EAST LANSING, Mich. — JaQuan Lyle thought his team was right in Saturday’s game against Michigan State early in the second half, felt the Buckeyes were going toe-to-toe with the nation’s second-ranked team.
Then, Ohio State’s freshman point guard looked up at the scoreboard.
“I feel like we was right there and then I looked up one time in the second half and I think the lead was 15 with 16 minutes to go,” Lyle said. “I don’t know [what happened].”
It was just that kind of day for the Buckeyes. There was a bit of a hopeless feeling out there on the floor at Breslin Center.
The Spartans were about as efficient as possible on offense, shooting 67 percent from the field and assisting on 29 of 34 made baskets, on their way to a 91-76 win. Michigan State made 8-of-16 attempts from 3-point range and, at one point in the second half, was shooting 73 percent from the floor.
Ohio State struggled a bit on the defensive end particularly in the first half, but even a strong defensive effort might not have been enough. The Spartans played nearly picture-perfect basketball.
“They just made big shot after big shot after big shot. It was one of those where they were rolling for 40 minutes,” Buckeyes coach Thad Matta said. “We kept saying, ‘If we can get three-consecutive stops one time we can crack into this thing,’ but it just wasn’t meant to be in that regard because they did not miss.”
Added Lyle: “To me, that’s the best team in the nation, that’s what they do. They executed real well tonight like they did a couple of weeks ago, like they do every night.”
Saturday was a bit of a different game than the first one between these two teams. Just 10 days ago, the Spartans caught fire from downtown hitting 14 3-pointers. In the first half of this game, however, Michigan State had connected on just a trio of triples as the Buckeyes did their best to run the home team off the 3-point line. The problem with that was Ohio State’s rotations were a step slow and the Spartans exposed that for 28 first-half points in the paint.
Player of the Year candidate Denzel Valentine had 27 points and 13 assists; Matt Costello had 15 points and 11 rebounds; and Bryn Forbes added a somewhat-quiet 14 for Michigan State.
Marc Loving scored a team-high 21 points for the Buckeyes, while Lyle finished with 18 points, five rebounds and five assists and Kam Williams scored 15 off the bench. Still, it wasn't enough. Not even close, really.
“We were fixated on one thing defensively too much and we needed to see two things going on,” Matta said. “Rotation-wise we weren’t where we needed to be, we didn’t have the pressure on the basketball that we probably needed to disrupt and I thought we did a little bit better job in the second half with it, but they were just sort of picking what they wanted and got it on us.”
This wasn’t the time for Ohio State to have a performance like this. The Buckeyes had to be nearly perfect in order to pull off an upset of this magnitude and, even though they played well offensively for large stretches, Saturday was far from perfect.
Getting a win was so vital because Ohio State had a chance to firmly cement itself on the NCAA tournament bubble had it been able to knock off the mighty Spartans. Now, as the Buckeyes have finished the regular-season 19-12 and 11-7 in the Big Ten, they’ll likely have to win the conference tournament to make the Field of 68. A trip to the championship game potentially gets them back into the conversation, but the more realistic scenario here is that unless Ohio State wins the Big Ten tournament it is likely headed to the NIT.
Despite the regular-season being over, Matta still isn't thinking that way, though. He never does.
“I think from where my mind is, and you guys don’t believe me, but I’ve never thought about the NCAA tournament or anything like that. It’s always, ‘How do we get better?’” Matta said. “From the standpoint of we were a better team up here today than we were at home a week ago Tuesday. That, to me, is something that’s important.”
Loving echoed his head coach.
“It’s not like we haven’t been here before,” he said. “Just get ready for our next game and try to win that one.”
If you’re an Ohio State fan, you can see the talent is there. There are signs of this team being a good one next year and potentially even better the season after that. Player development will be key going forward, but there are certainly a lot of good pieces in place. When you can say that after a 15-point loss, that’s a good sign.
But that’s down the road. This is now. And after Saturday’s loss, the Buckeyes seem like they are destined to miss the NCAA tournament for the first time in eight seasons.
“I think to continue to grind and get our minds right and knowing we’ve got this same team coming back next year and we’re making strides, that’s big for me,” Matta said. “I’m obviously trying to find the silver lining in this, but we’ve just gotta keep grinding.
“We’ve got guys playing better basketball right now and we’ve got to keep fighting with that.”
