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Ohio State leans on defense as offense sputters early vs Appalachian State: Takeaways
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- Ohio State leans on defense as offense sputters early vs Appalachian State: Takeaways
The offensive juggernaut that the Ohio State men's basketball team had looked like through the early portion of the season seemed to have sprung a leak. Or, at the very least, something was taking on fluid or misfiring.
With 5:25 left in the first half Nov. 11, Appalachian State coach Dustin Kerns called timeout to get his team a breather. Jason Clarke Jr. had just hit a jumper to give the upset-minded Mountaineers a 25-15 lead, and the groaning was starting to overpower the stunned silence from the home fans at Value City Arena. Clarke's shot marked the fifth time Appalachian State had scored on its past six possessions as the visitors had pushed their lead as high as 12 points.
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Only 15 points through nearly 15 minutes of game action? From an Ohio State team that had averaged 106 points through its first two games while shooting 64.8% from the floor and 48.0% from 3? What was going on?
It was the first true adversity of the season for the Buckeyes. How they would respond, even against a team picked to finish seventh in the Sun Belt Conference preseason poll, would shed some light on the direction of the 2025-26 Ohio State season.
Starting with two free throws from Christoph Tilly on the first possession after the timeout, Ohio State closed the half with a 15-0 blitz fueled by 10 points from the free throw line. And when Appalachian State called timeout with 12:15 left in the game, Ohio State's lead was up to 51-32 and the game was effectively over. The Buckeyes would prevail 75-53 .
"I think our pace was slow a little bit to start with," Ohio State forward Brandon Noel said. "A lot of those shots were good shots, they just weren't falling for us. We came into timeouts and we weren't flinching. We weren't like, 'Oh man, what's wrong?' We were like, we know what's going on, we just have to keep playing hard, keep playing defense and let our defense keep us in this game until our offense gets going."
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Eventually, it did. Ohio State missed its first 11 3-pointers. It opened the game missing 13 of its first 14 shots. In falling behind 22-10, the Buckeyes shot 19% (4 for 21) from the field.
Ohio State forward Brandon Noel (14) celebrates a shot against Appalachian State on Nov. 11.
Starting with a Noel bucket on a drive from the right corner with 6:55 left to make it a 22-12 Appalachian State lead, the Buckeyes shot 54.5% (18 for 33) in the final 26:55 while outscoring the visitors 65-31. The offense eventually figured it out, but perhaps more surprising is the fact that the defense didn't let the Buckeyes dig too much of a hole to climb out of.
"Really proud of the toughness and defensive connection we showed," OSU coach Jake Diebler said. "Obviously not an ideal start offensively and different than how we've started so far this season. Really proud of how we leaned on our defense. We made some adjustments offensively. I thought it was a sign of a very mature and connected group to adjust and close out the half the way we did and then play the way we did in the second half. Great game of growth for this group."
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It came despite the Buckeyes being more short-handed than it might have appeared.
Devin Royal out, John Mobley Jr. questionable for Appalachian State
The Buckeyes prioritized the retention of three key pieces from last year's team: Bruce Thornton, Devin Royal and John Mobley Jr., in order from oldest to youngest. When Ohio State tipped off against Appalachian State, one of them was out and the other had been ailing leading into the game.
Royal , who had moved from power to small forward this year, was ruled out with a hip injury that had hobbled him in the Nov. 7 win against Purdue Fort Wayne. But Mobley, Ohio State's third-leading scorer, had missed practice the day before the game while dealing with a sickness that had him listed as questionable for the game.
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Their respective situations had a combined impact on an offense that, at least for 15 minutes, looked out of sorts. Mobley finished with 16 points on 3-of-11 shooting but drew six fouls, did not commit any and had three assists, no turnovers and four rebounds in 26:16.
"He was really, really sick (this week)," Diebler said. "He's been that way the last couple days. When I saw him before we left (Nov. 10) I felt pretty confident he would turn the corner, but for a guy who wasn't able to practice to go out and do what he did was big-time. We were able to get him some shorter bursts of minutes instead of long stretches."
Mobley was 8 for 9 from the free-throw line. Royal, last year's leading rebounder, watched the game in street clothes from the bench.
"I've got high-level trust in him offensively to make something happen for us maybe when we need to stabilize our offense a little bit," Diebler said. "Certainly missed him out there, but going into the game my biggest fear with him not being out there was rebounding. They are really, really good at going to the glass. You lose one of your best rebounders, that was the biggest question mark I felt like we had to answer collectively."
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Ohio State finished with a 39-31 rebounding advantage that allowed the Buckeyes to outscore the Mountaineers 16-12 on second-chance points.
It's not yet clear how the injury could impact Royal's availability for Ohio State's next game, a home showdown with Notre Dame on Nov. 16.
Colin White makes first career start
Without Royal, Diebler turned to sophomore Colin White to make his first career start. The decision was made for two primary reasons: merit, and hoping to keep as much lineup continuity as possible.
"Colin earned it," Diebler said. "It's not to say some other guys didn't, but that combined with trying to establish some consistency with our substitution patterns was the big reason."
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By going to White in Royal's place, Diebler said he was able to stick with bringing in redshirt sophomore guard Gabe Cupps as his first perimeter sub off the bench. With Mobley dealing with illness, Cupps took on a bigger role and played a season-high 26:36 off the bench, finishing with 5 points, four rebounds, a steal and an assist.
White finished with four rebounds and no points in 17:37. He missed two 3-pointers but helped force Appalachian State into at least two turnovers.
Ohio State forward Colin White (20), center Christoph Tilly (13) and guard Bruce Thornton (2) defend Appalachian State guard Kasen Jennings on Nov. 11.
As a freshman, White had 21 points and 20 rebounds while appearing in 19 games, averaging 8.0 minutes per appearance. He battled a leg injury all year that ultimately required offseason surgery and sidelined him for nearly the entire spring and summer. White was first injured in a game against Green Bay on Nov. 25, 2024.
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"It's been a roller coaster of coming up on 12 months for him," Diebler said. "I get to see the time he puts in every single day to give himself a chance to even practice. The exciting for us is he's been more consistently lately and had two great days of prep. I felt like he earned the right to play well."
Said Noel: "He's a really important piece of this team, and with Devin being out some people had to step up. Colin is one of those guys who stepped in and played his role great. Super happy for him getting that start."
One half of Brandon Noel's first Ohio State double-double mattered more
For the 30th time in his career, Noel walked off the court with more than 10 points and 10 rebounds in a game. The first 29 came while at Wright State, but one half of his 17-point, 11-rebound performance mattered more to the veteran.
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"I'm more happy about the rebounds, honestly," he said. "Getting on the glass is something I've done my whole career. It's really important to me, so when I made the transition up here (to Ohio State) I wanted to continue to be on the glass."
In his first two games with the Buckeyes, Noel had scored 12 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. Ten of those boards came in the opener against IU Indy. Against the Mountaineers, Noel was 8 for 10 from the floor and perfect on seven shots inside the 3-point line.
"Points will come and go," he said. "I was able to feed off a lot of my teammates tonight. Great passing from a lot of guys."
Asked about Noel, Diebler pointed his attention to the other end of the court.
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"I think the best thing he did tonight was on defense," the coach said. "I thought his communication was much improved. He played with more force and physicality on that side and you see that with his defensive rebounding numbers."
A game-high seven of his rebounds were on the defensive end.
Small crowds persist for early-season Ohio State games
The Buckeyes nearly set an ignominious record. Ohio State announced a crowd of 7,938 fans for the Appalachian State game, making it the second-smallest crowd for a regular-season game in the history of the arena.
The record of 7,929 was set when the Buckeyes hosted Merrimack for a 76-52 win on Nov. 15, 2023. This is only the second time fewer than 8,000 fans have been on hand for a home game during the regular season.
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The lowest attended game was actually the first game with Diebler as the full-time coach. An announced crowd of 4,517 was on hand to see the Buckeyes beat Cornell 88-83 in the first round of the NIT on March 19, 2024. Tickets to NIT games are sold separately and obviously not included in season-ticket packages, and four of Ohio State's home NIT games since the arena opened have all drawn fewer than 8,000 fans. The only exception was a second-round loss to Florida on March 20, 2016, when 8,185 fans saw the Gators eliminate the Buckeyes 74-66 in what became the final postseason game outside of the Big Ten Tournament for coach Thad Matta.
Ohio State has now had 18 regular-season home games with fewer than 10,000 fans inside Value City Arena.
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: Defense surprisingly carries Ohio State vs Appalachian State: Takeaways
