C.J. Stroud Says Ohio State’s Football Team Would Beat Buckeyes’ Basketball Team

“I can play. We can play.”

Ohio State redshirt sophomore quarterback C.J. Stroud revealed during Big Ten Media Days on Wednesday that he recently beat junior wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba nine straight times in a game of H-O-R-S-E.

The record-setting signal-caller then called himself the best shooter on the team, and took it one step further by claiming a group of football players could beat the Buckeyes’ basketball team in a game on the hardwood.

“I honestly think that if we played football versus our basketball team, I think it would be close,” Stroud said. “I think we would win.”

Of course, that didn’t sit too well with members of basketball team, including junior center Zed Key and junior guard Eugene Brown III, who seem to be down for a game of pickup hoops in the near future.

@CJ7STROUD let’s run it then 😭😭😭 https://t.co/6F3QGwP2Rn

— Zed Key (@iamzedkey) July 27, 2022

Y’all let him know we down to hoop😂😅

— Eugene Brown III 🎸 (@eugenebrown3_) July 27, 2022

Let’s say that happens, though. Who would Stroud have for his starting five? He named Smith-Njigba, redshirt junior Cade Stover, fifth-year senior safety Josh Proctor and senior offensive tackle Dawand Jones, who he called the “most polished basketball player” on the football team.

“He’s one of the best athletes I’ve ever met in my life,” Stroud said of Jones. “He could play basketball, but his footwork and his ability to use his size not against him, but for him, it was amazing to see the laws of gravity, you know what I mean?”

The 6-foot-8 and 350-pound Jones averaged 17.9 points and 9.0 rebounds per game during his senior year to lead Indianapolis Ben Davis to the state championship.

Proctor averaged a team-leading 17.0 points per game during his junior season at Owasso, Okla., while Stover left Lexington, Ohio, as the school’s all-time leader in points and rebounds.

Official stats could not be found for Stroud or Smith-Njigba, who played varsity basketball at Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and Rockwall, Texas, respectively.

“I can play,” Stroud said. “We can play.”

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