The Ohio State University (OSU) was founded in 1870 as a land grant university under the Morrill Act of 1862’ as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. It opened its doors to 24 students in 1873 and graduated the first class (6 men) in 1878. First woman graduated 1879. Also in 1878, the Ohio legislature recognized an expanded scope for the university by changing its name to "the Ohio State University."
Today OSU has 1764 large city acres in Columbus, enrolls 60,046 (45,728 undergrad), a $7.9 B endowment, USN&WR No. 43 public school, WSJ No. 99
Famous alumni include 5 Nobel Laureates, 7 Pulitzer winners, US President/Civil War general Rutherford B. Hayes, US VP JD Vance, legendary 4x Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens, NFL HOF’rs Jim Parker, Lou Groza, Dante Lavelli, Bill Willis, Paul Warfield, Dick LeBeau, Cris Carter, Orlando Pace, 7 Heisman winners (Les Horvath ’44, Vic Janowicz ‘50, Hopalong Cassady’55, Archie Griffin (only 2x Heisman ’74, ’75), Eddie George ’95, Troy Smith 2006, Baseball HOF’er Frank Howard, former Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, ‘American Civil War’ trilogy author John Jakes, 1960’s folk singer Phil Ochs, Iams pet foods founder Paul F Iams, Shoney’s Restaurants founder Alex Schoenbaum, Rock & Roll deejay Alan Freed, Emmy award winning actress Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond), ‘Doug’ creator/animator Jim Jinkins, The Cars lead singer Ric Ocasek, Twenty One Pilots lead singer Tyler Joseph, 5 members of rock band OAR, country musician Dwight Yoakam, creator of Milton-Bradley’s The Game of Life Reuben Klamer, comedian Richard Lewis, NFL Films co-founder & NFL HOF member Ed Sabol, former ABC president Fred Silverman, HOF announcer Jack Buck, Kiplinger’s founder W.M. Kiplinger, US Congressman Jim Jordan, first African American Navy Pilot Jesse L. Brown, WWII MoH awardee, namesake for USS Scott - Robert R. Scott, Space Shuttle/Space Station astronaut Nancy Currie, Delco founder & Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center cofounder Charles Kettering, first African American NASA astronaut Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr., Teflon inventor Roy Plunkett, first solo human-powered circumnavigator of the Earth Erden Eruc, artist Roy Lichtenstein, notorious serial killer cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer
OSU Athletics: 32 NCAA championships: 11 swimming, 3 volleyball, 3 fencing, 3 gymnastics, 3 rowing, 2 golf, 2 ice hockey, basketball (1960), baseball, T&F, Wrestling, plus 59 non-NCAA titles: 34 synchronized swimming, 16 pistol, 9 football; 33 Olympic Gold medals, 28 Silver, 16 Bronze
Colors – Scarlet & Gray, Nickname – Buckeyes; fight songs ‘Across the Field’, ‘Buckeye Battle Cry’, Mascot – Brutus Buckeye
Basketball started 1898 (1765-1143, .607), 1960 National Champion, 4x Runner-up, 11 Final Four, 15 Elite Eight, 15 Sweet Sixteen, 35 NCAA appearances (last 2022), 22 Conf. titles, 5 conf tourn titles,10 Naismith Basketball HOF – John Havlicek, Neil Johnston, Jerry Lucas, Arnie Risen, Katie Smith, coaches Fred Taylor, Harold Olsen, Lynn St John, Gary Williams, Tara Vanderveer; 5 retired numbers: 5 - Havlicek, 11 – Lucas, 21 – Evan Turner, 22 – Jim Jackson, 35 – Gary Bradd, 11 Consensus AA’s, 3 National POY – Jerry Lucas 1961, 1962, Gary Bradds 1964, Evan Turner 2010, 6 Big Ten POY, 5 Big Ten COY; 56 NBA draft pks (26 1st rd , No. 1 overall pick Greg Oden, No. 2 overall Jerry Lucas, Evan Turner & D’Angelo Russell, 8 Current NBA players: Jamison Battle, Malaki Branham, Mike Conley, EJ Liddell, Micah Potter, Russell, Brice Sensabough, Jae’sean Tate
Winningest coaches: Thad Matta 337-123, .732, Fred Taylor 297-158, .652, Eldon Miller 174-120, .592
Current – Jake Diebler 1st yr, 1st head coach job (23-14, .621, 1 NIT)
Currently: 15-13 (7-10) W: No. 19 TX, Youngstown St, Evansville, Campbell, Green Bay, Rutgers, Valpo, No. 4 UK, IN St, Minn, No. 11 Purdue, Iowa, PSU, No. 18 MD, UW; L: No. 23 TX A&M, Pitt, MD, No. 2 Auburn, No. 18 MSU, No. 15 Oregon, No. 24 Wisc, Indiana, No. 18 Illinois, Nebraska, No. 20 Mich, Northwestern, UCLA
All-time: series is tied 3-3, last 79-73 OSU win in 1997 over a Henry Bibby team featuring Sr Gary Johnson, Jr’s Adam Spanich, Elias Ayuso, So Jarvis Turner and FR Jeff Trepagnier and Kevin Augustine
OSU NET 34, KenPom 33, SC NET 71, KenPom 60
OSU Scores: 78.2 ppg (+6.3), 46.5% FG, 36.9% 3FG, 8.0 3’s/g, 74.7% FT. Rebounds 34.4 pg (+0.0), Assists 12.9 pg, TOs 11.0 pg (+0.8), Steals 6.5 pg, Blks 3.7 pg
OSU Leaders:
Scoring: Bruce Thornton 17.3 ppg (50.8% FG, 43.7% 3FG, 83% FT), Devin Royal 13.3 ppg (51.9% FG, 27.1% 3FG, 77.9% FT), John Mobley 13.0 ppg (39.3% FG, 40% 3FG. 91.3% FT), Micah Parrish 12.4 ppg (43.3% FG, 34.6% 3FG, 79.5% FT), Meechie Johnson 9.1 ppg (35.6% FG, 35.7% 3FG, 50% FT)
Rebounding: Royal 7.0, Sean Stewart 5.9; Assists Thornton 4.3, Johnson 2.7; Steals – Thornton 1.1 Parrish 1.1, Johnson 1.1; Blks – Stewart 0.9, Evan Mahaffey 0.9
SC scores: 76.7 ppg (+2.4), 48.3% FG, 36.5% 3FG, 6.9 3’s/g, 73.2% FT; Rebs 31.4 pg (-1.3), Assists 15.3 pg, TOs 11.7 pg (+0.6), 14.7 ppg/TO, Steals 6.1, Blks 3.0
SC Leaders
Scoring: Claude 16.2 ppg (50.4% FG, 34.7% 3FG, 75.6% FT), Yates 13.4 (48.5% FG, 43.6% 3FG, 78.4% FT), Agbo 11.5 (40.2% FG, 38.3% 3FG, 84.3% FT), Saint 9.9 (45.3% FG, 31.5% 3FG, 63% FT), Agee 6.8 (52.4% FG, 35.9% 3FG, 74.4% FT), Cohen 6.7 (60.3% FG, 16.7% 3FG, 76.5% FT)
Rebounds: Saint 6.0, Agbo 4.3; Assists Claude 4.2, Saint 4.2; Steals Saint 1.3, Yates 1.2; Blks Agee 0.6, Patton 0.5, Knowling 0.5
Pregame
OSU is a -1.5 pt favorite w/ the O/U set at 151.5. This is a must win game for SC, as are the remaining games vs Oregon, UW and UCLA! The attendance is announced as 5,720. In the crowd is SC student Storm Reid, an Emmy award winning actress from ‘Euphoria’ and ‘The Last of Us’. Other credits include her film debut at age 9 in ‘12 Years a Slave’ and ‘A Wrinkle in Time’. DJ Malski would call on her to make ’a shot for a shirt’, and she did just that.
Muss's keys to the game: limit Mobley’s catch & shoot 3’s, defend Thornton from behind the arc and take away his drives, control defensive board (no offensive rebs)
The Game
Starters: Des, Saint, Yates, Agbo, Josh Cohen
SC opened with a bucket by Cohen at 19:42. After another Cohen score and a 3FG by Des, the Trojans were up 7-4 at 17:26. This 3 pt lead was SC’s largest. The 2nd of 3 first half 3FGs by John Mobley would give OSU their first lead 10-9 at 15:49. SC failed Muss’ first key to the game. The rest of the half was a shooting exhibition from the Buckeyes who made 8 straight 3FGs before a miss at 0:21. They had their largest lead at 52-35 on a Parrish layup at 1:02 and would go to the locker room up 52-38, shooting 73% FG. Like SC, OSU was on a 3-game losing streak and had scored only 49 pts vs. Northwestern and 61 vs. UCLA. 52 pts in a half was a windfall!
SC’s defense has been atrocious the last few games (allowing 88 pts to MD, 95 pts to Rutgers) and this was another example. Muss called it “probably the worst defense I’ve ever had a team play in my college tenure.”
For the half:
OSU shot 73.1% FG (19-26), 88.9% 3FG (8-9), 75% FT (6-8)
SC shot 54.6% FG (12-22), 50% 3FG (4-8), 90.9% FT (10-11)
2nd half:
After what I’m sure was a strong “motivational half-time speech” by Muss, SC came out playing tougher defense and got the lead down to single digits on Saint’s fast-break dunk at 14:57 made it 64-55. SC showed its grit by battling back to tie the game 80-80 at 1:07 on Agee’s score in the paint.
Parrish’s 3FG at 10:01 had given OSU a 7-pt lead 72-65, but it would be their last FG of the game before an old-fashioned 3-point play by Royal with 0:41 made it 83-80. During that 9 min dry spell, SC repeatedly sent OSU to the foul line, and they capitalized, making 8-8 FTs to maintain their lead.
Immediately after the Royal score, Claude turned the ball over (one of his game high 5 TOs) and things looked bleak for the home team. Still SC had one last chance to tie the game at 0:17 after Mobley missed the second of a pair of FTs. Yates got a good look but missed the 3FG at 0:06. Saint grabbed the rebound but bounced the ball on the end line and the game was essentially over.
A pair of Mobley FTs at 0:02 made the final score 87-82.
For the game:
OSU shot 54% FG (27-50), 55% 3FG (11-20), 84.6% FT (22-26)
SC shot 60% FG (27-45), 38.9% 3FG (7-18), 80.8% FT (21-26)
SC falls to 14-14 (6-11) and OSU moves to 16-13 (8-10). SC is no longer on the NCAA tournament bubble and is now playing just to make the B1G tourney (bottom 3 teams don’t make it in).
Next Up: Oregon (at Eugene), March 1, 1 pm PST, B1G Network
Fight On! Beat the Ducks!
Today OSU has 1764 large city acres in Columbus, enrolls 60,046 (45,728 undergrad), a $7.9 B endowment, USN&WR No. 43 public school, WSJ No. 99
Famous alumni include 5 Nobel Laureates, 7 Pulitzer winners, US President/Civil War general Rutherford B. Hayes, US VP JD Vance, legendary 4x Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens, NFL HOF’rs Jim Parker, Lou Groza, Dante Lavelli, Bill Willis, Paul Warfield, Dick LeBeau, Cris Carter, Orlando Pace, 7 Heisman winners (Les Horvath ’44, Vic Janowicz ‘50, Hopalong Cassady’55, Archie Griffin (only 2x Heisman ’74, ’75), Eddie George ’95, Troy Smith 2006, Baseball HOF’er Frank Howard, former Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, ‘American Civil War’ trilogy author John Jakes, 1960’s folk singer Phil Ochs, Iams pet foods founder Paul F Iams, Shoney’s Restaurants founder Alex Schoenbaum, Rock & Roll deejay Alan Freed, Emmy award winning actress Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond), ‘Doug’ creator/animator Jim Jinkins, The Cars lead singer Ric Ocasek, Twenty One Pilots lead singer Tyler Joseph, 5 members of rock band OAR, country musician Dwight Yoakam, creator of Milton-Bradley’s The Game of Life Reuben Klamer, comedian Richard Lewis, NFL Films co-founder & NFL HOF member Ed Sabol, former ABC president Fred Silverman, HOF announcer Jack Buck, Kiplinger’s founder W.M. Kiplinger, US Congressman Jim Jordan, first African American Navy Pilot Jesse L. Brown, WWII MoH awardee, namesake for USS Scott - Robert R. Scott, Space Shuttle/Space Station astronaut Nancy Currie, Delco founder & Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center cofounder Charles Kettering, first African American NASA astronaut Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr., Teflon inventor Roy Plunkett, first solo human-powered circumnavigator of the Earth Erden Eruc, artist Roy Lichtenstein, notorious serial killer cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer
OSU Athletics: 32 NCAA championships: 11 swimming, 3 volleyball, 3 fencing, 3 gymnastics, 3 rowing, 2 golf, 2 ice hockey, basketball (1960), baseball, T&F, Wrestling, plus 59 non-NCAA titles: 34 synchronized swimming, 16 pistol, 9 football; 33 Olympic Gold medals, 28 Silver, 16 Bronze
Colors – Scarlet & Gray, Nickname – Buckeyes; fight songs ‘Across the Field’, ‘Buckeye Battle Cry’, Mascot – Brutus Buckeye
Basketball started 1898 (1765-1143, .607), 1960 National Champion, 4x Runner-up, 11 Final Four, 15 Elite Eight, 15 Sweet Sixteen, 35 NCAA appearances (last 2022), 22 Conf. titles, 5 conf tourn titles,10 Naismith Basketball HOF – John Havlicek, Neil Johnston, Jerry Lucas, Arnie Risen, Katie Smith, coaches Fred Taylor, Harold Olsen, Lynn St John, Gary Williams, Tara Vanderveer; 5 retired numbers: 5 - Havlicek, 11 – Lucas, 21 – Evan Turner, 22 – Jim Jackson, 35 – Gary Bradd, 11 Consensus AA’s, 3 National POY – Jerry Lucas 1961, 1962, Gary Bradds 1964, Evan Turner 2010, 6 Big Ten POY, 5 Big Ten COY; 56 NBA draft pks (26 1st rd , No. 1 overall pick Greg Oden, No. 2 overall Jerry Lucas, Evan Turner & D’Angelo Russell, 8 Current NBA players: Jamison Battle, Malaki Branham, Mike Conley, EJ Liddell, Micah Potter, Russell, Brice Sensabough, Jae’sean Tate
Winningest coaches: Thad Matta 337-123, .732, Fred Taylor 297-158, .652, Eldon Miller 174-120, .592
Current – Jake Diebler 1st yr, 1st head coach job (23-14, .621, 1 NIT)
Currently: 15-13 (7-10) W: No. 19 TX, Youngstown St, Evansville, Campbell, Green Bay, Rutgers, Valpo, No. 4 UK, IN St, Minn, No. 11 Purdue, Iowa, PSU, No. 18 MD, UW; L: No. 23 TX A&M, Pitt, MD, No. 2 Auburn, No. 18 MSU, No. 15 Oregon, No. 24 Wisc, Indiana, No. 18 Illinois, Nebraska, No. 20 Mich, Northwestern, UCLA
All-time: series is tied 3-3, last 79-73 OSU win in 1997 over a Henry Bibby team featuring Sr Gary Johnson, Jr’s Adam Spanich, Elias Ayuso, So Jarvis Turner and FR Jeff Trepagnier and Kevin Augustine
OSU NET 34, KenPom 33, SC NET 71, KenPom 60
OSU Scores: 78.2 ppg (+6.3), 46.5% FG, 36.9% 3FG, 8.0 3’s/g, 74.7% FT. Rebounds 34.4 pg (+0.0), Assists 12.9 pg, TOs 11.0 pg (+0.8), Steals 6.5 pg, Blks 3.7 pg
OSU Leaders:
Scoring: Bruce Thornton 17.3 ppg (50.8% FG, 43.7% 3FG, 83% FT), Devin Royal 13.3 ppg (51.9% FG, 27.1% 3FG, 77.9% FT), John Mobley 13.0 ppg (39.3% FG, 40% 3FG. 91.3% FT), Micah Parrish 12.4 ppg (43.3% FG, 34.6% 3FG, 79.5% FT), Meechie Johnson 9.1 ppg (35.6% FG, 35.7% 3FG, 50% FT)
Rebounding: Royal 7.0, Sean Stewart 5.9; Assists Thornton 4.3, Johnson 2.7; Steals – Thornton 1.1 Parrish 1.1, Johnson 1.1; Blks – Stewart 0.9, Evan Mahaffey 0.9
SC scores: 76.7 ppg (+2.4), 48.3% FG, 36.5% 3FG, 6.9 3’s/g, 73.2% FT; Rebs 31.4 pg (-1.3), Assists 15.3 pg, TOs 11.7 pg (+0.6), 14.7 ppg/TO, Steals 6.1, Blks 3.0
SC Leaders
Scoring: Claude 16.2 ppg (50.4% FG, 34.7% 3FG, 75.6% FT), Yates 13.4 (48.5% FG, 43.6% 3FG, 78.4% FT), Agbo 11.5 (40.2% FG, 38.3% 3FG, 84.3% FT), Saint 9.9 (45.3% FG, 31.5% 3FG, 63% FT), Agee 6.8 (52.4% FG, 35.9% 3FG, 74.4% FT), Cohen 6.7 (60.3% FG, 16.7% 3FG, 76.5% FT)
Rebounds: Saint 6.0, Agbo 4.3; Assists Claude 4.2, Saint 4.2; Steals Saint 1.3, Yates 1.2; Blks Agee 0.6, Patton 0.5, Knowling 0.5
Pregame
OSU is a -1.5 pt favorite w/ the O/U set at 151.5. This is a must win game for SC, as are the remaining games vs Oregon, UW and UCLA! The attendance is announced as 5,720. In the crowd is SC student Storm Reid, an Emmy award winning actress from ‘Euphoria’ and ‘The Last of Us’. Other credits include her film debut at age 9 in ‘12 Years a Slave’ and ‘A Wrinkle in Time’. DJ Malski would call on her to make ’a shot for a shirt’, and she did just that.
Muss's keys to the game: limit Mobley’s catch & shoot 3’s, defend Thornton from behind the arc and take away his drives, control defensive board (no offensive rebs)
The Game
Starters: Des, Saint, Yates, Agbo, Josh Cohen
SC opened with a bucket by Cohen at 19:42. After another Cohen score and a 3FG by Des, the Trojans were up 7-4 at 17:26. This 3 pt lead was SC’s largest. The 2nd of 3 first half 3FGs by John Mobley would give OSU their first lead 10-9 at 15:49. SC failed Muss’ first key to the game. The rest of the half was a shooting exhibition from the Buckeyes who made 8 straight 3FGs before a miss at 0:21. They had their largest lead at 52-35 on a Parrish layup at 1:02 and would go to the locker room up 52-38, shooting 73% FG. Like SC, OSU was on a 3-game losing streak and had scored only 49 pts vs. Northwestern and 61 vs. UCLA. 52 pts in a half was a windfall!
SC’s defense has been atrocious the last few games (allowing 88 pts to MD, 95 pts to Rutgers) and this was another example. Muss called it “probably the worst defense I’ve ever had a team play in my college tenure.”
For the half:
OSU shot 73.1% FG (19-26), 88.9% 3FG (8-9), 75% FT (6-8)
SC shot 54.6% FG (12-22), 50% 3FG (4-8), 90.9% FT (10-11)
2nd half:
After what I’m sure was a strong “motivational half-time speech” by Muss, SC came out playing tougher defense and got the lead down to single digits on Saint’s fast-break dunk at 14:57 made it 64-55. SC showed its grit by battling back to tie the game 80-80 at 1:07 on Agee’s score in the paint.
Parrish’s 3FG at 10:01 had given OSU a 7-pt lead 72-65, but it would be their last FG of the game before an old-fashioned 3-point play by Royal with 0:41 made it 83-80. During that 9 min dry spell, SC repeatedly sent OSU to the foul line, and they capitalized, making 8-8 FTs to maintain their lead.
Immediately after the Royal score, Claude turned the ball over (one of his game high 5 TOs) and things looked bleak for the home team. Still SC had one last chance to tie the game at 0:17 after Mobley missed the second of a pair of FTs. Yates got a good look but missed the 3FG at 0:06. Saint grabbed the rebound but bounced the ball on the end line and the game was essentially over.
A pair of Mobley FTs at 0:02 made the final score 87-82.
For the game:
OSU shot 54% FG (27-50), 55% 3FG (11-20), 84.6% FT (22-26)
SC shot 60% FG (27-45), 38.9% 3FG (7-18), 80.8% FT (21-26)
SC falls to 14-14 (6-11) and OSU moves to 16-13 (8-10). SC is no longer on the NCAA tournament bubble and is now playing just to make the B1G tourney (bottom 3 teams don’t make it in).
Next Up: Oregon (at Eugene), March 1, 1 pm PST, B1G Network
Fight On! Beat the Ducks!
