CHICAGO — Sam Thompson sat in front of his locker following Ohio State's 76-67 loss to Michigan State on Friday night with a towel draped over his head when he had a sudden realization.
"My career is over if we don't get over this real quick," he said.
Thompson's right. One more loss and the Buckeyes' up-and-down season — and his career — will come to an end.
Ohio State will find out its NCAA tournament fate Sunday night during a selection show. The Buckeyes will likely be anywhere from a No. 7 to No. 10 seed which means they'll match up with one of the top teams in the country in a third-round game. That is, of course, assuming they win their opening game which is far from a sure thing.
But despite all of that, Ohio State remains confident it has what it takes to make things interested come NCAA tournament time.
“I feel like everybody’s still two feet in," freshman guard D'Angelo Russell said. "We’ve lost before and we’ve bounced right back. I know me as an individual, I’m gonna do whatever I can in practice, film, whatever and just be focused and try to lead the best way I can. I’m two feet in and I feel like we’ll make a run in the tournament the best way we can.”
It's pretty standard for players to say such things. They're not going to downplay their chances in the tournament.
To be fair, the Buckeyes have the potential to beat a lot of teams because of Russell. He's capable of taking over a game at any point in time. But on the other hand, Ohio State has shown time and time again this season its inability to play consistent basketball night in and night out.
One night, the Buckeyes can look like a legitimate contender to make a deep run. The next, they look like they can lose to just about anyone.
“It’s definitely frustrating, but we can’t just keep looking back at the games," freshman forward Jae'Sean Tate said. "We’ve just gotta keep moving forward. It’s over now and we’ve just gotta get ready and just make sure, to the best of our abilities, that it doesn’t happen again.”
Either way, it's win or go home now for Ohio State. It has a clean slate like every other team in the field of 68 when it gets announced Sunday.
The Buckeyes, obviously, hope their season is longer than just one more game.
“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.”
