The Buckeyes released their 2006-2007 schedule on Wednesday. Nonconference highlight games include:
At national champ Florida on Dec. 23;
At North Carolina in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Nov. 29;
Against Cincinnati in Indianapolis on Dec. 16;
Against Youngstown State at Nationwide Arena in Columbus on Nov. 24;
Home against Cleveland State on Dec. 9.
The Buckeyes will open the season at home on Nov. 10 as part of an eight-team field in the Black Coaches Association Classic. The event is not a tournament, with every team to play three games over three days. The field also includes Kent State, Princeton, Providence, South Dakota State, Loyola-Chicago, IUPUI and Virginia Military Institute. The matchups should be announced next week.
The 30-game regular-season schedule includes at least 14 national television appearances and 10 opponents who made last season's NCAA Tournament.
Last year's Big Ten regular-season champions at 26-6, the Buckeyes will return just four players who played significant minutes last season and will add a five-player recruiting class that's among the best in the country.
But Greg Oden, the 7-foot star of that group, told reporters in Las Vegas last month that he doesn't expect to return from wrist surgery before the start of the Big Ten season in January. By then, the Buckeyes will have played 13 games, with the conference opener home against Indiana on Jan. 2.
"This is an incredibly challenging schedule for our young basketball team," OSU coach Thad Matta said. "We will be short-handed and inexperienced in the beginning. But I believe the competitiveness of who we are playing, where we are playing and when we are playing will make us a better basketball team in the long run."
Getting Greg Oden back will help that, too.
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