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June 5, 2015Before Wednesday, the Ohio State Buckeyes basketball team already knew some of the major games on their non-conference slate, but the remaining part of the non-conference schedule was announced Wednesday afternoon by Ohio State head coach Thad Matta.
With a non-conference schedule that features games against Kentucky, Virginia, UConn, and Memphis, the Buckeyes will have plenty of resume-building games even before the Big Ten conference schedule begins.
The matchup against the Kentucky Wildcats will be in the CBS Sports Classic. Last year, the Buckeyes lost to North Carolina in the first year of the event, and in 2016, Ohio State will take on UCLA in the third and final year of the classic. Ohio State will play host to the Virginia Cavaliers in part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, while the game at UConn is the first of a home-and-home series between the two.
In total, 10 of Ohio State’s 13 non-conference games will be at the Schottenstein Center. Of the three games away from Columbus, only one will be a true road game (at UConn), while the other two will be at neutral sites (Memphis in Miami and Kentucky in Brooklyn).
In a press release, Matta said, “As I look at this schedule we will be challenged on the road, at home and on neutral courts. With the youthfulness of this team, I believe it will help us prepare for Big Ten play.”
Known to have a weak out-of-conference schedule in recent years, Matta has received a lot of criticism because some believed that the weak non-conference schedule played a part in the Buckeyes struggling later in the season, especially in the NCAA Tournament.
With a non-conference schedule in 2015 that features plenty of talent and even some of the best teams in the country, it seems as though Matta wants early season matchups that will favor his (young) team later in the season and down the road.
The full non-conference schedule:
November 15: Mount St. Mary’s
November 17: Grambling
November 20: Texas-Arlington
November 24: Louisiana Tech
November 27: Memphis (at American Airlines Arena, Miami)
December 1: Virginia (Big Ten-ACC Challenge)
December 5: VMI
December 8: Air Force
December 12: at UConn
December 16: Northern Illinois
December 19: Kentucky (at Barclays Center, Brooklyn)
December 22: Mercer
December 27: South Carolina State