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Four-star 2026 TE Corbyn Fordham gives Ohio State a Thanksgiving day commit.
To say Ohio State struggled on offense last season would be quite the understatement.
The Buckeyes were ninth in the Big Ten in scoring average at 69.5 points per game and shot a mediocre 45 percent from the field.
But as Ohio State's exhibition on Sunday against Walsh nears and the regular-season opener against UMass-Lowell is just one week away, this year's Buckeyes may have a bit of a different look.
“We just really wanna push the ball now," senior point guard Shannon Scott said Friday. "We know a lot of times last year we didn’t push the ball but there were times when we just kind of walked the ball up the court. Kind of stagnant, kind of robotic in how we played, but now we wanna keep going and be in attack mode at all times.”
Scott will be a key part of that as he takes over full-time point guard duties from the departed Aaron Craft. Ohio State coach Thad Matta said he's pleased with how Scott has taken control of this year's team.
“I like the responsibility he’s taken in terms of just his overall presence on the floor in terms of getting guys to do what they’re supposed to do," Matta said. "Maybe he was a tad bit apprehensive with Aaron on the court with him, saying, ‘Hey you do it, I’ll be OK,’ but I think he’s taken that to heart this season.”
Matta also said one of the main things he likes about this year's team is it's extremely competitive in practice. So competitive, in fact, he hasn't settled on a starting lineup for Sunday's exhibition.
“I thought I had it until yesterday’s practice," Matta said of his starting five. "Honestly, I thought I had a really, really good feel and then yesterday’s practice a couple guys did some things that I’ve been waiting for them to do so today’s practice is gonna be very, very important.”
Sunday at 4 p.m. will be the first time the Buckeyes will get to play against some different competition outside of a secret scrimmage they had with West Virginia.
Ohio State held an open intrasquad scrimmage last week — sophomore Marc Loving did not play because he had the flu, Matta said — so the team is excited to get out and face another team before opening up the regular season on Nov. 14.
"We’re a little bit tired of running into each other, running into each other’s screens, fighting each other for rebounds and loose balls and stuff," senior forward Sam Thompson said. "It’ll be a good test to see where we are as a team on Sunday and it’ll also be fun to play against somebody that doesn’t know every play that we’re trying to run.”
