Ohio State Basketball couldn’t start the season 1-0 for the first time in 23 years after a forgettable second-half collapse in Salt Lake City.

The Buckeyes lost Monday to the BYU Cougars in Salt Lake City, 94-83. A’mare Bynum led the Buckeyes with 20 points, but it wasn’t enough to pull off a season-opening win as the Cougars pulled away late. 

Ohio State led after 20 minutes and was looking great, but a problem they have struggled with the past few seasons came back to haunt them: closing a second-half lead. 60 second-half points helped secure a 1-0 start for BYU, while Ohio State only scored 46, which would usually go down as a good half, but against a talented BYU team, it was not enough. 

Here are some key takeaways from Ohio State’s 94-83 loss to BYU

Anthony Thompson Did Not Shine 

Anthony Thompson was one of the most talked-about recruits the Buckeyes have had since D’Angelo Russell. But in his first career game, he couldn’t get a shot through the net. Thompson went 0-for-5 from the field and 0-for-4 from three. However, he made two free throws for his first points as a Buckeye but did little else offensively. 

Coach Diebler had promising words after the contest about Thompson and how he can gain confidence for the future.

“It’s a consistency thing for him,” Diebler said. “We see what he’s capable of in practice quite frequently. And I think we’re just kind of waiting for that breakout game in front of fans.” 

Another thought could be to bring him off the bench, as they did for A’mare Bynum last season. Jeff Gilbert asked Coach Diebler that exact question in the postgame presser, and this was his response. 

“I think we felt really good about that lineup. We feel really good about our ability to kind of manipulate the first seven to eight minutes with substitutions… When he’s out there, he provides space, but we’ve also got a lot of guys who rely on the scoring when he’s out there, too. And, you know, we try to run some action for him later in the game to get him going. And I think he’ll continue to blossom in that role.”

Another Second Half Collapse 

Last season and years before, the story was the inability to close out key contests in the second half. The Buckeyes were up 37-34 at halftime, before a 60-49 second half by BYU. Robert Wright finished with 33 points on 10-16 shooting; as a team, BYU shot 40% in the first half, while Ohio State shot 52%.

In the second half, the Buckeyes shot 42% while BYU shot 64% and 63% from three. Ohio State led in almost every statistical category besides field goal percentage and points off turnovers. The response is always that they must be better in clutch moments, but it has haunted the Buckeyes and cost them multiple huge potential wins that could have changed last season’s outlook and could do the same this season. 

Not The Same Ohio State Buckeyes 

The 2026 Buckeyes are not the same team that they were last season. The offense looked much faster, and the number of different scorers on the team has already proven key this season. Depth was a key issue last season; the bench was terrible, to say the least.

If you told fans the Buckeyes had 22 bench points in a single game last year, they might have fainted from shock and happiness. The ability to bring a guy off the bench and know they can get to the basket to make a play proves that the team is nowhere near the same as they were in the past. 

John Mobley Jr. looked like a completely different player; someone needed to take on the role of distributing the basketball from the top of the key, and after the first game, Mobley looks to potentially be that guy.  Justin Pippen looked like the true 3&D guard that Coach Diebler and the staff have been looking for; a key problem against BYU was that both Mobley and Pippen fouled out and battled foul trouble throughout the game. 

This Buckeye team has a lot to look forward to, but there are still small fixes needed to ensure this isn’t the same season as years before. This may be the most talented Buckeye team in the past five seasons, and losing game one does not mean this season is a throwaway. 

The next few weeks will prove a lot about this season’s outlook, with a road matchup against UConn as the next marquee game.