that Jake Diebler and the coaching staff picked up another four-star commitment in the class of 2027.
Four-star point guard Jaxson Davis, the son of former Illinois linebacker Brian Davis, committed to Ohio State on Friday afternoon. Davis is the No. 43 player in the 2027 class according to 247Sports and the No. 10 point guard.
At 6-foot tall and 180 pounds, he’s a true point guard and has been described by scouts as “an extension of the coach on the floor” …. sound familiar at all? Davis joins Deng Ngor in the 2027 class, which is now ranked No. 8 in the country and No. 4 in the Big Ten, according to 247Sports.
Last week, Connor and Justin looked at Ohio State’s newly-released schedule and identified the Big Ten game that they each thought would be the toughest to win.
Justin went with Ohio State’s home game against Michigan State on Saturday, Jan. 23, and also pointed out that the game is not long after road trips to Purdue and Illinois, which means picking up a win over the Spartans would become even more important if Ohio State isn’t able to pick up a win on the road in the prior week.
Connor went with the Buckeyes’ road game at Illinois, because the Illini are coming off of a Final Four appearance and are returning several key contributors from that team.
This week, the guys are pointing out what they believe will be the biggest improvement the team will make from last year to this year. We’re going a level deeper than just “they will win more games” however — What aspect of the game will the Buckeyes show improvement at, that would then (hopefully) lead to more wins?
This week’s question: What will be the biggest area of improvement for Ohio State this season?
Connor: More (and better) three-point shooting
Believe it or not, Ohio State was not very reliant on the three-ball last season.
The Buckeyes got 30.4% of their points from beyond the arc last season, which was 213th in the country and 11th in the Big Ten. They also took 22.5 three-point attempts per game, which was 11th in the Big Ten.
It really shouldn’t come as that big of a surprise — outside of John Mobley Jr., Ohio State didn’t really have anyone on the team who was a shoot-first, “let it rip from deep” type of guy. Mobley led the team with 236 three-point tries last year, and Bruce Thornton was second with 155 three-point attempts.
There wasn’t another player on the team who attempted at least 100 three-pointers last year, which shows that, as a whole, Ohio State just didn’t rely on that as the biggest part of its offense.
I do believe that will tick up this season, and — paired with hitting a higher percentage of threes — the Buckeyes will score more points per game because of it.
We’re removing Thornton from the equation because he is off playing with Kevin Durant in Houston now, but Ohio State plugs Anthony Thompson into the equation, who will in all likelihood surpass Thornton’s 155 three-point attempts this year.
That high, left-handed jump shot is his best weapon and I think we will see Thompson take a good amount of three-pointers and shoot somewhere between 35-40% during his lone season of college ball.
Ohio State is also adding Justin Pippen to the starting lineup. Pippen was not efficient at Cal, shooting 40.7% from two-point range and 32.7% from three-point range. He took 5.2 three-point attempts per game, which was more that anybody on Ohio State’s team last year not named John Mobley.
The Ohio State coaching staff is hoping that Pippen can improve on that efficiency a bit and shoot closer to 35%, but he’s another guy who lets it fly fairly regularly.
I also think surrounding bench guys like Alex Smith, Curtis Givens, and Jimmie Williams will come off the bench ready to shoot, especially Williams, who shot the lights out during Ohio State’s trip to Puerto Rico this summer.
On top of all that, Ohio State doesn’t really have a post player that they’ll be running offense through. Sure, they’ll take plenty of shots inside the three-point arc as a team, but there’s not a reliable presence at center, which could force the ball out a bit more than we saw last year.
Justin: Guard Defense
Last season, the Buckeyes started Bruce Thornton and John Mobley Jr. as the two starting guards. While those two were an elite scoring duo, they left a good amount to be desired on the defensive end of the ball.
Also, what did not help was the bench guard depth being Gabe Cupps and Taison Chatman. Cupps was a good defender but struggled on the offensive side of the ball, and Chatman was just not a great defender.
Now, the team loses Thornton as a scorer, but the guards they are bringing in are solid on offense and will bring in a lot more on the defensive side.
Justin Pippen is the new point guard and is one of the best defensive guards in the conference. He is an elite on-ball defender and is the best defensive guard the Buckeyes have had since Luther Muhammed.
Also, Jimmie Williams is the first guard off the bench, and he is a great defender as well. There will be a lot of times that Pippen and Williams share the court and that will be a defensive backcourt the Buckeyes have not had in a long time.
