If revenge is a dish best served cold, Ohio State should have plenty of pent-up payback emotions in store for Virginia this winter.
The matchups for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge were announced on Wednesday and the two men’s basketball teams will play against each other in the event for the first time. The last meeting between the two teams came in 1981 when Ralph Sampson went nuts on the Buckeyes with 40 points and 16 rebounds. The Cavaliers won that one 89-73.
While the game isn’t really a rematch obviously, it is a matchup between two of the more successful teams in the Challenge of late. Ohio State has won five of its last seven games in the event, while Virginia has won four of its last five. The Cavaliers will travel to Columbus for the game on Tuesday, Dec. 1, marking the second straight road trip in the Challenge for the program.
“With the round robin nature of the event, there comes a time in the rotation when teams must play on the road in back-to-back seasons,” Virginia head coach Tony Bennett said. “It was our turn to do so and we look forward to the challenge of playing a great Ohio State program.”
OSU certainly is an interesting matchup for the Hoos. The Buckeyes have made seven straight trips to the NCAA Tournament and they have been in the field in nine of the last 10 seasons. The only miss in that stretch resulted in the 2008 NIT Championship. Ohio State has been to the Sweet 16 in four of the last six seasons, including a Final Four run in 2011-2012.
To keep that recent success going, Thad Matta’s program will have to succeed with youngsters on the roster this season. The Buckeyes have only one upperclassman on scholarship for next season in junior Marc Loving. Five freshmen are joining the program this coming season as part of a top 10 recruiting class. Ohio State also will be replacing nearly the entire starting lineup as it lost four of five starters from a year ago (64.9% of total points, 87.4%, 60.6% of total rebounds). Jae’Sean Tate is the only returning starter as he started the final 16 games last season as a freshman.
That, of course, is nearly the exact opposite of Virginia’s situation. While the Hoos lost two starters in Darion Atkins and Justin Anderson from last season, the rest of the roster returns to form an experienced team for 2015-2016. That includes All-American Malcolm Brogdon as well as fellow seniors Anthony Gill, Mike Tobey, and Evan Nolte. That quartet has been part of back-to-back ACC Regular Season Championships in Charlottesville.
OSU is 6-7 all-time in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, while Virginia is 9-6.
