Ohio State and Tennessee mixed lineups and played through multiple different situations as the host Volunteers won by a narrow score in a men’s basketball “secret” scrimmage Oct. 18, the Dispatch has learned.
No details have been publicly provided, per NCAA rules, but Ohio State coach Jake Diebler and Tennessee coach Rick Barnes have posted a video after their Oct. 18 closed scrimmage.
The teams played against each other for roughly three hours. By NCAA rules, neither team can post recaps or statistics or otherwise publicize the details of the game, but the two coaches collaborated on a video posted to social media immediately after the game.
“Just want to say thank you to coach (Rick) Barnes,” Diebler said. “Had a great day. Got a chance to cover a lot of stuff. Ended up being a close day, but we’re really thankful to Tennessee for hosting us.”
Barnes said the two coaches wanted to structure things as a “work day” and that they stuck to that in the way they competed against each other.
“We’ll both get a lot from it, but the way we kept mixing lineups and doing different things I think in the long run is going to be great for us,” Barnes said.
Said Diebler: “We got out of this what we needed.”
Tennessee, projected to have a top-five defense nationally according to KenPom.com, jumped out to an early lead but Ohio State battled back in what was described as a close final margin. Both teams tried multiple lineups and combinations and both scored a lot of points, a source said.
After roughly 50 minutes of game play, the final margin was a one-possession game, the source said.
Ohio State was mostly at full strength. Junior forward Devin Royal, who will play on the wing more this season, was limited as he recovers from an ankle injury. He will increase his workload as the Buckeyes go through this week.
The Buckeyes finished with more assists than turnovers, assisting on more than half of their made field goals. Defensively, rebounding and physicality were two areas where they had good stretches and tough stretches of play. Pace was a particular point of emphasis, and both teams played with tempo, the source said.
The different segments during the day were broken up into 20 minutes, 20 minutes, 10 minutes and then situational parts where teams worked on specific things like playing against a zone or special clock situations. Each segment of the day was considered independent of the others.
Ohio State will play a public exhibition game Oct. 26 against Ohio University at the Jerome Schottenstein Center. The game will tip at 2 p.m. and will be aired on B1G+.
Ohio State men’s basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.