As a reporter began to ask Marc Loving a question during a postgame press conference Tuesday night, Ohio State's lone junior glanced over at JaQuan Lyle, who was seated to his right, and cracked a faint smile before delivering his answer.
“I mean, if we would have lost this game y’all would have been like, ‘Dang,’” Loving said before he and Lyle shared a laugh, and the room filled with reporters somewhat joined in as to not to dispute Loving’s claim.
“But we won,” he continued. “And it feels good to get a ‘W.’ We don’t ever want to be on the losing side of the game.”
The Buckeyes won Tuesday night, but just barely. Ohio State escaped Akron in the opening round of the NIT with a 72-63 overtime victory.
Yes, it was Akron, and yes, it was the opening round of the NIT. But this is reality now for the Buckeyes. And a deep run in this tournament could be valuable for the future of the program much like it was back in 2008 and a deep run could not have started without holding on to defeat the upset-minded Zips.
“Strictly from the standpoint of you put this in perspective that we had to seventh-longest NCAA tournament streak in college basketball going to the NCAAs seven-straight times. That’s out of 350 Division I programs and we didn’t make it this year. I think from the standpoint of this is the hand we’ve been dealt,” Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. “And quite honestly, you see Akron come up there and it’s like, ‘We better be ready to play.’ We knew how good they were and obviously an in-state game so with that said, I’m a realist in terms of the future of this program and tonight was probably a huge step in the right direction in terms of that for us.”
That’s the hope, anyway.
The Buckeyes will return every single player from this season’s team — barring any transfers — and with a group made up of almost exclusively freshmen and sophomores any playing experience is good experience. Of course Ohio State would have liked to make the NCAA tournament, that's obvious, but there are some benefits to playing in the NIT if it can make a deep run.
“It was fun to get out there and play basketball again,” Buckeyes freshman point guard JaQuan Lyle said. “It’s another opportunity to get to play the game that we love to play.”
Ohio State played this one without sophomore forward Keita Bates-Diop, who is the team’s second-leading scorer at 11.8 points per game. Bates-Diop was sick, a team spokesman said, and Matta said, “Hopefully we can get him back for [Sunday].” That’s when the Buckeyes’ second-round game will be and they will be taking on Florida, who downed North Florida later Tuesday night, 97-68. The game will be played at Value City Arena in Columbus because the O’Connell Center on Florida’s campus is currently undergoing renovations so the Gators — even though they are the higher-seeded team — cannot host any games.
In Bates-Diop’s absence, Loving, Lyle and Kam Williams — who started in place of Bates-Diop — all scored 18 points apiece to lead Ohio State. Each played 44-plus minutes — career-highs for all three — and all seemed into the game, emotionally, throughout. After Williams nabbed a steal near midcourt then drove and finished at the rim to put the Buckeyes up by three midway through overtime, the Buckeyes’ redshirt sophomore guard was as fired up as he has been all season as Akron called a timeout.
“Nobody in the locker room wants to see our season come to an end.”– JaQuan Lyle
Lyle and Loving also combined for 27 rebounds as Ohio State totaled 57 as a team while holding the Zips to just 9-for-42 shooting from behind the 3-point line.
“I think from the standpoint of that’s kind of the good thing that I liked about tonight: Guys had to push on, they had to get stops, they had to come up with rebounds. We needed buckets down the stretch and guys got them. We made our free throws,” Matta said. “Hopefully they understand, and as I told them, ‘We’re down two men tonight, two of our best players, most experienced players. With that said, take advantage of your opportunity.’”
So again, yes we’re talking about the NIT here and an opening-round game against a mid-major opponent at home. But with this team, in this season, any additional experience is a good thing. Ohio State has been building toward next year all season long and the Buckeyes couldn’t have extended their year and gotten said experience without knocking off Akron on Tuesday night.
"Nobody in the locker room wants to see our season come to an end," Lyle said.
Added Loving: “It was another opportunity for this team to get better. Postseason play for this team is a big thing just to get any type of experience. With a quality team like Akron, I feel like it was great for us.”
