Two Ohio State Players Won’t Travel To Team’s Saturday Game

In an announcement made by Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Thad Matta on Friday, guard Jaquan Lyle and forward Keita Bates-Diop will both miss Saturday’s game against the Maryland.

Both Lyle and Bates-Diop are dealing with serious family emergencies and will not travel with the team to Maryland.

Matta said in a press conference that Lyle went back home to Indiana to deal with an issue regarding complications with his 19-year-old sister who had a baby a few days ago, according to Cleveland.com’s Bill Landis.

When discussing Bates-Diop, Matta said that the junior forward’s younger brother suffered a heart attack collapsing during a high school basketball practice where he was then revived and flown to a hospital, according to Landis. Bates-Diop is back with his family now.

Also, in that same press conference, the head coach called the last 24 hours a rough time for the program and hopes everything is going to be okay with those two guys.

Lyle and Bates-Diop are arguably two of the most important players on the current Buckeyes roster. Bates-Diop has not played since Jan. 1, after suffering a season-ending leg injury, and Lyle was also limited, as Matta said he was playing Wednesday’s game at Rutgers on a bad ankle that’s nagged him the last few games.

With Lyle not playing, the Buckeyes only have one true point guard on the roster in C.J. Jackson, but with everything surrounding this team currently, they still must find try and find a way to get ready to play on Saturday.