Ohio State basketball: Buckeyes draw UCLA in CBS Sports Classic

Aside from all the talk of who all may or may not be joining the Big Ten, we still have a college basketball season to prepare for. The non-conference schedule for the Ohio State basketball team continues to come to form, and it sure isn’t a cakewalk of a schedule by any means.

We found out today the Buckeyes will be taking on the UCLA Bruins, in what could be their last non-conference meeting before becoming conference rivals, in the CBS Sports Classic. It will be held in Atlanta this year at State Farm Arena on December 16th at 3:00 PM Eastern time.

The Ohio State basketball team has met UCLA just three times in the ten years of this annual event. The Buckeyes lost the first meeting against the Bruins in the CBS Sports Classic, but they’ve won in the last two match-ups. The most recent was in 2020 when Ohio State won 77-70.

The Buckeyes are adding UCLA to an already difficult non-conference schedule for the 2023-24 season. Some notable games are Texas A&M at home, Alabama, and either Oregon or Santa Clara in the Emerald Coast Classic, and at West Virginia on December 30th.

The full non-conference schedule isn’t completed yet either. So, there could be more big-time games on the way.

One thing is for certain, and that is the Buckeyes will be battle-tested with this gauntlet of a non-conference schedule before conference play begins. I love early-season blockbuster match-ups in non-conference play. It’ll give us an early taste of what to expect from the Buckeye basketball team this season.

Last year, the Buckeyes lost to North Carolina in an overtime thriller from Madison Square Garden. Now they’ll look to avoid two straight losses in the CBS Sports Classic this season.