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Ohio State guard John Mobley Jr. out indefinitely with hand injury

Spencer-Holbrookby: Spencer Holbrook02/14/26SpencerHolbrook

COLUMBUS — Ohio State has a massive hit to its lineup at the worst possible time: sophomore guard John Mobley Jr. will miss time with a hand injury, according to the basketball program.

Mobley is second on the team in scoring this season, averaging 15.1 points per game for the Buckeyes. He’s also their best 3-point shooter.

Mobley suffered the hand injury in the second half of the Buckeyes home win over USC on Wednesday night, heading to the bench to be checked out midway through the second half.

The hoops program released a statement regarding the injury: Ohio State sophomore guard John Mobley Jr. sustained a hand injury in the game against USC on Feb. 11 and will be out indefinitely. He is expected to return this season. Mobley has started all 24 games this season and is second on the team in scoring at 15.1 points per game.

Ohio State will be without Mobley for the neutral-site matchup against No. 15 Virginia in a massive game for the Buckeyes’ NCAA Tournament resume on Saturday night.

Ohio State NCAA Tournament resume

Ohio State doesn’t have many good wins on its resume, to be clear. The Buckeyes did gain a Quad One win as Northwestern rose to 73 to become a Quad One win for Ohio State. The Buckeyes also beat West Virginia on a neutral court for a Quad Two win and took down UCLA and USC, both at home. Those are the four best wins on the Ohio State resume.

Even with the Quad One win, Ohio State is currently one of Joe Lunardi of ESPN’s first four teams out of the field. The good news, though: The Buckeyes have just one truly bad loss, that coming at Pittsburgh on a buzzer-beating shot in November.

Seven of the Buckeyes’ eight losses are to Quad-One opponents.

NET: 40
KenPom: 42
Key wins: vs. USC (home), vs. West Virginia (neutral), vs. UCLA (home), at Northwestern (road)
Bad losses: at Pittsburgh

The remaining Ohio State basketball schedule can be found below:

DateOpponentQuadTime/TV channel
Feb. 14vs. No. 18 Virginia (in Nashville)Quad 18 p.m., FOX
Feb. 17vs. WisconsinQuad 28:30. p.m., TBD
Feb. 22at No. 10 Michigan StateQuad 11 p.m., CBS
Feb. 25at IowaQuad 19 p.m., BTN
March 1vs. No. 12 PurdueQuad 11:30 p.m., CBS
March 4at Penn StateQuad 27:30 p.m., Peacock
March 7vs. IndianaQuad 15:30 p.m., FOX