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BONUS: Why Is Ohio State Men's Basketball's Non-Conference Schedule So Tough? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: All right, it is time for another bonus show. We
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: got two bonus shows for you coming in the next
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: day or so. Focusing on the Ohio State men's basketball team.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: We got a chance to talk to Jake Diebler on
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  Speaker 1: Wednesday during Ohio State Basketball Media Day. Got a chance
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  Speaker 1: to talk to him as well as some of the players.
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  Speaker 1: On this episode, you're going to get to hear some
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  Speaker 1: of his thoughts on this year's team. And man, he
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  Speaker 1: is pretty upbeat. He is not trying to downplay any
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  Speaker 1: sort of expectations. So that's probably a decent sign for
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  Speaker 1: this year's Ohio State basketball team. We will start with
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  Speaker 1: just some general thoughts on this year's team.
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  Speaker 2: Really excited about this group. Been together now since the
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  Speaker 2: beginning of June. And this summer was unique for us
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  Speaker 2: because we got to go to Puerto Rico and play
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  Speaker 2: a couple games. So we were a little more team
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  Speaker 2: heavy there towards the end of the summer with our time.
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  Speaker 2: But we picked up right where we left off when
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  Speaker 2: we got back. And really, really excited about this team.
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  Speaker 2: The size, the depth. You know, I think the biggest
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  Speaker 2: question for us is We've got some guys that we're
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  Speaker 2: expecting to make a jump, and we've got to go
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  Speaker 2: out and do it. So when you look at guys
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  Speaker 2: who have proven stuff at this level, we maybe don't
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  Speaker 2: have five or six guys that have, but we're confident
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  Speaker 2: in a lot of our guys that are going to
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  Speaker 2: step up and do that. So it's been a good
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  Speaker 2: first six days of practice that we've had so far,
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  Speaker 2: and excited about the next few weeks as we get
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  Speaker 2: ready for what's going to be an exciting non-conference challenging season.
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  Speaker 3: As well, non-conference schedule.
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  Speaker 1: You heard him mention the fact that they went to
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  Speaker 1: Puerto Rico over the summer and that they're not playing
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  Speaker 1: world-class competition there by any means, but what did they
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  Speaker 1: get out of that trip?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a mark.
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  Speaker 2: It was a marker for us that we didn't have,
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  Speaker 2: you know, in years prior, right? So what we've tried
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  Speaker 2: to do in the summer is bring in our former
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  Speaker 2: players and get one or two, you know, basically scrimmages in.
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  Speaker 2: This was different because we were now It was at
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  Speaker 2: the end of the summer, and we were going to
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  Speaker 2: play a group of pros, essentially. Now, they were pros
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  Speaker 2: who hadn't played together, most of them, but they were
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  Speaker 2: pros nonetheless.
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  Speaker 3: They were older. They were experienced.
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  Speaker 2: And that was good for us. The best part about
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  Speaker 2: that trip for me, in between the lines, was seeing
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  Speaker 2: what we had worked on that summer carry over, both
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  Speaker 2: offensively and defensively. And it was a great evaluation tool
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  Speaker 2: for us, on where guys are at that kind of moment.
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  Speaker 3: And now it's different this year.
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  Speaker 2: We have these really three more, right, markers before we
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  Speaker 2: play our first game to evaluate. We still, and I
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  Speaker 2: think this time last year was different. This time right now,
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  Speaker 2: we still got to figure out, there's guys competing for
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  Speaker 2: opportunity and minutes and all that. That wasn't the case
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  Speaker 2: at this point. last year, I think some things were
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  Speaker 2: probably more clearly defined. So that's the biggest challenge for
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  Speaker 2: us this offseason is to, you know, continue to push
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  Speaker 2: each other and get better. But also we got to
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  Speaker 2: got to kind of iron some things out.
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  Speaker 3: Too, in the meantime. And these three, you know, these
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  Speaker 3: three exhibition.
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  Speaker 2: Or exhibition scrimmage combination, right, of the additional opportunity, I
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  Speaker 2: think is good because we're getting an earlier evaluation than
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  Speaker 2: we would have normally.
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  Speaker 1: Before Diebler took the podium, Amari Bynum said that Diebler
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  Speaker 1: has been more intense this summer than he was last year. So, OK,
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  Speaker 1: why is that?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think you have to coach each team.
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  Speaker 2: A little bit different. Certainly, I got to be true
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  Speaker 2: to who I am. They know if I'm not doing
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  Speaker 2: that right. But what I try to do all summer
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  Speaker 2: is really get to know the players individually, but also
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  Speaker 2: the character and personality of our team as a whole.
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  Speaker 2: And we have, we have guys who are, they're compliant.
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  Speaker 2: They want to do the right thing. They're, they're close.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I think what we've tried to do is
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  Speaker 2: really take what we established after last season, the guys
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  Speaker 2: who are, who are returning help carry that over, but we're,
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  Speaker 2: we're trying to take it up a level and we've
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  Speaker 2: done that across the board, whether it's in the weight room,
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  Speaker 2: strength and conditioning in between the lines of practice. And,
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  Speaker 2: you know, My job is to define some non-negotiables that
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  Speaker 2: we feel as a staff impact winning. And so, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: that's probably when I'm most intense, I think, is when
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  Speaker 2: we falter on those a little bit. But it's not
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  Speaker 2: very often. Maybe I would push back a little bit.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not as intense as often as I was in
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  Speaker 2: the past, but maybe a little more intense in the
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  Speaker 2: fewer moments that we do have. But I've been really impressed.
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  Speaker 2: with how this group's responded to coaching. You can coach
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  Speaker 2: them hard. And we got some things we don't waver
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  Speaker 2: on that we hold everybody's held to the highest level
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  Speaker 2: of accountability in.
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  Speaker 3: And those might be the specific moments that got referenced.
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  Speaker 1: It feels like every year in college basketball, you're more
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  Speaker 1: or less starting over. And obviously the Buckeyes have some
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  Speaker 1: key pieces back from last year's team. And John Mobley
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  Speaker 1: and Amari Bynum, among many others. But you also get
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  Speaker 1: a chance to sort of address whatever holes you had
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  Speaker 1: on last year's team and sort of rebuild it in
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  Speaker 1: whatever image you want it to. So, OK, what were
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  Speaker 1: the goals as they rebuilt the roster for this season?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think when we evaluated last year, there
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  Speaker 2: were a couple of things in terms of versatility that
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  Speaker 2: we had to address.
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  Speaker 3: One was more playmaking.
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  Speaker 2: You know, if you look at our team last year,
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  Speaker 2: Bruce was obviously a primary playmaker for us. John did
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  Speaker 2: some playmaking for us, certainly, and then Tilly did some
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  Speaker 2: playmaking for us. Outside of that, there wasn't a lot
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  Speaker 2: of playmaking, so we felt like we needed to get
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  Speaker 2: more playmaking, which I think we've done, and then we
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  Speaker 2: needed to get bigger. Going into last season, I felt
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  Speaker 2: we were a little bigger than year one, but it
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  Speaker 2: still wasn't big enough, especially when we dealt with some
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  Speaker 2: of the injuries we dealt with. This team's different. We
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  Speaker 2: have a chance to really be big at the wing
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  Speaker 2: and both forward spots for the majority of the game.
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  Speaker 2: We have the ability to go a little bit smaller
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  Speaker 2: if we want to, but we've really focused on being bigger.
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  Speaker 2: And I think when you look at the Big Ten,
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  Speaker 2: that's been a recipe for success, that we just haven't
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  Speaker 2: had a chance to cook with that for really these
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  Speaker 2: two years. Now we do. And You can't be versatile
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  Speaker 2: if guys don't get better, right? Amari Bynum growing his
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  Speaker 2: game and getting better helps us be more versatile.
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  Speaker 3: We can slide him around at multiple positions.
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  Speaker 2: Anthony Thompson coming in at, you know, six, nine and
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  Speaker 2: a half with shoes on gives you some real versatility.
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  Speaker 2: And we needed to get stronger this offseason, and we have.
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  Speaker 2: That was important. Andrea Yellovich can play multiple positions at
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  Speaker 2: 6'11 with a seven plus wingspan. Joshua Jamuna can guard
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  Speaker 2: essentially five spots on the court at his size. He
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  Speaker 2: can move and keep the ball in front, but that
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  Speaker 2: gives us versatility defensively. Lee's combination of size and athleticism.
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  Speaker 2: Go down the line, Alex Smith at 6'9 1⁄2, with
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  Speaker 2: his ability to shine. We just have so many guys
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  Speaker 2: who have positional size at that wing on down that
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  Speaker 2: it allows us to do some different things. So we've
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  Speaker 2: tried to take full advantage of that.
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  Speaker 1: You may have heard him mention the name Lee in there,
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  Speaker 1: sort of in the middle of that answer. That's Lee Aaliyah,
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  Speaker 1: who they added from Argentina over the summer. He is
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  Speaker 1: still getting his eligibility sorted out with the fine folks
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  Speaker 1: in Indianapolis with the NCAA. But from all indications, that's
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  Speaker 1: more of a how long will he be eligible? Like
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  Speaker 1: how many years of eligibility will he have left kind
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  Speaker 1: of question and not a whether or not he'll be eligible.
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  Speaker 1: Sounds like they are feeling very optimistic about the fact
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  Speaker 1: that he will get to play. Just a question of
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  Speaker 1: how long he'll get to play. That's Lee in case
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  Speaker 1: you're wondering who the heck that was. So the next
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  Speaker 1: question is about the non-conference schedule. And man, Ohio State
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  Speaker 1: is not screwing around this year. They open against BYU
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  Speaker 1: in Salt Lake City, which is, I guess, technically a
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  Speaker 1: neutral site, but obviously going to be a whole lot
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  Speaker 1: of blue and white clad folks in that building. They
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  Speaker 1: play at UConn. They play Kansas in New York City.
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  Speaker 1: They play at Notre Dame. They host Vanderbilt. What went
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  Speaker 1: into making that much of a challenging non-conference schedule?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, listen, we have a really tough non-conference schedule. Probably,
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  Speaker 2: you know, when you look at the 25 high major
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  Speaker 2: games we play between non-conference and conference and really some
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  Speaker 2: of the other non-high major games sprinkled in there are
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  Speaker 2: good teams.
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  Speaker 3: So it is tough.
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  Speaker 2: And when you look across the landscape of college basketball,
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  Speaker 2: you're going to see a lot of teams playing 22, 23,
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  Speaker 2: 24 high major games.
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  Speaker 3: We're not doing that. The way I view it is
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  Speaker 3: it's an opportunity for us.
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  Speaker 2: To pick up potentially seed-changing.
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  Speaker 3: Victories.
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  Speaker 2: And the seed line can be impacted by some of
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  Speaker 2: those early non-conference wins. And ultimately, I think it's the
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  Speaker 2: best way to get ready for Big Ten play. I
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  Speaker 2: don't think playing, not testing yourself, regularly in the non-conference
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  Speaker 2: is a recipe to be successful in this league this
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  Speaker 2: is the this is going to be the deepest league
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  Speaker 2: in the country and and so we need to get
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  Speaker 2: ready for that because we know that's the bulk of
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  Speaker 2: our of our schedule so we have experience and we
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  Speaker 2: opened the season right a couple years ago out in
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  Speaker 2: Vegas against Texas this will be a little more of
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  Speaker 2: a road environment against BYU and in Utah but I
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  Speaker 2: think right now our focus is certainly when we're kind
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  Speaker 2: of breaking up the non-conference in chunks. And when you
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  Speaker 2: look at those first four games, they're all challenging. And
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  Speaker 2: so we are, everything we're doing leading into the season
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  Speaker 2: right now is laying a base for the long haul,
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  Speaker 2: but also we're doing, this micro-dosing, I guess, for those
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  Speaker 2: four games because I think those first four games are
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  Speaker 2: all really good games.
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  Speaker 1: One of the big additions this offseason was Justin Pippen
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  Speaker 1: from Cal, a transfer guard. I will promise, I promise
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  Speaker 1: I will not constantly remind you all season that he's
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Scottie Pippen's son, but I'm going to do it once
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  Speaker 1: more here. But what is Justin Pippen bringing to the
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  Speaker 1: backcourt there for the Buckeyes?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think from the first probably five weeks
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  Speaker 2: of the summer to now, the first five was a
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  Speaker 2: little bit of a slower start. Ever since then, he's
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  Speaker 2: been a really good player. And He has an ability
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  Speaker 2: to be disruptive defensively that we haven't had on the perimeter,
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  Speaker 2: which has been great. I've had him and John go
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  Speaker 2: against each other almost all summer and fall. We've now
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  Speaker 2: started to integrate them in some live play on the
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  Speaker 2: same team. But those two sparring back and forth all
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  Speaker 2: summer helped them both tremendously. Justin, we talked while we
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: were recruiting him that efficiency was going to be a
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  Speaker 2: big deal for him. He needed to make a jump.
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  Speaker 2: And he has, you know, he's shooting the ball really
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  Speaker 2: well from three. We're getting him to make really high
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  Speaker 2: level decisions. He's got an ability to read the game
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  Speaker 2: when he's in the paint and off of ball screens.
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  Speaker 2: So I love his playmaking for us. That's a good
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  Speaker 2: assist numbers coming out of Cal last year. But the
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  Speaker 2: consistency of him playing towards, you know, his potential has
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  Speaker 2: really been growing in the last month, month and a half.
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  Speaker 3: And that's a great sign for us.
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  Speaker 1: All right, that'll do it for this bonus episode. Hope
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  Speaker 1: you guys enjoyed that. We're going to try and get
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: as much basketball talk in here as we can because
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: I know that's something that people always feel like kind
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: of gets lost, especially during football season. Feels like it's
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: going to be a really interesting season this year for
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Jake Diebler and the Buckeyes. We have Marcus Hartman. He
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: is our basketball insider. He's going to be keeping you
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: informed all season long, starting with that exhibition game next
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Wednesday down in the Lindner Family Tennis Center down in Mason.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: He'll be down there.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: I'll be down there as well. At least that's the
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: plan for now. covering that basketball for you and trying
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: to get you, keep you up to speed with everything
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: going on with the men's and women's basketball programs. And yes,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: don't worry. We have not forgotten football as well. Getting
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: ready to hop in the car to head out to
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Iowa city, cover the Buckeyes and Iowa Hawkeyes. We'll be
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: there for the team arrival at the hotel Friday evening,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: usual pregame and postgame shows for you at Kinnick stadium
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: on Saturday as well. Should be a fun weekend. Make
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: sure you find us at Buckeye insiders.com and at youtube.com
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: slash at Buckeye insiders.