Buckeyes Men's Basketball Showed Promise Ahead of Home Opener

The Ohio State Men's Basketball team battled in their opening-season matchup on the road against the BYU Cougars. Ohio State did well to schedule a Top-25 opponent in their first game of the season, and they competed hard.

Now, they turn their attention back to Columbus as they get prepared for the Youngstown State Penguins to make a visit to Value City Arena. 

However, looking back at game one, there were way more positives than negatives, and we break them all down.

First, the positives.

Loyal Buckeye Amara Bynum has star potential in his game. Bynum has a special set of skills that give him the potential to be one of the better scorers in the entire country. He is an athletic 6'8" with great speed and explosiveness, especially around the rim.

One area of his game that has continued to develop is his shooting ability. It has been a constant battle to improve his game, and it looks like he might have gotten there. In game one, Bynum finished with 20 points but was 3-for-6 from behind the arc. If he continues to develop this part of his game, he is going to be unstoppable.

The Buckeyes' backcourt just might be elite. The combination of John Mobley Jr. and Justin Pippen is special, and they are going to be a really nice 1-2 punch throughout the season. Against BYU, they combined for 26 points on a clean 50 percent shooting (8/16) while they both poured in two triples. 

It was an impressive showing by two guys who weren't supposed to be a part of this program this year. Instead, they are two of the leaders of this Buckeye team, and they played like it. 

Now, the bad.

Unfortunately, the first game for the super freshman didn't go quite as planned. Forward Anthony Thompson had a really tough game. He finished with just 2 points on 05 from the floor and 0-5 from three. His two points came at the free-throw line, but he struggled elsewhere.

His fellow five-star recruit, LJ Smith, finished with just 3 points on one triple. He had a horrific -16 +/- and was definitely a negative for the Buckeyes.

The good part is that this is game one of many for the rest of the season. This is an incredibly long season, and there is so much room to continue to grow for these young players. Their only challenge is to keep getting better day by day. The result will come, but they need to get to playing better basketball and playing it quickly.