Win-loss-win-loss-win-loss-win-loss-win.
Those are the results of Ohio State’s past nine men’s basketball games. No consecutive wins, no consecutive losses. The Buckeyes have hovered right around the NCAA Tournament bubble line by doing enough to stay in the running but not enough to put a stamp on their résumé.
“Life in the Big Ten is really hard,” Jake Diebler said Friday. “And it's top to bottom full of really good teams. So I think what we're fighting for is the consistency, right? Just each and every individual game within those 40 minutes, are we playing at a higher level more frequently than we did before? I thought we did that against Wisconsin. We've also shown an ability to respond and show some resiliency, which is, again, important. Now, it'd be great to break the streak, right? Like right now, it'd be a great time to do that.”
No doubt, right now – or rather, on Sunday – would be an opportune time to break the flow of alternate wins and losses with a win. Because it would be Ohio State’s most impressive win thus far in the 2025-26 season.
The Buckeyes hit the road to face No. 15 Michigan State on Sunday (1 p.m., CBS), and it’s another shot to finally gain some breathing room along the Big Dance bubble line with what could be an upset Quad 1 win.
“Big-time environment, it’ll be a hostile crowd,” Diebler said. “The crowd noise, the energy in the building, it'll be great. It's what college basketball is all about, right? You got Michigan State and Ohio State, Sunday, early afternoon, middle/late February. It's big-time college basketball right now.”
Winning in the Breslin Center is a rare feat for road teams. But Diebler and a few Buckeyes on his current roster have done it before.
Three games into Diebler’s stint as interim head coach following Chris Holtmann’s firing in February 2024, Ohio State traveled to Michigan State and knocked out the Spartans 60-57 in a breakout game for then-freshman Devin Royal. Guard Dale Bonner hit a buzzer-beater 3-pointer for the win. Bruce Thornton and Taison Chatman join Royal as current Buckeyes who saw action in that contest two years ago.
“It's great that some of us have experience in there because it's such a hard place to win at,” Diebler said. “And what Coach (Tom) Izzo has built there has been well-documented, and he's a legend. We've also had success in other really tough environments in this league, and I think that's important. This group has shown an ability to win on the road in this league, which is important. And I don't think you can make too much of what's happened in the past outside of, hey, we know what's required to win on the road.”
The Spartans thrive on rebounding and, as is typical under Izzo, a collective effort on the offensive end. Four players average double-figures for Michigan State. Guard Jeremy Fears Jr. makes the engine run, averaging 15.3 points and a nation-leading 9.3 assists per game. Forward Jaxon Kohler is a load down low, averaging 12.4 points and a team-high 9.3 rebounds per game.
The Spartans are one of the best rebounding teams in the country overall. They average 41.1 rebounds per game, the 14th-most in the country, while their opponents average just 28.6 rebounds per game, the fewest allowed by any team in the nation. That’s a rebounding margin of 12.5 boards per game, the third-best nationally.
Ohio State has struggled with rebounding at various points this season, with a rebounding margin of just 2.5 rebounds per game in its favor. The Buckeyes showed great signs of improvement on the glass in their most recent 86-69 win over No. 24 Wisconsin, outrebounding the Badgers 33-27 after they were outrebounded in Madison 31-30 when the two teams met the first time. But Michigan State is a different beast.
“I think we've shown improvement on the glass,” Diebler said. “It's a great time for that, certainly. And I think for us, it's going to take – we're not built for one or two guys to just go dominate the glass. It's a collective effort for us. But when we're dialed in and everybody's doing their job, then we can be a good rebounding team, and we're going to need that on Sunday.”
“It's what college basketball is all about.”– Jake Diebler on the big-time nature of Ohio State's game at Michigan State
Another area Ohio State has shown improvement in is its defense. The Buckeyes had two of their best defensive outings against Wisconsin and, even in a loss, against then-No. 15 Virginia.
“I think we're starting to see our guys take a step forward in execution,” Diebler said. “A lot of times you hear execution, we immediately go to the offensive side of the ball. There's an execution element on defense that's critical as well. And as we've rebounded better, it's helped us defensively. So I love the attention to detail our guys are performing with on the defensive side of the ball.”
If the Buckeyes are to pull the upset win, it will still likely have to come without the services of star shooting guard John Mobley Jr., who’s been sidelined the last two games with a hand injury he sustained against USC on Feb. 11. Taison Chatman started in his place and contributed well against Wisconsin, scoring 10 points with a 2-of-3 shooting mark from three, adding three assists and two steals.
“(Mobley) is touching a basketball, which is a step in the right direction, but we still don't know an exact date or timeframe yet,” Diebler said. “There's still some, I think, things he's got to do to continue to progress. We're hoping it happens really quickly, but he's up moving, he put a ball in his hand, so all that's real positive. As far as today or Sunday, I just don't know yet.
“He's willing to play through whatever to be out there and help this team and he cares deeply about Ohio State and this team. That's why I'm so confident that the moment he's ready to play, he's going to be out there. This isn't a situation where this is going to linger any longer than it absolutely has to. And I appreciate that about him because I think there's a reality, too, that this season will go while he plays, and he's going to probably be in some pain doing it. It's just kind of the nature of this time of year.”
With or without Mobley, Ohio State aims to thrust itself to the doorstep of securing an NCAA Tournament bid with its upset bid at Michigan State on Sunday.
