CHICAGO — With roughly 10 minutes to play in Friday’s Big Ten quarterfinal against Michigan State, Ohio State head coach Thad Matta walked in front of his bench toward the baseline with a sarcastic smile on his face. When he reached the end of the chairs lined up inside the United Center, he took a deep breath and let out what appeared to be a sigh.
Ohio State had just been whistled for a foul on the opposite end of the court and Matta was clearly frustrated with the call. But this particular moment captured the overall essence of this game against the Spartans.
The Buckeyes had a rough go at it and simply couldn’t get anything going as they wound up falling to Michigan State for the second time this season, 76-67, on Friday night.
“We had a hard time running our offense, cutting and moving and setting ball screens. I hadn’t seen anything like that ever in the Big Ten,” Ohio State head coach Thad Matta said. “But I think from the standpoint of where they got us was, it was either a layup or a 3 and those were the things that we were trying to take away.”
The game itself followed a familiar path, one that had plagued the Buckeyes all season. Ohio State fell behind early — it trailed by as many as 16 in the first half — and rallied in the second half before ultimately coming up short. The Buckeyes got within 61-56 at the 3:07 mark before the Spartans pulled away.
But while the game paralleled with previous ones this year, Ohio State also fell victim to the same inconsistencies that have hindered it all season, too. The Buckeyes played a solid all-around game Thursday night against Minnesota, but couldn’t put together quality back-to-back performances.
“I just think that we feel frustrated sometimes,” said freshman forward Jae’Sean Tate, who scored eight points and grabbed eight rebounds for Ohio State. “Coach keeps telling us that we have to stay the course and that’s the thing we struggle with sometimes. Moving forward, we’ve really gotta just trust the system. We have to.”
Michigan State pretty much got anything it wanted against the Buckeyes. The Spartans shot 47.5 percent from the field and had 23 assists on their 29 made field goals. Denzel Valentine led all scorers with 23 points, while Travis Trice had 18 and Branden Dawson scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Freshman guard D’Angelo Russell scored 19 points to pace Ohio State, but he was just 7 for 16 from the floor and 3 of 8 from behind the 3-point line. Shannon Scott and Sam Thompson each added 13 points.
“Whenever things get tough we run away from our system instead of trusting it,” Russell said. “We always kick, scratch and claw back to cut it within six, five, whatever it is, but we always run away from our system and it shows in the end with a loss.”
Ohio State is running out of time to clean things up, though. Selection Sunday is only two days away and the Buckeyes are looking at a likely No. 8 or No. 9 seed in the NCAA tournament. That would mean a matchup with a No. 1 seed in the third round if Ohio State is fortunate enough to win its opening game.
Still, the belief of a deep tournament run is there inside the Buckeyes locker room.
“We’ve gotta be prepared the best way we can going into the tournament,” Russell said. “All the losses that we’ve had throughout the year don’t matter anymore and the wins don’t win anymore. It just starts over in the tournament.”
