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Ohio State Basketball: Buckeyes Season Review

By Bryce Bennett

Feb 28, 2016; Columbus, OH, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes center Daniel Giddens (4) and guard JaQuan Lyle (13) congratulate forward Keita Bates-Diop (33) after he blocked an Iowa Hawkeyes shot that would have tied the game at Value City Arena. Ohio State won the game 68-64. Mandatory Credit: Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 28, 2016; Columbus, OH, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes center Daniel Giddens (4) and guard JaQuan Lyle (13) congratulate forward Keita Bates-Diop (33) after he blocked an Iowa Hawkeyes shot that would have tied the game at Value City Arena. Ohio State won the game 68-64. Mandatory Credit: Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports /
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Ohio State basketball missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007 – 08 season.

The Ohio State Buckeyes were one of the youngest teams in the country in 2016-17. Other than junior Marc Loving, Thad Matta typically trotted out lineups consisting of multiple freshmen and sophomores.

Related Story: Penn State Nittany Lions season review

Some of these players began to develop and show some true talent (sophomores Jae’Sean Tate and Keita Bates-Diop come to mind), but mostly Ohio State was frustrating, inconsistent and occasionally brilliant.

Let’s take a closer look at their season.

2015-16 Season

Overall Record: 21 – 14

Conference Record: 11 – 7 (8th out of 14 teams)

Postseason: Second round NIT loss to Florida (74 – 66).

Individual Awards: All-Team Big Ten Honorable Mention: sophomore Jae’Sean Tate, sophomore Keita Bates-Diop and junior Marc Loving.

Worst Loss: November 25th – home vs. Louisiana Tech (82 – 74).

The pains of an inexperienced team.

Louisiana Tech proved to be pretty good (23-10, 12-6 in CUSA), but this loss, along with one to UT-Arlington just days before was a shocking and disappointing development during OSU’s non-conference slate. LA-Tech used senior guard Alex Hamilton’s 24 points and some timely errors from the Buckeyes to pull off the defeat in Columbus.

The loss here pushed Ohio State to 2-2 on the season and indicated that the re-building project would have some growing pains.

Best Win: Saturday December 19th vs. #4 Kentucky (74 – 67) (neutral court)

At the time, this was as shocking of a win as any in college basketball.

Kentucky was still riding on a wave from their incredible run a season before and looked to be the heavy favorite against the Buckeyes, who were 5-5. The game offered a glimpse into the potential of the young Buckeyes. Diop was particularly impressive with 14 points on 40% shooting from deep, five rebounds and five blocks.

The majority of the game was dominated by Ohio State. The Buckeyes led by as many as 16 points before hanging on during a furious Wildcat rally towards the end of the game. This, along with a top-ten win over Iowa later in the season, has to give Buckeye fans hope about the development of some of the underclassmen.

Final 2015-16 Grade: C+

2016 – 17 Offseason Question: Can the Buckeyes return to the tournament in 2016-17?

As mentioned, there was good and bad from Ohio State this season. For example, they managed to win 11 games in conference and still climbed over the 20-win plateau. However, most of these wins were against the bottom-half of the conference and the Buckeyes struggled against the upper half of the conference, especially on the road.

Can they make the jump into a top-5 Big Ten team next winter?

The offseason did not get off to a great start with the transfer of three players, including a slew of players who were ranked in the top-100 according to Rivals 2015 player rankings.

Questions have begun to arise about the state of the program.

I think these are a little overblown. Ohio State has definitely lost some talent, but reloads next season with a top-60 four-star center, and should see continued improvement from players like Diop, Loving, Tate and sophomore guard JaQuan Lyle.

Next: 10 best National Championship finishes in history

Thad Matta isn’t known as a coach who plays a deep bench, so most of the transfers are probably an indication of future playing time, not a systemic problem with the program. So in that case, expect the Buckeyes to improve next season and be firmly on the bubble.

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