No. 23 Ohio State Opens 122nd Season of Buckeye Basketball
11/25/2020 11:13:53 AM | Men's Basketball
| Ohio State vs. Illinois State | Â |
|---|---|
| Date: | November 25, 2020 |
| Time: | 2 p.m. ET |
| Venue: | Value City Arena |
| Watch: | ESPN | Live Stream |
| Listen: | OSU-IMG Sports Network (67 stations) | Tune In |
| Live Stats: | Gameday Live |
| Game Notes | Ohio State | Illinois State |
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The 122nd season of Ohio State men’s basketball opens inside Value City Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 25 against Illinois State at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN. The Buckeyes will remain in Columbus to face UMass Lowell at the Covelli Center on Sunday, Nov. 29 at noon on BTN.
Ohio State went 21-10 during the 2019-20 season, which was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic cancelling the 2020 Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments.
At the Helm
Chris Holtmann is in his fourth season as the head coach of the Buckeyes. He is 66-34 with Ohio State and 180-119 through nine seasons as a head coach at Gardner-Webb, Butler and Ohio State. He has guided his teams into five consecutive NCAA tournaments.
Welcome Back
Senior CJ Walker returns for his second season in Scarlet & Gray after averaging 8.7 points and 3.1 rebounds with a team-high 107 assists and 40 steals last year. Duane Washington Jr., a junior guard, was the second-best scorer for the Buckeyes with 11.5 points per game. Senior Kyle Young averaged 7.5 points and 5.8 rebounds while shooting a team-high 58.5 percent from the field.
Ohio State vs. Illinois State
Wednesday’s season opener will be the first matchup in program history between Ohio State and Illinois State. The Redbirds went 10-21 during their 2019-20 campaign.
Ohio State vs. UMass Lowell
Ohio State will take on UMass Lowell for the third time when the teams meet Sunday at the Covelli Center. The Buckeyes defeated the River Hawks, 76-56, in the second game of their 2019-20 slate. The programs first met on the hardwood on Nov. 14, 1994 with a 92-55 Ohio State victory. The Buckeyes, ranked No. 20 at the time, had five players in double-figures, led by D’Angelo Russell (16), Marc Loving (14) and Sam Thompson (14).
Buckeyes’ 122nd Season, 109th in B1G
This is the 109th season of Big Ten membership in men’s basketball for the Buckeyes and the 122nd overall for the sport at Ohio State. The Buckeyes are 99-21 in season openers and 102-17 in the first home game of the season. Ohio State is 56-63 in the first true road game of the year. In Big Ten Conference play, the Buckeyes are 59-46 in league openers, 73-33 in the first conference home game of the season and 39-66 in league road openers. Ohio State is 41-20 when the first conference game of the year is at home and 19-26 when opening conference play on the road.
New Additions
Ohio State added a pair of freshmen to its 2020-21 roster – Zed Key (6-8 / Forward / Bay Shore, N.Y. / Long Island Lutheran) and Eugene Brown III (6-6 / Wing/Guard / Conyers, Ga. / Southwest DeKalb). Graduate transfer Seth Towns (6-8 / Forward / Columbus, Ohio / Harvard) will have two years of eligibility as a Buckeye beginning with the 2020-21 season while senior transfer Jimmy Sotos (6-3 / Guard / Elk Grove Village, Ill. / Bucknell) has been granted an immediate eligibility waiver from the NCAA and will be able to compete this season.
Preseason Recognition
Seth Towns is one of 20 watch list members for the 2020 Karl Malone Award. The honor recognizes the top power forward in men’s college basketball. Towns earned a sociology degree from Harvard after playing for two years (2017, 2018) and sitting out the last two years (2019, 2020) while recovering from knee injuries.
