Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann sits down with the Men’s Basketball team during a timeout during the Ohio State-Illinois game on March 6. Ohio State lost 68-73. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
Despite a late-season slide, Ohio State is still in prime position for a deep postseason run that eluded a surging Buckeyes in 2020.
No. 9 Ohio State (18-8, 12-8) has endured a four-game losing streak since Feb. 21, its longest of the season. To begin its postseason run at the Big Ten Tournament Thursday, Ohio State will go up against Minnesota (14-14, 7-14), who it lost to earlier this season.
Although the Buckeyes have struggled down the stretch, head coach Chris Holtmann said team morale is still running high heading into the postseason.
“I think everybody’s in a good place,” Holtmann said. “Outside of the Iowa game, there have been some really good things to come out of this stretch. Guys are in a great place here and ready to move forward in tournament play.”
After last season’s Big Ten Tournament was abruptly canceled just a day after it kicked off, Holtmann said some of last year’s experience may creep into their first return to Indianapolis since that day.
“As we take the bus over, there might be a little deja vu,” Holtmann said. “At that point, everything was normal though. Restaurants were full, hotel was full, it was buzzing, the hotel was buzzing. And then it wasn’t buzzing as much once everything started to shut down.”
The Buckeyes trudged through the closing four-game stretch — in which they played three top-10 teams and a surging Michigan State team. Outside of a 73-57 loss to then-No. 9 Iowa, the Buckeyes have lost each game in the stretch by 5 points or less.
As the level of competition has been similar to what the Buckeyes should expect to see in the postseason, Holtmann said there have been some positives to take from this recent skid.
“There have been large segments of the games where I’ve been really pleased with things,” Holtmann said. “I just think it’s the balance between owning, as coaches and players, what we have to do better and also recognize you’re not in these positions, either late in games or in one- or two-possession games against good teams, if you’re not playing reasonably well in stretches.”
With the conclusion of the regular season Saturday, the Buckeyes have had to wait to prepare for Minnesota, as the Golden Gophers earned their spot Wednesday with a 51-46 win over Northwestern.
Ohio State dropped its only meeting with the Golden Gophers in the regular season in blowout fashion — falling to Minnesota 77-60 Jan. 3.
In their lone contest, the Buckeyes were able to hold Minnesota’s leading scorer and redshirt junior guard Marcus Carr to 15 points on an inefficient 3-of-12 from the field.
However their season-long struggles against bigs played a factor in the loss, as they struggled to contain 7-foot junior center Liam Robbins who posted season highs in both points and rebounds against the Buckeyes with 27 and 14.
Robbins missed the Big Ten Tournament opener against Northwestern with an ankle injury.
With the extra time without an opponent to prepare for and a losing streak hanging over their heads, Holtmann said the team’s approach to practice has been a bit more focused on themselves while lightly delving into both the Golden Gophers and Wildcats.
“We have tried to focus on ourselves, at the same time, knowing that we’re trying to prepare, have a piece of every practice where you’re preparing for the opponent,” Holtmann said. “Monday was a little more geared towards us most of practice, Tuesday was a little more geared towards preparation of what we could see.”
Along with high-caliber competition, the postseason potentially presents another challenge for the ailing Buckeyes: consecutive days of competition.
Holtmann said key contributors, such as senior forward Kyle Young and graduate forward Seth Towns, have been unable to consistently practice down the stretch of the season in order to get healthy.
Redshirt junior forward Justice Sueing joined the fray, as he missed practices due to a procedure, but Holtmann said he was set to return to action Wednesday.
However, a winning streak in Indianapolis could force the Buckeyes to play four games in four days — a task Holtmann said he is curious to see if his team can withstand.
“Obviously we take it one game at a time, but I am interested to see what that would look like for us,” Holtmann said.
Despite the awaiting challenges and recent run of disappointing results, Holtmann said the shift to the postseason brings about a mixture of emotions.
“I think tournament time creates a lot of excitement. I think they’re anxious, obviously, this being taken away from them last year,” Holtmann said. “I just think, in general, they’re excited and they’re aware of what’s coming here.”
The game between the Buckeyes and Golden Gophers is set to tip Thursday at 2 p.m. on BTN.
