Buckeyes Take on West Virginia in Cleveland on Saturday​

12/11/2025 8:29:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Ohio State vs. West Virginia
Date: December 13, 2025
Time: 8 p.m.
Venue: Rocket Arena – Cleveland, Ohio
TV: ESPNU
Listen: Ohio State Radio Network from Learfield
Live Stats: Statbroadcast
Rosters: Ohio State | West Virginia
Season Stats: Ohio State | West Virginia
Game Notes: Ohio State Media Center

TICKETS: Season, single-game, group and mini plans are available for all men’s basketball games this season. Visit OhioStateBuckeyes.com or call the Ohio State Athletics Ticket Office in the Schottenstein Center at 1-800-GOBUCKS.
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State heads up interstate 71 to take Cleveland for a neutral site non-conference matchup with West Virginia Saturday as part of the Cleveland Hoops Showdown at Rocket Arena. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPNU. John Schriffen and King McClure will call the action.
The game can also be heard on the Ohio State Radio Network from Learfield. Paul Keels and former Buckeye captain Ron Stokes are on the call.

• This will be the 19th all-time meeting between Ohio State and West Virginia and the third meeting in Cleveland. The Buckeyes lead the all-time series 10-8 but West Virginia has won eight of the last 10 meetings.
• The teams split the previous two games in Cleveland as the Mountaineers won 67-59 in 2019 and then the Buckeyes won an overtime thriller 78-75 in 2023.
• In that 2023 game, Roddy Gayle Jr. scored a career-high 32 points and Ohio State held on for a gritty 78-75 overtime victory. Jamison Battle added 17 points after knocking down five three-pointers, all coming in the second half and overtime.
• The Buckeyes are coming off a hard-fought 88-80 setback to No. 13 Illinois at home on Tuesday night. Bruce Thornton had a tremendous night, making his first nine shots, including six from long range, and finishing with 34 points, six rebounds and six assists. His six threes marked a new career-high. Christoph Tilly added 13 points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.
• Thornton is just the third Buckeye in the last 40 years with a game of 34 points, six rebounds and six assists, joining Doug Etzler in 1995 and Dennis Hopson who did it twice during the 1986-87 season.
• Thornton has had an efficient start to the season. He is shooting 55.6 percent from long range, which is third-best in the country. His overall shooting percentage is 62.3 percent and that’s third in Big Ten and fifth-best among all guards in the country.
• In addition to Thornton, three other Buckeyes are averaging 13 points per game. Tilly is averaging 13.8 points and a team-best 5.3 rebounds per game. John Mobley Jr. is scoring 13.7 ppg and has made 20 three-pointers. Devin Royal has made nearly 40 percent of his three-point attempts and is scoring 13.6 ppg.
• The Buckeyes are still 10th in the country in effective field goal percentage at 60.1 percent.
• West Virginia opened the year with five-consecutive wins, including a 71-49 victory over Pitt. The Mountaineers have then gone 3-3 and are coming off a 90-58 victory over Little Rock on Tuesday night. WVU is third in the country in scoring defense, allowing just 58.4 points per game.

will Cignetti keep striking gold at QB position in the portal? not likely

Bryce, if you're listening, transfer to Western *ichigan.
Beat the cheaters in 2026.
Then, transfer to Eastern *ichigan, and beat the cheaters in 2027.

sparcboxbuck said:

I don’t expect them to get past Oregon twice.

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I do. If Oregon wins their first game, I expect Indiana to beat them, again.
I also expected a 20-point win by the Buckeyes last weekend... so... take that prediction and put it wherever you want.

Greyshirt said:

Why would anyone want him when you could have Sam Leavitt? Underwood is trash. A supreme elite athlete who is not a good QB and will likely never be a great QB. Leavitt on the other hand has 2 years left and has shown elite QB skills. Why MSU let this kid walk and bet on Childes will always haunt Jonathon Smith.
I expect Leavitt to end up at LSU or Indy depending on the NIL deals available with Miami and FSU as dark horses.
For that matter he would be an upgrade at OSU. But I doubt Day would make that move nor should he in my opinion unless he thinks Sayin is not capable of managing a game and getting out of the way of that defense.

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My $.02 - Lane would LOOOOOVE his mobility.
I base this purely on the fact that the Dawgs have played Ole Miss teams lead by Chambliss and Jackson Dart and both games the QB was the leading rusher for the Rebs.

AFAIK they still haven't formally charged Sherrone Moore.

Probably having a hard time deciding between attempted murder, or breaking & entering, or assault. It should be b&e, domestic assault, and attempted murder.

But assuredly the NCAA will step in and get the charges dropped. Ain't that how it works at ttun?

Honoring Mangold with standout play and earning a big contract. Well done!

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Greyshirt said:

Underwood is trash. A supreme elite athlete who is not a good QB and will likely never be a great QB.

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Underwood reminds me of Aaron Pryor. You want him because you don't want your rival to have him.

Greyshirt said:

Why would anyone want him when you could have Sam Leavitt? Underwood is trash. A supreme elite athlete who is not a good QB and will likely never be a great QB. Leavitt on the other hand has 2 years left and has shown elite QB skills. Why MSU let this kid walk and bet on Childes will always haunt Jonathon Smith.
I expect Leavitt to end up at LSU or Indy depending on the NIL deals available with Miami and FSU as dark horses.
For that matter he would be an upgrade at OSU. But I doubt Day would make that move nor should he in my opinion unless he thinks Sayin is not capable of managing a game and getting out of the way of that defense.

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People get completely mesmerized by "Big Bodied Athletic QB With Big Arm" even if said QB hasnt shown that he's actually particularly good at playing QB. Someone will pay him a ton of money to come play for them

He won’t win, but ‘damn it feels good to be a Buckeye’

This kid is going to be lights out next year.

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Greyshirt said:

Why would anyone want him when you could have Sam Leavitt? Underwood is trash. A supreme elite athlete who is not a good QB and will likely never be a great QB. Leavitt on the other hand has 2 years left and has shown elite QB skills. Why MSU let this kid walk and bet on Childes will always haunt Jonathon Smith.
I expect Leavitt to end up at LSU or Indy depending on the NIL deals available with Miami and FSU as dark horses.
For that matter he would be an upgrade at OSU. But I doubt Day would make that move nor should he in my opinion unless he thinks Sayin is not capable of managing a game and getting out of the way of that defense.

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He's a somewhat good athlete with a big arm with major issues with his mechanics. He is in Will Howard territory in terms of his talent with his legs. Not exactly apples to apples with that comparison, but it's close in terms of how explosive he is.

He is not within miles of Terrelle, Braxton or Denard. He's nothing like Josh Allen either.
He is not as efficient with his feet as JT Barrett (despite having better physical gifts).

He's a bigger Devin Gardner, both in terms of size and arm strength. That makes him a nice college player. It does not strike fear into the hearts of open field defenders.

Buckeye86 said:

Seems like they’re keeping Warde around for the same reasons they kept Moore around; guy that is so tainted already they have no reservations about continuing to lie and cover up as much up as possible, and whatever does ultimately come out about their corrupt and illegal antics, they can pin it on his ass on the way out the door at whatever moment is most convenient for them to appear to clean house and move on.

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Agreed. The difference between Moore and Warde is that Warde may have let it be known to the organization that if he is taken out it will be a situation of mutually assured destruction and has provided enough evidence to make it believable. If that’s the case, he’s untouchable until someone pushes him off a balcony.

BigWoof31 said:

Bryce Underwood is gonna end up at LSU with Kiffin right?

Maybe Miami?
Southern Cal?

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Why would anyone want him when you could have Sam Leavitt? Underwood is trash. A supreme elite athlete who is not a good QB and will likely never be a great QB. Leavitt on the other hand has 2 years left and has shown elite QB skills. Why MSU let this kid walk and bet on Childes will always haunt Jonathon Smith.
I expect Leavitt to end up at LSU or Indy depending on the NIL deals available with Miami and FSU as dark horses.
For that matter he would be an upgrade at OSU. But I doubt Day would make that move nor should he in my opinion unless he thinks Sayin is not capable of managing a game and getting out of the way of that defense.

pnuts34 said:

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Jaxbuck said:

Everybody I have ever known that was fooling around at work knows that strategy.

At least the ones who got away with it. Dumbasses on the other hand…well they violate another sacred rule and put it in crazy.

Crazy and nothing to lose is no bueno. Keep shopping.

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The reference to ‘crazy’ and who has what to lose made me think of an old BP thread. Seems as though Nick may have visited BP before penning that story. It was addressed here, in the original post: https://buckeyeplanet.com/forum/threads/life-advice-to-a-boy-quickly-turning-into-a-man.642920/

Zurp said:

Unfortunately, if that kind of thing happens, he won't be in the national championship game. I don't think they can sleepwalk their way through 2 games to the national championship game.

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I agree. At a minimum they are looking at having to beat Oregon twice in a year to get to the Natty. To win it all, they’d have to beat Oregon twice and us twice in a year.

Possible. Not likely. I don’t expect them to get past Oregon twice. I won’t be fall over shocked if they do win against Oregon, I just don’t expect it.

SEREbuckeye said:

I think the chaos of Thursday was just the match being lit. This could become bad, REALLY bad for all parties.

It feels like university is actively trying to dig up more dirt on Moore to justify that it’s “just a him issue” and save face for the school. Soliciting information from students - not internal athletic staff - in a public way is their beck and call for more dirt and scandals. This is them trying to point all fingers at Sherrone and his “lone wolf” toxicity. Also, they WILL exploit his mental health by insinuating that anything he says is untrue because “Sherrone is crazy, just look at his actions,” while gaslighting everyone.

Now, for Moore, he will eventually go to court, charges dependent. This is where Sherrone will be under oath to give his testimonies, and I’m assuming he will have lawyers ready to ask all kinds of questions about the university’s role and how they covered up for him. I think a lot of shit the university wants buried will be exposed through Moore’s lawyers. I could also imagine him running a PR campaign when he released from jail, talking about how the university pushed him to this point. It will be easy for him too, because Warde’s fatass didn’t bring in a third party during his termination. This opened up an entire can of “she said, she said” until we get to the hearings.

Ward is safe for now, but the war hasn’t even started yet. Both parties are going to burn each other to the ground to look like the “better” person.

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This is his move, for sure. It will also be easy to say he ‘cracked’ under the pressure and guilt of having been ‘roped into a cheating scandal’ that he had to cover up in fear that he wouldn’t be able to provide for his family if he exposed the truth.

For that organization to not recognize that they are attacking someone who knows where the bodies are all buried in a way that forces them into a corner like a wounded animal seems to be a significant oversight. Their best move was to pay him off, handsomely, to quietly go away. Forcing the issue like they did is creating more problems for them than they needed to.

It’s going to be interesting to watch this continue to unfold.

Thorpe Award Winner

Edit: Looks like the link got scrubbed. It was a congratulatory video posted by the Downs brothers podcast.

I think it may have gotten out and they were told to take it down until after the awards show tonight. Which tells me the platters know well before hand who will win the awards.

I think the chaos of Thursday was just the match being lit. This could become bad, REALLY bad for all parties.

It feels like university is actively trying to dig up more dirt on Moore to justify that it’s “just a him issue” and save face for the school. Soliciting information from students - not internal athletic staff - in a public way is their beck and call for more dirt and scandals. This is them trying to point all fingers at Sherrone and his “lone wolf” toxicity. Also, they WILL exploit his mental health by insinuating that anything he says is untrue because “Sherrone is crazy, just look at his actions,” while gaslighting everyone.

Now, for Moore, he will eventually go to court, charges dependent. This is where Sherrone will be under oath to give his testimonies, and I’m assuming he will have lawyers ready to ask all kinds of questions about the university’s role and how they covered up for him. I think a lot of shit the university wants buried will be exposed through Moore’s lawyers. I could also imagine him running a PR campaign when he released from jail, talking about how the university pushed him to this point. It will be easy for him too, because Warde’s fatass didn’t bring in a third party during his termination. This opened up an entire can of “she said, she said” until we get to the hearings.

Ward is safe for now, but the war hasn’t even started yet. Both parties are going to burn each other to the ground to look like the “better” person.