On Oct. 7, Ohio State unofficially opened the preseason with an outdoor exhibition game against Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio. Ten days later, the Buckeyes headed south, suited up in Louisville’s practice gym and faced the Cardinals in a closed-door scrimmage.
The two October tests against high-major competition have shown coach Jake Diebler a few things about the 2026-27 Buckeyes, he said. Atop the list: He’s seen resiliency from a team that was purposely put into stressful situations.
“That’s the best part about this time of year is, if you’re strategic, you can put yourselves in situations where you have to fight back or come together … you can find a way to have to fight together,” Diebler said. “Our resiliency and toughness and grit from first one to second one was improved.”
In the outdoor exhibition against the Bearcats, the Buckeyes battled the elements, went 4 for 23 (17.4%) from 3-point range and 20 for 36 (55.6%) from the free-throw line in a 79-68 loss that featured 50 combined fouls. On the court constructed on the picturesque Lindner Family Tennis Center, Ohio State and Cincinnati played a game that hardly resembled a thing of beauty.
After the game, junior guard John Mobley Jr. stepped up in the locker room and addressed his team's performance.
The next time the Buckeyes took the floor, it was without fans or media permitted to be in attendance. According to a source, Louisville won its closed, “secret” scrimmage by nine points. Ohio State fell behind early, steadied itself and played even the rest of the way against the No. 11-ranked team in the preseason Associated Press poll.
Three days later, Diebler liked his team's defensive effort but said there was one thing the Buckeyes did not do well enough in critical moments to beat the Cardinals.
Ohio State men's basketball: Here's what we know about Ohio State's closed scrimmage at Louisville
“We didn’t rebound as well as we needed to at the start or the finish,” he said, “but throughout the bulk of that, we did better on the glass. That was important for us.”
Cincinnati outrebounded Ohio State 45-35 in their exhibition game. Specific statistics for the Louisville game were not released, but Diebler said attacking the glass remains an ongoing point of emphasis for the Buckeyes.
“Good rebounding teams have success in the Big Ten,” he said. “It’s an area [in which] we haven’t been as good in the last couple of years. I feel like we tried to address that with this roster. That should help.”
Diebler added that right now, rebounding is one of the top areas of concern alongside transition defense and getting set for halfcourt defense. During a half-hour open practice portion before Diebler’s press conference, most of Ohio State’s drills were focused on the defensive side of the court.
For the final 15 minutes, Ohio State’s current players battled against a scout team featuring former players William Buford (program assistant), Jared Sullinger (director of player development) and Keyshawn Woods – with varied success. Freshman guard LJ Smith missed the Louisville game due to an unspecified injury but is back in practice, although he was limited while reporters were present.
Against Cincinnati, Diebler said the Buckeyes did not run any of their set offensive packages and were mostly focused on seeing how their players battled through in-game adversity. Against Louisville, Ohio State was able to utilize more of its offense as the Buckeyes continue to build toward the start of the season.
Those two games in addition to the Oct. 25 public exhibition against Butler at the Schottenstein Center will help establish where Ohio State sits heading into its season-opening game against No. 25 BYU on Nov. 2 in Salt Lake City.
“We’ll treat this like a run-through for BYU and really for the start of November,” Diebler said. “There were some elements to the scrimmage as far as travel and cadence and things at the hotel that we started to implement. The scouting report, the breakdown was not nearly as in-depth as what it will be for regular games. Butler will more resemble that.”
Ohio State men's basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social, on Instagram at @cdadamjardy or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Where is Ohio State after Cincinnati, Louisville preseason games?