"Whoa."
That was the reaction of Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann, following his team's 80-64 upset win over top-ranked Michigan State on Sunday. The Buckeyes didn't just beat the No. 1 team in the country, they dominated it.
At the beginning of the year, few would have seen a performance like Sunday's happening, especially by an Ohio State team that just a few months ago had eight scholarship players on its roster.
Yet when the clock hit 00:00, it was Ohio State – led by a first-year head coach – standing atop the Big Ten standings, having just defeated the top team in the nation. In previous years, though, that game might have gone differently.
Just a season ago, Ohio State led No. 7 Virginia on the road by 16 with less than four minutes to go before half, only to lose 63-61. Even this season, the Buckeyes blew second-half, double-digit leads to both Butler and Clemson, resulting in back-to-back losses.
After a stretch that saw Ohio State end the first half on a 12-0 run, capped by a deep buzzer-beater from Andrew Dakich, Buckeye veteran Jae'Sean Tate said he was not going to let another letdown occur with the opportunity that stood in front of them.
"If you watched us last year, we've been in situations where we have been up 20 and lost," Tate said. "It happened multiple times last year. Me, Keita (Bates-Diop) and the guys that were here last year, we continue to have those flashbacks in our mind. We call it, 'Don't fold. Don't fold like a lawn chair.' That is all we kept saying. 'We are not folding today,' and we got it done."
The Buckeyes took a 41-29 lead into the break and never folded, opening the second half on an 8-2 run, only allowing Michigan State to get as close as 14 with 6:25 to play in the game.
When Michigan State did make its move to cut into the lead, however, it was Bates-Diop, who dropped a career-high 32 points in the win, who maintained Ohio State's double-digit advantage. Following a three-pointer from Miles Bridges that capped a 10-0 Michigan State run, Bates-Diop cut on the baseline and was found by Kaleb Wesson for a two-handed slam that ended the Spartan run and brought a slightly nervous crowd at the Schottenstein Center back to its feet.
“‘Don't fold. Don't fold like a lawn chair.’ That is all we kept saying. ‘We are not folding today,’ and we got it done.”– Jae'Sean Tate on Ohio State's mindset during upset win over Michigan State
Holtmann said following that game that without the play of Tate and Bates-Diop, Ohio State is not in the situation it is currently in.
"They are the reason that we have been able to pull those games out and finish those games," Holtmann said when discussing Ohio State's other close calls this season. "As a coach, you are trying to prepare your guys as well as you can prepare them, but at the end of the day, when the game gets tight and it's close, players win games. When Michigan State made a run, it was like, 'OK, somebody is going to make a play,' and they both did that."
Bates-Diop finished with 32 points and and seven boards, but Tate also played 33 minutes and finished with 13 points, three assists and three boards, also collecting two steals on defense. He also extended Ohio State's lead back to 20 with a pair of free throws with just four minutes to play.
While Holtmann wouldn't commit to saying Ohio State basketball is "back" after defeating No. 1 Michigan State, he acknowledged that the victory was significant for the Buckeye veterans who had endured plenty of ups and downs over the last two seasons.
"Our connection and our chemistry has been above and beyond what I anticipated. You never know as a coach, 'What's the buy-in going to be?' You just don't know," Holtmann said. "Our players deserve a ton of credit.
"I was really happy for our guys. When you coach, you coach for a lot of reasons. One of the reasons is to see our older guys enjoy a moment like that," Holtmann added. "It's genuinely a big reason we get into coaching is to see Keita, Jae'Sean and Kam (Williams) embracing this moment and smiling."
