Reality Check
OSU had no answer for White (AP: T. Gilliam)We’ve hoped all season that Ohio State’s strength of schedule (29) might give them a boost come Selection Sunday but SOS means nothing if you lose nearly all those tough games.
The latest example, a 59-53 home defeat at the hands of #13 Indiana, again showed the Buckeyes have just enough to hang around for awhile before some combo of inconsistent scoring, untimely turnovers and/or the lack of a true inside presence dooms the cause.
That missing ingredient inside loomed large today as Indiana’s DJ White showed why he’s the front-runner for Big Ten POY with a monster 21 point, 13 rebound effort exposing OSU’s soft underbelly on countless possessions. Besides being unable to stop White, the Buckeyes sealed their fate allowing Indiana to score 21 points off 10 turnovers while managing just 3 points off 7 Hoosier miscues.
The Buckeyes showed some heart in the second half trimming an early 31-21 second half deficit to 31-29 shortly before the first TV timeout but a 13-5 IU run pushed the lead back to 44-34 with 11:55 left. Shortly thereafter, the game’s defining moments would play out in painful fashion.
A three from the top of the key and another jumper from Kosta Koufos sandwiched between a Jon Diebler baseline jumper cut the Indiana lead to 46-42 with 8:14 left but the Buckeyes wasted 4 stops in 5 trips at the defensive end by launching three deep clankers in addition to Evan Turner making just 1 of 2 in a crucial trip to the line resulting in a 49-43 deficit with 4:38 left.
The Buckeyes stayed within 4 points over the final 4 minutes but it certainly never appeared they would recapture the lead as Indiana hit six straight free throws to secure what the media is calling their first “signature” win of the season.
Freshmen Kosta Koufos (18 pts, 9 reb) and Jon Diebler (14 points, 4 3FG) led Ohio State while heart and soul PG Jamar Butler was held to 4 points and 6 assists in 40 minutes. Butler never got it going as Indiana’s zone extended high on the point and wings daring OSU to look inside. More often than not, post entries only led to kickouts and missed threes. OSU shot just 26% from deep (7/25) with those not named Koufos or Diebler shooting a combined 1/14, or 7 freaking percent.
Also failing to help Koufos and Diebler were freshman Evan Turner and David Lighty. According to Bob Baptist, Turner’s recent regression has likely been aided by a bum wrist but Lighty has no such excuse. The sophomore from Cleveland was pathetic going scoreless with 3 turnovers in 26 minutes which should have been expected considering he wa productive in the two previous games (21 pts, 2 TO) keeping his roller coaster season firmly intact.
The frustrating loss dropped OSU to 16-8 overall and 7-4 in the conference with seven games remaining. The good news for OSU is they still control their dance card destiny but the schedule is not favorable with tilts against against Wisky, @ Indiana, @ Minnesota, Purdue and Michigan State still on the docket.
That means it’s put up or shut up time for a team that shows glimpses but no consistency as the youthful seven man rotation finds it way. For now, all they can do is prepare for two upcoming must wins starting Wednesday night in Evanston before next Sunday’s rematch in Ann Arbor with Tressel and RichRod on hand.
This is what I’ve been thinking to myself for a while after watching this team. All the killer nonconference matchups and road games don’t make us a tourney team until we win one of them, and our two quality wins this season are probably Florida at home and Syracuse in Madison Square Garden. To really quell all doubts, we really needed to pick up at least one of the 3 roadies in January (Purdue, MSU, Tennessee) and picked up none of them. Our two road victories this season (if I’m recollecting correctly) are against subpar Illinois and Penn State. We’re just not a tournament team now, and we would need a signature road win (Indiana or Minnesota) and another signature home win (Wisky, Purdue or Sparty) to settle it.
I torture myself thinking about how the master plan was for both Conley and Cook to be on this team and what kind of difference they would make. I know many programs can make arguments like that every year but losing 3 freshmen to the NBA, 1st round no less, was huge. The fact that they are a solid bubble team this season is a testament to Matta.
a testament to Butler as well for helping tie a team together that features in a starting lineup with him:
- 2 freshmen (either Koufos/Diebler or Koufos/Turner)
- sophomore David Lighty (who took a huge step back imo)
- JUCO transfer/senior with 5 total years of basketball experience
Very true…I thought Butler still had a shot at POY until today. He’s been incredible but the minutes are piling up which could be trouble down the road, especially if the help is still sporadic come conf tourney / postseason.
Don’t kid yourselves. Winning at Minnesota is not a signature road win.
heh, given our past road wins, I think it would be if we could pull it off, or at least it would be the signature road win of the season since our only two road victories are against the 8 and 9 teams in-conference. Beating Indiana in Bloomington is the bigger prize, of course.