\n
\n Story Links
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
ATHENS, Ohio<\/strong> — The Ohio men’s basketball team returns to the court for its first of two exhibitions before the start of the 2025-26 season this Monday, Oct. 20 when the Bobcats take part in the 2025\u00a0CareSource\u00a0Invitational – Dayton. The Bobcats will take on Wright State in the second game of the night, which is set to tip-off around 8 p.m. ET inside UD Arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n FANS HEADED TO DAYTON<\/strong> Fans heading to Dayton are welcome to attend Pregame at The Fieldhouse from 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. The Fieldhouse is an alumni-owned establishment (Ted Thompson, BSC ’89) and is located at 1126 Brown St, Dayton, OH. If you have questions, please reach out to Ryan O’Connor<\/a> at\u00a0oconnorr@ohio.edu<\/a>.\u00a0
IT’S\u00a0OK\u00a0TO\u00a0NOT BE\u00a0OK<\/strong> Centered around the powerful message, “it’s Ok to Not be Ok,” the CareSource Invitationals aim to normalize mental health conversations nationwide, helping create safe, supportive environments where young people feel empowered to seek help and thrive.\u00a0<\/p>\n CareSource is honored to support communities all over the country by expanding access to mental health resources and support. Remember-\u00a0It’s Ok to Not be Ok.\u00a0<\/p>\n About CareSource:<\/strong> A LITTLE ABOUT OHIO<\/strong> Paveletzke started all 32 games for the Bobcats last year, averaging 13.8 points a game, while shooting\u00a0.514 from the field and earning a spot on the All-MAC Third Team.He also earned a spot on the\u00a0MAC Blue Ribbon Forecast Preseason All-MAC Team.\u00a0Hadaway returns to the starting lineup after missing the last half of last season due to injury. Elliott looks to build on a stellar freshman season in which he worked his way into the starting lineup and averaging 5.1 points a game.\u00a0<\/p>\n Simmons comes to Ohio after spending three seasons at Toledo. In two seasons, Simmons\u00a0started all 65 games he played in. Simmons averaged 12.4 points and 5.9 rebounds a game, while shooting 55.1 percent from the field, 32.3 percent from three and 74.2 percent from the line. He was also the 2023-24 MAC Freshman of the Year, an All-MAC Honorable Mention in 2024-25 and is a two-time Academic All-MAC selection. Breath played three seasons at UNC Greensboro. The Oklahoma City native played in 87 games, while making 61 starts as a Spartan. On his career, Breath averaged 5.5 points and 5.4 rebounds a game, while shooting 51.8 percent from the field and 58.3 percent from the line. He also has 30 career blocks and 34 career steals. Conners\u00a0played last season at App State where he saw action in 31 games, while making 26 starts. He averaged 8.0 points a game, while shooting 40.8 percent from the field, 40.1 percent from three and 76.0 percent from the line. He added 1.8 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game, while snagging 13 steals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kelly comes to Athens from Chambersburg, Pa. and played at Chambersburg Area. The guard was named 2025 PennLive Big 15 First\u00a0Team, 2025 PennLive Big 15 All-Defensive Team, 2025 Mid Penn Commonwealth Conference First\u00a0Team and 2025 All State (Pennsylvania) Third Team. Kelly also averaged 21.8 PPG 7.1 RPG 2.6 APG during his senior season. Fisher, a Pickerington, Ohio native played at\u00a0Reynoldsburg. Fisher became the all time leader in career points in Reynoldsburg history with 1,306 points during his senior season. He was named 2025 All-Ohio First Team., 2025 Columbus Dispatch All-Metro First Team, 2025 All-Central District First Team and 2025 OCC First Team and Super Team. He helped lead Reynoldsburg to the 2025 Regional + District Championship (Division 1) and 2025 OCC Championship.<\/p>\n A LITTLE ABOUT WRIGHT STATE<\/strong> UP NEXT<\/strong> #OUohyeah\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Story Links
ATHENS, Ohio — The Ohio men’s basketball team returns to the court…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":317026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-317025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115403171286360565","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOhio Bobcat fans who still need to purchase tickets can do so with the Ohio-specific link here<\/a>. All proceeds from ticket sales with that link will go directly to Ohio men’s basketball.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nMonday’s game between Ohio and Wright State\u00a0is part of the third annual CareSource Invitationals, a series of college basketball games dedicated to raising awareness and funds for adolescent and young adult mental health.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nCareSource is a national nonprofit managed care organization that administers one of the largest Medicaid managed care plans in the U.S. and offers health insurance, including Medicaid, Marketplace and Medicare products.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nOhio finished last season 16-16 overall and 10-8 in MAC play, before falling to Toledo in an overtime thriller in the MAC Quarterfinals.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nThe 2025-26 Bobcats return\u00a0four major contributors\u00a0from last year’s team, including seniors\u00a0Ajay Sheldon<\/a>,\u00a0Aidan Hadaway<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Jackson <\/a>Paveletzke<\/a>\u00a0and sophomore\u00a0Elijah Elliott<\/a>, while adding seven newcomers in transfers\u00a0Javan Simmons<\/a>, Dior Conners<\/a>,\u00a0Jalen Breath<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Carter Reese<\/a>\u00a0and freshman\u00a0JJ Kelly<\/a>,\u00a0Jordan Fisher<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Zay Mosley<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nWright State finished last year 15-18 overall with an 8-12 mark in conference pla, falling in the Horizon League quarterfinals. Wright State returns six players from a season ago. Logan Woods\u00a0started 25 games in 2024-25 while shooting 48 percent overall, while Michael Imariagbe\u00a0(18 starts, 64 percent shooting) and Solomon Callaghan\u00a0also had double-digit starts and shot over 40 percent from the floor and Andrea Holden\u00a0connected at a 65 percent shooting clip with five starts. Meanwhile,\u00a0Wright State added eight newcomers (four transfers, four freshmen) to its 2025-26 roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nOhio will play another exhibition game before the start of the regular season on Sunday, Oct. 26 when they head to Columbus, Ohio to take on Ohio State. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. ET inside\u00a0Value City Arena. The game can be seen on BIG+.\u00a0<\/p>\n