Ohio State Brings a Top-20 Offense to Cincinnati’s New Roster

Ohio State plays Cincinnati on Wednesday, October 7, at 3 p.m. ET at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason. It is an exhibition, outdoors, on the same court that hosts the Cincinnati Open. Xavier and Dayton follow at 5:30 p.m. If the weather turns, both games move to UD Arena.

This is the best conference game of the week that is not North Carolina–USC. Big Ten against Big 12. Jake Diebler is in his third season. Jerrod Calhoun is in his first at Cincinnati. The Buckeyes were a top-20 KenPom offense last season and went 21-13, 12-8 in the Big Ten. Cincinnati went 18-15, 9-9 in the Big 12, under Wes Miller, and then changed coaches and most of the roster.

Ohio State, the returners

John Mobley Jr. is the one who has to be the offense until the new pieces catch up. He averaged 15.7 points as a sophomore and shot 43.2% from the field. He was just named to the Preseason All-Big Ten Team. A’mare Bynum is the other returning starter, and he was the forward who got better as last season went on. Josh Ojianwuna and Ivan Njegovan are the bigs still in the building.

Bruce Thornton is gone. Christoph Tilly is gone. Devin Royal left for Villanova. Taison Chatman left for Utah. The lead guard and the starting center from a top-20 offense are not walking into Mason. Mobley is.

Ohio State, the adds

Justin Pippen comes from Cal. The exhibition projection has him at 14.2 points as a starting guard next to Mobley. Curtis Givens III comes from Memphis, after a year at LSU. Andrija Jelavic comes from Kentucky. Jimmie Williams comes from Duquesne. Freshman Anthony Thompson is the No. 8 player in the 247Sports composite and is already in the projected starting lineup.

That is a lot of new creation around one proven scorer. Wednesday is the first time Pippen and Mobley have to share a ball against a Big 12 roster, even a rebuilt one.

Cincinnati, the new roster

Calhoun said he will probably play 12 or 13. He should. Almost none of this group played together last year.

Myles Colvin is the wing with a number. At Wake Forest he averaged 11.6 points, started 24 of 35 games, shot 87% from the line, and was second on the team in steals with 41. He scored 33 against Queens on 11-of-13 shooting and 7-of-8 from three, with 26 of those points in the first half, and won ACC Player of the Week. He also hit a game-winner against Memphis. He was at Purdue before Wake, including a 20-point night in a win over Ole Miss.

Tylen Riley is the point guard. He averaged about 15 points at Tulsa before transferring, and he is the highest-rated add in Cincinnati’s portal class. MJ Collins comes from Utah State, the leading scorer on a team that finished 25th in KenPom offense and won the Mountain West. Adlan Elamin and Elijah Perryman also come from Utah State. Jayden Hastings comes from Boston College. Trevian Carson comes from North Dakota State.

The defense that is not back

Cincinnati was not a top-75 offense last season. The defense was the reason the Bearcats could sit in the Big 12. They opened ranked 5th in KenPom defense and were still a top-10 defense over a 10-game stretch in January. That group is not in Mason.

Moustapha Thiam, the 7-2 center, transferred to Michigan. Baba Miller finished his eligibility and was drafted 36th by the Clippers. Jizzle James, Sencire Harris, Jordi Rodriguez, and Keyshuan Tillery left. Jalen Haynes left for Dayton. Tyler McKinley left for Charlotte. Wes Miller is gone too. Calhoun is coaching a portal roster, not that defense.

Collins just played on a Utah State team that was 25th in KenPom offense. He did not play on a top-10 defense. Colvin’s number at Wake Forest was scoring, not stops. The portal class has to build a new defense and prove the offense can travel at the same time.

What Wednesday is for

Ohio State does not need to look finished. It needs Mobley to still be a 15-point guard with Pippen next to him, and it needs one big — Bynum, Ojianwuna, or Thompson — to finish a roll. Cincinnati does not need to win. It needs a side: Riley or Collins bringing it up, Colvin catching on the wing, somebody besides a transfer guard taking a shot. It also needs a stop. Last year’s Bearcats could get one. This year’s have not proved they can.

The series, exhibitions aside, is 42-39 Ohio State. They met in the national title game in 1961 and 1962. None of that is the story. The story is a top-20 offense with a new backcourt against a first-year coach who kept the top-10 defense’s reputation and none of its players. Mason is the first answer.