Thad Matta’s postgame press conference following his team’s 69-63 victory over N.C. Central on Monday night lasted just 6 minutes, 15 seconds. He answered a total of 10 questions before exiting the media room in the bowels of Value City Arena.
It was pretty clear Ohio State’s head coach wanted to get out as soon as possible and put this six-point victory over a mid-major opponent that went 13-19 a season ago behind him. Before Matta exited the room, however, he delivered the following message:
“We’ll be better on Thursday,” he said. “We better be.”
Because if Monday’s game against the Eagles was any indication for how this season is going to go for the Buckeyes, it might be another long year.
Ohio State didn’t do much well in this contest against N.C. Central. Junior forward Jae’Sean Tate played with energy and had 21 points and 10 rebounds while Micah Potter hit a trio of first-half 3-pointers and finished with 13 points, but not much else went right.
Marc Loving, the Buckeyes’ lone senior, played just 17 minutes after foul trouble limited him in the first half. He finished 1-for-6 from the field and was 1-of-5 from behind the 3-point line for 3 points to go along with five turnovers.
Starting point guard JaQuan Lyle struggled and sat the better part of the second half for the second-straight game. Lyle checked out at the 14:06 mark and it was C.J. Jackson’s show the rest of the way.
Keita Bates-Diop, who Matta said had “been in bed the last two days” with an illness, played 26 minutes and was just 3-for-7 from the field for nine points.
It was an all-around poor performance that quite honestly felt like a loss even though Ohio State won.
“We just didn’t come out ready to play today,” Tate said. “They shot the ball great and the point guard, we couldn’t contain him in pick-and-roll later in the game so that’s pretty much what we’ve got to work on against Providence next.”
“If we come out like that, it’s not going to be pretty.”
No, it certainly won’t.
The Friars are the best team the Buckeyes will have played in this brief season and if Ohio State plays anything like it did Monday night, there will be a loss on the record after just three games.
“I didn’t like a whole lot of what I saw tonight,” Matta said.
It’s just one game, and that happens in college basketball, especially early in the season. And to be honest, this was a game Ohio State might have lost a year ago when it fell twice at home to mid-major opponents. But the Buckeyes clearly have a lot of work to do, and that’s a little concerning being that Monday night was only game No. 2.
The hope, of course, is things changed quickly.
“Coach Matta is going to say it’s his fault, but this one is on us as players,” Tate said. “We just didn’t come out how we practiced and we apologize to Buckeye Nation and we’re going try our best to come out on Thursday and play as hard as we can.”
