There’s no doubt Ohio State thought it had its toughest test of the year in 2019 Wednesday night. It traveled to play one of the blue bloods in the sport in a hostile environment against a very athletic team.
North Carolina might still be trying to find itself a little bit early on in the year, but it was still a good test to go against a team that offers so many challenges across the board.
In the end, it was a great resume building blowout win of a Power five basketball power, and one that went a totally different direction than anyone thought. It was blowout city — a 74-49 victory.
Here’s three things we learned.
Next … Turnovers have to get better
What gives with the turnovers?
No matter how you slice it, the first half was an ugly one when it comes to taking care of the ball for Ohio State. The Buckeyes settled down a little bit and began to hit some shots and began to put some distance between them and the Tar Heels.
Then the turnovers hit.
What was a game in control on the road against an ACC power tightened up significantly from an eight-point lead to only a two-point advantage at the half. Against the better teams, that won’t fly. It got a little better in the second half, but it’ll need addressed.
It’s easy to nitpick in such a dominant showing, but North Carolina’s performance also had a lot to do with glossing over the turnovers.
Next … DJ Carton, go get it
D.J. Carton needs to be more assertive
There’s no denying the talent freshman point guard D.J. Carton has. He’s explosive, can handle the ball, and is one of the few guys on the team that can just create and get his own shot.
But he looked tentative in the first half.
He’s got everything, he has to just go get some points. He let the game to him a little too much against a team with a brand name on the front of the jersey, and I’m sure the coaching staff would love to see him create a bit more on his own and not look to defer against the better teams. He had zero shot attempts, zero points, and two turnovers in 8:35 of playing time in the first twenty minutes.
Now, he exerted himself a bit more and finished with eight points total. Hopefully, that’s a building moment because as he improves, so too does this squad.
Next … Live or die Duane
Would be nice to get Duane Washington to be more consistent
Duane Washington went out and had himself a game Wednesday night. We know what he can do filling it up from the outside, but he played more within himself in this one. At one point he hit a three, went down the court on the defensive end, grabbed the rebound, then dished out an assist up the court for a fast break bunny — all in succession.
But he’s so inconsistent. Truth be known, Ohio State won this game tonight largely because of his efforts. There’s other guys on this team that are obviously key players, but if OSU could get anything near what he did tonight with any consistency, this team is going to be a lot more dangerous — like deep, deep run in the NCAA Tournament dangerous.
He ended with eighteen points, but did a lot more tonight to take pressure off the bigs. Now, keep that going young fella.
