It was billed as a must-win, and while that’s not entirely true, with the heavy lifting that’s left on the remaining schedule, a loss to Northwestern would have been as close to a mortal blow as possible. It would have severely hampered the Buckeyes’ chances at making the NCAA Tournament.
It looked a little bleak as the game began, but as things moved on into the second half, Ohio State began to impose its will and show the type of team that it can be at times, pulling away for a convincing 63-49 win.
Here’s three things we took note of.
Next … About that fatigue
First-half Wesson becomes second-half Wesson
After the last game against Michigan State, both Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann, as well as Spartan head coach Tom Izzo alluded to Kaleb Wesson tiring out as the game wore on. We even went a bit further and dug into some numbers that seem to suggest that the older Wesson’s production falls off considerably after half-time.
But that wasn’t the case Wednesday night. This time, he went for 22 points — 13 of which after he ran out of the locker room for the second twenty minutes.Wesson stayed out of foul trouble, stayed on the floor, and actually upped his game in the second half. If you look at the tape, you’ll notice Ohio State implemented more zone and it seemed to keep the big man fresh and out of foul trouble.
Look for more of that going forward, because Ohio State is the most effective when it’s best player is fresh, engaged, and effective.
Next … A tale of two halves
Ohio State was bad, then it was good
If you watched the first ten minutes of this game, it was the furthest thing from a beauty pageant. Both teams couldn’t throw a rock in the ocean if given the chance. On top of that there were turnovers, trips and a miscues that resulted in a comedy of errors. And yes, Ohio State clearly contributed to that.
But in the second half, something clicked. The Buckeyes were more assertive with the ball, took better shots, and had crisper passes with better finishes around the rim. We actually even had a KeyShawn Woods citing, who splashed in seven points after being MIA for the last few games.
Ohio State is the better team, and it’s sure nice to see things come together a little bit in the second half.
Next … But the road ahead!
Don’t celebrate just yet Buckeyes fans
Yes it was nice to see improved play from the Buckeyes last night, and a game in which the end wasn’t in doubt. But it’s time for a bit of a reality check here.
A win does nothing for Ohio State aside from keeping another bad-loss on the resume. Northwestern has the worst record in the Big Ten, and anything short of what happened last night would have been a big black eye as a quadrant 3 loss.
Now the road gets tough. There are just five Big Ten regular season games left and the Buckeyes now sit at 7-8. Given the lack of quality on the bubble this year, I think two games under .500 likely gets them in the NCAA Tournament, but that’s not a given.
That’s because the schedule reads like this; At Maryland, Iowa at home, At Purdue, At Northwestern, then Wisconsin at home. The ESPN Matchup Predictor only has Ohio State winning two of those games, but somehow one of those is Iowa at home — a bad matchup for the Buckeyes. I think it’s more reasonable to suggest that OSU will be an underdog in four of those. That would put the team at 8-12.
It’s time to pull an upset or two or things could get sketchy.
