There was a collective sigh of relief Sunday at Value City Arena as the final horn sounded finalizing Florida’s 74-66 victory over Ohio State in the second round of the NIT. You couldn’t hear it, of course, but it was Buckeye fans silently celebrating the end of an up-and-down year that they hadn’t seen in quite some time.
Ohio State started the season 2-4 and ended it 21-14, finishing in seventh place in the Big Ten despite winning 11 games in the league. The Buckeyes flashed plenty of signs of their young talent along the way, but also showed plenty of growing pains as well — often within the same game.
It was a year of transition, no doubt, and it finally came to an end at the hands of the Gators.
“I think there were some strides made and I’ll be the first to say, we knew this was going to be a challenging season, there’s no question about that,” head coach Thad Matta said afterward.
It’s not like this type of season snuck up on anybody. As Ohio State prepared to enter the year with almost an entirely different roster than the one it had the year before, the Buckeyes had plenty of mystery surrounding them. There were no seniors and only one junior. There was a five-man freshman class which was highly-ranked, but didn’t feature any one-and-done talents like the previous year with D’Angelo Russell.
Expectations should have probably been lowered a bit, but it’s not clear that actually happened.
And so Ohio State endured a season that was filled with as many lows as it was highs. The Buckeyes lost twice at home in the non conference to mid-major teams only to beat Kentucky a few weeks later on a neutral floor. Ohio State was blasted on the road by Indiana and Maryland in the Big Ten, only to rebound and win four-straight league games to get in a position to play themselves into the NCAA tournament.
That didn’t happen, of course, as the Buckeyes were routed by Michigan State once at home — and then twice more the rest of the way — but along that journey they beat another NCAA tournament team in Iowa.
Up, then down.
“The hardest part is just the inconsistency that we had,” Matta said. “Is that youth? I don’t know, but we’ve got to get that corrected. That’s the biggest challenge I’m after is just a consistent level of play of we know what we’re getting every single night.”
That’s something on a long list Ohio State will look to fix this offseason. The Buckeyes will return their entire roster next year — so long as nobody departs the program early — and they will have time to grow as a group.
Because the feeling around the team after Sunday’s loss to Florida was definitely one of humility. It was clear Ohio State’s players learned a lot from this season that found the program playing in the NIT for the first time in eight years.
“It’s definitely a big learning experience,” redshirt sophomore guard Kam Williams said of this season. “We have a lot of areas we need to grow at. I’m looking forward to spending every day in the gym this summer, getting better and just growing because it’s just a big learning experience this year, you know?”
And so begins Ohio State’s offseason, one that freshman Daniel Giddens called, “the most important summer of our basketball careers.” The Buckeyes won’t have the youthful excuse next year. They simply must be better.
There is, without question, talent on Ohio State’s roster and the Buckeyes flashed it at many different points throughout the season. The development of that talent will be critical and there needs to be some sort of consistency with it, as well.
And that will be the biggest focus for Ohio State this summer. The goal is, obviously, to get the program back to where it was a few short seasons ago. All of that starts this offseason.
“One of the biggest things is this [season] should serve as a humbling experience and how we define humility is knowing your strengths and your weaknesses,” Matta said. “I think all of us need to commit to getting better.”
