COLUMBUS, Ohio -- We knew this stretch was coming when the 2017-18 Ohio State basketball schedule was released in the summer. Now it's here.

The Buckeyes (4-0) travel to Portland, Ore., on Tuesday for the PK80 Invitational, which will feature Ohio State and 15 other Nike programs playing three games over four days. Here's what's coming up for Ohio State during that trip, and after:

* Vs. No. 17 Gonzaga on Nov. 23 (Thanksgiving Night)

* Vs. either No. 8 Florida or Stanford on Nov. 24

* Then depending on who wins and loses on their side of the bracket, the Buckeyes will have a third game in Portland against No. 1 Duke, Texas, Butler or Portland State.

* Back home on Wednesday, Nov. 29 against Clemson in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge

* Then, because the Big Ten is playing one week of the conference schedule in December to account for the conference tournament being played one week earlier than usual, Ohio State plays at Wisconsin on Saturday, Dec. 2.

* The stretch ends with a home game against Michigan on Dec. 4.

Ken Pomeroy's projections would call for Ohio State to lose all six of those games, unless the Buckeyes end up playing Portland State. Things are about to get very real for Chris Holtmann's program.

So here are five thoughts on where the Buckeyes stand after Sunday's 80-55 win over Northeastern:

1. They need to shoot the 3-pointer better if theyr'e going to pull off any upsets during this stretch. To date, Ohio State is shooting 28.3 percent on 3s, and at the time of writing this on Sunday evening, was No. 283 in the country in shooting from beyond the arc.

"I think we'll shoot it better from 3 for sure," Holtmann said Sunday. "We'll have games where we'll shoot it much better from 3. I believe that."

At the moment it feels like they're shooting too many 3s for a team starting the season off in this kind of slump. Especially considering the interior scoring advantage Ohio State has had in its first four games.

They opened with 18 attempts against Robert Morris. Then had 27 against Radford, and 28 against Texas Southern. They shot 3 for 15 on Sunday against Northeastern.

The Buckeyes have some capable, if not streaky, shooters in Kam Williams, Keita Bates-Diop, C.J. Jackson, Andre Wesson and Micah Potter. But only Bates-Diop (45 percent, 9 of 20) is shooting it well through four games.

"I think part of it is we have guys shooting from too deep, probably not the best shots," Holtmann said. "We've got good shooters doing that a little bit. We gotta clean that up in tape for sure. I want guys ready to shoot. We've got capable shooters."

2. Holtmann issued a decree that turnovers needed to go down after the Buckeyes had 19 in the opener. It's gone down every game since, to a season-low nine on Sunday. It won't stay that low, but any progress is good. It's a sign of coachability.

3. C.J. Jackson may be a more competent point guard than I was willing to give him credit for before this season. The thing that I thought would end up holding this team back from surprising people was good point guard play.

The level of competition is about to ratchet up big time, but Jackson -- and even Andrew Dakich in stretches -- has handled things well and kept Holtmann from having to play Jae'Sean Tate out of position too much as a backup ball-handler.

Jackson only had three assists on Sunday, but he also only had one turnover. Since he had to sit for a few minutes in the first half against Radford because his turnover number was too high, Jackson has looked much more in control while remaining aggressive. He's got to get his shot down, he's 4 of 18 on 3s this year, but he's getting his teammates more involved at this point than I thought he would (5.3 assists per game). He had a beautiful drive and no-look pass to Tate on Sunday, and a couple of good entry bounced passes to the post.

Jackson will continue to be a work in progress, and he'll have a lot of pressure on him in the next six games. But so far, not bad.

4. Holtmann sees one area where Ohio State could potentially have an advantage most nights.

"We have a chance to be a pretty good rebounding team," he said. "You're always trying to look at your team and see what can we be good at. Last year at Butler, we were not a very good offensive rebounding team. We were one of the worst in the country. I never felt like we had the potential to be that. I feel like this group potential wise, we better be good defensive rebounding, but we have the potential to be good on both ends if we pursue the ball like we need to. "

Right now, Ohio State is No. 38 in the country with an offensive rebounding percentage of 38.7. That's through four games against physically out-matched competition. But it's more about the effort than the size advantage.

If this rate continues, the Buckeyes have the chance to be the best offensive rebounding team its been since the 2003-4 season, when it had a rate of 37.3 percent.

5. Bates-Diop had a series against Northeastern that I think perfectly encapsulates the most noticeable difference this year with Holtmann running things. This team plays much harder than it did last year.

"It's mind-blowing how hard this team plays. We're having fun out there," Tate said.

Here's what Bates-Diop did: He popped the ball out with a swipe on a Northeastern guard. He and Williams both went to the floor for the loose ball. Bates-Diop got it, then lost it, then got it back and passed from his butt to Andrew Dakich.

Dakich pushed the ball up the floor, then passed to a trailing Bates-Diop for a two-handed dunk.

"Yeah I worked hard for that ball," Bates-Diop said. "I expected to get it back, and AD gave it to me."

There have been more effort plays through four games so far this year than it felt like there were all of last year. That's not all on the coaches. Some of it is roster turnover and losing players who struggled to bring effort. In their places are some younger, more eager players and upper classmen maybe turning a corner a bit.

"I think (Keita) looks like he's having fun," Holtmann said. "It's fun to play hard, to cut loose and play and leave it out there. I think that's good to see. He's not a super emotional guy, but that's fine because he's a great balance to Jae'Sean. Keita has gotta play full-throttle to be at his best. We challenged him with playing with a great motor. When he does that, he's just really hard to handle because of his natural ability."

So far Bates-Diop is averaging 19.3 points and 10 rebounds per game. He'll need to be a start for Ohio State to navigate this stretch without dropping every game.