“We could not keep the ball in front of us. We work every day in practice, where the ball can’t go in the paint and you’ve got to guard for 15 seconds, I can’t explain to you how much time we spent from Friday night’s game going into this game on guarding the basketball. Just our positioning, we picked up some fouls and how you can you foul him if you have your feet right where they’re supposed to go? Those are things we just have to keep drilling.”
That was Ohio State head coach Thad Matta on Nov. 24. The Buckeyes just gave up 82 points in an eight-point loss to Louisiana Tech — their second-straight defeat in the first month of the season, a streak which later extended to four games. Ohio State allowed the Bulldogs to score 36 points in the paint and hit 10 3-pointers — most of which came on drive-and-kick situations where shooters found themselves wide open after beating their defender off the dribble.
Fast-forward three weeks to Tuesday night. The Buckeyes knocked off Mercer, 64-44, for their third-straight win and Matta had this to say about his defense after the game.
“Our awareness is getting a lot better defensively in terms of this team doesn’t have a lockdown defender — Aaron Craft, Sam Thompson or Shannon Scott to just take them out of what they want to do," he said. "Therefore, it has to be a team — we’ve got to have guys in position."
Ohio State held Mercer to just 35 percent shooting in Tuesday's win and forced 25 turnovers. And over the last three games — wins over the Bears, Kentucky and Northern Illinois — the Buckeyes are allowing just 55 points per game, forcing an average of 17 turnovers and opponents are shooting just 33.9 percent from the field.
It's been quite a drastic change in Matta's eyes.
Perhaps the reason for the slow start defensively was what Matta referenced in his comments following Tuesday's win: Ohio State is still trying to figure out how to defend without a true lockdown guy on the perimeter and do things with a team effort.
Scott and Thompson were both that guy over the last two seasons; Craft was before them. It's been quite a while since Matta has had to instruct his teams to play defense this way, without that elite defender on the perimeter to cover up some mistakes by others.
“In 12 years we’ve had two national defenders of the year here in Greg [Oden] and Aaron, and as a coach you don’t ever take that for granted and you know when you’ve got it," Matta said. "Hopefully we can continue to build our team defense because that’s how we have to play.”
With Mickey Mitchell now working his way into the mix, Ohio State now has a legit nine guys in its rotation. The Buckeyes are able to rotate bodies throughout the course of a game, helping to keep guys fresh at the end.
Perhaps more importantly, though, are the strides Matta has seen his young team make on the defensive end over the last few games. Things he was seeing early on in the season, he hasn't seen as much of lately.
The latest example came in Tuesday's win over the Bears, when freshman point guard JaQuan Lyle helped out on Mercer's Jestin Lewis, who had gotten by Ohio State's Keita Bates-Diop after Bates-Diop slipped on the floor. Lyle came off his defender and challenged Lewis' shot attempt, forcing the Bears' senior guard to alter his shot.
"Keita slipped and [JaQuan] went over and deflected a shot," Matta said. "Two weeks ago, JaQuan would have watched him shoot the ball so that awareness is getting better.”
Lyle agreed.
"Definitely not," Lyle said with a smile after being asked if playing high-level defense was possible for him just a few weeks ago. "Three weeks ago I wouldn’t have made the plays I made on defense tonight and I think that just comes from getting experience and actually playing.”
Going forward, that seems to be how things are going to work for Ohio State on both ends of the floor. Every game played becomes a new learning experience for this young team.
Tuesday was another step in the right direction.
