Less than 24 hours separated Ohio State from a No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press top-25 poll.
All the Buckeyes needed to do? Go on the road and beat Minnesota, a team with a 4-5 record that had the 12th highest KenPom rating among the 14 schools in the Big Ten.
That, of course, didn’t happen. The Golden Gophers sent Ohio State back to Earth by handing Chris Holtmann’s team its first loss of the season. In a game completely bereft of the qualities that helped the Buckeyes win their first nine games of the season, they lost, 84-71, at Williams Arena on Sunday night.
| Who | Where | When | TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southeast Missouri State (3-7) | Schottenstein Center | 7 p.m. | BTN |
As it turns out, Ohio State didn’t waltz into this week ranked as the top team in the nation – by the AP, at least. Instead, the newly minted fifth-ranked Buckeyes will return home to face Southeast Missouri State as the heavy favorite to bounce back from their first loss of the season on Tuesday night. The game will tip off at 7 p.m. at the Schottenstein Center.
In the final non-conference game against a mid-major opponent, Ohio State sits as a 30-point favorite, offering Holtmann’s group a prime chance to respond with a resounding win.
In the middle of December, no one should panic about an in-conference road loss. Heck, just ask every other Big Ten team. All 13 teams that have played road games in the Big Ten thus far have lost. All of them.
Even Holtmann, though he never wants to lose, can appreciate a team facing difficulties in the second month of the season. A year ago with a similarly youthful team, he believed Ohio State didn’t get tested early enough, hurting the group once it reached the spring. Weeks before this season tipped off, he noted the importance of scheduling non-conference games for November and December against strong programs such as North Carolina, Cincinnati, Villanova, West Virginia and Kentucky.
“I felt like potentially going through some of that early was going to be really important for us,” Holtmann said at Big Ten media day. “I felt like that hurt us a little bit last year.”
With a stiff non-conference schedule, Holtmann and everybody else expected the Buckeyes to face some adversity at some point in the first two months. Nobody would’ve guessed Minnesota would be the first team to beat them, though.
What matters now is how the Buckeyes respond, and they’ll get a chance to do so on Tuesday.
Opponent Preview
The Redhawks, with a 3-7 record, have lost their past three games and haven’t won since beating Denver on Nov. 30. In their only game against a major conference opponent, they lost by 18 points in the season opener to Vanderbilt.
Picked to finish last in the Ohio Valley Conference, Southeast Missouri State has fully lived up to its exceedingly low expectations.
The Redhawks, with the 296th-highest 3-point rate and 328th-highest assist rate, don't run a particularly dangerous offense. They turn the ball over on 21.7 percent of their possessions, the 286th-best rate in the nation. Five players average at least 7.9 points per game but nobody averages more than 11 points per game. Alex Caldwell, a 6-foot, 160-pound sophomore guard, leads the team with 10.9 points and 2.3 assists in 31.4 minutes per game.
Sage Tolbert, a 6-foot-8, 210-pound sophomore forward, is the only player who has hit more than 50 percent of his shots. He's averaging 9.9 points while shooting 57.6 percent from the floor, adding 6.7 rebounds per game.
Ohio State Preview
Ohio State didn’t look like itself on Sunday for the first time this season.
In the first nine games of the season, all victories by at least eight points, Ohio State trotted out arguably the nation’s best defense. Only one opponent – Penn State – shot better than 38 percent from the floor or scored more than 57 points. No player on an opposing team scored more than 19 points.
On Sunday, Minnesota scored 84 points, shot 54.4 percent from the field and was led by Marcus Carr putting up 35 points while hitting 12-of-17 shots. Needless to say, those were all season highs versus the Buckeyes. The Gophers also outrebounded Ohio State, 40-28, with Daniel Oturu grabbing a team-high 13 boards to go along with his 14 points. Holtmann, speaking after the game on 97.1, noted that Minnesota “won the battle” in the paint.
Southeast Missouri State, with the 299th-best adjusted offensive efficiency in the country, won’t pose nearly as stiff of a challenge to Ohio State’s defense. Yet the physicality and intensity that Holtmann believed his team lacked will get evaluated regardless of the opponent’s talent level.
The Buckeyes will again be without Duane Washington Jr., a source confirmed to Eleven Warriors. Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports first reported the absence.
No Washington, who's out with a rib injury, means Ohio State will need to find alternative ways to score once again. Ohio State lacked spacing without the scoring guard against Minnesota, throwing off its offense. Kaleb Wesson and DJ Carton combined for 11 turnovers, CJ Walker made 2-of-10 shots and Luther Muhammad went 2-for-7, leading to the team collectively hitting 38.3 percent of its shots and turning the ball over 14 times with 11 assists.
Facing a frontcourt that doesn't start anybody taller than 6-foot-8 or heavier than 215 pounds, Kaleb Wesson should be in position to improve his offensive efficiency with such a size advantage. Carton, Walker and Muhammad also need to find ways to spread the floor more without Washington. Justin Ahrens played 11 scoreless minutes versus the Gophers and could see more playing time on Tuesday.
How It Plays Out
The Buckeyes won’t lose two in a row. Not versus an overmatched Redhawks team coming off a loss. Even with the loss, they're still the No. 1 team per KenPom, No. 1 team in the NET rankings and a projected No. 1 seed in Joe Lunardi's bracketology on ESPN.
Expect an improved showing from Wesson, a better defensive performance and more consistent scoring against Southeast Missouri State. With a game against Kentucky on the horizon, it’s important for Ohio State to get back on track, which Holtmann surely knows.
Prediction: Ohio State 80, Southeast Missouri State 52
