Can Ohio State football beat OSU men's basketball on the court? Dawand Jones still thinks so

At Big Ten football media days in July, Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud made a bold claim about the Buckeyes' men's basketball team.

"I honestly think that if we played ... it would be close," Stroud said. "I think we would win."

Now, with Chris Holtmann's team sitting in second-to-last place in the Big Ten with three wins in 14 conference games, that conversation is returning.

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Ohio State offensive lineman Dawand Jones, who is preparing for the 2023 NFL draft, responding to a tweet reminding people of Stroud's comments with confidence.

"We still can," Jones tweeted.

Since Ohio State's Jan. 1 win on the road against Northwestern, the Buckeyes have lost 11 of their last 12 games.

According to ESPN, Ohio State is projected to win three of its last six games of the 2022-23 regular season against Penn State, Illinois and Maryland. The Buckeyes also have road games against Iowa, Purdue and Michigan State in the final stretch.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba wants to be in Ohio State football's starting five

During his initial pitch, Stroud called safety Josh Proctor or tight end Cade Stover the best all-around basketball players on the team, while Jones, he said, was the "most polished, averaging 17 points and nine rebounds per game at Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis, while earning several Division I offers in the process.

While Ohio State had its fair share of basketball players on the 2022 roster, including J.T. Tuimoloau, Sonny Styles and Jones, wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba put his had into the ring to be considered for the Buckeyes' starting five.

"I'm in starting 5," he tweeted. "Y'all sleep."

When Ohio State forward Zed Key saw Stroud's initial comments he called it "nonsense," saying he would be ready to play.

“We don’t barge in on their football,” he said. “We don’t go in there and say we’re gonna run people over, because we’re not. We’re not gonna do that. Our bodies will not do that. They can come over to the basketball side. We do this every day for a living, so they shall see. They will see what we do.”

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State football continues to challenge OSU men's basketball