Ohio State is certainly in a unique situation, one that hasn't happened too often under head coach Thad Matta.
The 20th-ranked Buckeyes — who are temporarily playing without sophomore forward Marc Loving — are made up of entirely freshmen and seniors. There is nobody in between.
The seniors — Shannon Scott, Sam Thompson, Amir Williams, Trey McDonald and graduate transfer Anthony Lee — have obviously been around the block under Matta. They've been to a Final Four and Elite Eight and have won a Big Ten title. When Ohio State was eliminated in its opening NCAA tournament game last year, that was unfamiliar territory.
For the freshmen — D'Angelo Russell, Jae'Sean Tate, Keita Bates-Diop and Kam Williams — this is entirely new. The four haven't been through the ups and downs of a Big Ten season before and certainly haven't experienced everything that comes with March Madness.
But when the Buckeyes took the court Sunday night at Rutgers, coming off a disappointing two-point loss at Purdue that snapped a three-game winning streak, it was the freshmen, not the seniors, who stepped up and go Ohio State back on the right track.
Led by their superstar Russell, the four freshmen scored 61 of the team's 79 points as the Buckeyes routed the Scarlet Knights by 19. Russell turned in just the fourth triple-double in Ohio State history and it was the first ever by a Buckeye freshman and the first ever in Big Ten play.
Russell's stat line — 23 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists on just 8-of-13 shooting — was outstanding, but he wasn't alone. Tate was his usual scrappy self, chipping in 20 points and five rebounds.
Bates-Diop played perhaps his best game in an Ohio State uniform, scoring a career-high 14 points and snagging nine rebounds to go along with three assists and three blocks. He made 3-of-4 attempts from behind the 3-point line, providing the Buckeyes with some much-needed floor spacing in Loving's absence. Kam Williams also scored four points on a pair of nice finishes around the rim.
"We’re definitely a unique team because we are all seniors and all freshmen," Matta said prior to Sunday's game. "That is very, very unique."
Thompson and Scott are the only two seniors who play significant minutes, although at least one of the three other big guys is usually on the floor with them. Matta has longed to get more production out of the five of them. Against Rutgers, they combined for just 18 points.
"I think Sam and Shannon, we need those guys to play a little bit better on the offensive end just in terms of making some shots, that sort of thing," Matta said. "The one thing about those two guys is you can always count on them on the defensive end, but obviously we do need a little bit more scoring from them as well which goes back to the how those two score is through pace and push and transition and that sort of thing.”
For Ohio State to be a really good team, it needs its seniors to be just as important as the freshmen. The only problem is they've set the bar pretty high.
