Whether it was a Thanksgiving turkey hangover, a look ahead to Tuesday's matchup at No. 6 Louisville or just a simple case of shots not falling, Ohio State's offense looked all kinds of out of sync Friday evening against James Madison.
The good news for the Buckeyes? In five games this season, that was the first time it's happened.
"That’s maybe the good sign," Ohio State head coach Thad Matta said after his team's 73-56 win. "I thought we had some really good looks, we just didn’t finish around the basket. ... Our offensive woes were we didn’t execute at the level we needed to execute. Every time we ran the action we were supposed to we got wide open shots and that was more of a mental thing I think of us kind of playing the score and not having the energy we needed offensively.”
Ohio State entered Friday's matchup with the Dukes leading the country in field-goal percentage at 60.7. Against James Madison, however, the Buckeyes shot just 41 percent from the floor. And after starting the game 6 for 10 from 3-point range, Ohio State missed its final eight attempts from deep to finish just 6 for 18.
"I think we were hot to start the game and we got a little jump shot happy," said senior forward Sam Thompson, who finished with 13 points. "We still feel like we're at our best attacking. We still feel that we're at our best getting out in transition, getting some easy buckets, allowing our defense to turn into our offense. I think it's just all about our mindset, all about how we attack, all about how we get out in transition and how we get ourselves in a rhythm."
Ohio State wasn't going to keep up its hot shooting start for the remainder of the season as Matta had previously hinted. That's just the way the game of basketball works sometimes.
But the Buckeyes' cold-shooting performance could actually help them going forward as they prepare for a showdown Tuesday night with the sixth-ranked Cardinals.
“I think it may possibly grab our guys attention a little bit just in terms of I don’t think they think we played as well," Matta said. "I think every now and then you have a game like this where you’re a little bit lackadaisical. That was the biggest thing we talked about after the game was just trusting the system and knowing that it works. Everybody has to do what they’re supposed to do."
It wasn't all bad for Ohio State, though. On a poor shooting night, the Buckeyes got nice lifts of the bench from freshman Jae'Sean Tate and senior transfer Anthony Lee.
Tate finished with just six points, five rebounds and two steals, but Matta said he earned the game ball for his hustle and tenacity. Lee came off the bench to score eight points and also pulled down a pair of rebounds in just 11 minutes.
"I bring the juice, as coach would say," Tate said. "Just try to get us a little kickstart when we need it."
They'll likely need that energy against Louisville, too. And that's one thing Matta said has stood out to him through the season's first five wins.
"I think the depth that we have has been good to us," he said. "Today, we had a little bit of a letdown when we made our first substitution. Those guys have to understand when they come in the game they have to bring the juice. ... That has to become contagious. We’ve got to get other guys doing that.”
