BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Ohio State's 2017-18 regular season was not expected to go like this. The Buckeyes were not supposed to be in this position.
Yet, as the clock wore down in regulation, overtime and even double overtime on Friday on the road against Indiana, Ohio State continued to cling to a sliver of hope that it could win at least a share of a Big Ten championship.
As C.J. Jackson brought the ball up the floor down one with just seconds left, Ohio State's chances at a Big Ten championship – a thought that would have been laughed at in June when Chris Holtmann was hired – looked to have slipped away. That was, of course, until Jackson buried a deep three-pointer with 1.6 seconds left to ultimately give the Buckeyes an 80-78 double-overtime win in Bloomington, a place OSU had not won since 2013.
"We go over situations like that every day in practice, end of shot clock. We were comfortable in what was going to happen, and I just happened to make a good shot," Jackson said. "It's great. It ends a great regular season with a great group of guys."
That, while true, seems like the understatement of the year.
In case you hadn't heard, Ohio State was picked by most to finish outside the top 10 of the conference the season, yet entered Friday night with a chance to win its 15th conference game in order to keep pace with Michigan State, which can still clinch the outright title on Sunday with a win over Wisconsin.
Had Jackson's shot not fallen, Ohio State would have been out of the Big Ten title race completely, an existence that many were saying before the season even tipped off. Despite all of the outside noise, and even down to Indiana with just seconds remaining, the Buckeyes still believed they could defy the odds.
"Coach emphasized coming into the game that they weren't going to quit and it was going to be a grind-it-out game," Jackson said. "That's how it has been all year. We just have to keep going."
As Jackson mentioned, Ohio State has had to grind out games all season. The Buckeyes have won on last-second shots and lost on last-second shots. They have been on both sides of blowouts all season, and after losing their last two road games by double-digits, it looked as though OSU would drop its third game in four tries. However, like they have all season, the Buckeyes shocked everyone, including more than 17,000 in attendance at Assembly Hall.
The shot by Jackson seems to be a fitting end to a regular season that saw Ohio State surpass the expectations of everyone, perhaps other than themselves.
"Fifteen (conference) wins? Unbelievable. It's nice to be able to cap that off," Holtmann said following the win over the Hoosiers. "It's really amazing. I think it's the most special thing I have been a part of in coaching. I'll never forget this regular season. Ever."
Ohio State finishes Holtmann's first regular season in Columbus with a 24-7 overall record and 15-3 in the Big Ten. The 15 conference victories are the most for a Buckeye team since 2010-11, the year Ohio State earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Ohio State's 24 overall wins are the most ever for a first-year coach in Columbus, surpassing Thad Matta's 20 in 2004-05.
“I think it's the most special thing I have been a part of in coaching. I'll never forget this regular season. Ever.”– Chris Holtmann
Holtmann said that while Ohio State still has goals in front of it that it wants to accomplish, he has already learned a lot from his first season at the helm of the Buckeye program.
"It was re-affirmed in my mind, the importance of having good players, (but) beyond that, the importance of having guys that embrace a winning culture," Holtmann said. "If you do that, good things can happen, and we have got good enough players. We have had an agenda-less group in terms of the leadership from our team, from day one. Keita (Bates-Diop) and (Jae'Sean Tate), their agenda has been, 'I don't want my legacy to be anything other than something people can feel proud of.' We need more of them."
Ohio State's season is far from over, with a Big Ten Tournament and NCAA Tournament appearance still in front of it, but Friday night in Bloomington encapsulated everything Holtmann's first team in Columbus has accomplished this year.
