Basketball

said that while the Buckeyes should be at full strength by Wednesday it’s not clear if that will include the Oklahoma State graduate transfer who started the first eight games of the year.

In order to participate in games, players must be back and enrolled in classes for the start of spring semester,* which is Jan. 10. The Buckeyes had a “good” fall academic semester and everybody is eligible, he said.

“At this point, I’m not sure when and if we’ll have the full complement of guys,” Holtmann said Tuesday afternoon. “At this point, I just don’t know. I just don’t have an answer. I should hopefully know more in the next couple days, but I couldn’t tell you right now.”

Without Likekele, Ohio

State beat Rutgers, lost to North Carolina in Madison Square Garden and beat Maine. The Black Bears were picked to finish last in the nine-team America East Conference, while Thursday’s opponent was picked to finish ninth in the 12-team Southwestern Athletic Conference.

There are things about the Bulldogs that have caught Holtmann’s attention. On both his weekly radio show and his subsequent meeting with reporters, Holtmann cited their ability to change defenses, their positional length and the fact that they had a 14-0 run at Illinois and a chance to win at Vanderbilt as reasons for concern.

“I thought our approach before Christmas was really good,” Holtmann said. “I’m anxious to see what our approach is after Christmas. We had a workout (Monday) night and you could see guys needed that. We needed to get up and down a little bit.”

Still, Alabama A&M is ranked No. 327 nationally according to Kenpom.com. The Bulldogs are 4-8 overall but have three wins against non-division I opponents.

Are they capable of springing the upset, even on their best day? Holtmann said it’s on players like Mcneil to make sure the Buckeyes don’t find out. During his first year at West Virginia, Mcneil said he took leadership notes from seniors Chase Harler and Logan Routt, both of whom will be in his wedding this June.

“It was great to learn from those guys, especially in a leadership and more vocal role on the team,” Mcneil said. “I’m trying to do that more, especially as we wrap up the non-conference and start going into conference play.”