In an attempt to describe what toughness means Wednesday afternoon, words escape Thad Matta.
“I can’t define it,” he said, “but I know it when I see it. I know who has it, I know who doesn’t have it.
“You get at this stage of the season and you have a pretty fair understanding of who your tough guys are,” the Ohio State basketball coach continued. “What is that? I don’t know, but I know it when I see it.”
Yet Matta remains uncertain whether his Buckeyes (16-5, 5-3 Big Ten) — winners of their last two games after an unimpressive start to Big Ten play — are tough.
“Um,” he said, before pausing for a few seconds, “I think we’re getting better. I think that each guy has certain elements that he can bring to the table, but he’s got to be completely dialed in at the right time. Hopefully we continue to grow in that area, there’s no question about that.”
And if toughness and playing defense go hand-in-hand, Matta wants more of both when Ohio State plays Maryland (18-3 and 6-2 Big Ten), who has taken the conference by storm in its first year in the league.
“Coach always keeps going, it’s toughness. We need toughness to win games,” said freshman forward Jae’Sean Tate, who was inserted into the starting lineup to provide a spark for a once tepid team.
Midway through the season, it appears Matta’s bunch is capable of playing solid defense, but hasn’t been as stifling as compared to previous units. After implementing a new-look zone defense that left them vulnerable for the first month of the season, the Buckeyes have gone back to man defense, which has been the bedrock of Matta’s tenure in Columbus. Still, there is work to be done for a team that currently features two freshmen starters in Tate and D’Angelo Russell, its leading scorer and arguably its best player.
“I don’t think defense is ever second-nature because of the constant movement and that sort of thing,” Matta said. “But I think our guys have a better understanding of what we’re trying to do.”
For Ohio State, that means crisp rotations and smothering pressure around the ball. After the Buckeyes beat Indiana, coach Tom Crean lamented how his Hoosiers couldn’t shake Ohio State’s frenetic help defense, which limited potent scorers like the shifty and small point guard Yogi Ferrell.
“One guy can stop them — we need all five guys on the court,” said senior guard Shannon Scott. “We make a big emphasis on really having all guys in position so that if one guy gets beat, somebody else can help them out and vice versa.”
Because of this, Matta maintains a "great defense is not where the ball is, they’re kind of where the ball’s going to be."
He added: “I think we’re getting better in that regard of reading situations. I think the communication is getting a lot better defensively since we’ve played man now, we’ve basically seen everything somebody can throw at us.”
