Ohio State will open NIT play tonight without one of its key performers.
Sophomore forward Keita Bates-Diop will miss the game against Akron with what a team spokesman said was an illness. Bates-Diop is second on the team in scoring (11.8 points per game) and minutes played (31.5 per game) and has started all 33 games this year. Of the 37 different lineups Ohio State has used since Jae’Sean Tate was lost for the year with three games remaining in the regular season, Bates-Diop was part of 24 of them.
Bates-Diop watched warm-ups from underneath the basket alongside Tate and walk-on Jake Lorbach, who is also out for the season.