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2025-2026 Ohio State Men's Basketball

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Other than maybe Royal, I don't think anyone on the current roster is a dog, including Thornton who does the Cotie McMahon thing where he dominates for short stretches and plays passively too much of the rest of the time. Besides size and strength (and associated rebounding and rim protection) being the most obvious needs, I want to know who the dog is that's going to lead others to do the extra off-court works needed to be be stronger. better conditioned, and smarter on the court. Vince Lombardi said that lots of players have the will to win, but fewer have the will to prepare to win, and I have a strong sense that the will to prepare to win and team accountability for that preparation is lacking.
 
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Jagdaddy said:
Other than maybe Royal, I don't think anyone on the current roster is a dog, including Thornton who does the Cotie McMahon thing where he dominates for short stretches and plays passively too much of the rest of the time. Besides size and strength (and associated rebounding and rim protection) being the most obvious needs, I want to know who the dog is that's going to lead others to do the extra off-court works needed to be be stronger. better conditioned, and smarter on the court. Vince Lombardi said that lots of players have the will to win, but fewer have the will to prepare to win, and I have a strong sense that the will to prepare to win and team accountability for that preparation is lacking.
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Unfortunately, you can pretty much see in this program for over 10 years now there seems to be a lack of individual practice effort amongst players in this program, even guys who have been starting. It's not every player - there certainly have been some like Jamison Battle, EJ Liddell and a few others who have clearly put in the work & became very polished & skilled, but the work ethic in those guys has not been the norm. A lot of guys in this program just don't seem to seriously work on being the best they can be, and it's sad really because they should be looking seriously at basketball as being their first career & of course it's never a particularly long career so you should want to make the most out of it.
 
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DZ83CK said:
Unfortunately, you can pretty much see in this program for over 10 years now there seems to be a lack of individual practice effort amongst players in this program, even guys who have been starting. It's not every player - there certainly have been some like Jamison Battle, EJ Liddell and a few others who have clearly put in the work & became very polished & skilled, but the work ethic in those guys has not been the norm. A lot of guys in this program just don't seem to seriously work on being the best they can be, and it's sad really because they should be looking seriously at basketball as being their first career & of course it's never a particularly long career so you should want to make the most out of it.
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Teams are a reflection of their coach. Watch MSU play if you want to see a coach who gets everything out of his players.

Like I’ve said in the past we don’t have any Chris Jents and I don’t see any on the current or future roster.
 
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NO Player POS HT WT CLASS Hometown
10 Colby Baumann G 6-3 185 Soph Houston, TX
4 Aaron Bradshaw F 7-1 215 Jr Rahway, NJ
xx A'mare Bynum F 6-8 225 Fr Branson, MO
3 Taison Chatman G 6-4 175 redSoph Minneapolis, MN
xx Gabe Cupps G 6-2 180 redJr Dayton, OH
1 Meechie Johnson Jr. G 6-2 185 redSr Cleveland, OH
xx Dorrian Jones G 6-4 160 Fr Cleveland, OH
0 John Mobley Jr. G 6-1 175 Soph Reynoldsburg, OH
14 Braylen Nash G 6-4 180 Soph New Albany, NY
17 Ivan Njegovan C 7-1 250 Soph Otocac, Croatia
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
21 Devin Royal F 6-6 220 Jr Pickerington, OH
13 Sean Stewart F 6-9 220 Jr Windermere, FL
2 Bruce Thornton G 6-2 215 Sr Fairburn, GA
20 Colin White F 6-6 205 Soph Ottawa, OH
Just sayin': Added Gabe Cupps
 
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Gabe Cupps has the profile of a backup guard based on his production thus far in college. His freshman year, he averaged ~ 21 minutes, 2 points, 2 boards, an assist and a steal. He was injured most of last season, so it's hard to know whether he has improved from those freshman numbers. There are 2 ways to look at this 1) OSU expects to be set at PG and Diebler just wanted to replace losing his backup PG Ques Glover, or 2) we're in for a mass exodus and need as many players as we can get. It will be interesting to see what will happen next.
 
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I would add that Taison Chatman is considered a combo guard, but his freshman year he seemed to me to be much more of a shooter than a floor leader, so there was a need for someone who can be that true point off the bench.
 
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DZ83CK said:
Gabe Cupps has the profile of a backup guard based on his production thus far in college. His freshman year, he averaged ~ 21 minutes, 2 points, 2 boards, an assist and a steal. He was injured most of last season, so it's hard to know whether he has improved from those freshman numbers. There are 2 ways to look at this 1) OSU expects to be set at PG and Diebler just wanted to replace losing his backup PG Ques Glover, or 2) we're in for a mass exodus and need as many players as we can get. It will be interesting to see what will happen next.
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At Centerville High School, Cupps led the Elks to a state championship in 2021 and a runner-up finish in 2022. During his junior year, he averaged 14.2 points, 6.8 assists, and 2.5 rebounds per game, shooting 50.3% from the field, 44.3% from three-point range, and 85.2% from the free-throw line.

As a senior, Cupps averaged 15.4 points, 6.2 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game and led Centerville to an overall record of 25–4. The Elks reached the state semifinals, but lost once again to Pickerington Central High School, 57–53. In Cupps' final game as an Elk, he scored 22 points, dished seven assists, grabbed two rebounds, and garnered four steals; While Devin Royal was honored 2023 Ohio Mr. Basketball by the AP at the end of the season, Cupps was named Co-Mr. Basketball by the OHSBCA (with Royal).

Just sayin': Centerville High School's basketball team competes in OHSAA Division 1. His father was his high school basketball coach so he is probably a very fundamentally sound team player. I don't know the history of his knee injury; but, maybe it affected his play as a Freshman at IU too. Anyway, if he is 100% healthy, he could have a pretty high ceiling.
 
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OHSportsFan said:
I would be excited about that one.

Seems to be pretty much a replica of Royal. But it’d be a huge talent upgrade. Bucks need to start there and sort out the rest after.
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I don't know that he's a replica of Royal. I would think Swain could be the guy who replaces Parrish in the lineup. I'm definitely hoping that OSU is able to land him, as he'd be a big boost to the team potentially.
 
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With Swain the core would be talented enough to win 20 games. The work would still have to happen to reach the Dance but there would be no excuses I will say that
 
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Bestbuck36 said:
With Swain the core would be talented enough to win 20 games. The work would still have to happen to teach the Dance but there would be no excuses I will say that
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Well, we still don't know what will happen at PG. Let's see what happens first. I'd like to think we'll have an answer there regardless of whether Bruce comes back, but if he turns pro we've got a big question-mark there.
 
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