Ohio State head coach Thad Matta has said multiple times this season he’s had to do a lot more teaching than he has in previous years with his young team. He seems to be having a hard time getting through to his group, at least early on.
The Buckeyes lost their second-straight game to an unranked mid-major opponent Tuesday night, falling at home to Louisiana Tech, 82-74. A big reason for that, Matta said, was his team continuing to make the same mistakes it has made multiple times already this season.
“As I told them after the game, we have to do a better job teaching you how to play but probably more importantly how to think the game,” Matta said following the loss. “You can’t have the same things happen over and over and over and over again.”
Ohio State never led Tuesday night. Louisiana Tech scored the first seven points of the game and, for the most part, coasted the rest of the way. The Buckeyes tied it up on a couple of occasions — they got it to 25-all midway through the first half and tied things up at 55 with just under 12 minutes to play — but every time it got close, the Bulldogs made a run.
Ohio State couldn’t contain Louisiana Tech guard Alex Hamilton, who scored a team-high 24 points. Hamilton continuously blew past Buckeye defenders and finished at the rim, scoring 16 of his points in the second half.
If the Bulldogs didn’t get a finish at the basket after a blow-by, it seemed they got a wide open look from behind the 3-point line. Louisiana Tech was 10 for 25 from deep and if it missed, it often grabbed the long rebound. The Bulldogs had 18 offensive rebounds on the evening.
For Matta, though, the frustrating part was seeing his team continue to make those same mistakes. He knows his group is young, but at some point that can’t be the built-in excuse. There has to be some progress.
“I told them we can’t make the excuse that we’re a young basketball team; nobody cares,” Matta said. “We have to play better than we are. It gets no easier as we move forward here.”
The season is still young, just four games in, but there’s already a lot of concern with this Ohio State team. The Buckeyes were a borderline NCAA tournament team at the beginning of the season, but after a 2-2 start and with a pair of games with Memphis and Virginia looming, the Buckeyes could be headed for a disastrous start.
“We’ve just got a lot of work to do,” said Ohio State sophomore forward Jae’Sean Tate, who had 10 points and 12 rebounds against the Bulldogs.
Tate said the Buckeyes are trying to make the big play instead of the right play. Matta echoed that statement, saying, “We’ve got to continue to teach our rear ends off.”
It is only four games in, but it’s clear Ohio State is not in the midst of a reload. This is a rebuilding process and it’s going to take time, and there is some good news for the Buckeyes in the sense that it is only November.
Ohio State has time to get things corrected, but if it doesn’t happen quickly it’s going to be a long season in Columbus.
“It’s still early,” Tate said. “We’ve still got time to turn this around.”
