Newly minted Ohio State men’s basketball coach Jake Diebler will get to continue to showcase his talents before the end of the season. After falling a bit short of an NCAA bid despite a late-season surge, the Buckeyes were selected — and accepted — a No. 2 seed in the NIT Tournament on Sunday night.
The Buckeyes will host a game in Value City Arena against No. 7 seed Cornell on either Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. Ohio State last appeared in the NIT in 2017 under Thad Matta and last won the whole thing in 2008, also with Matta steering the ship.
The fact that OSU is even in the postseason is pretty remarkable considering that it lost nine of eleven games prior to Chris Holtmann being dismissed on February 14. Getting a young team extra practice and playing time could be well worth it, and hey, who knows, maybe playing for a championship — any championship — will get this team to come together even more.
🏀Let's play some more basketball, shall we?
We've officially accepted an invite to the NIT and will enter as a #2 seed, hosting the Cornell Big Red in the first round.@NITMBB | #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/daZagBCTWj
— Ohio State Hoops 🌰 (@OhioStateHoops) March 18, 2024
As an official date and time is announced for the game this week, we’ll have it for you so check back.
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