Ohio State took on Cincinnati at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio today as part of a doubleheader, with Xavier and Dayton following afterward. The event went pretty darn well. The weather was pleasant, but there were definitely swirling winds where I sat near the south end hoop, which contributed to a poor shooting first half for Cincinnati and a poor shooting second half for Ohio State.
There wasn’t much information communicated in the stadium about what the rules were, how many fouls each player had, etc. There were just two small screens that showed the game clock, shot clock, team scores, fouls, and timeouts. From what I could tell, they weren’t fouling players out, and that led to some confusion on the Ohio State bench when Adlan Elamin returned to the game after getting benched when it was announced that he had received his fifth foul.
At any rate, if a box score or film comes out, I would take any analysis, including this one, with a grain of salt. I totally saw at least one three-pointer get blown away by a gust of wind and hit a rebounder under the hoop in the shin. I also don’t get why there were games at 3 PM and 5 PM, when the 3 PM game clearly dealt with sun/shade issues and the 5 PM game didn’t. Why not play at 5 PM and 7 PM? But I digress.
Ohio State
Just going to give my quick observations on the new roster after seeing them for the first time. As for the returning guys, not much changed. Amare Bynum looked a little leaner. Ivan Njegovan looked a little more muscular. No one unveiled a new bag they worked on over the summer today.
Anthony Thompson
The highest-rated recruit in the program since D’Angelo Russell looked like the game was going way too fast for him. The Buckeyes ran a pretty aggressive man-to-man scheme to start the game, and he was losing his guy basically immediately after the first action of the possession. That repeatedly put the rest of the defense in rotation, either forcing guys to scramble or leaving players wide open under the hoop for dunks. This caused Diebler to bench him more as the game went on, and while he had some functional basketball moments to round out his day, he was largely a non-factor.
Before I saw him step on the court for the Buckeyes, I had concerns about how raw he appeared. The physical profile is great, and reports from practice are that he shows flashes, but those same reports also say there is a lot of rawness between those flashes which to me codes as a backhanded compliment.
To me, the ceiling comp for Anthony Thompson is Harrison Barnes. I haven’t looked at the anthropometrics, but I imagine they measure incredibly similarly. Barnes was the seventh pick in his draft, and Thompson is currently projected to go around there.
So we’ll see how many flashes he shows this season, but right now I see his projected draft spot as more indicative of the class he is in than of his own merits.
LJ Smith IV
The freshman I was most impressed with for Ohio State was LJ Smith, who reclassified this summer to join the team early. As far as I can tell, the signs point to this being his true age class. His birthday is apparently September 25, 2008, making him just 18 years old.
Given that he was playing in the 17U EYBL in May, he exceeded my expectations by being a meaningful contributor to a team that has a glut of undersized guards to sort through. His listed height is 6’4”, and I would say that it shows. I sat next to his family, where it appeared his dad was roughly the same height.
Not only was he a competent rotation guy for them, but he also did a few things that surprised me. He had a layup where he created space, absorbed contact, and finished the play despite getting no whistle. He showed no hesitation taking threes and made them. He pickpocketed one of Cincinnati’s guards while guarding full court and then was able to score through him and the inbounder.
The physical profile came off a little weird, but probably fine, if not good. Definitely taller than John Mobley Jr., and definitely lanky. Otherwise, no extremes there, good or bad.
Josh Ojianwuna
Ojianwuna is a player I saw a ton of red flags with, and those concerns were only reinforced in person today. He tore his left ACL on February 8, 2025 and still doesn’t appear to be 100%. Best-case scenario is that he is dealing with some mental blocks when it comes to fully trusting the knee, but he has presumably been practicing, and he already played in two foreign-tour games.
Those two foreign tour games were a red flag. In both games on the foreign tour, he did not start and played six and 11 minutes, respectively. Why is the highest-pedigree big on the roster not starting and not getting real minutes? I could accept that as being cautious coming back from injury, but he was solidly in the rotation today and looked like he was still out of shape and still trying to regain his athleticism.
Ojianwuna missed multiple shots at the rim that all should have been dunks, and none were. He also missed a lay-in on what should have been a wide-open fast-break dunk because he couldn’t get enough lift.
What happened? Why is he not 100% healthy 18 months later, well beyond the typical return-to-play timeline? Was there a setback in rehab? Did the trainers fail to ramp him up to today’s load because they’re being overly cautious? This was just one game and could be an anomaly in an otherwise fruitful season for him, but man, were all my worst fears confirmed.
On top of all that, he looked to be similar in height to Zed Key, who was another 6’8” center for the Buckeyes. For a guy who has consistently been listed at 6’10”, I would guess he tops out at 6’8” barefoot. But I am notoriously bad at estimating heights close to mine.
Andrija Jelavić
Looked completely lost. Could kind of dribble and looked coordinated. Shooting motion looked normal, but he was just such an overall negative. The big rotation was primarily Njegovan, Jelavić, and Ojianwuna and Diebler appeared to not like having to play any of them. I wouldn’t be surprised if Misko was walking on water after he was able to land AJ at another high-major after he presumably got pushed out at Kentucky. Yet Another Big Body To Absorb Fouls, and not much else.
UC’s Adlan Elamin
Was the most explosive player for Cincinnati today. Had no problem taking the ball full court after a turnover and flushing it home.
UC’s Tyler Riley
Pretty respectable SGA-wannabe. Had the craft and creation on offense to keep OSU’s small guards on his back. Might have just been taking advantage of OSU’s smaller backcourt, but he was great in isolation all game and iced the game for Cincinnati down the stretch.
UD’s Landen Joseph
Only watched the first half, but he seemed like the next in a long line of undersized dog guards for Dayton. His physical profile is very similar to Tahaad Pettiford’s, with a similar level of physical maturity and shot creation. Only a sophomore, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he has a good enough season to transfer up next year, but this was just blink test really.
Aiden Derkack
The game didn’t seem too fast for him, and he had no issue being everywhere on the court without making mistakes. Has no qualms about running to the rim and trying to dunk it over whoever is there if you give him a step. Seemed very well-rounded with good size.