Ohio State Buckeyes Men's Basketball at the Schottenstein Center
The Ohio State University's men's basketball program is just as competitive and beloved as the school's football team. Coached by Chris Holtmann since the 2017-'18 season, the Columbus-based Buckeyes have made 11 appearances in the NCAA Final Four, winning the championship in 1960, and taking home two NIT championships, in 1986 and 2008. The team plays in the Value City Arena at The Jerome Schottenstein Center (often shortened to the Schottenstein Center), which opened in 1998 and is the largest arena in the Big Ten, seating 19,500 for basketball. Appropriately, the school boasts a vocal, robust student fan base that cheers on the team in a section known as the Buckeye NutHouse.
Ohio State Buckeyes Men's Basketball History
Ohio State first fielded a basketball team in 1898 and played its games through 1919 at an on-campus building known as the Armory. The squad then spent several decades calling the Coliseum at the Ohio State Fairgrounds home, before moving to the iconic St. John Arena from 1956 to 1998. In 1912, the Buckeyes joined the Big Nine conference. Four years later, the league was rechristened the Big Ten, its current name and the moniker it would have for the vast majority of the next century.
Over the years, Ohio State has been guided to success by several notable coaches — including Fred Taylor, who helmed the team between 1959 and 1976, and Jim O'Brien, whose tenure stretched from the late '90s to the early '00s. Future NBA greats (and Basketball Hall of Famers) John Havlicek and Jerry Lucas, as well as 2010 Naismith College Player of the Year Evan Turner, have also passed through the program. The Buckeyes' main competitors tend to be their fellow Big Ten members, although their biggest arch-rival of all is the Michigan Wolverines. In head-to-head games, Ohio State holds the all-time series edge.