Ohio State basketball, West Virginia to play in Cleveland this season
The 2023-24 Ohio State men’s basketball schedule officially has a new game.
On the penultimate day of the year, the Buckeyes will head to Cleveland to play West Virginia. The neutral-court game will take place Dec. 30 at an as-yet unknown venue that will most likely be Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, home of the NBA’s Cavaliers.
The upcoming season
It’s the first standalone game to be put on the calendar for the upcoming season. Ohio State will play in the CBS Sports Classic that is likely to take place Dec. 23 at an as-yet unknown location. North Carolina, Kentucky and UCLA also participate in the annual event, which is scheduled through 2026.
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In the wake of the Big Ten’s new media deal, the league will no longer participate in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. This game would at least replace a high-major opponent with another.
Ohio State will also participate in the Emerald Coast Classic, held annually in Niceville, Florida, on the campus of Northwest Florida State College. CBS has reported that Alabama and Oregon will also participate with a fourth team still to be determined. The 2022 event was held Nov. 25-26 and featured California, Clemson, TCU and Iowa.
The game between the Buckeyes and Mountaineers will take place four years and one day since the last time the teams played each other and likely in the same arena. On Dec. 29, 2019, No. 22 West Virginia handed No. 2 Ohio State a 67-59 loss at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. West Virginia has now won eight of the last nine meetings between the teams.
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In that meeting, Ohio State’s Kyle Young played through what was later revealed to be appendicitis. He started, played 22 minutes and pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds but had to be hospitalized afterward to have his appendix removed.
It's not clear when the remainder of Ohio State's schedule will be released. With this announcement, the Buckeyes have eight non-conference games still unannounced in addition to a 20-game Big Ten slate.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State, West Virginia men's basketball to meet in Cleveland this year
