1979–80 Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team

American college basketball season

1979–80 Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

NCAA tournament, Sweet Sixteen
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 9
AP	No. 10
Record	21–8 (12–6 Big Ten)
Head coach	Eldon Miller (4th season)
Home arena	St. John Arena
Seasons← 1978–79 1980–81 →

1979–80 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 7 Indiana	13	–	5	.722	21	–	8	.724
No. 10 Ohio State	12	–	6	.667	21	–	8	.724
No. 20 Purdue	11	–	7	.611	23	–	10	.697
Iowa	10	–	8	.556	23	–	10	.697
Minnesota	10	–	8	.556	21	–	11	.656
Illinois	8	–	10	.444	22	–	13	.629
Michigan	8	–	10	.444	17	–	13	.567
Wisconsin	7	–	11	.389	15	–	14	.517
Michigan State	6	–	12	.333	12	–	15	.444
Northwestern	5	–	13	.278	10	–	17	.370

Rankings from AP Poll

The 1979–80 Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team represented Ohio State University as a member of the Big Ten Conference during the 1979–80 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. Led by 4th-year head coach Eldon Miller, the Buckeyes played their home games at St. John Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

With a loaded roster that had five future NBA players, Ohio State spent all but one week of the season ranked in the AP top ten. The Buckeyes went into the regular season finale tied with Indiana in the conference standings, but fell to the Hoosiers on the road in overtime. Likely under-seeded, the team received a bid to the NCAA tournament as No. 4 seed in the West region. After handling No. 5 seed Arizona State in the round of 32, the Buckeyes were upset in the Sweet Sixteen by No. 8 seed and eventual Final Four participant UCLA, 72–68.

Ohio State finished with a record of 21–8 (12–6 Big Ten). Senior guard Kelvin Ransey was named a Consensus second-team All-American and was selected as the No. 4 pick in the 1980 NBA draft.

Roster

1979–80 Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown
C	13	Granville Waiters	6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)	215 lb (98 kg)	Fr	Columbus, Ohio
G	14	Kelvin Ransey	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	170 lb (77 kg)	Sr	Toledo, Ohio
C	32	Herb Williams	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)	250 lb (113 kg)	Jr	Columbus, Ohio
F	33	Clark Kellogg	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	220 lb (100 kg)	Fr	Cleveland, Ohio
F		Jim Smith	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)	220 lb (100 kg)	Jr	Cleveland, Ohio

Head coach

Eldon Miller (Wittenberg)

Assistant coach(es)

Legend

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

Injured
Current redshirt

Schedule/results

Date time, TV	Rank	Opponent	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Non-Conference Regular season
Dec 1, 1979*	No. 4	Ohio	W 78–51	1–0	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Dec 8, 1979*	No. 3	at Stetson	W 69–50	2–0	Edmunds Center DeLand, Florida
Dec 10, 1979*	No. 3	at West Virginia	W 72–55	3–0	WVU Coliseum Morgantown, West Virginia
Dec 13, 1979*	No. 3	Cal Poly Pomona	W 87–46	4–0	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Dec 15, 1979*	No. 3	at Holy Cross	W 79–63	5–0	Hart Center Worcester, Massachusetts
Dec 19, 1979*	No. 2	at No. 11 Louisville	L 65–75	5–1	Freedom Hall Louisville, Kentucky
Dec 22, 1979*	No. 2	Tennessee	W 91–65	6–1	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Dec 29, 1979*	No. 7	Northwestern State	W 71–46	7–1	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Big Ten Regular season
Jan 3, 1980	No. 5	No. 11 Indiana	W 59–58	8–1 (1–0)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Jan 5, 1980	No. 5	No. 8 Purdue	W 67–58	9–1 (2–0)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Jan 10, 1980	No. 3	at No. 12 Iowa	W 77–71	10–1 (3–0)	Iowa Field House (13,365) Iowa City, Iowa
Jan 12, 1980	No. 3	at Northwestern	W 75–63	11–1 (4–0)	Welsh-Ryan Arena Evanston, Illinois
Jan 17, 1980	No. 2	Minnesota	W 75–70	12–1 (5–0)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Jan 19, 1980	No. 2	at Michigan	L 74–75	12–2 (5–1)	Crisler Arena Ann Arbor, Michigan
Jan 24, 1980	No. 4	at Illinois	W 79–76	13–2 (6–1)	Assembly Hall Champaign, Illinois
Jan 26, 1980	No. 4	Wisconsin	L 71–72	13–3 (6–2)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Jan 27, 1980*	No. 4	No. 17 Virginia	W 70–65	14–3	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Jan 31, 1980	No. 6	Michigan State	L 54–74	14–4 (6–3)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Feb 2, 1980	No. 6	at Wisconsin	L 67–70	14–5 (6–4)	Wisconsin Field House Madison, Wisconsin
Feb 7, 1980		Michigan	W 66–63	15–5 (7–4)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Feb 9, 1980		Michigan State	W 71–59	16–5 (8–4)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Feb 14, 1980	No. 9	at Minnesota	L 70–74	16–6 (8–5)	Williams Arena Minneapolis, Minnesota
Feb 16, 1980	No. 9	Illinois	W 71–57	17–6 (9–5)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Feb 21, 1980	No. 11	Northwestern	W 68–59	18–6 (10–5)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Feb 23, 1980	No. 11	Iowa	W 70–69	19–6 (11–5)	St. John Arena Columbus, Ohio
Feb 28, 1980	No. 9	at No. 18 Purdue	W 64–60	20–6 (12–5)	Mackey Arena West Lafayette, Indiana
Mar 2, 1980	No. 9	at No. 13 Indiana	L 73–76	20–7 (12–6)	Assembly Hall Bloomington, Indiana
NCAA Tournament
Mar 9, 1980*	(4W) No. 10	vs. (5W) No. 18 Arizona State Second Round	W 89–75	21–7	ASU Activity Center Tempe, Arizona
Mar 13, 1980*	(4W) No. 10	vs. (8W) UCLA West Regional Semifinal – Sweet Sixteen	L 68–72	21–8	McKale Center Tucson, Arizona
*Non-conference game. Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. W=West.

Rankings

Main article: 1979–80 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

References

"1979-80 Ohio State Buckeyes Roster and Stats". Retrieved February 17, 2023.
"Wisconsin badgers Bucks". The Daily Sentinel. January 27, 1980. p. 26. Retrieved February 18, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
"Ohio State Jolts Arizona State". The New York Times. March 10, 1980. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
"UCLA, Clemson West Finalists". The Washington Post. March 14, 1980. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
"2022-23 Ohio State Men's Basketball Media Guide" (PDF). Ohio State University Athletics. p. 154. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
*ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. Random House. 2009. pp. 866–867. ISBN 0-345-51392-4.

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

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