Ohio State Basketball announces non-conference schedule for 2024-25 season

We are just a few months away from the start of Jake Diebler's first official season as head coach of the Ohio State basketball team. On Monday the Ohio State basketball team announced their non-conference schedule for the upcoming 2024-25 college basketball season. The Buckeyes will play seven home games, two confirmed neutral site games and one true road game.

Jake Diebler is doing something we haven't seen in the past few seasons, and that is putting together a tough non-conference schedule. Three of the Buckeyes' biggest games in the non-conference feature matchups with quality SEC opponents.

As we already knew, the Buckeyes will open up the season on November 4th in Las Vegas, Nevada against the Texas Longhorns in the Hall of Fame Series at T-Mobile Arena. Then a week later, the Ohio State basketball team will travel to Texas A&M in the return game of the home-and-home series with the Aggies. The Buckeyes will be looking for revenge in that one as Texas A&M beat Ohio State last season in the Schottenstein Center 73-66.

The third SEC opponent Ohio State will face is Kentucky in New York City at Madison Square Garden in the CBS Sports Classic on December 21st.

The Buckeyes will also host Pittsburgh to finish out the month of November as one of their seven home games in the non-conference. This tilt with the Panthers is the Buckeyes' last confirmed power conference opponent on the non-conference schedule and will begin a home-and-home series that will have a return game in Pittsburgh next season.

The schedule released on Monday was for ten confirmed opponents in the non-conference schedule. As shown above, the Ohio State basketball team is trying to schedule a third game at a neutral site that will be announced at a later date.

It is great for the Ohio State basketball team that Jake Diebler is scheduling a handful of tough opponents especially early in their non-conference schedule. By doing this, it allows Diebler and the Buckeyes to see where they are at compared to other high level college basketball teams.

Jake Diebler is trying to build the Ohio State basketball back to a top program in the country, and this non-conference schedule is a step towards getting them back to that.

The Ohio State basketball team is looking to make it back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2022. I'm excited to see how the Buckeyes fair against the tournament caliber teams on their schedule, so they can make it back to the Big Dance.