Last year’s first-round loss in the NCAA Tournament still leaves a mark on the Ohio State men’s basketball program.
It’s not one that will be easily forgotten by the participants involved, and even first-year Buckeyes have heard enough about the upset defeat to No. 15 seed Oral Roberts to let it fuel them ahead of Friday’s tournament opener against No. 10 seed Loyola.
Ohio State may not be able to travel back in time, but avenging the loss that motivated its entire offseason with a better first-round showing in the Big Dance one year later would be a satisfactory accomplishment just the same.
“It’s been on our mind since the day it happened,” Buckeye forward Justin Ahrens said Wednesday. “That was history, so it was something we had in mind when we were working all last summer, throughout the whole season. So we’re excited to get out there Friday, cut loose and just leave it all out there and compete.”
Much like this season, last year’s Buckeyes limped into the Big Ten Tournament on the back of a skid to end the regular season, dropping its final four games of the regular season to begin postseason play as a No. 5 seed in Indianapolis. But Ohio State outperformed expectations in last year’s Big Ten Tournament, winning three straight games that went down to the wire to reach the championship game of the Big Ten Tournament for the first time in eight years.
Ohio State came up short, eventually falling to Illinois in overtime, but it showed enough during that stretch to earn a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, its highest since 2013. Having already proven capable of knocking off just about any Big Ten team during a year in which the conference was considered historically good, the Buckeyes seemed well-positioned to make Chris Holtmann’s deepest run to date with the program.
But things didn’t go according to plan for the scarlet and gray.
Armed with national scoring leader Max Abmas, whose 3-point range was nothing short of limitless, Oral Roberts took Ohio State to overtime, where it beat the Buckeyes in what was just the ninth time in tournament history that a 15 seed defeated a No. 2.
Oral Roberts proved to be a much better team than many realized, as it knocked off Florida in the next round as well, but criticism for Ohio State was not hard to find – or hear – in the wake of the loss.
That didn’t stop once the new season began, as the Buckeyes were greeted with chants of “Oral Roberts” by the student section at Xavier in their first road game of the 2021-22 campaign.
Even Cedric Russell, a Louisiana transfer with no affiliation to the Buckeyes at this time a year ago, is well-versed in the impact that loss had on his current teammates in Columbus.
“Enough man, enough,” said Russell, when asked how much he’s heard about the Oral Roberts game. “And even though I wasn’t a part of it last year, I am this year, and I’m willing to take the licks just like those guys. Whatever I can do to help us not repeat that and go out and put our best foot forward, that’s what I’m willing to do.”
Considering Ohio State is seeded five lines lower than it was a season ago, and may not even be a betting favorite over Loyola when tip-off time approaches, Holtmann doesn’t view the two situations under the lens of a one-to-one comparison. But the Buckeye coach won’t shy away from reminders if he believes it will positively impact Ohio State’s motivation as the tournament approaches.
“Certainly we’ve talked about it, we owned it,” Holtmann said. “That was a little bit different, that was a 2-15. Obviously this is a matchup where I think it’s different in that regard. Certainly we talked about it, we owned it when it happened, and we want to be focused on being healthy and playing well.”
Another difference is that this season, Ohio State will have had eight days off from game action between the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments, whereas last year’s deep run in the former tournament appeared to wear the Buckeyes down before the Big Dance.
“It was weird last year man, that was an experience I’ll never forget. We were in the J.W. Marriott (hotel in Indianapolis) for like three weeks,” Ahrens said. “So we got done with the Big Ten Tournament, last in overtime to Illinois – everybody’s heartbroken, we really wanted to win that one – had a day off and then we just walked to the convention center. We had like an hour to practice, stiff floor and all that good stuff, come back and watch film. So it’s totally different, but at the end of the day, the goal’s still the same, so we just gotta take it one day at a time, prepare the right way so that we’re the best version of ourselves on Friday.”
If anything, Ahrens said this season reminds him of his freshman campaign, when many thought the 11th-seeded 2018-19 Buckeyes would drop their first-round game to No. 6 seed Iowa State. Instead, Ohio State pulled out a three-point win to advance to the Round of 32.
“We kind of got the memo that everybody's counting us out,” Ahrens said. “Coach gave us that message – not that he had to, because we kind of understood that. But preparation’s been good, we’ve been hitting it pretty hard in practice, just taking it one day at a time. Main thing for us is just to come out and be the tougher team and more competitive team. If we take care of those two things, we’ll be all right.”
One of just two Buckeyes to have played in more than one NCAA Tournament game, Ahrens has felt the pressure of the bright lights and also knows how fleeting the experience can be if the proper steps of preparation are not made.
Although Ahrens has tasted victory in the NCAA Tournament before, he hopes his most memorable tournament experience will take place in the forthcoming weeks to wash last year’s loss out of his mouth completely.
“We’ve always told the guys, ‘This is the best time of the year. This is everything you sacrifice for, no matter what seed you are, no matter if you’re predicted to win or not, anything’s possible,’” Ahrens said. “So it’s the best time of the year. … We got some big goals this year so hopefully we can go accomplish them.”
