1985–86 Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team

1985–86 Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball
1985–86 Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball
National Invitation Tournament, Champions
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Record	19–14 (8–10 Big Ten)
Head coach	Eldon Miller (10th season);
Assistant coach	Randy Ayers (2nd season)
Home arena	St. John Arena
	Seasons ← 1984–85 1986–87 →

1985–86 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 5 Michigan	14	–	4	.778	28	–	5	.848
No. 16 Indiana	13	–	5	.722	21	–	8	.724
No. 18 Michigan State	12	–	6	.667	23	–	8	.742
No. 19 Illinois	11	–	7	.611	22	–	10	.688
Purdue	10	–	8	.556	22	–	10	.688
Iowa	10	–	8	.556	20	–	12	.625
Ohio State	8	–	10	.444	19	–	14	.576
Minnesota	5	–	13	.278	15	–	16	.484
Wisconsin	4	–	14	.222	12	–	16	.429
Northwestern	2	–	16	.111	8	–	20	.286

Rankings from AP Poll

The 1985–86 Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team represented Ohio State University during the 1985–86 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. Led by tenth-year head coach Eldon Miller, the Buckeyes finished 19–14 (8–10 Big Ten) and won the National Invitation Tournament.

Roster

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown
G	12	Jay Burson	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	—	Fr	New Concord, Ohio
G/F	32	Dennis Hopson	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	200 lb (91 kg)	Jr	Toledo, Ohio
C		Brad Sellers	7 ft 0 in (2.13 m)	210 lb (95 kg)	Sr	Warrensville Heights, Ohio

Head coach

Eldon Miller

Assistant coach(es)

Randy Ayers

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

^[1]

Schedule/results

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Regular Season
Nov 26, 1985*		LIU Brooklyn	W 83–57	1–0	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Nov 30, 1985*		No. 17 Maryland	W 78–66	2–0	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Dec 3, 1985*		Florida	W 80–73	3–0	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Dec 5, 1985*		Akron	W 91–73	4–0	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Dec 7, 1985*		Cleveland State	W 99–95	5–0	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Dec 14, 1985*	No. 20	at Arkansas	L 70–79	5–1	Barnhill Arena Fayetteville, Arkansas
Dec 19, 1985*		Dayton	W 80–73	6–1	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Dec 29, 1985*		at UTEP Sun Carnival Classic Tournament	L 57–58	6–2	Special Events Center (11,561) El Paso, Texas
Dec 30, 1985*		vs. Nebraska Sun Carnival Classic Tournament	L 66–69	6–3	Special Events Center El Paso, Texas
Jan 2, 1986		Michigan State	W 84–73	7–3 (1–0)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Jan 4, 1986		No. 2 Michigan	L 68–78	7–4 (1–1)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Jan 9, 1986		at Wisconsin	W 78–61	8–4 (2–1)	Wisconsin Field House Madison, Wisconsin
Jan 11, 1986		at Northwestern	W 79–77	9–4 (3–1)	Welsh-Ryan Arena Evanston, Illinois
Jan 15, 1986		at Indiana	L 66–69	9–5 (3–2)	Assembly Hall Bloomington, Indiana
Jan 18, 1986*		at Boston College	L 74–87	9–6	Roberts Center Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Jan 23, 1986		Illinois	L 65–67	9–7 (3–3)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Jan 25, 1986		No. 15 Purdue	W 73–66	10–7 (4–3)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Jan 30, 1986		at Minnesota	L 65–70	10–8 (4–4)	Williams Arena Minneapolis, Minnesota
Feb 1, 1986		at Iowa	L 75–86	10–9 (4–5)	Carver-Hawkeye Arena Iowa City, Iowa
Feb 6, 1986		Northwestern	W 83–60	11–9 (5–5)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Feb 8, 1986		Wisconsin	W 73–71	12–9 (6–5)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Feb 16, 1986		No. 16 Indiana	L 75–84	12–10 (6–6)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Feb 20, 1986		at Purdue	L 79–85	12–11 (6–7)	Mackey Arena West Lafayette, Indiana
Feb 22, 1986		at Illinois	L 62–66	12–12 (6–8)	Assembly Hall Champaign, Illinois
Feb 26, 1986		Iowa	W 81–74	13–12 (7–8)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Mar 2, 1986		Minnesota	W 68–55	14–12 (8–8)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Mar 6, 1986		at No. 7 Michigan	L 82–99	14–13 (8–9)	Crisler Arena Ann Arbor, Michigan
Mar 8, 1986		at No. 17 Michigan State	L 81–91	14–14 (8–10)	Jenison Field House East Lansing, Michigan
National Invitation Tournament
Mar 14, 1986*		at Ohio First round	W 65–62	15–14	Convocation Center Athens, Ohio
Mar 17, 1986*		Texas Second round	W 71–65	16–14	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Mar 21, 1986*		BYU Quarterfinals	W 79–68	17–14	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Mar 24, 1986*		vs. Louisiana Tech Semifinals	W 79–66	18–14	Madison Square Garden New York, New York
Mar 26, 1986*		vs. Wyoming Championship game	W 73–63^[2]	19–14	Madison Square Garden New York, New York
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses.

Rankings

^[3]

References

^ "1985-86 Ohio State Buckeyes Roster and Stats". Retrieved September 28, 2024.
^ "Ohio State Wins N.I.T." The New York Times. March 27, 1986. Retrieved September 28, 2024.
^ ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. Random House. 2009. pp. 932–933. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2.

[1] "1985-86 Ohio State Buckeyes Roster and Stats". Retrieved September 28, 2024.

[2] "Ohio State Wins N.I.T." The New York Times. March 27, 1986. Retrieved September 28, 2024.

[ESPN-3] ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. Random House. 2009. pp. 932–933. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2.

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t e Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball
Venues	The Armory (1897–1918) Fairgrounds Coliseum (1918–1956) St. John Arena (1956–1998) Value City Arena (1998–present)
Rivalries	Michigan
Culture & lore	Brutus Buckeye Buckeye Nuthouse WBNS WBNS-FM Ohio State Sports Network
People	Head coaches NBA players Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1897–98 1898–99 1899–1900 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
NCAA national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics