BAYAMON, Puerto Rico – The goals for an exhibition game while on a foreign trip can be difficult to define. Regular-season games are still far enough away for exhibitions to lack any real sense of urgency, and team identities are still being formed. So the Ohio State men’s basketball team had several moving targets for its matchup August 2 at Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez
The Buckeyes took care of Los Boris 1 with a 105-75 win as part of the Arroyo Puerto Rico Classic. They took the lead on the second possession of the game, never trailed and saw 11 different players score while compiling plenty of highlight-worthy clips against a team of professional players who were older but overmatched.
Standing underneath the basket where his team scored 57 first-half points while building an 18-point lead, Buckeyes fifth-year senior Jimmie Williams was excited to see more.
“Top takeaways, in my eyes, I felt we really jelled as a team well together,” he said after scoring a team-high 20 points. “It seemed like a team who’s really motivated and loves to play the game together. I’m really excited to get going with the season. I know it’s early. I know it’s our first not-even game, but to see where we’re at, I think we’re at a solid place.
“We have to keep it going and get better.”
With caveats about this being just one exhibition game more than three months before the start of the season, here are four takeaways from Ohio State’s 115-75 win.
Ohio State scored 115 points without John Mobley Jr., Amare Bynum being prolific
Given the knowns and unknowns on this roster, it seems fair to guess that for the Buckeyes to top 100 points, even against inferior competition, it would take big scoring efforts from their two most proven players: junior John Mobley Jr. and sophomore Amare Bynum.
Against Los Boris 1, Mobley finished with an efficient 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, sinking two 3-point attempts and generally staying within the flow of the team’s offense. Bynum had two highlight-reel dunks but was 3 for 8 from the floor, missing all three of his 3-point shots.
The other 12 Buckeyes to see the court combined to score 95 points.
“That team didn’t know a lot about many of our guys,” Diebler said. “I thought the maturity that our returners played with, making the right plays, sharing the ball, playing with pace, was great. I think the depth, versatility, our ability to score in multiple spots will translate.
“Obviously those guys are going to have to score for us, but we need other guys too and today was a day where it felt like we took a step forward – as big a step as you can take in August.”
Last season, Mobley and Bynum averaged 15.7 and 9.7 points, respectively. In this game, Mobley had three assists and no turnovers while Bynum dished out seven assists, pulled down five rebounds and had a team-high three steals.
Jimmie Williams, LJ Smith showed surprising rebounding numbers
The morning before the game, Diebler said he had a talk with Williams about his rebounding.
In two years of Division I basketball, Williams has averaged 3.6 rebounds per game, 2.8 of which were on the defensive end. In this game, he pulled down four.
“It actually hasn’t been too much a part of my game [before],” Williams said. “Coach Diebler has emphasized it, ways to stay on the court. I try to listen and rebounding is one of them, so I’m trying to get some rebounds. Felt like I could’ve got more, but that’s something I’m trying to add to my game to be a better player.”
At 6-foot-4, 210 pounds, Williams improving his ability in this area would allow the Buckeyes to play him more at small forward or as a third guard in addition to the minutes he is already ticketed for at shooting guard.
He wasn’t the only surprise on the glass. Freshman LJ Smith, a 6-4, 180-pound guard who reclassified and joined the Buckeyes early, pulled down a team-high four offensive rebounds.
“Last few weeks he’s been aggressive going to the glass,” Diebler said. “I don’t know if he’s ever really been challenged to do that in his career. It’s part of what we want. We want to be aggressive on the offensive glass, and he’s embraced it and rebounded well the last couple of weeks.”
Justin Pippen will need to be more efficient
The Buckeyes brought in the California transfer to help fill the void left by the departure of four-year captain, starter and all-time leading scorer Bruce Thornton. Pippen arrived with a strong defensive reputation and a prolific-if-inefficient scoring profile. As a sophomore, Pippen averaged 14.2 points per game while shooting 37.0% from the floor on 11.2 attempts per game.
In a little more than 21 minutes of playing time, Pippen scored half of his 10 points from the free-throw line. He drew contact and got to the line while driving into traffic, yielding mixed results. He was just 2 for 5 from both 3-point range and inside the arc but still dished out four assists.
His ability to get to the line will be important for the Buckeyes this season, as will increased awareness of when to force the issue in the paint and when to back out and find a better shot.
Josh Ojianwuna is still a work in progress
This probably isn’t much of a surprise, given that he hadn’t played in a competitive game in nearly a year and a half, but the fifth-year senior center who missed all of last season with a knee injury is still not a finished product.
Ojianwuna started the game. However, as Diebler rotated lineups with consistent substitutions, Ojianwuna saw only about six minutes of playing time, all of which came during the first half. That was by design, as the coaches are trying to ease him back into competition by limiting his minutes. He deflected a pass on each of Los Boris’ first two possessions, helping fuel Ohio State’s offensive transition, but otherwise was a non-factor on the stat sheet.
Ojianwuna did not take a shot or grab a rebound.
“It was great,” Diebler said. “We wanted to keep him committed to short bursts in the first half. We’ll see [August 3], but the plan is to get back out there again.”
Without him, Njegovan had 8 points and a team-high 10 rebounds.
Ohio State men’s basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Balanced scoring gives early glimpse at Ohio State’s depth: 4 takeaways
Reporting by Adam Jardy, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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By Adam Jardy, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
