Connor Lemons
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Roddy Gayle Jr. and his Wolverines will play Ohio State in Columbus this season
Connor Lemons via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Jason Mowry/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Michigan is among one of seven “home only” opponents for Ohio State this season.
When former Ohio State guard Roddy Gayle Jr. announced on April 22 that he was transferring to Michigan, the immediate reaction from fans was, well, not appropriate to type out verbatim here. This is a family-friendly website.
But after an hour or two had passed, many fans — and Ohio State players — began to think about the possibility of having Gayle come back to Columbus and face the Buckeyes as a Michigan man. With the Big Ten expanding to 18 teams, the Buckeyes will have seven teams that they’ll only face on the road, seven teams they will only face at home, and three teams that they will face both on the road and at home. Thus, there was a 41.1% chance that Buckeye fans wouldn’t get an opportunity to express their feelings directly to Gayle this season when the teams meet.
Thankfully, that won’t be an issue.
The Big Ten released single and double-play pairings on Wednesday afternoon, and the Wolverines are one of Ohio State’s seven “home-only” pairings for the 2024-2025 season. The Wolverines will play in Columbus at some point during this upcoming season, but Ohio State will not be making the return trip to Ann Arbor. That means Gayle — who played at Ohio State for two seasons and was expected to be a huge part of Jake Diebler’s first team — will return to the Schottenstein Center this season and play as a visitor for the first time.
Ohio State’s Big Ten pairings are as follows:
Gayle made the unprecedented move of flipping sides of the rivalry last week after a breakout sophomore season at Ohio State last year. He nearly tripled his points (13.5) and rebounds (4.6) per game from his freshman to sophomore season, more than tripled his assists per game (3.1), and played nearly double the minutes per game (30.9). He scored 20+ points four different times last season, and scored a career-high 32 points in a win over West Virginia on December 30.
One of the perceived benefits of hiring Jake Diebler as head coach was the ability to retain the young core of the team, but that’s not how things unfolded in the weeks following his hiring. Along with Gayle, Felix Okpara, Scotty Middleton, Zed Key, and Bowen Hardman all transferred as well. None of the departures hit as sharply as Gayle’s however, as the rising junior chose Michigan out of 361 possible destinations.
When Gayle officially posted his announcement on Instagram, current and former teammates congratulated him and acknowledged the move. Bruce Thornton, a close friend of Gayle’s and the only remaining player from the 2022 recruiting class still with the program, did so as well — but also acknowledged that he’d being seeing Gayle on the court again very soon.
“Congrats, but see you soon.” Thornton wrote.
Devin Royal added, “We gonna see u soon, proud of u brutha”
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Via Roddyg_23 on Instagram.com
Clearly, the re-match with “Benedict” Gayle, as he has been called by a few, is not only on the minds of Ohio State fans, but by a few players, as well. Gayle jumping sides and joining Michigan will give the Ohio State - Michigan basketball rivalry some much-needed juice, and the atmosphere in the Schottenstein Center for that game should be electric and as toxic as it gets. Gayle will be booed every time he touches the ball for the full 40 minutes.
There have been a few high-profile games at the Schott the past several seasons, including some upset wins over top-ranked teams that even led to court stormings. However, even those big-time games against Purdue, Duke, and Michigan State may fall short of the environment we’ll see this year when Gayle, first-year head coach Dusty May, and the Wolverines walk into the building.
Continue reading...
Connor Lemons via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Jason Mowry/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Michigan is among one of seven “home only” opponents for Ohio State this season.
When former Ohio State guard Roddy Gayle Jr. announced on April 22 that he was transferring to Michigan, the immediate reaction from fans was, well, not appropriate to type out verbatim here. This is a family-friendly website.
But after an hour or two had passed, many fans — and Ohio State players — began to think about the possibility of having Gayle come back to Columbus and face the Buckeyes as a Michigan man. With the Big Ten expanding to 18 teams, the Buckeyes will have seven teams that they’ll only face on the road, seven teams they will only face at home, and three teams that they will face both on the road and at home. Thus, there was a 41.1% chance that Buckeye fans wouldn’t get an opportunity to express their feelings directly to Gayle this season when the teams meet.
Thankfully, that won’t be an issue.
The Big Ten released single and double-play pairings on Wednesday afternoon, and the Wolverines are one of Ohio State’s seven “home-only” pairings for the 2024-2025 season. The Wolverines will play in Columbus at some point during this upcoming season, but Ohio State will not be making the return trip to Ann Arbor. That means Gayle — who played at Ohio State for two seasons and was expected to be a huge part of Jake Diebler’s first team — will return to the Schottenstein Center this season and play as a visitor for the first time.
Ohio State’s Big Ten pairings are as follows:
Home Only:
- Iowa
- Michigan
- Michigan State
- Northwestern
- Oregon
- Rutgers
- Washington
Away Only:
- Illinois
- Minnesota
- Penn State
- Purdue
- UCLA
- USC
- Wisconsin
Home and Away:
- Indiana
- Maryland
- Nebraska
Gayle made the unprecedented move of flipping sides of the rivalry last week after a breakout sophomore season at Ohio State last year. He nearly tripled his points (13.5) and rebounds (4.6) per game from his freshman to sophomore season, more than tripled his assists per game (3.1), and played nearly double the minutes per game (30.9). He scored 20+ points four different times last season, and scored a career-high 32 points in a win over West Virginia on December 30.
One of the perceived benefits of hiring Jake Diebler as head coach was the ability to retain the young core of the team, but that’s not how things unfolded in the weeks following his hiring. Along with Gayle, Felix Okpara, Scotty Middleton, Zed Key, and Bowen Hardman all transferred as well. None of the departures hit as sharply as Gayle’s however, as the rising junior chose Michigan out of 361 possible destinations.
When Gayle officially posted his announcement on Instagram, current and former teammates congratulated him and acknowledged the move. Bruce Thornton, a close friend of Gayle’s and the only remaining player from the 2022 recruiting class still with the program, did so as well — but also acknowledged that he’d being seeing Gayle on the court again very soon.
“Congrats, but see you soon.” Thornton wrote.
Devin Royal added, “We gonna see u soon, proud of u brutha”
Via Roddyg_23 on Instagram.com
Clearly, the re-match with “Benedict” Gayle, as he has been called by a few, is not only on the minds of Ohio State fans, but by a few players, as well. Gayle jumping sides and joining Michigan will give the Ohio State - Michigan basketball rivalry some much-needed juice, and the atmosphere in the Schottenstein Center for that game should be electric and as toxic as it gets. Gayle will be booed every time he touches the ball for the full 40 minutes.
There have been a few high-profile games at the Schott the past several seasons, including some upset wins over top-ranked teams that even led to court stormings. However, even those big-time games against Purdue, Duke, and Michigan State may fall short of the environment we’ll see this year when Gayle, first-year head coach Dusty May, and the Wolverines walk into the building.
Continue reading...