After aggravating a shoulder injury Saturday against Nebraska, Ohio State forward Jae’Sean Tate’s status for the remainder of the 2015-16 season is uncertain. Continue for updates. Tate Awaiting MRI Results on Shoulder Tuesday, Feb. 23 According to Adam Jardy of the Columbus Dispatch, the sophomore has been dealing with a nagging shoulder ailment for quite some time, and his season could reportedly be in jeopardy depending upon the results of an MRI. The Pickerington, Ohio, native is averaging 11.7 points and 6.4 rebounds in over 29 minutes per game this season, and he figured to be a big part of the 18-10 Buckeyes’ push to secure an NCAA tournament bid. Per Jardy, Tate tore his labrum during his senior season of high school, and Tate’s father revealed it has been an ongoing issue. While the exact source of the shoulder aggravation is uncertain, Jardy speculated that it may have happened on this play late in the Nebraska game that saw Tate slap the floor before getting burned on defense, via Brent Yarina of BTN.com: OSU has just three regular-season games remaining, and they are all against Top 10 teams in the form of two clashes with rival Michigan State and one meeting with Iowa. Being without Tate for those games could be a huge blow to the Buckeyes’ tourney hopes, as losing all of them may force Ohio State to win the Big Ten tournament in order to participate in March Madness. Tate is third on the team in scoring and second in rebounds, and if he is on…

Ohio State is sending a nation-best 14 players to the NFL combine this week, and while a handful of former Buckeyes already have first-round grades, others are trying to improve their stock ahead of the draft in April. The combine serves as the best outlet for players to showcase their ability to the 32 NFL teams looking to upgrade their talent level. The Buckeyes have players at every position group heading to Indianapolis this week, highlighted by standout defensive end Joey Bosa and running back Ezekiel Elliott. Here are three Buckeyes to keep an eye on this week. Begin Slideshow

The floor slap did not work out so well for Jae’Sean Tate.The Ohio State Buckeyes forward took a page straight out of the Duke playbook Saturday night in Lincoln, Nebraska, whipping out the floor slap when defending Tai Webster. Except it didn’t go quite as planned.The Nebraska Cornhuskers guard blew right past Tate, who appeared to be too consumed in the intimidation effort to actually play defense.Luckily for Tate, the Buckeyes pulled out the win in overtime, 65-62.[Twitter] Read more Ohio State Basketball news on BleacherReport.com

Urban Meyer retained his title as recruiting king of the Big Ten earlier this month, when he helped Ohio State sign the conference’s top class for the fifth consecutive year. The Buckeyes, who checked in at No. 4 in the national standings behind Alabama, Florida State and LSU, filled a number of big holes in their roster with 25 new freshmen. It was a balanced class, though, as Ohio State brought in blue-chip prospects to every position group on the team. With star potential at every level, here’s a look at every position that was upgraded by the 2016 recruiting class. All recruiting rankings and information courtesy of 247Sports. Begin Slideshow

NFL teams are always looking for elite talent at the most important positions to vault their league standing to the upper echelon. Star quarterbacks are undoubtedly the most valuable positional players on the field at any given time. Finding a top-tier pass-rusher to chase other teams’ franchise quarterbacks must also be a significant priority. The two most valuable positions in the NFL are quarterback and pass-rusher, at least if we’re judging by which players have the biggest contracts. According to Spotrac, there are 17 players with at least a $95 million contract. Six of those 17 players are pass-rushers, and Denver’s Von Miller is likely to join that group sooner than later. Dallas left tackle Tyron Smith and Detroit wideout Calvin Johnson are the only non-quarterbacks of the remaining 11 players on that list. The NFL is clear with which positions are valued the most. Positional value has significant impact in free agency and the NFL draft. Teams selecting in the first 10 picks of the draft will have the opportunity to get their hands on an elite pass-rushing prospect, and former Ohio State Buckeye and Eastern Kentucky Colonels edge playmaker Noah Spence is the best pure pass-rusher in the 2016 NFL draft. Spence has been a supremely talented prospect going back to his high school recruitment out of Bishop McDevitt High School. The former 5-star defensive end was the nation’s No. 5 prospect in the 2012 class. He was also Urban Meyer’s first 5-star…

COLUMBUS, Ohio — At this point in his college career, J.T. Barrett is an offseason workout veteran. From the lifts that led to numbness in his arms as an early enrollee in 2013 to the battle to be Braxton Miller’s backup a year later to last offseason’s recovery from a broken ankle, Barrett is no stranger to the rigors that accompany Ohio State’s winter workouts leading into spring practice. The redshirt junior has become a fixture in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, the undisputed face of the Buckeyes program following the mass exodus of established talent from last season’s team. But as the Wichita Falls, Texas, native grinds through his fourth winter in Columbus, he finds himself in a role he’s yet to play in any of his previous offseasons in his college career. For the first time since arriving at Ohio State three years ago, Barrett is spending his winter as the undisputed starting quarterback, despite already being one of the program’s few known on-field commodities entering 2016. “Dang,” Barrett said when it was mentioned to him that this is his first offseason as Ohio State’s established starting signal-caller. “Yeah, I didn’t think about that.” It is kind of hard to believe, given all that Barrett has already accomplished in his college career. As a redshirt freshman in 2014, the 6’1″, 225-pounder obliterated the Buckeyes’ single-season quarterback record book, setting a program high for total offense and a new Big Ten mark for total touchdowns en…

Ohio State has to find new starters at all three wide receiver spots before opening its 2016 season against Bowling Green on September 3, and while there’s a shortage of experience, the Buckeyes have loads of talent on the perimeter. But even with that brimming potential, finding successors for Michael Thomas, Jalin Marshall and Braxton Miller—who led Ohio State in receiving yards and touchdowns in 2015—will be one of the biggest challenges for Urban Meyer and the coaching staff during spring and fall camp. So who will be J.T. Barrett’s top targets this fall? The Comeback Kids Ohio State was supposed to get big contributions from Noah Brown and Corey Smith in 2015, but both saw their seasons cut short after suffering broken legs. Brown’s injury came during fall camp, which was a huge blow to the wide receiver corps. The 6’2″, 222-pound sophomore was breaking out in practice and primed for a huge season, and the Buckeyes were relying on him to bring his aggressive perimeter blocking and crisp routes to an already explosive offense. Smith went down in the first conference game of the year, when the Buckeyes hit the road for a matchup against Indiana in Week 5. He was struggling to find his way in an uninspired passing attack, catching just five passes for 62 yards before his season ended, but that was more a result of poor quarterback play than anything he failed to bring to the field. Thanks to the NCAA granting Smith a medical redshirt to return…

COLUMBUS, Ohio — When Bovada, via Odds Shark, released its most recent national championship odds for the 2016-17 college football season, it didn’t take long to spot the first head-scratcher on the list. It came at the very top. Despite dealing with a mass exodus of experienced NFL-ready talent while preparing to face its toughest schedule of the Urban Meyer era, it was Ohio State who the offshore gambling site proclaimed as college football’s national championship favorite for the coming year. With 6-1 odds, the Buckeyes edged out defending national champ Alabama (7-1), runner-up Clemson (15-2) and rival Michigan (15-2) as the favorites to capture college football’s crown in the coming year. As recently as a month ago, Ohio State was listed behind the Crimson Tide and Tigers—who both still had their current odds—with the Buckeyes, Wolverines and Baylor tied for third at 12-1. So why the change when all that’s happened since now and then was a national signing day where Alabama inked a higher-ranked class than Ohio State? First, it’s important to note that odds aren’t always a reflection of what oddsmakers project will happen, but rather what will protect them from potentially dangerous payouts on what bettors deem as strong value picks. So while Bovada still feels the same way about Alabama and Clemson as it did just weeks ago, based on their odds, early money on the Buckeyes’ initial line likely forced oddsmakers to cut the potential…

If the Ohio State Buckeyes (16-10) are going to make the NCAA tournament for an eighth straight year, then Tuesday’s home game versus the Michigan Wolverines (19-7) is a must-win situation. The key Big Ten matchup is listed as a pick’em at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark, with the Buckeyes going for their third victory in a row. Ohio State is currently in a three-way tie for sixth place in the conference with the Michigan State Spartans and Purdue Boilermakers, who are both virtual locks to make the Big Dance because they have already reached 20 wins. After failing to cover the spread in three of their past four games despite winning two straight, the Buckeyes need to win four of their next five to accomplish that feat during the regular season. Meanwhile, like Michigan State and Purdue, Michigan also looks like a solid pick to make the NCAA tournament field for the fifth consecutive year. The Wolverines are trying to win their third in a row overall as well after beating the Boilermakers 61-56 as one-point home underdogs on Saturday. They scored the final 11 points of the game against Purdue to pull off the small upset and were led by Zak Irvin’s 22 points. Michigan has won four of the past five meetings with Ohio State, covering the spread in three of the last four, according to the Odds Shark College Basketball Database, and split a pair of games a year ago with each school winning on its home court. Those previous two meetings both went under…

With the legacy left behind by superstar defensive end Joey Bosa, younger brother Nick will have to fight his way out of an enormous shadow when he embarks on his Ohio State career this fall. Nick, who signed with the Buckeyes on national signing day two weeks ago, is a 5-star standout who ranked eighth nationally and No. 1 at his position for the Class of 2016. He’s 6’4″ and 265 pounds, has speed that defies his size and strength that makes him an absolute nightmare coming off the edge. And he has the potential to be even better than his big brother. That comparison, fair or not, will follow Nick during his entire tenure in Columbus, and it will linger into his professional career if his potential turns into reality. His new head coach is already lining the two up, according to Bill Rabinowitz of the Columbus Dispatch. But high school success doesn’t always translate to the collegiate level. So what does Nick have to do to carve a similarly successful path at Ohio State? Instant Impact One of the things that made Joey so special was his seamless integration to the collegiate game. That’s the biggest obstacle for incoming freshmen to overcome—a playing field that isn’t populated by undersized high school teenagers but men who are of equal stature with professional aspirations. It wasn’t too big of a hurdle for Joey, though. He was thoroughly entrenched in Ohio State’s defensive line rotation at the start of his freshman…