How are you doing Ohio State basketball fans? Hopefully, after three straight games of cardiac type finishes, you are still hanging in there and enjoying this journey. The Buckeyes, losers of four straight heading into postseason play, have now won three a row in dramatic fashion and will now be playing for a Big Ten Tournament championship on Sunday.
It was another carbon copy of the previous two games where OSU got up in the second half and then had to hold off a hard-charging opponent. The difference in this one is that it was even sweeter because it was against No. 1 seed and regular-season champion, arch-rival Michigan.
If it weren’t for Ohio State, maybe the Wolverines could have nice things.
Another dramatic game means there was plenty we took away that we’ll share with you like we do every other game. Here are three things we took from the 68-67 win over TTUN.
NEXT … Defense baby
Ohio State’s defense traveled to Indianapolis
SURVIVE AND ADVANCE‼️#BeatTTUN #Team122 #GoBuckeyes pic.twitter.com/Wpfw6wuCJL
— Ohio State Hoops (@OhioStateHoops) March 13, 2021
It’s not always the case like some traditionalists would have you believe, but championships are rarely won without playing some good defense. For Ohio State, that’s been a hit and miss affair this basketball season, with head coach Chris Holtmann suggesting his team needed to be better on that side of the ball multiple times this season.
And for the longest time, it sure looked like the Buckeyes were going to have to use their highly efficient offense to beat teams and just hope to be adequate stopping other teams from scoring.
But not today.
OSU’s defense showed up big time against a high-scoring Michigan offense Saturday. It held the Wolverines to just 35.1 % shooting from the floor, and limited them to just 67 points — almost ten points below their average for the year. Hunter Dickinson got his, but everyone else was held pretty much in check by the Buckeye D.
Well done. Keep it going moving forward.
NEXT … Enjoy the ride despite the endings
End-of-game issues?
Playing for a ring tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/ig0goJq8G7
— Ohio State Hoops (@OhioStateHoops) March 13, 2021
Look, this is college basketball. It’s hard enough to win against really, really good teams, and make no mistake about it, Michigan is just that. So, while it would be easy to get frustrated with these end-of-game runs seemingly every team makes against Ohio State, remember that basketball is a game of runs.
At least the Buckeyes are taking it to some very talented teams in large portions of the game. Whether that comes at the end, in the middle, or somewhere else, it’s all a body of work and goes into the forty minutes of winning.
It is a troubling trend, but OSU is going what it needs to win at end of games right now, and it’s a fun ride. Enjoy it. Enjoy the win, and let’s see how far it can go.
NEXT … This is an impressive journey for Ohio State
The resume is building
Basketball is an arena where emotion flows freely pic.twitter.com/CC5D0bVZ0N
— Ohio State Hoops (@OhioStateHoops) March 13, 2021
Think about the wins Ohio State now has this year. There are now wins over what will most likely be two NCAA No. 1 seeds (Michigan and Illinois), a No. 2 seed (Iowa), and several quad one teams. Some of those happened on the road or on a neutral court too which bodes well for tournament time.
The Big Ten is absolutely brutal this year and any team coming out of this league is not only going to be battle-tested, but will also have gotten so much better from playing against the level of competition it has in the league.
Ohio State is a likely No. 2 seed itself, so that means the Big Ten will have four of the top eight seeds in the Big Dance. The Buckeyes might have some frustrating losses in there, but I can’t remember a time with so many high-level, quality wins, and that means this team has what it takes to play with, and beat anyone out there.
