Without the services of sophomore forward Marc Loving, Ohio State head coach Thad Matta challenged some of the other guys in his rotation to step up and fill the void left by the Buckeyes' second-leading scorer.
Sunday night at Rutgers, they delivered.
Sure, 20th-ranked Ohio State got another dominant performance from its superstar D'Angelo Russell as the freshman dropped his first career triple double, scoring 23 points to go along with 11 rebounds and 11 assists. But as crazy as it sounds, performances like that have become somewhat expected from Russell.
He was outstanding, yes, but perhaps an even better sign for the Buckeyes was he got some help. In the absence of Loving, Ohio State also got a 20-point, 5-rebound effort from Jae'Sean Tate and a 14-point, 9-board performance out of Keita Bates-Diop as the Buckeyes freshmen combined to score 61 points in a 79-60 rout of the Scarlet Knights.
In the first half it was Bates-Diop who did most of the damage, scoring 10 of his career-high 14 points. He connected on a pair of 3-pointers and provided Ohio State with the necessary floor spacing it lacked in a recent loss to Purdue without Loving on the floor.
Bates-Diop's performance, which was his best of the season, was almost certainly encouraging for Matta, who was hoping for a breakout performance from the 6-foot-7 freshman.
"Well I think this, I’ve been on Keita all year to be more aggressive. I want him to shoot the basketball. He’s a shooter, I brought him here to shoot," Matta said Saturday, prior to Sunday night's game against the Scarlet Knights. "I’ve said this, I think Keita is going to be a great player here at Ohio State but we need him to be a little bit more aggressive in terms of his approach.”
In the second half, it was Tate who was running side-by-side with Russell. Tate scored 12 of his points in the second half, including a personal 6-0 run. He made 8 of his 11 attempts from the floor in the game.
His role didn't look any different, but it's even more important to Ohio State's success Tate plays well without Loving.
“It doesn’t really change that much," Tate said of his role prior to Sunday's game. "Of course, now I’ve got to take more looks that I get. I’ve just got to continue and just keep shooting with confidence and hope they fall.”
It was pretty much the picture-perfect bounce back win for the Buckeyes. And with Loving out for an unknown amount of time, it was almost certainly exactly what Matta was searching for.
"I think this, everybody including the players are resilient. It’s sort of is what it is," Matta said. "You just move on and I think you keep the vision of what you have to do in the forefront of your program and preparation.”
The next step for Ohio State is a home game with Penn State on Wednesday.
