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Healthy Ohio State gives Buckeyes students a look at 2025-26 team as start of season looms
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- Healthy Ohio State gives Buckeyes students a look at 2025-26 team as start of season looms
If you're going to participate in a shooting contest, and you get to pick a current Ohio State men's basketball player, John Mobley Jr. is a pretty solid choice.
That's what members of the Buckeye Nuthouse student section got to experience firsthand during the evening of Oct. 20. After the Ohio State students watched more than an hour of the men's basketball team's practice on the main floor at the Jerome Schottenstein Center, a handful were picked to come to the court for a 3-point shooting competition. Two students were randomly paired with a member of the team, then given one minute to make as many shots as possible while sharing two basketballs.
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To almost nobody's surprise, the winning team was the one assigned to Mobley, the sophomore guard who arrived on campus with the nickname "The Sniper."
After the two winning students were awarded a gift card, Ohio State's players and coaching staff milled around to sign autographs, pose for photos and even put up some shots with the fans who came out.
"You guys will be proud of how hard we play and the style we play with," coach Jake Diebler told the crowd as his team's practice ended. "Most importantly, we're going to represent what being a Buckeye is all about."
When the Buckeyes played a closed "secret" scrimmage at Tennessee on Oct. 18 , junior forward Devin Royal was limited while recovering from an ankle injury. Baylor transfer Josh Ojianwuna, whose status for the season is unknown as he rehabs from a torn anterior cruciate ligament, was the only player who was unavailable.
At the open practice, Royal looked to be a full participant. So did sophomore Colin White, who has missed much of the offseason while recovering from a lower leg injury .
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It allowed the Buckeyes to do plenty of 5-on-5 work. Here's how the teams were split during practice:
Scarlet team: Mobley, Braylen Nash, Brandon Noel, Devin Royal, Bruce Thornton, Christoph Tilly Gray team: Amare Bynum, Taison Chatman, Gabe Cupps, Mathieu Grujicic, Myles Herro, Ivan Njegovan, Colin White
Here were some of the top plays:
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White drilled a 3-pointer at the buzzer to close out a drill, then came up with an offensive rebound and finished an athletic putback on another to frustrate the Scarlet defense.
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Mobley, Thornton, Cupps and Tilly showed consistent shooting from 3-point range.
Ohio State's Gabe Cupps drives against Christoph Tilly during an Oct. 20 practice.
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Thornton took multiple hard falls but got back up each time. On one, he hurdled the first row of chairs along the baseline. On another, he leaped to contest a Cupps drive to the rim, absorbed the contact and went down hard, returning after only a moment's rest.
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Chatman, who missed all of last season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, nabbed multiple rebounds. He's the second-tallest guard on the roster (6 feet 4, while Grujicic is 6-7), and that size on the perimeter will aid him in his quest for playing time this season.
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Grujicic showed off the offensive skills that helped him average a tournament-best 24.6 points per game while playing for Germany in the FIBA U18 EuroBasket competition this summer. Defensively, he was beaten off the dribble multiple times and looks to be a work in progress on that side of the court. He took turns guarding Thornton and Royal.
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Royal kept one possession alive by pulling down two offensive rebounds.
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With the defense in rotation, Mobley gave a fake, drove around his defender, drew out one more defender and kicked it to the corner for Royal to knock down a wide-open 3. A moment later, Mobley got switched onto Bynum and forced him to travel and turn the ball over.
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Thornton and Noel turned a ball screen into a layup when Noel pinned Bynum on his back, took Thornton's pass and finished at the rim.
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During five-on-five, here's who primarily matched up against each other: Cupps against Mobley, Chatman against Thornton, Bynum against Noel, White against Royal and Njegovan against Tilly.
"The students who come here during the season, spend their money, spend their time to come watch us, the little things we can do to pay them back, that's a blessing for us and for them too," Grujicic said of the event. "Just a great overall experience. It's good to connect with people who support us throughout the whole season."
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Ohio State men's basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @ cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @ AdamJardy .
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State men's basketball shows off healthy roster in open practice
