Welcome back to college basketball season, folks. If you’re reading this, we’re only three days away from the Ohio State men’s basketball team opening the season against No. 25 BYU in a “neutral site” game in Salt Lake City. In reality, Ohio State is playing a road game that will count as a neutral site game on their resume, because Brigham Young University is only 40 miles away from Salt Lake City.
Cougar fans will be aplenty on Monday night at the Delta Center. Buckeye fans, probably not so much.
Even though Halloween is this week, Connor and Justin did a spooky-themed You’re Nuts article last week, knowing that this week would be BYU-focused. The theme was trick or treat — Connor gave one “trick” for the team this season, and Justin gave one “treat.” The trick was meant to be something that goes wrong for Ohio State this season that perhaps we did not foresee, and the treat was supposed to be a pleasant surprise, or someone performing at a higher level than we expected.
Connor said that the trick would be that, despite getting bigger overall this season, Ohio State’s rebounding doesn’t get any better than last year. Last season, Ohio State was pretty much middle of the pack in the Big Ten when it came to rebounding.
Justin said that the treat would be Anthony Thompson playing so well this season that he is named All-Big Ten First Team at the conclusion of the season. Thompson, a five-star recruit and former McDonald’s All-American, was voted All-Big Ten Honorable Mention by both the Columbus Dispatch’s Preseason Big Ten Poll and the SB Nation Preseason Big Ten Poll.
Ohio State’s schedule is full of whoppers, starting with two road games against ranked teams in the first four games of the year. The first challenge comes Monday on the road against BYU. The Cougars have a ton of new faces on the roster this season, but Ohio State fans will be familiar with names like Rob Wright and Jaxon Kohler.
A win over a ranked team to start the season would be a huge resume-builder that will prop the Buckeyes up come March. Who do we think will be the leading scorer Monday night in Salt Lake City?
This week’s question: Who will lead Ohio State in scoring against BYU on Monday?
Connor: Amare Bynum
Ohio State’s best player through the fall and in the three preseason games has not been John Mobley Jr. or Anthony Thompson; it’s been sophomore big man Amare Bynum. He’s going to have an opportunity on Monday night to start the season strong against a BYU team that has not been great defensively the past two seasons, and has struggled even more to limit teams from getting high-percentage looks near the basket.
Last season, BYU finished the year at No. 59 in defensive efficiency, according to KenPom. The year before that, they were 82. Last year, BYU was 109th in the country in average two-point field goal distance, which measures (on average) how close opposing offenses are getting to the basket when they take two-point field goals.
Basically, are teams finding it easy to get the ball right under the basket against you, or are you forcing teams to settle for jumpers and some tougher two-point shots? As stated above, BYU was No. 109 in that last year, which was ninth in the 16-team Big 12.
Amare Bynum has been working on his three-point shot, but what makes him great — and what looked so good against Butler — is his ability to get to the basket. Once he’s there, especially if it’s on a cut or in transition, he’s nearly impossible to stop.
Bynum scored 23 points against Butler last weekend in Ohio State’s final preseason game in 31 minutes on 7-for-10 shooting. He was a perfect 7-for-7 on free throws, grabbed six rebounds, blocked one shot, and had a steal. He had multiple transition dunks where Ohio State got the ball to him off a Butler miss, and once the 245-pound sophomore got a head full of steam going towards the basket, there was nothing Butler could do to stop him.
Speaking with Jackson Payne of the Deseret News on Thursday on the Land-Grant Podcast Network’s Bucketheads Podcast, he said that rim protection could be BYU’s biggest weakness on defense this season.
“It’s going to be tough, because if you can put pressure on the rim against BYU, good things are going to happen because as good as Jaxon Kohler is, he’s not a great rim protector, and BYU doesn’t have a true rim protector who can kind of keep the lid on the basket around the rim. So if you can get into the paint against BYU, good things could happen.”
John Mobley Jr. has not practiced since twisting his ankle over the weekend against Butler. Anthony Thompson scored a combined seven points in the preseason games against Cincinnati and Butler, and just hasn’t looked super comfortable out there so far. Justin Pippen was 1-for-7 shooting against Butler, while Bynum was 7-for-10. I think this game has Bynum’s name written all over it.
Justin: Anthony Thompson
Sometimes, when the lights turn on, the stars start to shine. I have no idea if that is an actual saying or not, but I think it will be pertinent on Monday night in Salt Lake City.
Anthony Thompson is the highest-ranked recruit to come to Ohio State since Jared Sullinger and the fourth highest-ranked since 2000 (Sullinger, BJ Mullins, Thompson).
He hasn’t played great in the two exhibitions, but one of them was outside, and neither of them counted, so I really don’t care. I care how he plays in the games that matter for the record books.
Also, we have heard he scored over 15 points against Louisville in the secret scrimmage, and that is a top-ten team in the country. So, that is something to take note of when criticizing his offseason.
Thompson will be going head-to-head with Bruce Branch III, so he will be motivated to play his best against another one of the top freshmen in the country.
He is an elite shooter and can score at all three levels. He is going to be one of the best players on the floor, and I am predicting a 22-point effort in his debut. 20 for Bynum and 19 for Mobley. 14 for Pippen.
