As the clock at the Schottenstein Center wound down Sunday, D'Angelo Russell was dribbling near the top of the key when the Ohio State student section — what was left of it, anyway — started a cheer.
"One more year! One more year! One more year!" the students chanted.
Buckeyes coach Thad Matta claims he didn't hear it, but perhaps wishes he had.
"I didn’t hear them chanting one more year," Matta said following Ohio State's 72-48 blowout loss to Wisconsin. "If I would have I would have been yelling it, too."
He's probably not kidding, either. That's how good Russell has been during his freshman season in Columbus. On a team with five seniors, it is Russell who has been the key cog in the Buckeyes' 22-9 record. He leads Ohio State in scoring (19.2 points per game) and rebounding (5.6 per game) while being second on the team in assists (5.2 per game).
All of this you know already. And as those seconds ticked down against the Badgers, the chants from the crowd just served as another reminder of how dependent the Buckeyes are on their star freshman.
When asked about them after the game, Russell, like Matta, said he didn't hear them.
“I didn’t hear it," he said. "I’m just ready for the next game.”
The next game comes Thursday in the Big Ten Tournament where Ohio State will take on the winner of Wednesday's game between Rutgers and Minnesota. It begins a stretch of win-or-go-home games for the Buckeyes, and their success will be largely determined by — you guessed it — Russell.
It seems like a scary fate for a team to be so dependent on a freshman, someone who has never experienced all that comes with March as a college basketball player.
“I think he’ll be fine," Matta said. "The guy has won two high school national championships before he got here. He knows, I think, what’s at stake. He’ll be ready to go.”
Because of Russell, Ohio State was thought to be a trendy pick come NCAA tournament time. The Buckeyes have a star player capable of carrying them on a deep run like so many have in previous years.
But Sunday against Wisconsin, Ohio State was exposed. A team like the Badgers is who the Buckeyes would likely see on the tournament's opening weekend and they were routed.
Russell didn't play a great game — he finished with 17 points, five assists and committed five turnovers — but he was far from the only problem. Ohio State was outclassed in nearly every facet of the game.
For the Buckeyes to have any shot of beating a team like Wisconsin, Russell can't just be OK. He needs to be a superstar. Is that unfair to ask of a 19-year-old kid? Probably. But that doesn't mean he's not up to the task.
“I don’t know anything about March, but I know anything can happen," Russell said. "Just keeping the right attitude as a team, as a unit, as a collective group. Just keeping a free and open mind that anything can happen, I feel like we’ll be successful.”
