COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The postgame meeting inside Ohio State’s locker room took longer than usual Saturday afternoon.
The Buckeyes endured a 35-point loss at the hands of No. 3-ranked Maryland — the worst in Thad Matta’s tenure as head coach at Ohio State. It was understandable for the Buckeyes to take their time in the locker room afterward. After a brief silence, there was likely a lengthy conversation by both the players and coaching staff about the state of the team.
It took around 20 minutes before the door to Ohio State’s locker room opened and players and coaches emerged. There were no smiles.
“We’ve got a lot to work on,” sophomore forward Keita Bates-Diop said. “Consistency, playing harder, effort. The little things that you don’t need talent for we’re not bringing.”
The Buckeyes had no answers for the Maryland onslaught.
The Terrapins got whatever they wanted whenever they wanted it in the 100-65 blowout. Maryland torched the nets, shooting 62.7 percent from the field and 52.4 percent from behind the 3-point line. Robert Carter and Rasheed Sulaimon combined to score 47 points for the Terps and the duo missed a total of four shots from the field. The Buckeyes were a step late on seemingly every defensive rotation and to nearly all the 50-50 balls.
“Maryland played as well as maybe any team I’ve ever coached against,” Matta said. “But when that happens you have to stick to your system, stick to what’s been working. Today, I don’t know if we played our best basketball if we would have had a chance to win, but I know that wasn’t close to our best.”
Hot shooting nights in college basketball are far from unusual. There are games where teams catch fire on the offensive end. This was one of those, but it’s far from the first time this happened to Ohio State.
The Buckeyes have now experienced three blowout losses in true road games: Dec. 12 at Connecticut, 75-55; Jan. 10 at Indiana, 85-60; and Saturday’s 35-point defeat to Maryland.
That’s where the concern lies. Losses to teams on the road to teams of that caliber aren’t “bad losses,” but falling in the fashion the Buckeyes have is disheartening.
“I wouldn’t say it’s because we’re young, I would just say that we’re not in our comfort zone like we are at home,” sophomore forward Jae’Sean Tate said. “It gets really loud in there and I don’t want to say we panic because we definitely don’t panic, but we stop doing the things we do to make us a great basketball team.”
After the initial disappointment wore off Tate and Bates-Diop — the two players selected to speak to the media after the brutal defeat — they attempted to look at the brighter side of things, if there is such a thing after a loss like that.
Tate pointed out Ohio State is still 4-2 in the Big Ten and that there are still 12 league games to be played. Things are far from over, but this felt like the low point of the season — one that already included a four-game losing streak and, now, three 20-point losses.
“It’s frustrating, but let this one sting and we’ve just got to get back to work, get ready for Purdue [on Thursday],” Tate said. “The season’s not over. Yeah, we lost by a lot, but a loss is a loss, you know? We’ve just got to try to get back to what we were doing to win those seven games in a row.”
Ohio State has shown an ability to bounce back after underwhelming performances. But after a while, one would think these types of losses take their toll.
There’s no finger pointing going on — “Absolutely not,” Bates-Diop said — and the Buckeyes insist they can work their way through this latest rough patch in a season that’s had quite a few.
“We’ve got to come with a better mindset in these games. If that’s preparing the night before or a couple nights before, we’ve gotta get that mindset and focus,” Tate said. “I don’t think, as a team, we’ve had that in these last couple games — even against Rutgers. We’ve just got to have the mindset to come out and fight from tip to finish.”
