The Ohio State men’s basketball team’s 2024-25 season is officially over.
Just one day after not being selected for the NCAA tournament for a third consecutive season, the Buckeyes reportedly declined an invitation to the brand-new 16-team Crown Basketball Tournament, which was scheduled to take place from March 31-April 6 in Las Vegas.
By being one of the top two Big Ten teams in the NET rankings that did not participate in the NCAA tournament, Ohio State was contractually obligated to participate in the event — which was reportedly going to have an NIL element to it — if it chose to play in any postseason. It was not eligible to play in the NIT.
But with the 16-team field released Monday not including the Buckeyes, their season is now complete, putting them at just 17-15 and 9-11 in the conference to finish the year. Ohio State’s season ended with it losing five of its last seven games and each of its last two contests, the last loss of the year being a 77-70 defeat to Iowa in the first round of the Big Ten tournament last Wednesday that likely knocked them out of NCAA tournament contention.
With Ohio State no longer playing in any games this year, the Buckeyes are now in store for a potentially chaotic offseason that could include a lot of roster turnover. After the loss, freshman guard John Mobley Jr., sophomore forward Sean Stewart and freshman forward Colin White all indicated that they were happy with their roles with the Buckeyes this season.
Leading scorer and junior guard Bruce Thornton said after the game that he was not focused on his future and only wanted to make sure his teammates were in a good mental space.
“My first thought is to make sure all my guys are alright,” Thornton said. “Just a hard loss, especially this (Iowa) game. I don’t know what the future will hold or anything like that, but I just need to make sure our guys are alright and make sure we’re all on the same page because we just don’t know what the future holds for us.”
The NCAA men’s basketball transfer portal opens on March 24 and closes April 22, but players could announce beforehand that they are entering the portal.
