The Ohio State Buckeyes look to follow up a tough neutral-site loss to BYU with a win against Youngstown State in the Buckeyes home opener. 

Ohio State started the season with a 94-83 loss against BYU on Monday. This is the first time in 23 years that the Buckeyes will not start the college basketball season 1-0. The Buckeyes once again saw their worst nightmares come alive as they blew a first-half lead in the second half, allowing BYU to shoot 60% from the field and 50% from three. 

“We had a great game plan going in, executed well,” Diebler said. “They made some changes, we made some changes, they made some more changes… and we just didn’t quite make that next adjustment well enough or quick enough. That’s part of learning and growing. We got to get better at it because we know with our schedule, we got to be able to do that.”

Jake Diebler and his team look to bounce back at the Schott as the Buckeyes host in-state foe Youngstown State in a Friday night buy-game. 

Opponent Overview

Youngstown State comes into the contest at 1-0 after an upset road win at St. Bonaventure. The Penguins were led by Swedish sharpshooter Linus Holmstrom, who transferred to Youngstown State via Virginia Military Institute (AKA VMI). Holmstrom scored 26 points against the Bonnies on 8-16 shooting and 6-13 from downtown.

Holmstrom is joined by Oklahoma transfer Jeff Nwankwo, a former JUCO All-American standout who played 24 games last season for the Sooners, averaging a little under three points per game. 

Holding down the front court for the Penguins is Indianapolis University transfer Kelvin Amoako, who averaged 10 points per game and 7 rebounds last season for Uindy. In an exhibition against Purdue, Amoako scored 5 points and grabbed 7 rebounds, so this will not be the first time he’s faced Big Ten competition. 

Keys to Victory

The Buckeyes need to get off to a hot start; against BYU, the first half was their best. A’mare Bynum and Juni Mobley looked like the dynamic duo that we have hoped for all offseason. If Ohio State can start the game with a huge run, that will be monumental in protecting a second-half lead. 

Anthony Thompson looked shell-shocked Monday night in his first career college contest. If he can get his feet settled in and in front of the home Buckeye crowd, it could bring him much-needed confidence going into a matchup against UConn next week. 

Diebler wants his team to utilize its size a lot better on Friday than on Monday’s matchup.

“We need to utilize our size and length better… we need to be more disruptive,” Diebler said..” Overall, it was probably most disappointing in that we didn’t get enough deflections, we didn’t get enough steals… Our size is an advantage—we’re bigger at really every position than we’ve been in the past, and we got to use it more.”

The referees on Monday were foul-call happy, but discipline needs to be at an all-time high against a Youngstown State team that is a good free-throw shooter. The Buckeyes had their best two guards foul out with a little over four minutes to go in a game where they were fighting to come back. If Ohio State can stay under 15 team fouls throughout the game, that will be a good sign for the discipline side of the ball. 

If the Buckeyes can build a big lead, it would be great to see what LJ Smith and Lee Aaylia can contribute in the minutes they get. The goal should be to see growth in the young talent and to build chemistry for the future. 

Round-up

The Buckeyes should be able to handle a Penguins team that is coming off a huge program win against St. Bonaventure. But they shouldn’t overlook them. IU-Indy gave Ohio State trouble in the home opener last season, but the Buckeyes were able to put away the game in the end. 

AJ’s Score Prediction: 85-60 Ohio State 

The Silver Bulletin will be live from Schottenstein Arena for the Buckeyes’ home opener against Youngstown State. Follow The Silver Bulletin on all social media for live game updates.