College basketball coaches have different philosophies when it comes to scheduling. Some would prefer to really challenge their team early on in the non-conference portion of the schedule while others would like things to be a bit easier for their team to build confidence. There are also some in the middle.
Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann has heard all sides of the argument during his meetings with other Big Ten coaches.
“It’s interesting, there’s some math that goes into it now,” he said of scheduling. “We got to Big Ten meetings and you hear these coaches and they’re all talking about scheduling. You hear really a variety of opinions when you have 14 head coaches sitting and talking. And you hear a guy like (Purdue’s) Matt Painter saying, ‘Don’t schedule games against these opponents.’ And he’s talking about opponents that it hurts you if you schedule certain games like this, talking about the spectrum of Division I college basketball. And then other coaches are saying ‘I’m scheduling those games. We need wins.’ It’s interesting when you hear all of that.”
Holtmann would prefer a more challenging non-conference schedule for his teams that will give him an idea of where his players stand, even if that means dealing with some adversity early on. That’s exactly what he’ll get with the upcoming season.
Although the full 2019-20 schedule has not been released yet, a good portion of it is now known. The Buckeyes are expected to open the season against Cincinnati at home in early November after traveling to face the Bearcats to begin last year. The Scarlet and Gray will host Villanova as part of the Gavitt Games on Nov. 13 and face Kentucky in the CBS Sports Classic on Dec. 21 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. As part of the first Cleveland Classic,Ohio State will also play a neutral site game against West Virginia at the newly renamed and redesigned Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio on Dec. 29. The Scarlet and Gray will travel to face North Carolina at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hil on Dc. 4.
In Big Ten play, Ohio State knows which teams the team will face and where. The Buckeyes will play Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Penn State and Wisconsin both home and away during the 2019-20 season. Ohio State will only host Illinois, Purdue and Rutgers while facing Iowa, Michigan State and Northwestern only on the road.
“I had one of our staff guys say to me when we were talking about who we might scrimmage, he said, ‘We might as well scrimmage the Warriors, given who we’re going to schedule.’ It’s a monster,” Holtmann said.
“Take your lumps and get feedback earlier in some ways that might be more helpful going into what I anticipate being another really good year in the Big Ten.”
According to ESPN’s recently released way-too-early top 25 rankings for 2019-20, the Buckeyes will face three top-10 teams in the non-conference slate. ESPN has Kentucky ranked No. 2, North Carolina at No. 6 and Villanova as the eighth-best team in the nation. Cincinnati made the NCAA Tournament in each of the last nine years. Before a disappointing 15-21 year last season, West Virginia went to back-to-back Sweet Sixteens.
And that’s all before the Scarlet and Gray get to the Big Ten, expected to be one of the best conferences in the country once again.
“I don’t know if I have experienced something this early in the season where it’s like, ‘Whoa, you are getting hit with some serious games in the first two weeks of the season,’” Holtmann said.
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Ohio State is expected to be one of the best teams in the country in 2019-20. The Buckeyes return most of the roster that advanced to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament last year and adds the country’s 13th best recruiting class. But the group will learn quickly in the season how good they actually are and, ideally, it will make them a better team when things matter the most late in the year.