The discourse started at Big Ten Football Media Days in July 2022.
C.J. Stroud made a claim heard 'round Columbus as he boldly predicted a group of Ohio State football players could beat the men's basketball team in hoops. His teammates, such as Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Dawand Jones and JT Tuimoloau, stood by their quarterback and agreed a similar outcome would occur.
C.J. Stroud says he recently beat Jaxon Smith-Njigba in H-O-R-S-E nine straight times. He says he's the best shooter on the team, though Dawand Jones is the most complete basketball player ... and he thinks a group of football players could beat the Ohio State basketball team. pic.twitter.com/v0kc4a8f93
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) July 27, 2022
At the time, the men's basketball team was coming off a season in which it went 20-12 overall and advanced Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament. Ohio State was also set to have the No. 8 recruiting class for 2022 of Roddy Gayle Jr., Bruce Thornton, Brice Sensabaugh and Felix Okpara start their careers as Buckeyes in the upcoming fall.
Those facts led many Buckeye hoopers to push back on Stroud's claim, with Zed Key tweeting "let's run it then" at Stroud and Isaac Likekele explaining at Ohio State Basketball Media Day that a five-on-five game is "something (the football players) don't want."
But that was then, and this is now.
Following a 62-41 blowout loss at home to Michigan State on Sunday, Ohio State fell to 11-14 overall and has now lost 11 of their last 12 games, including losing streaks of five and (currently) six to Big Ten opponents.
The Buckeyes' outcome against the Spartans led Stephen Means of cleveland.com to ask the question: Remember when C.J. Stroud said Ohio State's football team could beat the basketball team on the court?
"We still can," Jones tweeted on Sunday.
We still can https://t.co/Ga8AY51roA
— Dawand Jones (@dawandj79) February 12, 2023
Stroud, albeit without his own commentary, endorsed Jones' take with a retweet later in the day.
Smith-Njigba also doubled down and responded to Jones' tweet that he would be in the starting five of the football team's representatives despite known commodities of Tuimoloau, Sonny Styles, Jones and others as football players with basketball experience at the varsity level of high school ball.
I'm in starting 5... y'all sleep
— JSN (@jaxon_smith1) February 13, 2023
The discourse will undoubtedly continue from this point forward, although an answer to the outcome of a game between the football and men's basketball teams will likely never come. What is clear, however, is that Chris Holtmann's squad has struggled mightily since the start of the new year, making the conversation about a hypothetical game that much more enticing.
