After three seasons of missing out, the Ohio State men’s basketball team has officially made its way back to the NCAA Tournament. Jake Diebler’s second Ohio State team finished the season 21-12 overall, the most regular season wins the program has had since the 2020-21 season.
For the first time in a few years, Ohio State fans were locked in on Selection Sunday knowing for a fact that their team was going to be included in the bracket. Their patience was rewarded, as the Buckeyes were announced as a 8-seed
in the East region during the Selection Show on Sunday night. Their opponent will be 9-seed TCU on Thursday.
The Horned Frogs went 22-11 overall this past season, going 11-7 in the Big 12. They had big wins over Kansas and Wisconsin in the non-conference, and also knocked off Iowa State during Big 12 play. Coached by Jamie Dixon, TCU is led by sophomore forward David Punch, who averaged 14.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. As a team, TCU finished 22nd in defensive efficiency on KenPom, holding teams to 97.8 points per 100 possessions.
After finishing 17-15 overall last season and finishing as one of the first four teams left out of the NCAA Tournament, Diebler and his staff worked hard to retain core pieces of the team – mainly Devin Royal, John Mobley Jr., and the program’s all-time leading scorer, Bruce Thornton. They supplemented that core by adding former Santa Clara center Christoph Tilly in the transfer portal last summer, giving Ohio State not just a 7-footer in the paint, but one that can read the floor, playmake, and switch on defense.
The Buckeyes lost back-to-back games to end the month of February, bringing their record in the Big Ten to 9-8 and putting Ohio State’s NCAA Tournament hopes on life support. However, powered by Thornton, Mobley, and a late-season surge from freshman A’mare Bynum, Ohio State won four straight games to start the month of March, including home wins over No. 8 Purdue and Indiana. That late-season surge pushed Ohio State clear off the bubble, leaving little doubt that Diebler’s Buckeyes would be dancing for the first time since 2022.
