![\"Bruce](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Untitled-3.jpg\")
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Bruce Thornton and Coach Jake Diebler after Bruce Thornton becomes all time points leader. Credit- Dominic Ferraro | Freelance Photographer<\/p>\n
The drought is over.<\/p>\n
For the first time since 2022, the Buckeyes will return to the NCAA Tournament. No. 8 seed Ohio State will battle No. 9 seed TCU Thursday at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina.<\/p>\n
Head coach Jake Diebler reflected on the moment Ohio State punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament, the first with Diebler at the helm.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really exciting,\u201d Diebler said. \u201cThis team has overcome a lot to get to this point and not just to get to this point, but to be playing our best late. It\u2019s a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the two teams haven\u2019t played since 1970, the Buckeyes and Horned Frogs each faced Michigan, Wisconsin and Notre Dame this season. Ohio State went 2-4 in those games, while TCU defeated Wisconsin but fell to Michigan and Notre Dame.<\/p>\n
\u201c[TCU] had success in a good conference and they\u2019ve won a lot of games here down the stretch of the season,\u201d Diebler said. \u201cThis time of year, everybody\u2019s in this tournament for a reason and you had to play well and be a really good team to get to this point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the Buckeyes fell to top-seeded Michigan 71-67 in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals Friday, Ohio State enters the NCAA Tournament with momentum.<\/p>\n
The Buckeyes had won four straight games prior to the loss to the Wolverines, their longest winning streak against Big Ten teams this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a chemistry within our program \u2014 players, coaches, everybody involved is on the same page and everybody\u2019s moving in the same direction,\u201d Diebler said. \u201cWe want to ride that momentum as long as we possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diebler said while some teams are looking to establish rhythm heading into the NCAA Tournament, Ohio State is focused on building off its recent play.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some teams right now [that] are probably saying, \u2018Hey, we\u2019ve got to reset and regain momentum,\u2019\u201d Diebler said. \u201cFor us, we\u2019ve got to keep our momentum going and I think that\u2019s really valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behind All-Big Ten guards \u2014 second-team honoree Bruce Thornton and honorable mention recipient John Mobley Jr. \u2014 Diebler said it\u2019s critical that the Buckeyes have an established backcourt heading into the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cMake no mistake, it gives you a sense of confidence as a coach when you go into a game when you have this level of guard play on your team,\u201d Diebler said.<\/p>\n
And while the Buckeyes have snapped their streak of missing the NCAA Tournament, simply hearing their name called on Selection Sunday isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis season still is not finished and we\u2019ve got a final chapter to write,\u201d Diebler said. \u201cI\u2019m excited about our guys, where their minds are at, where we\u2019re at health-wise, so we can write this last chapter well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bruce Thornton and Coach Jake Diebler after Bruce Thornton becomes all time points leader. Credit- Dominic Ferraro |…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[81585,81581,81579,116,118,117,81580,81582,80673,81583,75145,81584,81578,81105,35108],"class_list":["post-207928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-big-ten-basketball","tag-bruce-thornton-ohio-state","tag-buckeyes-ncaa-tournament","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-jake-diebler-ohio-state","tag-john-mobley-jr-ohio-state","tag-march-madness-2026","tag-ncaa-tournament-bracket","tag-ohio-state-basketball","tag-ohio-state-march-madness","tag-ohio-state-ncaa-tournament","tag-ohio-state-vs-tcu","tag-tcu-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}