This team could really be exciting, and they will play up tempo which will be a breath of fresh air from the Holtman era. Looking forward to the season for the first time in a while
I agree with the grades listed above, mostly because there's so many unknowns. The 3 keys to the season for me are 1 - STAY HEALTHY ESPECIALLY GUARDS, 2 - Continue to play better defense (which they did the second Holtmann got fired), and 3 - Who's gonna replace Jamison Battle?
After Roddy Gayle's comments about "being taught to hate Michigan and not even knowing why" it hit home again how SAWFT the Holtmann culture was. I was sad to see Felix and Scotty leave, but I think we upgraded with who we brought in (player wise and ESPECIALLY coaching staff wise)
There might be a shot for this team to be a darkhorse B1G contender, but really my "standard" for this season is for this team to be good enough to earn a 6-seed in the NCAA Tournament...it's a sweet spot of realistic expectations but also avoiding the 1 and 2 seeds gives you a legit shot at the second weekend. I expect Diebler to take the program higher than this, but for Year 1 this is kind of what my expectations are.
You can never live a lie and die a legend - Cal Scruby
Battle was amazing and really didn’t bring anybody close to him as a shooter to help replace him. Going to need the whole team to step up and improve to replace him. Losing Middleton also makes us having to replace our two best 3 pt shooters from last years team.
I’ll be super interested to see how Scotty Middleton career plays out. He was playing incredible basketball for diebler and shooting the leather out of the basketball. He was known as a solid shooter but not an amazing one in high school. Be interesting to see if it was dieblers offense that made him look so good or if he’s just a really good shooter now as he’s definitely an nba player of he continues that shooting and his ball handling develops.
I’ve said in the Basketball Forum threads that last year no one expected Jamison Battle to be what he became. Last year was his best shooting performance by a lot. Credit to him and the coaches who helped him take that step. That means we have no idea whether someone like Bruce or Meechie, or both, might take a similar step in accuracy and efficiency. It is an obvious question about who will take and make shots on this team. But my guess is our two experienced guards will be the likely suspects. I like the experience of these two guys
Gayle said that? Wow, I was so excited for that team’s future after last year’s B1G tourney, but it turns out the heart wasn’t there. Diebler’s teams will have the heart, at least.
I am a little concerned about starting Bruce and Meechie together for defensive purposes. I like a lineup with Bruce, Parrish, Stewart, Royal, and Bradshaw but the shooting would probably be terrible, so Meechie may need to start. I like the idea of Mobley getting good rotational minutes to be the team's sharpshooter. Overall, though, this roster seems to be missing some pieces still, but I have a lot more confidence in Diebler than I do Holtmann.
I've been sipping the Diebler tea for a few months, so if I say a guy like Bruce Thornton gets absolutely disrespected by national pundits, take it with a grain of salt. Any guard that goes into the portal is given automatic hype these days. A guy like Thornton that stays put is automatically suspect in these portal days. But Jon Rothstein has Thornton and Purdues Braden Smith as first team all conference. Even more fuel for a delusional bball observer that I am, Rothstein picks Ohio State 4th in his preseason B1G power rankings.
Gonna have to grade higher than this reporters view of the now completed roster to finish 4th in the conference imho
Roster has a ton of flexibility but overall this is a C+ roster. I think the sweet spot would be 12 thru 8 in the Big Ten. Outside shooting is still a glaring issue. What's exciting is Bradshaw can be the best center in the conference if healthy.
Geezus, tough grading system. What do you have to do to get an A at forward? If Aaron Bradshaw and Sean Stewart aren't an A at forward, don't know what is.
I hear you, and they could certainly reach an A even within the first month of the season for me. But neither guy played a ton last year – particularly not Stewart – and there's still a lot for them to prove on the court.
Just an Aspie skiing on these words like it's Asp(i)en
Really? I mean I think its better to look at past performance than past potential. Their numbers in year 1 were not reflective of their potential based on HS rankings. Stewart was behind a couple of guys with more experience, but there wasn't much competition off the bench in the front court and Scheyer decided to play small instead of playing Stewart much.
Bradshaw did have an injury setback, but appeared to play pretty decent early on before falling back a bit and losing minutes to where he barely played the last 10 games of the year. He was also competing with some high quality bigs, but they beat him out.
In reality, its difficult to say exactly how good these 2 guys are. Bradshaw has had questions raised about his motor and effort and despite his size/athleticism/skill set, wasn't a big scorer in HS (like 12 ppg iirc). Stewart as well wasn't a consistent scorer in HS, but did occasionally put up some really big numbers. I think these guys will be solid, but suggesting they are an A based on last years results, is pretty optimistic.
No major issues with the guard and forward/center grading and explanations for both.
I think C+ is a bit harsh for the Wing, especially from a defensive perspective. You can poke a lot of holes in the Holtmann era, but the aspect that really led to the Feb 14th firing (most likely overdue) was the defensive efficiency, or lack there of, on this team. It started trending downwards, somewhat inexplicably, 4 seasons ago, and never recovered until Diebler took over. So this program needs an injection of defense.
Parrish was on the All Defensive Team as a Sophomore at Oakland and then played for one of the best defensive programs in the country. I also think there is some meat on the bone for him to improve on offense. As good as SDSU is on defense, their offensive system and efficiently is pretty lacking, and the Mountain West was actually a better defensive conference, on paper, than the Big 10 last year. If you look at his offensive production and efficiency at Oakland in his first two seasons, they were not far off prized transfer Trey Townshend (chose Zona over us and Sparty).
I have less optimism for Mahaffey's offense, but he is a super versatile defender with a great wingspan. White is kind of the wild card 3rd wing. But given how much about defense is effort and knowing how that kid is wired, I think he will hold his own on that end in likely limited mins.
I just look at that group as an A/A- on defense with a C/C- on offense (but a chance to bump up especially with Parrish), so I would give them a B overall.
This has the potential to be an A roster which I don’t think can be said since sullinger was wearing a buckeye jersey. We have great guards decent depth, the catalyst to me is and I’ve beat this opinion like a dead horse is if 2 of bradshaw, Royal and Stewart are good then this team is going to be a tough team to game plan for and play and does have a legit shot to win the big ten
It’s very tough to grade this roster now because so many rotational players are unknown quantities. The B+ for guards is probably fair because of the inexperienced depth and the lack of height. As Bsk noted, the wing grade is a touch harsh because it seems to discount defense and rebounding. I would give that group a bump to B-. I would change “forward” to “front court” because we don’t what positions people will play or where those positions will be stationed on the court. That group has the potential to be an A+. It could also be a disappointing C-. So a B seems fair for now. But everything is so premature. It is a flawed roster but there are lots of reasons for hope
What is the status with Ivan right now, is he still in Croatia or has he moved into the US? I know that some players have had paperwork issues in getting approvals to move to the US to study /play. If he is not currently in the US when does he plan on arriving?
Ques Glover is in Columbus with the Ohio State Buckeyes and Ivan Njegovan will join the team in late August when the team resumes practice. The 2024-25 roster is complete.
— The Ohio State Hoops Insider (@OSUHoopsInsider) July 30, 2024
IMHO, you have to do some projection with the grading, and I'd easily move wing a full grade higher - a B+, with what I expect from both Parrish and Royal. I'm a buyer in believing Parrish will have the special season he's set as a goal, and that Royal will be a problem in the paint. I think it's safe to say that C and G are bedrock in establishing what a team is, but then after that PF and wing/SF elevate a team to elite status. A dynamic wing/SF that simply relentlessly punishes you, and a PF who simply cannot be ignored make a team complete, and I'm projecting the talent is present to approach that. So B grade is fine for forward, but wing/SF gets a B+ from me.
And somewhere CHB smiles, knowingly...while echoes of "we got him now' ring in their ears... It was always about PoR. Those poor useful idiots...
This Buckeye team has a lot of potential and yet I don’t know how they’ll be as a team.
While waiting for the offense to come together, I do hope that they will do 3 things well: defending, rebounding and taking care of the pumpkin. Shooting well from the line would be a fourth.
Our honor defend, we'll fight to the end !
"it's not magic, it's fundamentals" that lead to Ohio State's success. - Ryan Day
Haven't been this excited for hoops since Jake's brother was here! What was his name again? Crazy Ivan from Croatia has a nice shot for a big from beyond the arch. I hope the shot blocking ability translates to Big Ten play. And, OSU bigs hit the weight room. Bulk up.
Solid guard play wins titles and OSU has TWO very athletic and experienced guards this year. I like our chances to make a serious run at the BIG 10 title...........O-H............!!
Solid guard play wins titles and OSU has TWO very athletic and experienced guards this year. I like our chances to make a serious run at the BIG 10 title...........O-H............!!
Important Position #1 Guards: Pretty good shape here but having Chatman would have been nice I think the most Solid Group on this team.
Important Position #2 Post 4's & 5's: I think the 4 position is decently solid with Royal and we will see how good Stewart can get??? A lot hinges on him being a big part of the offense. Bradshaw is also a Question Mark at the 5 if he can average double digits and be a force on defense it will be good, IMHO he is a notch or 2 above Okpara in ability. How much will Ivan Njegovan actually participate? A lot of questions at the 4-5 positions.
I am most interested in watching exactly what type of system he installs. Even with just 1/3-1/4 of the past season running the team you could see the change in style. Does he take it a few more degrees past what we saw at the end of last year or was the end of the lat year what we will see full time ( of course adjusting for a different roster).
I am hoping for an even faster tempo of play, being able to effectively change defenses. The days of the weave and dribble hand offs 30 feet out should be in the rear view mirror.
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Just a question, why is this article in the football section?
Because shockingly some of us care about basketball and there is actual basketball news to be reported on
Some of us actually care more about basketball than football, though we are few and far between lol
You can never live a lie and die a legend - Cal Scruby
This was user error on my part clicking football instead of basketball in the back end. Fixed now
Just an Aspie skiing on these words like it's Asp(i)en
This team could really be exciting, and they will play up tempo which will be a breath of fresh air from the Holtman era. Looking forward to the season for the first time in a while
I agree with the grades listed above, mostly because there's so many unknowns. The 3 keys to the season for me are 1 - STAY HEALTHY ESPECIALLY GUARDS, 2 - Continue to play better defense (which they did the second Holtmann got fired), and 3 - Who's gonna replace Jamison Battle?
After Roddy Gayle's comments about "being taught to hate Michigan and not even knowing why" it hit home again how SAWFT the Holtmann culture was. I was sad to see Felix and Scotty leave, but I think we upgraded with who we brought in (player wise and ESPECIALLY coaching staff wise)
There might be a shot for this team to be a darkhorse B1G contender, but really my "standard" for this season is for this team to be good enough to earn a 6-seed in the NCAA Tournament...it's a sweet spot of realistic expectations but also avoiding the 1 and 2 seeds gives you a legit shot at the second weekend. I expect Diebler to take the program higher than this, but for Year 1 this is kind of what my expectations are.
You can never live a lie and die a legend - Cal Scruby
Battle was amazing and really didn’t bring anybody close to him as a shooter to help replace him. Going to need the whole team to step up and improve to replace him. Losing Middleton also makes us having to replace our two best 3 pt shooters from last years team.
I’ll be super interested to see how Scotty Middleton career plays out. He was playing incredible basketball for diebler and shooting the leather out of the basketball. He was known as a solid shooter but not an amazing one in high school. Be interesting to see if it was dieblers offense that made him look so good or if he’s just a really good shooter now as he’s definitely an nba player of he continues that shooting and his ball handling develops.
I’ve said in the Basketball Forum threads that last year no one expected Jamison Battle to be what he became. Last year was his best shooting performance by a lot. Credit to him and the coaches who helped him take that step. That means we have no idea whether someone like Bruce or Meechie, or both, might take a similar step in accuracy and efficiency. It is an obvious question about who will take and make shots on this team. But my guess is our two experienced guards will be the likely suspects. I like the experience of these two guys
Gayle said that? Wow, I was so excited for that team’s future after last year’s B1G tourney, but it turns out the heart wasn’t there. Diebler’s teams will have the heart, at least.
I am a little concerned about starting Bruce and Meechie together for defensive purposes. I like a lineup with Bruce, Parrish, Stewart, Royal, and Bradshaw but the shooting would probably be terrible, so Meechie may need to start. I like the idea of Mobley getting good rotational minutes to be the team's sharpshooter. Overall, though, this roster seems to be missing some pieces still, but I have a lot more confidence in Diebler than I do Holtmann.
This is definitely where I parked my car.
I've been sipping the Diebler tea for a few months, so if I say a guy like Bruce Thornton gets absolutely disrespected by national pundits, take it with a grain of salt. Any guard that goes into the portal is given automatic hype these days. A guy like Thornton that stays put is automatically suspect in these portal days. But Jon Rothstein has Thornton and Purdues Braden Smith as first team all conference. Even more fuel for a delusional bball observer that I am, Rothstein picks Ohio State 4th in his preseason B1G power rankings.
Gonna have to grade higher than this reporters view of the now completed roster to finish 4th in the conference imho
Roster has a ton of flexibility but overall this is a C+ roster. I think the sweet spot would be 12 thru 8 in the Big Ten. Outside shooting is still a glaring issue. What's exciting is Bradshaw can be the best center in the conference if healthy.
C+ with the two 7+ footers might feel a tad shy. I will agree there are unknowns but that isn’t a negative it is unknown.
cautiously lean more to a B-
C+ was for Wing & having seen the wings play a lot, I would give it a C-. Definitely the weakest link & could cost this team down the road.
Geezus, tough grading system. What do you have to do to get an A at forward? If Aaron Bradshaw and Sean Stewart aren't an A at forward, don't know what is.
I hear you, and they could certainly reach an A even within the first month of the season for me. But neither guy played a ton last year – particularly not Stewart – and there's still a lot for them to prove on the court.
Just an Aspie skiing on these words like it's Asp(i)en
Really? I mean I think its better to look at past performance than past potential. Their numbers in year 1 were not reflective of their potential based on HS rankings. Stewart was behind a couple of guys with more experience, but there wasn't much competition off the bench in the front court and Scheyer decided to play small instead of playing Stewart much.
Bradshaw did have an injury setback, but appeared to play pretty decent early on before falling back a bit and losing minutes to where he barely played the last 10 games of the year. He was also competing with some high quality bigs, but they beat him out.
In reality, its difficult to say exactly how good these 2 guys are. Bradshaw has had questions raised about his motor and effort and despite his size/athleticism/skill set, wasn't a big scorer in HS (like 12 ppg iirc). Stewart as well wasn't a consistent scorer in HS, but did occasionally put up some really big numbers. I think these guys will be solid, but suggesting they are an A based on last years results, is pretty optimistic.
Holtmann got an "excellent" review for finishing 13th out of 14 teams in the Big 10. Thanks, Gene Smith.
No major issues with the guard and forward/center grading and explanations for both.
I think C+ is a bit harsh for the Wing, especially from a defensive perspective. You can poke a lot of holes in the Holtmann era, but the aspect that really led to the Feb 14th firing (most likely overdue) was the defensive efficiency, or lack there of, on this team. It started trending downwards, somewhat inexplicably, 4 seasons ago, and never recovered until Diebler took over. So this program needs an injection of defense.
Parrish was on the All Defensive Team as a Sophomore at Oakland and then played for one of the best defensive programs in the country. I also think there is some meat on the bone for him to improve on offense. As good as SDSU is on defense, their offensive system and efficiently is pretty lacking, and the Mountain West was actually a better defensive conference, on paper, than the Big 10 last year. If you look at his offensive production and efficiency at Oakland in his first two seasons, they were not far off prized transfer Trey Townshend (chose Zona over us and Sparty).
I have less optimism for Mahaffey's offense, but he is a super versatile defender with a great wingspan. White is kind of the wild card 3rd wing. But given how much about defense is effort and knowing how that kid is wired, I think he will hold his own on that end in likely limited mins.
I just look at that group as an A/A- on defense with a C/C- on offense (but a chance to bump up especially with Parrish), so I would give them a B overall.
I play, coach stays. He goes, I go.
This has the potential to be an A roster which I don’t think can be said since sullinger was wearing a buckeye jersey. We have great guards decent depth, the catalyst to me is and I’ve beat this opinion like a dead horse is if 2 of bradshaw, Royal and Stewart are good then this team is going to be a tough team to game plan for and play and does have a legit shot to win the big ten
+1 Guap for always being optimistic.
It’s very tough to grade this roster now because so many rotational players are unknown quantities. The B+ for guards is probably fair because of the inexperienced depth and the lack of height. As Bsk noted, the wing grade is a touch harsh because it seems to discount defense and rebounding. I would give that group a bump to B-. I would change “forward” to “front court” because we don’t what positions people will play or where those positions will be stationed on the court. That group has the potential to be an A+. It could also be a disappointing C-. So a B seems fair for now. But everything is so premature. It is a flawed roster but there are lots of reasons for hope
What is the status with Ivan right now, is he still in Croatia or has he moved into the US? I know that some players have had paperwork issues in getting approvals to move to the US to study /play. If he is not currently in the US when does he plan on arriving?
IMHO, you have to do some projection with the grading, and I'd easily move wing a full grade higher - a B+, with what I expect from both Parrish and Royal. I'm a buyer in believing Parrish will have the special season he's set as a goal, and that Royal will be a problem in the paint. I think it's safe to say that C and G are bedrock in establishing what a team is, but then after that PF and wing/SF elevate a team to elite status. A dynamic wing/SF that simply relentlessly punishes you, and a PF who simply cannot be ignored make a team complete, and I'm projecting the talent is present to approach that. So B grade is fine for forward, but wing/SF gets a B+ from me.
And somewhere CHB smiles, knowingly...while echoes of "we got him now' ring in their ears... It was always about PoR. Those poor useful idiots...
I don’t know how good they’ll be but I’m betting that they’ll be exciting to watch
This Buckeye team has a lot of potential and yet I don’t know how they’ll be as a team.
While waiting for the offense to come together, I do hope that they will do 3 things well: defending, rebounding and taking care of the pumpkin. Shooting well from the line would be a fourth.
Our honor defend, we'll fight to the end !
"it's not magic, it's fundamentals" that lead to Ohio State's success. - Ryan Day
Haven't been this excited for hoops since Jake's brother was here! What was his name again? Crazy Ivan from Croatia has a nice shot for a big from beyond the arch. I hope the shot blocking ability translates to Big Ten play. And, OSU bigs hit the weight room. Bulk up.
Jake's brother was Jon Diebler.........
Saban on a cart eating cold pizza
Solid guard play wins titles and OSU has TWO very athletic and experienced guards this year. I like our chances to make a serious run at the BIG 10 title...........O-H............!!
Saban on a cart eating cold pizza
Solid guard play wins titles and OSU has TWO very athletic and experienced guards this year. I like our chances to make a serious run at the BIG 10 title...........O-H............!!
Saban on a cart eating cold pizza
I think you have to look at:
I am most interested in watching exactly what type of system he installs. Even with just 1/3-1/4 of the past season running the team you could see the change in style. Does he take it a few more degrees past what we saw at the end of last year or was the end of the lat year what we will see full time ( of course adjusting for a different roster).
I am hoping for an even faster tempo of play, being able to effectively change defenses. The days of the weave and dribble hand offs 30 feet out should be in the rear view mirror.
This called all the big guys forwards. For sure someone is going to play center, probably Bradshaw.