Complete schedule released for Ohio State men's basketball
Ohio State will open the Big Ten men's basketball season at home against Minnesota on Dec. 2 and close conference play at home March 10 against Wisconsin.
The full league schedule, which was released Monday afternoon, has Big Ten teams playing two early-season conference games before picking up league play in January.
For a second straight year, the Big Ten will get conference play underway in December. Last year, the conference made the move in an effort to compress the league’s schedule to hold the Big Ten tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York a week earlier than normal. This year, it’s because the league has made the move to 20 conference games.
For the Buckeyes, that means the opener against the Golden Gophers before playing Illinois three days later at the United Center in Chicago. That game against the Illini will mark Ohio State’s second game in Chicago this season and its second neutral-site Big Ten game in as many years. The Buckeyes will face UCLA at the United Center on Dec. 22 as part of the CBS Sports Classic. Last year, they played Minnesota at Madison Square Garden.
The Buckeyes will play no more than two consecutive road games and will not have any one-day preparation for games like all Big Ten teams did last season.
Here’s the 2018-19 schedule:
Nov. 1 – UNC Pembroke (exhibition)
7 – at Cincinnati
11 – Purdue Fort Wayne
15 – at Creighton (Gavitt Games)
18 – South Carolina State
20 – Samford
23 – Cleveland State
28 – Syracuse (ACC-Big Ten Challenge)
Dec. 2 – Minnesota
5 – Illinois (at United Center, Chicago)
15 – Bucknell
18 – Youngstown State
22 – UCLA (at United Center, Chicago, CBS Sports Classic)
29 – High Point
Jan. 5 – Michigan State
9 – at Rutgers
12 – at Iowa
18 – Maryland
23 – Purdue
26 – at Nebraska
29 – at Michigan
Feb. 2 – Rutgers
7 – Penn State
10 – at Indiana
14 – Illinois
17 – at Michigan State
20 – Northwestern
23 – at Maryland
26 – Iowa
March 2 – at Purdue
6 – at Northwestern
10 Wisconsin
The Buckeyes return second-leading scorer C.J. Jackson, a senior point guard, but lost Big Ten player of the year Keita Bates-Diop to the NBA and key seniors Jae’Sean Tate, Kam Williams and Andrew Dakich. In all, Ohio State must replace 56.9 percent of its scoring from Chris Holtmann’s first season, when the Buckeyes went 25-9 overall and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
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