BOOM
Former Wisconsin linebacker Christian Alliegro commits to Ohio State.
Another game, another halftime deficit.
Ohio State has played eight games against Power Five opponents this season. The Buckeyes have trailed at halftime in all eight of those games.
In some of those games, the opponent has simply been better than OSU. But the biggest concern is Ohio State's mentality and intensity to start games. The Buckeyes are now 4-4 in those games, but they’ve had to come back from second-half deficits to pull out the victory in all four wins. In the win over Notre Dame, Ohio State trailed by 11 just over 11 minutes into the game. In the win over Northwestern, OSU trailed by eight three minutes into the second half. In the win over West Virginia, the Buckeyes trailed by 14 with 13:52 left in the game. In the win over Rutgers, Ohio State trailed by 15 with just under four minutes remaining in the first half. Monday night against Nebraska, OSU trailed by 14 less than 12 minutes into the game.
In three of those four losses when Ohio State trailed at halftime, the hole was either too big to dig out of or the energy spent to come back from the halftime deficit proved to be too much to sustain as the Buckeyes slowly chipped away to cut the lead, and Ohio State fell in the end.
After each of the four losses, Diebler and even the players who have joined him at the postgame press conference have been asked about the first-half struggles. Time and time again, Diebler and/or the players have said the team must improve in the first half going forward.
Following OSU's 72-69 loss to No. 10 Nebraska, which is undefeated, John Mobley Jr. became the latest player to acknowledge Ohio State's struggles to get going early and waiting until halftime to turn it up a notch.
"Our mentality changed, which shouldn't be the case," Mobley said. "We should have the same mentality for the full game. But we just had that fight, which we should've had for the full game, which has been said plenty of times. If we had that the full game, it would be hard to stop us."
If Ohio State’s eight games against Power Five opponents were only to be judged by the first half, the Buckeyes would be 0-8 in those games; if they were only judged by the second half, OSU would be 7-1 in those games. The problem is that college basketball games are 40 minutes, and teams/players can't pick and choose which 20 to count or not.
| OPPONENT | 1ST HALF | 2ND HALF | FINAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| VS. NOTRE DAME | L, 34-31 | W, 33-29 | W, 64-63 |
| at pittsburgh | L, 34-24 | W, 42-33 | L, 67-66 |
| AT NORTHWESTERN | L, 40-44 | W, 46-38 | W, 86-82 |
| VS. ILLINOIS | L, 48-42 | L, 40-38 | L, 88-80 |
| VS. WEST VIRGINIA | L, 37-27 | W, 41-31 | W, 89-88 (2OT) |
| VS. NORTH CAROLINA | L, 34-31 | W, 39-37 | L, 71-70 |
| AT RUTGERS | L, 41-37 | W, 43-32 | W, 80-73 |
| VS. NEBRASKA | L, 38-31 | W, 38-34 | L, 72-69 |
| AVERAGE | L, 38.8-32.9 | W, 40-34.3 |
"There's a no-quit, fight-to-the-end mentality on this team, and I think our veterans help lead that," Diebler said on Sunday, leading up to the game against Nebraska. "They've played a lot of basketball, and as long as you fight, you've got a chance. And so our guys have done that. Now, what we've got to do a better job of is not being in that situation. And we had some breakdowns defensively that we specifically practiced not to do against Rutgers, and we've got to address that. That's on us. If we handle our business in those situations, I don't think that deficit gets to that level."
The "this team never quits" mentality is certainly a good thing, but Ohio State has no one to blame but itself as to why it is in that position to begin with. Play a full 40 minutes, and the Buckeyes wouldn't have to worry about whether they should pack it in or not. In OSU's eight games against Power Five opponents, it has trailed by double digits at some point in seven of those games. The only outlier is the win over Northwestern, a game that the Buckeyes trailed in by nine at one point.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Yet Ohio State can't seem to get out of its own way to reach its full potential.
Against a top-10 team like the Cornhuskers, the Buckeyes had to bring it all 40 minutes. They only did so for 20, and it cost them a big-time win, both for Ohio State's resume and in the Big Ten.
“The message after the game (was) that we need to develop something we’ve been talking about for an extended period of time, the mentality we play with when we’re potentially trailing or in the second half,” Diebler said after the loss to Nebraska. “We have to have that same mentality the whole game. That’s what’s required at this level. We are elite when we play that way. The question we’ve got to answer is how do we do that for the whole game?”
Ohio State has plenty of opportunities to turn it around against Power Five opponents, especially in a very good Big Ten, but the Buckeyes must play with the same intensity in the first half as they do in the second half if they want to play up to their potential. And, to be more specific, Ohio State must do so if it wants to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in four years.
