When a team is winning, it is easy to be upbeat and vocal. For more than a month, the Ohio State's basketball program didn't suffer a single loss as it climbed to No. 13 in the country.
On Thursday, however, the Buckeyes dropped their first game since Dec. 23 when Penn State's Tony Carr drained a last-second heave from just inside of half-court, handing Ohio State its first conference loss of the season.
In years past, the Ohio State locker room would have had a different vibe to it following a loss, senior guard Kam Williams said Monday ahead of the Buckeyes' upcoming game against Indiana. This year, though, the Buckeyes have a more open forum to discuss how and why the Nittany Lions were able to get the best of them Thursday night.
"Everybody has a voice on the team. As soon as we got back and Coach (Holtmann) got done talking, everybody was chiming in reasons why we lost," Williams said. "It wasn't because of the last shot, it was stretches leading up to that point. We knew that already, but just to hear everybody chime in is something we definitely didn't have before.
"Before, it was like a closed locker room. Everybody was to themselves," he continued. "This year, we have a lot of older guys, and the younger guys step up and voice themselves too and that's always good."
At this point in the year, it has been established that Ohio State is playing with an energy and intensity that had not been seen in Columbus for the last few seasons. The effort that the Buckeyes are playing with has helped position them for a chance at a Big Ten title, but Holtmann's team is still not without its faults.
The first-year Buckeye coach said his team realizes there are still a number of areas that Ohio State needs to improve in down the stretch, but that the 9-1 start to conference play has positioned the Buckeyes well to play for the postseason in February.
“Before, it was like a closed locker room. Everybody was to themselves. This year we have a lot of older guys and the younger guys step up and voice themselves too and that's always good.”– Kam Williams on the different tone within OSU's locker room.
"They recognize that we need to be better. We need to work hard to get better. I don't think by any stretch we have figured everything out," Holtmann said. "We are a work in progress and we will continue to be so."
One of the areas that has hurt Ohio State in recent weeks has been a tendency to start games slow on the offensive end. In games against Maryland, Northwestern, Minnesota, Nebraska and Penn State, the Buckeyes had to dig themselves out of early holes in order to put themselves in a position to win games in the second half. That lack of early production is likely one of the things that has come up between the players in locker room discussions, as Williams discussed it at length Monday afternoon.
"We have to continue to put two halves together. I don't think we were satisfied with the way we started out each half, giving up points and trading baskets," Williams said. "That is something we reverted back to in that (Penn State) game and it eventually bit us in the butt.
"I think we are just trying to feel the game out as it comes," Williams added. "Coach has been saying in practice that we can't keep doing that, or it is going to come get us and it did that night."
Still ranked No. 17 in the Associated Press Top 25, Ohio State continues to carry a target on its back, a bull's-eye that was not attached to the Buckeye program early in the year. As Holtmann and his team have found success, he said that the loss to the Nittany Lions can benefit his team moving forward as postseason play draws closer, with just eight regular season games left.
"I do think once you have won and won for awhile, when you lose, it's good because you feel that thing deeply," Holtmann said. "Now, obviously you have to move on quickly in conference play and make sure you learn from it and grow from it. This group has established that they play with a great deal of pride."
Ohio State's chance to rebound from its first conference loss comes Tuesday, when Indiana invades Columbus for a 7 p.m. tip on ESPN2.
