Tough Ohio State basketball season creates memories for ‘Buckeye Boys’
It was the evening of Nov. 10, and the 2-0 Ohio State men's basketball team had just handed visiting Charleston Southern a 26-point beatdown. Kyle Davis, Dan Sapp, Matt Hughes and Casey Foster were gathered together at Davis' Columbus home.
“That night we went outside and were enjoying it so much I said, ‘Let's do this every game and see if we can keep it rolling. Let's call ourselves the ‘Buckeye Boys,' ” Davis said. “They were hyped about it, and we followed through on that.”
That meant the four ended up sitting through 18 losses, the most since Hughes was 2 years old, and the first season since 2017 that almost certainly won't have an NCAA Tournament berth.
However, that is almost a minor detail.
“It's a really powerful friendship that's been formed here,” Davis said. “Even with all the losses, to be super, super excited for every game and to hang out with these guys, it's special. Sports sometimes is about more than a ball going into hoops.”
Davis' and Foster's dads went to high school together. Sapp and Davis have been best friends since childhood. Hughes, the youngest of the group by six years, grew up in the same neighborhood as Davis and Foster. All four are Central Ohio natives. Hughes played collegiately at Otterbein while Davis, Sapp and Foster are Ohio State alumni.
It took this season to bring them close.
Davis' basement became the official viewing place (with the blessing of his wife, Anna Pawlowski). Equipped with a sectional and a sizeable television, the walls feature original prints from the 1960s of Ohio Stadium and Woody Hayes, as well as the Buckeye necklace Davis' grandfather used to wear before he passed away.
Hughes' wife, Amariah, made “Buckeye Boys” T-shirts. A superstitious group, seats have not been changed during the season. Although maybe they should have.
On the court, highlights have been hard to come by. Unsurprisingly, Ohio State's most thrilling win of the year — Tanner Holden's buzzer-beating 3-pointer against Rutgers on Dec. 8 — is a special moment for the group.
“Those are the kind of memories,” Hughes said. “Us screaming in the basement, that's the kind of stuff I'm going to remember.”
Creating new memories has been especially meaningful for Hughes, who tragically lost one of his best friends in August. Mason Fisher was riding in Pelotonia for a third time when he suffered a heart-related medical issue around
mile 100 and passed away at age 27.
Fisher and Hughes had purchased Ohio State football season tickets together.
“Obviously we couldn't do that together and I was having this void, and then randomly I get this text from Kyle who lives 10 houses down the road from me,” Hughes said. “Having these guys who have the same common interest and love not only for the game but also for Ohio State was a really refreshing and amazing thing I needed at that time in my life.”
It's one of many reminders that the experience was never about wins or losses, although a few more of the former and fewer of the latter would've been nice. But while basketball is a zerosum game, brotherhood is not. Plus, there's always next year. “It's been a bit of a struggle here lately, but we've stayed really committed,” Foster said. “A lot of times when we're talking about this season and what it's meant to us, yeah it's been a tough season record-wise but it's been one of our favorite seasons that we've experienced. Something we've said routinely is, ‘Can you guys imagine next year when we're winning games and we have this freshman class coming in that's so, so strong how much fun this is gonna be?' ”